'Walking Through the Mall... Hearing Voices'

Last week, I found myself hearing lots and lots of voice overs on a simple walk through a local mall. This will give you some insight as to just how small the online community is, and just how many types of jobs are out there.

The first store I heard a voice over in was the place I was getting my wife's glasses. I look up and find this incredibly high-tech commercial on an LCD HDTV above my head. I thought, 'Wow! That is really well-produced.' Being the person I am, I embarrassed my wife and asked the manager, 'Who made that video?'. The manager replied, 'I am not sure, but they only show it in stores.'

Ok... I have seen jobs posted for 'in-store commercials' on Voice123 before. It is 'new'.

When we left, and continued to walk past kiosks that try to get you to buy everything from soda to hand-lotions, I heard another voice over promoting the kiosk! It almost sounded like a spoof of radio imaging ads. I have seen promos posted on Voice123 before for even kiosks.

Of course, I then had to pass through the videogame store. I look up again to find this amazing voice over speaking about upcoming games. My wife won't go in that type of store, so I had no problem asking the manager, 'Where was that video made?'. He explained, 'It was made by the owners of this chain of stores during the E3 convention.' I told him where I worked, and in his excitement, proceeded to show me videogames that he felt had some great voice overs on it (I even wrote two of the people he was talking about through customer service feedback on Voice123). We also discussed 'indie games', and he was explaining to me how the videos in that store change quite often, and they are fun to watch.

I have now seen another in-store project, as well as, discussed videogame voices both for major companies and indie games, all jobs I have seen posted on Voice123...Ok, something old, something new.

Oddly, when I got home that night, I was channel-surfing and saw a Colombian actress on Telemundo. I had met her on a trip to Bogota, Colombia last summer when discussing voice over work in the US at a university.

All of this sticks in my mind because there is such a huge variety of jobs on Voice123. The belief that the online casting world is an 'anonymous world where no one knows what is going on' is quickly going away. 'New media' is not very 'new'. Those on Voice123 since it began have been doing this work for years now. So, when you really dive into the thick of what is being done online, you find you know more than you think, and there is a whole new land of opportunity for jobs online. Most importantly, there are answers to questions about 'who is doing what' or 'how much is one being paid for these new jobs that have only popped up in the last 15 to 20 years'...and you always have people to help you out.

If you are ever curious, talk about it here on the forums.

Steven Lowell
Public Relations Manager
Voice123 Premium Forums
Steven's Blog
Twitter: @stevenNYC123