Translation and Voiceover costs

The days, the going rate for voiceover is: Anything you might imagine.

Right now, there are ads on Craigslist, asking for "Professional Voiceover" for a rate of zero, with the possibility of "copy and credit" after the production is completed.  Is it possible that they will get a good voiceover for a rate of nothing?  Surprisingly the answer is probably "yes".  However, it's also possible to get your car fixed for free, or to have the plumbing in your house repaired for less than minimum wage.  As you probably know, getting any kind of work done this way comes with a good chance of "problems".

So, how do you determine a "reasonable" rate?  You probably want a "professional" to voice your project. So it would probably be wise budget what would go to a "professional".  The median income for a college graduate in the US is around $54,000 per year, which, figuring a 40-hour week, 50 weeks per year, comes to $27.00 per hour.  Now, wait, we're not done.  A typical voiceover performer can really only work, on a normal basis, doing a quality performance an average two hours per day (more hours on some days, less on other, we won't go into the reasons for this here.)  So a voiceover performer needs to make a full day's wage ($216.00) in two hours, which comes to $108.00 per hour.  Then, there's project overhead (The time to book the project, print scripts, etc.), which usually comes in at the same amount of time as doing the project, so that means a voiceover performer needs to charge at least a couple-of-hundred dollars per hour, just to earn a low "professional" rate.  Then there are the studio/insurance costs...etc.  Then, you add to that the fact that MOST of your time, as a performer is spent trying to get jobs. ("The job is looking for work".)

So, if you want a "Professional" to voice your project - someone who is making what a typical college graduate in the US would make, you need to figure you should pay your talent AT LEAST $300.00 per hour.  Also, keep in mind that working at a three-to-one ratio (taking three hours to record one complete hour of audio) is considered pretty good.  If you want your talent to edit the production too, consider six-to-one.

Whew!  So, if you're paying a person in the US $1000.00 per finished hour of narration, keep in mind that person is still likely to be earning less than a typical college graduate in the US. $3000.00 per-finished-hour/$500.00 for ten minutes of finished narration is actually a reasonable rate. (That comes to about 33 cents-per word plus something for "project overhead.)

Of course, as we mentioned, you can spend a good deal less.  Some VO Talent get considerably more This discussion is to give you a good guideline.

Travis - http://www.Training-VO.com