Discussion
I've read about Casting Call Club for a few months on this sub and finally decided to give it a try and I've been... a bit disappointed. Seems like many projects are poorly organized and services are extremely undervalued. I see one project up now where the organizer touts having a backer and budget for production, but is only willing to pay their editors/music producers/writers, and the voice actors are expected to "Work for free for fun".
Is this how it normally is? I'd heard that this was a decent place to get paid jobs but everything I'm seeing is like $10 for an unknown amount of work over an indeterminate amount of time. Is it just a low period right now? I don't mind the competition, thats not the issue, in case that's what you're thinking.
I would love to hear thoughts and experiences from people who have been using the site for a while.
Archived post. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast.
Sort by:
Best
Open comment sort options
Best
Top
New
Controversial
Old
Q&A
It's good practice. Don't think of it as pay. Just think of it as a way to dip your toes in and practice.
It's also a way to see the game played in a way where it's not really played.
In casting calls you don't get to hear other people's auditions. But in Casting Call Club you do.
People see this as a bad thing. But I see it as valuable - because it provides information. Information you normally wouldn't have access to.
Think of it like this. When you watch Texas Holdem Poker on TV you see everyone's cards on the table and you see how each person plays the game. In real poker you don't see other people's cards. You don't see what they do with the cards they were given.
Why is this important?
It's the mindset.
You can learn what not to do in voiceacting.
And what people are doing right.
Do you hear an audition with flipping amazing audio quality? Click on that profile. What gear are they using? You'll start to see patterns. Certain microphones keep popping up.
Also if you aren't too shy, ask them where they are recording. They are all nice and kind enough to reply.
Do you just see someone with amazing acting? Click on that profile. Who were their trainers? They'll list them. Also click Follow on them. You can study them and how they act and learn from them. You can watch how they approach the same exact lines as you and what they do. It's actually really cool.
It's a way to gather information on tech and trainers.
That said................lel
The quality of Casting Call Club projects..............you need to be selective. Don't waste your time on projects that are a waste of time.
When looking for projects on Casting Call Club, focus on 2 factors. Fun and standards. Fun as in, does it look like a character you'd enjoy acting for. Also quality - being writing, grammar, non-grocery lines, depth.
Grocery lines:
Line 1: Hi
Line 2: I'm going to buy M&Ms
Line 3: Bye
^ There's a chit ton of these types of lines and projects in Casting Call Club.
Don't bother with these. Because these lines have no depth and it shows the casting director is inexperienced. If the lines have no depth or show no acting range they're set for disappointment. How can you tell if someone is good for your role when your audition lines have nothing in them? A good casting director will generally have audition lines that have depth of emotions, ie rage, joy, grief, fear, fright, thankfulness, anxiety, laughter, boredom, affection, etc.
Lines of depth.
Also pay very close attention to the people they are casting.
If the audio sounds horrible, ie someone speaking in a bathroom, you don't want to be associated with that project. But if the casting director is choosing people with great audio quality, you know they understand audio.
Finally, the restaurant factor. You can tell a good restaurant by the line behind you. If you're walking in a new area and you see a line looping around the street, you know it's probably good food. Same with Casting Call Club. If you see 80 auditions and it's only been 2-3 days, audition for it. People know it's good and that's why they are auditioning.
Hi there, I'm Buford, creator of CCC.
CCC is just for practice, made to be more like a social network than an actual casting site. Feel free to come in, make some friends, network, and then advance onto more professional sites.
Sure there's some paid projects here, but it's really just meant as a starting point connecting VAs and creators.
I totally understand the pain you're feeling though. It's very hard to have a website that caters to both beginners and high quality projects. I'm working super hard to have a true competitive website to something like Voices in 2021.
Thanks for responding and giving your perspective. :) Can’t wait to see your next project.
Very decent if you to clarify. I look forward to the “practice “ on CCC
While it's going to be hard to set up a site that can compete with the highest standards out there I'm loving the updates 7m down the line. It looks very visually appealing, I personally think that there are more and more better projects coming in, and it's very easy to use.
The biggest issue is the amount of projects that either don't get finished or are VERY unprofessional. I've landed a few roles here and there that had zero communication from the project owner once it was ready to be taken to DMs but that's very hard to actually manage from your point of view I imagine.
Keep up the good work Buford, you're making great strides!
Any timeline you can share?
Sure most of the jobs are ill-conceived vanity projects that will eventually fizzle out but you may get to experience a 13 year old director endlessly jabbering away on Discord while you futilely await hearing them get to the point.
It’s a magical experience. Truly. They have so much passion, and try so hard to use that to make something but they just don’t have the experience it takes. I did a thing with a young fella last year and it was awful, but he was so much fun to work with, when he wanted me to help dub comic strips for his friends I was 100% with the program. I just feel like a good super-good-dad-voice-actor-man to the kid. I’m only 23, and I’m a real dad now, but that kid made me laugh a lot. His scripts are still kinda trash, but someday maybe they won’t be, and I hope he remembers me then.
Hahaha this comment made laugh quite a bit. Nice of you to help him out
Of course! After all I would hope anyone would do the same for me if I were in that position.
