How do Voiceover Artists unwind?

Being a Voiceover Artist is the greatest job in the world (ok, ok we are all totally biased). And we could do this day in and day out and night and weekends as well. But actually, steady on. As much as we love to voice, record the voices, edit and direct our huge aquarium of voices we actually also love to sleep, eat, chill, love, watch films, read books, listen to podcasts and a whole lot more.

Despite loving our voices and voiceovers with a passion we also realise that we need to take a step back and have a break. Here at BigFish Media each of us and our voices have different ways to relax and recharge. It is really important to take a break. It is a great way to get out of your head – which is all the more important if you are a character voice actor where you play different roles and emotional states.

Some of the activities we do to relax and change our perspectives are archery, trampolining, going to the cinema, making music, going to the theatre, going for long walks in the woods, dancing, reading, writing, shoe shopping and sometimes having long naps with the dog. And these are all fantastically wonderful hobbies to have and practice. The reason we all need a break and/or a hobby is to have a break and a change. The change in perspective is great for then coming back to work as you can fresh new insight and experiences that will benefit your work.

What sort of hobbies do you have? We love chilling out and it helps us to better producers, directors, engineers and voiceover artists. When we watch films, we take in new worlds and how the film was made that can help directing. When we play music, it helps us with timing and musicality. When we dance, it helps us with breath work. And well when we have a snooze with our pup it really helps us totally unwind so we can wake up all bright eyed and scaly tailed.

Voiceovers are our passion but we also ensure that it doesn’t become a stressor in our lives. We work hard to ensure voices don’t get stressed either. We ask for scripts and copy to be sent in at least 24 hours before hand and we try and ensure the voice knows what the clients want so they can deliver their needs. Come and listen to our Voiceovers, all sustainably sourced and chilled.

Voiceover Artists are cool

According to new research, conducted by MSN, being a Voiceover Artist is among the ten coolest jobs. 

Working as a Voice Actor, as the Americans seem to prefer to call it, is the tenth coolest job to have. How lucky are we?!    

How do Voiceover Agents earn their money?

One of the jobs of a Voiceover Agent is to go through all the voiceover reels that they get sent (mostly via email these days rather than CDs in the post). They then have to choose the voiceover artists, who they think, they can make money from.

The first thing - the very first thing - that you will need is a professionally-produced Voiceover Showreel. 

If you don't have one you will never, ever get a Voiceover Agent. Just because you are presenting programmes or reading news or travel bulletins on the radio or tv, doesn't make you a Voiceover Artist. 

We don't want to hear you broadcasting because our clients don’t want to hear it. They want to hear what you might sound like selling or promoting their product.

There is only one instance in which this is useful - and that is in assessing whether we can make you a voiceover showreel.

Many voiceover agents won't even reply to unsolicited voiceover reels, so do bear with us if it takes a few months to reply. It's hard work - and long hours - running any business and this aspect of the job is a low priority. Don't be offended, that's just the way it is.

Voiceover Agents listen to many Voiceover Showreels from many “would-be” Voiceover Artists and make their decision to listen further within the first few seconds. If they like what they hear on your voiceover showreel and take you on, there is no guarantee that you will get any work -let alone regular work - as a voiceover artist.

The agent handles the details of the booking and negotiates contracts and your fee. Most Voiceover Agents take a 20% commission.

Potential employers rely on the Voiceover Agent as a “filter”; they know that Voiceover Agents are bombarded by people wanting to get into the voice-over business, most of which are not talented enough or ready to break into it yet.

Even as an existing voice talent, it’s still difficult to get a Voiceover Agent; most try to keep their pool of voiceover artists to a manageable size. They will also want variety among their performers; they won't represent a voice or style that they already have. These are the two main reasons for rejection.

However if you cannot break into our represented voices, you could invest in your career by gettting listed on some of the dozens of voiceover directories. 

Who works at BigFish Media?

We are splashing about with delight at the moment here in Woking.  BigFish Media is expanding. 

Our school of voiceovers is ever growing and now over 2000 voices! Now our very own aquarium HQ is going BIG.

In between recording and editing waves of audio projects for our clients this year business has been so good that we have had to expand! Our fish pond has become more of a pool with new staff joining as well as a new office in addition to the main office.

Our two fishy mascots are overjoyed by the expansion to their habitat.

