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Q: How much should I charge?
Been asked to do some voice work for a teaching course-book some local teachers have in production. Altogether they want me to do an hour and a half, but I have no idea what to charge them for it, i've never done anything like this before. It's easy to put a figure of payment on something i'm used to like a teaching position, judging a speaking competition or granting sexual favours to elderly women, wayward teenage nymphomaniacs and teenage.....mutant, ninja-turtles, but I have literally no idea what kind of price to put on a task such as this, which is basically..............aural. So (serious question), what should I ask for an hour and a half of my vocal talents?
i have been a voice talent - charged 150 an hour. recommend you charge an hourly rate because it might go over the 1.5 hours. can be quite tiring work: a strain on the voice.
i guess depends where you are, and how in need they are of you, etc. I would ask for 300 RMB if it takes you 1.5 hours
Sorrel has a very valid point, make sure you get paid WHEN the session drags on into eternity, and make sure payment starts from when you show up, not when some incompetent arse is ready to hit "record" after hours of screwing around with his equipment.
A friend of mine did this, she did an 8 hour session, from which they extracted an hour of content and then tried to pay her for that one hour. Because they said that that's what an hourly rate is, for how much content you produce. So be careful.
Iron_Monkey:
ouch!
But I wouldn't buy that because who knows if at a later time they will end up using your unused voice overs in another work or even sell your unused voice overs to someone else.
How long is the script? How many lines?
What about the studio? Home, school or professional recording studio? With professional sound producers? Or audiophiles who think they know how to operate a sound board?
Is the 1 and 1/2 hour the running time for one perfect take? Or are the producers factoring in multiple takes due to: false starts and miscues, involuntary coughing or throat-clearing, spontaneous laughter, mispronunciations, breathing pops, hissing sibilants (the /s/ sound) that cause distortion, tongue, mouth and palate smacking that are also picked up by a sensitive microphone. Probably not taken into account.
Don't trust the hour-and-a-half deal. Unless all you have to read is 3 lines.
Look at the script first. Practice it at home. Time your reading.
Once you have a basic idea of what the job entails, then set your fee.
My recommendation is an hourly fee of 300 RMB. (That's wayyyy cheap compared to what professional voice actors make in China. And miniscule compared to what voice actors make elsewhere.)
Or a set fee for the session. That you'll have to decide for yourself based on all the advice you're getting.
But if I were to use 1818's example of a friend who worked eight hours and got paid for one hour of voice work as a benchmark, I would set a fee of at least 1,000 RMB for a 4-hour session and double that for a full day's work of 8 hours. That's a set fee. Not an hourly fee.
Let's face it. The teachers plan to make money off their product so they need to make the proper investment and that includes your voice.
Let us know what happens.
Red_Fox:
I forgot to mention travel time and meals. Travel time - if you have to commute to the studio - should be paid by the producers, whether you go by bus or taxi. Submit the receipts. Meals - if you overrun - are the responsibility of the producers. And proper meals. No KFC or Ministop shit.
Red_Fox:
Yo, Martian. Forgot one more thing.
Is the gig a one-off or will the teachers ask you to do other voice work in the future for the same project? You know, like recording a listening drill or exercise for each chapter/unit of a textbook over a series of weeks.
If it's serial work, then perhaps you can give them a global quote for the entire project, again taking into account factors mentioned above. And adjust the fee accordingly.
If it's a one-off, go with the board's advice. Good luck.