I used CCC for practice. I narrowed my searches to only include projects that were 80% or higher on their likelihood to complete. Actually worked with a few people who were on top of things including a teenager making fan projects and actually driving a project clearly. Practice there, have fun, then move on.
Pretty much my experience. It was fine for testing the waters and getting the hand of doing auditions but its majority free fan projects.
I usually spend about 15 minutes a week sorting by paid and 80%+ (they have some sort of system for how likely the project is to be completed). There are some halfway decent jobs to be found, but definitely not anything you can make a living on.
Late winter-early spring is a time of tax returns, and nationwide confusion on wtf we should all do because we’re already 1/4 of the way through they year, I’ll clean the house and whatever, but it’s typically a very DRY spell for VO every year. It’s always there but it seems like all the quality ideas wait til end of spring or summer to pop out.
In my experience of just watching.
Thanks for this, I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll keep that in mind.
I looked into Casting Club years ago and didn't goto the site after the first day. It just wasn't my cup of tea.
I couldn't see any value in the projects posted on the site. It's probably a decent spot for a hobbyist or someone that gets a thrill from voicing a youtube character project.
If someone is looking to make any cash, there are far better options out there.
Which websites would you recommend for profit? :)
Again it depends on what type of projects interest you. For example character work and video games, you're looking at roughly $250-$300/hr. And I believe you're responsible for as many as 3 voices.
80%+ of the work is available for e-learning. 20% is all the other stuff.
CCC probably covers maybe 1-2% of the market as a whole. And of that 1-2% CCC pays, if I were to guess, 10% of what you would earn going through other channels.
Like which channels though lol ✍️
I’m open to all kinds of work, though I do more commercial and narration work. Right now I’m mainly on Fiverr and Upwork. I basically gave up on ACX because of the scams.
So I looked into the following:
Voices.com: The issue is that there are two main paid tiers. The 5k+ to 10k per month, which goes to the top VO people in the industry. Then there's the approx. 399/year. The issue I have with them is they want all the conversation etc. to be done on the platform. So you definitely have to enjoy auditioning.
Now the key with auditioning isn't speaking the script verbatim. Because you run the risk of them using your audition as the final product and cutting you out of being paid. So change company names, cut out a sentence or two. Or watermark the back 3rd of the audition with a music bed.
V123: approx. 299/mo. What I liked about the platform is they encourage dialogue outside of the platform. The audition post is essentially an introduction between the hiring authority and the talent. This allows you the ability to add who you worked with to your list and drip campaigns. The algorithm is iffy at best. You won't have perfect auditions sent to you meeting your criteria. If you're female you may get male auditions. If you're caucasian you'll get some asking for an authentic African American accent, etc.
Bodalgo: 39.95 euro per month. The issue here were the amount of auditions offered by european based production houses. They provide samples which are heavily compressed, etc. So unless you have your fx chain meeting that of European standards, you may not even catch a wiff.
VoiceJockeys: Need to be able to turn around and send pickups quickly. This is great for people that are pretty good at pumping out projects and those that have sound engineering capabilities.
Etc. Etc.
If you don't have a professional demo or a nice site up and running, I would say start there. Find work through sending cold e-mails and cold calls, networking, etc.
Otherwise, you're throwing stuff against the wall at maybe 40% efficiency. You should have your recording environment, gear, pricing, e-mail templates and everything taken care of from top to bottom.
You market too early, you'll leave an amateur taste in their mouths. You'll burn up any opportunities you've manages to uncover. And it'll just add to frustration.
If you're not at a point where you can quote something and stick to your guns on the quote, then you should be working on everything else to get you to that point.
Were you scammed on ACX? I've seen some shady ebooks on there but haven't heard of scams being run.
I've been finding CCC very helpful for gaining experience, but I just got into voice acting in January of this year. Using it has really helped me hone my listening skills for the rookie mistakes and helped me improve my own auditions. I tend to be pretty picky with what I audition for, but I don't focus solely on paid projects. I basically audition for things that interest me and characters that are in my wheelhouse, though I sometimes branch out just to try new voices. A couple of the projects I've done have been completed, and others are longer term but already have episodes out. I'm hoping they will help me with a character demo reel at some point. I definitely wouldn't consider it your main source of VA jobs, but it's fun and can help provide experience and practice in down times.
Like most have said, it's alright for practice and gaining experience. I'm looking into leaving the site to advance myself, but I'm gonna stay on the site for a few more months to get some more practice before I go antwhere else. Don't expect a lot if tge projects to actually pan out. Plus a lot of people telling you to have clear audio, but when you go to their profile you can clearly hear the A/C running in an audition they won O__o. Lastly, be prepared to lose to some guy who uses an Xbox headset with his A/C unit running and mic bumping
Also, whoever told you CCC was a "decent place for paid work" is clearly lost and confused. Don't take advice from them anymore.
Haha yeah that’s what I’m understanding
I actually got hired for a small $30 paid role on Casting Call Club and never even knew it. I had just accepted my first offer for a short audiobook and I was no longer doing any auditions. Casting Call Club doesn't email you, you have to check your messages on their website to learn if you've gotten a job offer.