Over the past few months we have been busy interviewing staff that know about the voicing world so that when they deal with clients and voices they understand and are passionate about the best business ever. There really is no business like the voiceover business.

We are lucky to be joined by two new team members, Caroline and Jack. They join us at a very busy time and will be supporting the marketing and editing team weekly. Caroline is a trained actor and voiceover as well as a whizz on the phone and if she were a fish she would be a seahorse. Whoa there girl!  

Jack is in all trades and has experience in acting, presenting, copywriting, Dj-ing and even as a quiz master (good, we love a quiz here at BFM head office). If Jack were a fish, it would be a clownfish. Always a joker is our Jack.

We are delighted to have these fish join our team.

It now means that in our 14^th year of business we are seven strong team working hard for our clients and our voices. As all of our team have voice over experience it now means we have a combined work experience of 135 years!

Some of us recall the heady days of cutting tape during edits while others are a whizz on anything to do with any DAW.

Some of us have been booking actors and voices for years while others have been booking models. You name it, between us all we have more than likely done it and stashed away the tech equipment to prove it.  

We have also expanded with an additional office space. New desks and chairs have been delivered and top of the range computers are gearing up to deal with the jobs we have on hand. The pictures below show the before and after images of the new office.

What is next for Big Fish Media?  Our aquarium is steadily growing with talented voices that are professional, engaged and always pitch perfect. We are working together with great clients creating great audio for the likes of Oracle, Sainsburys, Tesco, SAB Miller, BBC, ITV, Korn Ferry and many more.

If you are a voice and would like to join our 2000+ strong voiceover roster then please do read the  website and follow the instructions. If you are a client and would like to know more about how we can help you with your audio projects be them video production, IVR, Commercials or anything else then please contact us.

Bye Bye Mrs Barnes - Voiceover Lady

We are very sad to say that our long-standing Marketing Manager Zoe Barnes has left our voiceover agency.

After 4 years of setting up our admin systems, the hard slog of data entry, managing our database and chatting to our clients,  Zoe leaves BigFish Media in great shape and growing nicely.

                               A new career blooms

In the last year Zoe was also engineering voiceover sessions as well as recording a few of her own voiceovers.

We wish you all the best for your future as a Counsellor - we know you will be great!

                           Amy (far left) is the new Zoe

In the meantime, Zoe had trained our latest recruit and Voiceover artist Amy brilliantly.

And we know you'll be back soon to cover for Amy's holidays....

Who Works at BigFish Media Voiceover Agency?

While we were taking photos of our new office where we produce and record voiceover sessions, we decided to take some more up to date pictures of the BigFish Media team:

                                    Daniel: going grey...

                                 Ricky: older than he looks....

                                    Zoe: looking foxy...

....And new recruit Amy

What does a Voiceover Agency Office look like?

It's been a few years since we last took photos of our office, so we thought it was time to change that. There have been many changes - not least the people who work here making the magic of voiceovers happen.

                                     Pretending to work....

                                 All pretence has gone..

                                     Strike a pose...

                                 At last some actual work...

                                     ...before cracking up

As you can see we had a lot of fun taking these photos, especially our Engineer John  who took these pictures of our voiceover agency.

Our Voiceover Photo Shoot

It has been a few years since we last updated the pictures of the BigFish Media Voiceover team. So we thought we'd take some more:

We managed to catch photographer (and our Audio Engineer) John in action for the photoshoot of Marketing Exectutive Daniel and Ricky the actual Big Fish.

Full new (doctored) photos to follow in due course on our voiceover website, Facebook and Twitter pages...

Goodbye Sam, Hello Samantha

After 4 years of loyal service recording voiceovers at BigFish Media our first ever employee Andrew has left us to run a business in Devon.

Here are some of his lowlights:

Posh Frocks at Vox 

                                Bowling Champion

The Push-Me Pull You 

                     
                         Always Game for a Laugh

Another Posh Frock

Always getting a pizza the action

Andrew's last session with David W

Leaving Presents

While we say goodbye to Andrew, we say hello to the very talented Amy who joins us from a child acting agency and now makes the move to voiceovers:

Meet the BigFish Media Voiceover Team - Ricky

Meet Ricky:

Ricky is Managing Director of BigFish Media Ltd.  He set up this voiceover business in 2004.  Ricky is known, or maybe we should say his voice is known having been a newsreader and continuity announcer on Radio 2.  

