Job Discussion Forums

[kev7161]

Maybe I should've said a "possible" job offer as nothing has even been confirmed yet. Here goes: A teacher at my school tells me her brother or uncle or someone (I forget) works in Nanjing doing animation for overseas - - an English speaking country or countries, she didn't elaborate. Anyway, she has mentioned me (why, I don't know, maybe I look cartoonish) and he's supposedly coming to Suzhou in a few days to visit our school. After speaking with me he may or may not be interested in me doing voice characterizations for his cartoons! Now that just piqued my interest to no end as I (at the ripe old age of 45) still enjoy an occasional cartoon and certainly enjoy my comic books.

Questions: Has anyone ever done this or been approached to do this (or something similar)? Does anyone know of a fair asking price when it comes to pay? What about residuals (you know, the smaller amount an actor gets every time his commerical or syndicated TV show is played somewhere)? If anyone has any serious input about this, I'd appreciate it. I know this isn't Disney or Warner Bros. or anything so I wouldn't want to milk it, but also don't want to feel later on I was taken advantage of by accepting peanuts.

[Mallaien]

Something I may be able to help you with. I took a few courses in college along those lines. First off if you�re going to be offered the job you will be working for them, and not under their U.S. contract. That should simplify things on who is going to own the rights to your work.

If your under a U.S. contract then you would only get paid one time for the work, only in radio are you paid each time your voice is used. Syndication which is rare might get you some extra pocket change, unless you�re a big star.

To judge the amount you would ask to be paid, come up with a hourly number to give them, sometimes the job can take longer then you may expect. Also it is very important to know what show that you are going to be working on, it may not be something that you would approve of, or could be harmful to a career back in the states.

If this is a one time shot then I wouldn�t be too picky on a contract, but if they need you for more work then get it in writing.

I have done work as a extra in a few commercials and I was only getting paid $20 a day, on a 12 hour shoot. I know it�s cheap but I did not go thru an agency and I was only an extra. The job was fun regardless, in the end most of the film I was in never made to the TV, but I was in the promo brochures.

To give you another example, a friend of mine does Computer effects for movies, music videos, and commercials. As a freelance artist he asks and gets paid $400 a hour for commercial work. The last movie he worked on was �Stealth�, critics hated the story but gave it good marks on the effects. He was also part of a team that won a MTV music video award for there computer animation on the video for Red Hot Chili Peppers �Californication�. Sorry I�m bragging I was his �Big Brother� Mentor.

[7969]

i knew a woman in guangzhou who did tv commercials (voice) and CD recording for some kind of textbooks and dictionaries. i believe she made about RMB200-250 per hour. no qualifications, just a good voice and luck in finding the job.

[China.Pete]

Chinese media people sometimes like to use Westerners to do narration or voices for their projects. Expect to have to go over your script for possible revisions, although the one I saw was remarkably good for having been written by a Chinese scriptwriter. You'll most likely be paid on a piece-work basis. This should come out on the high end of what you'd expect to get paid for teaching English. It's good work, when you can get it.

[Laoshi1950]

In Wenzhou, I regularly did voice-over work at a local recording studio for corporate DVD presentations. The pay was on a per-job basis with no residuals, or anything else included, in the work offered.

For approximately two hours work, I was usually paid RMB500. The work always involved editing the script to remove the Chinglish, and also doing the actual voice recording in the studio.

The most time-consuming job involved doing voice recordings for a series of Listening CD's, used by non-English Major classes at the local university. That involved about 4 afternoons of recording sessions (about 8 hours), and the pay was RMB1600.

I enjoyed doing these recording jobs. Unforunately, I have not been lucky enough to do any similar work here in Wuhan during the past 2 years.

[Crippler]

I had a short acting role in a movie here. 2 hours work, shot 4 short scenes and was paid 600 kuai.

[TESOUL]

Sounds like a great offer but I would take it all with a grain of salt. If I had a quai for everyone I knew who was going to be in a movie, on tv, in a commercial, or anything that could get them out of teaching( even for a day) I'd be out of teaching.

Everyone in this country knows someone who knows someone.

That being said, voice over work alone whould be at least 250 an hour if not 500.

Hope it works out though.

[kev7161]

Definitely. I highly doubt if the guy ever shows up, but I asked the question . . . just in case. If/when it does happen, I'll see what he offers first. I have an idea in my mind how much I think I'M worth ! I'll keep y'all posted.