I’ve written before about how the internet has made it much easier to do voiceover work in markets all over the world. I can sit in my recording booth in the UK and be directed via ISDN or phone patch from anywhere in the world and then use the internet to send the recorded audio files to the client.
Actually these days I’m mostly self directing and the only contact with the client is via email – but I still need the internet to get the VO audio to the client and they needed the internet to find my website in the first place.
I was musing on this topic again as I reviewed who I’d been working for over the past year and where they are based. I’ve just completed a new voice over project for IDTV live – a company in the Netherlands and in fact over the last year I’ve worked with 5 Dutch companies.
Further to those there was a recent voice over narration for an information video for a financial services company in Belgium, plus corporate videos and adverts for companies and studios in Malta, Portugal, Norway, Denmark and Germany.
In fact I’ve worked quite a bit for German company Media Paten based in Berlin and Leipzig. Over the last 12 months or so I’ve recorded voice overs for 8 short corporate videos for them for companies like Bayer, Lufthansa and Ruag.
And just in case you think this is all about Europe then let me point out the I’ve recently recorded several corporate voice over narrations for a production company based in the United Arab Emirates (and also now opening a new branch in Sydney) – I’ve also done radio ads for another company in the UAE.
Plus in the last year I’ve provided voice overs for e-learning companies in Hong Kong and the US, and also recorded corporate narrations for production company Indelible based in New Zealand (but – full disclosure – this last mentioned is run by my brother Mark so he didn’t need to find my website to book me for the job).
I positively like the international elements of my work and the people I connect with – aided by the fact that most people I deal with can either speak or write English. But are there any downsides to working with clients all over the globe? Well yes there are some – for example the fees for voiceover work across the world are generally much lower than in the UK and sometimes it can be hard to get paid on time (or at all) when the client is located thousands of miles away! Encouragingly this is a fairly rare situation but it does happen.
These are some of the companies I’ve been working with
Belgium
Epic Frame
Denmark
LydstuietAros
Germany
Media-Paten
Hong Kong
Elevate(HK) BSCI
The Netherlands
Izzyworks
Voxcast
Marel
Jewelbox
IDTV
New Zealand
Indelible
Norway
Nitro LydStudio
Portugal
Soundtrap Productions
USA
IPS