We get asked a lot about the standard rates for voice over work in Ireland.  Below is an excerpt from our great guide to getting voiceover work.  I hope you find it useful.

Dublin based, Igloo Animation, recently launched a new service aimed at Dublin businesses. They create short explanatory animations, illustrating how products and services work. Of course, all this means more work for voiceovers. Good stuff. Trevor answered a few questions for our blog and here is what he had to say about getting voiceover work for animations.

Who the hell is Igloo Animations anyway?
Igloo Animations is an award winning animation studio
set up in the digital hub in Dublin8

What sort of clients do you have?
Igloo’s clients range from large corporate companies to small businesses

Where do you get your inspiration from?
Ted.com and Movies, Music, People that make a difference

Where do you normally find to people to voice your animations?
It depends, sometimes it could be someone that you live with
and other times you have to cast actors for different roles
and find them through casting agencies.

Do you have a favorite VO?
No, nor do I really have a favorite screen actor. I have seen even great
actors cast wrongly and it’s hard to look at when that happens. Sometimes an actor that you would never rate highly can get cast into a role that they fit perfectly and then your opinion changes, so you never know

What advice would you give to a voice over looking to do more animation work?
Get VO samples online at casting agencies etc… so that people can have a basic idea of what to expect of you before you come in.

You have recently started doing special ‘explanatory’ animations for products on services. Have you any idea how much more effective (if at all) they are over plain old text?

Yea, It’s way more effective, well for people that want visuals like me anyway. Would you prefer to read about a movie in ?plain old text? or would you prefer to see the trailer? A picture can say a thousand words

What sort of budget do I need to get one of these short animations made?
2,500 euro’s

What better way to see what this is all about than heading over to their website where you can a short version of NAMA, Sustainability and even FL Financial Services (whatever that is).

Don’t miss Nicola Lindsay in the Clean House at the new theatre. Visit www.thenewtheatre.com

LISTEN TO NICOLA’S VOICE OVER DEMO

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

For those of our customers who haven’t received the complimentary hard copy of the Piehole book, which includes tips and resources, plus the standard industry rate card for your records.  To all the piehole voiceovers - you can have a free copy. Just email info@piehole.ie with your postal address.

Thankfully voice over work isn’t just about telling people about the great new interest rate from a bank or doing the terms and conditions at record speed.  Every now and then actors and performers also get to use their other god-given talents in the booth.  There are rock stars who occasionally get to sing funny jingles like Tim O’Donovan.  You get mezzo sopranos like Elizabeth Burke who has done folk, country, classic and the lot.  Granted, these little gigs don’t come up all the time - but it’s nice when they do.

Are there other singers out there? Do tell. If there are enough of you, we can make a special category for singing.  Email p@piehole.ie

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OK, I know I’m a week or two late with this post, but let’s call it “fashionably late”. The Cannes winners have been announced, and I’m particularly interested in the radio side of things. To anyone who hasn’t heard the winning ads, check them out here. Be sure to click on the different categories (gold, silver, bronze). As a copywriter, this year’s show fills me with hope. The stuff is good, but not un-doably good. There’s no reason me, or any other copywriter in Ireland can’t pick up a gong next year.

For the voiceovers, this is a great place to source material for your demos, and just to use as practice content in general. The winners only stay up on this website for a few weeks, so have a good goo around the site.

I wrote an article on the blog a while ago, comparing the VO industry in Ireland to the one in the UK. Obviously, the two markets are very different. In Ireland we have the luxury of having a small, accessible capital city, where we can enjoy the finer things in life, like having proper face-time with voiceover performers. Lots of work abroad is done over ISDN, which in my view, is a distant second to being able to sit and discuss and direct a script with the VO artist.

However, there’s lots of work that doesn’t necessarily require this face-time. Stuff like: voiceovers for powerpoint presentations, vending machines, phone answering services - etc etc. Now, these might not be the most salubrious of jobs out there, and certainly don’t earn as much money as commercials - but there is more “churn”, i.e. basically, more of these gigs around. Some medium-sized company is never going to hire a sound studio at 400 euros an hour, and pay a voiceover 500 euro to do their answering machine message. However, that doesn’t mean they want a cheap sounding, non-professional answering service. This is where the lone voiceover with his humble sound studio comes in. He bangs it out from the comfort of his own home sitting in his PJs, and emails the mp3 straight over. Happy days.

Brian Walsh's home studio

There are tons of voiceovers that make a full time living from this stuff. They convert a small space in their house or garden into a voiceover booth - this could literally be tiny. As long as it’s sound proof, and they have a good mic and the right software on their computer. There are a few VOs in Ireland who are doing this successfully - the likes of Ger Wilson, Tim O’Donovan, Hugh Barford, Brian Walsh, Orla McGovern and Yvonne Lynch. Not sure if I missed anybody - but please let me know if I did. At Piehole we’ve traditionally focussed on the adveritising side of things, but are keen to source work for our VOs from as many avenues as possible! Especially in this non-fabulous financial climes.

I did a bit of snooping around to see if I could source a decent price for a home studio with all the fittings and it’s coming around 6k sterling. So in terms of setting up a business, it’s not a fortune, but is a substantial outlay of cashola. The trick would be to make sure you generate enough work to make it worthwhile. Watch this space, as I’ll be conducting interviews with all the VOs who have “been there, done that”. If anyone else has already got a home studio, or would like one - email me at info@piehole.ie

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GET A CRACKING DEMO CUT

We’ve started a new collaboration with advertising agencies in Dublin to promote creativity in radio advertising. Basically, we think that most radio ads come out sounding cr*p, and there’s no good reason Irish radio can’t be better. We’re launching a radio ad of the year competition - any ads can be entered, whether they ran on air or not. So start sending us your work. If you’re a VO, and did a gig recently - tell us. We’ll promote it on the blog. Watch this space.

It can be a pain in the *ss to put together - unless of course, you’re a computer nerd. Piehole are offering their customers a FREE personal website (i.e. yourname.com) when you upgrade to the piehole Ray plan.

YOUR OWN WEBSITE MEANS:
- having your own email address (you@yourname.com)
- being able to host your headshots, CV and demo in a professional setting
- having your own domain name
- being able to edit your own information whenever you like

Plus you’ll have all the benefits of being on the Ray Plan - premium listing for a year, plus biz cards etc etc for €499 per year. Email j@piehole.ie