Ricky spent 25 years as a radio presenter, producer and journalist, 15 of those at BBC Radio 2.  Ricky is also a voiceover artist and experienced 'Voice of God'.  What is one of those? I hear you ask... 

Have you ever been to a big awards ceremony? Or corporate event? And there has been an unseen announcer for the evening.  Well, that is a 'Voice of God'. 

When not at BigFish Media, Ricky enjoys gardening, reading and cycling.

That completes the BigFish Media team.

Meet the BigFish Media Voiceover Team - Daniel

Meet Daniel:

Daniel has joined our voiceover team as a Sales and Marketing Executive.  Daniel gained his marketing experience in South Africa, where he worked for eight years.  

In 2001 he was runner up for Sales Rep of the Year for Caxton Community Newspapers, before moving to the UK in 2006. 

When not at BigFish Media Daniel loves keeping fit, cooking and watching a good drama series on the TV.


Next time:  'Meet Ricky'

Meet the BigFish Media Voiceover Team - John

Meet John:

John is our studio engineer and audio producer.  He is responsible for taking most of our voiceover sessions

He joined BigFish Media in 2012.  He has 15 years experience in the industry and has worked on many video games.  

He loves creating and recording his own sound effects, and can be found in the studio with many unusual gizmos to add to his sound effect library.

He has sometimes been the other side of the mic and has recorded several voiceovers himself.  He regularly produces videos.

When not at BigFish Media, John is an avid record collector as you can see from this video.


Next time:  'Meet Daniel'

Meet the BigFish Media Voiceover Team - Andrew

Meet Andrew:

Andrew has worked at BigFish Media for four years.  He started his career at the Surrey Advertiser in 1984, before going to work for BBC Information and Archives.  He moved to BBC Radio 4 Extra in 2012 and still works there part-time.

Until last year Andrew volunteered at Hospital Radio Lion for 30 years.  

Andrew brings a huge wealth of knowledge and experience to BigFish Media and enjoys creating showreels.  As well as being a studio engineer, Andrew is responsible for our accounts. 

When not at BigFish, Andrew loves baking cakes and visiting stately homes.

Next time:  'Meet John'

Meet the BigFish Media Voiceover Team - Bex

Meet the voiceover team at BigFish Media.  We collectively have 70 years experience in the media industry and 45 of those were spent working for the BBC.  Our newest member of staff, Bex joined the team last year.  

Before working at BigFish Media, Bex volunteered at Hospital Radio Lion and for the RAF Story Book Wings Project. 

As well as being a marketing assistant, Bex is a trainee audio engineer and now takes some of our voiceover recording sessions.

Bex loves recording and editing the huge range of voices that we have on our books. 

When not at BigFish, Bex loves making cards and other handicrafts and running. 

Last year she ran the Great South Run for the first time.

Next time:  'Meet Andrew'

New Photos of our Voiceover Agency Team

To coincide with our newly-re-launched voiceovers website, we commissioned a new set of professional photos of the BigFish Media Team:

Marketing Assistant Daniel



Audio Producer Nathan



Managing Director Ricky



Marketing Director Zoe



Audio Engineer Andrew



Marketing Assistant Rebecca



Audio Engineer John who records our voiceovers

Our New Voiceover Agency Marketing Assistant

Please let me introduce a new member of the BigFish Media voiceover team. This is Daniel:

Daniel - our new Marketing Assistant - will be working alongside our Marketing Manager Zoe:

.

...to continue to build our voiceover business. We are growing at a massive 30 per cent year on year  - and we hope to continue this into 2015 and beyond!

For older posts about voiceovers and the voiceover industry please visit Our Old Voiceover Blog

Our New Trainee Engineer

Please let me introduce the latest member of the BigFish Media voiceovers team.

This is Rebecca:

Or Bex as we like to call her around the office.

Bex is our Trainee Audio Engineer and over the next few months will be learning to edit, operate the mixer and take voiceover sessions with voice talent and clients.

Our Tenth Anniversary of Recording Voiceovers

I can't believe it, but it was ten years ago - in 2004 - that BigFish Media was incorporated as a company to record voiceovers.

Then it was just me...

Now there are 6 of us - Studio Engineers/Producers Andrew, John, James and Nathan...

plus Zoe who does our marketing...

So here is how we celebrated...

With champagne...

And of course, fish...

So here's to the next ten years of voiceovers....!