Freelancing in Tokyo: Voiceover Job Tips/Advice

The question in today's blog is: Should you spend your precious time correcting mistakes in scripts that you are going to record, mistakes made by translators when translating from Japanese to English?

This is a difficult question to answer simply for many reasons.

Recently, I was asked to do the voiceover for a Japanese company that makes products for the medical industry. This is the second time I have worked as a voiceover artist for this company. (The word for voiceover artists in Japan is "narrator" -- but considering what is required for the job, I say "voiceover artist" is a much better description.) As with many of these type of jobs, the script I was given was translated from Japanese. Over all it was very good. As it had many technical words, it required extra time and effort on my part to prepare for the recording. As I point out in my book, some voiceover "artists" just show up at the studio without having read their scripts, assuming they can say whatever is in front of them. This is a big mistake. You will just waste an enormous amount of time, so today's first tip is: Study your script! The whole idea is to make things go smoothly in sthe studio, not hold things up.  

At any rate, this job was received through an agency that has represented me on and off for the last 10 years. The agency has always treated me fairly and made an effort to get extra payment for me if I went beyond the call of duty for the client, such as rewriting the script to make the English sound more natural. Last night, I felt I went beyond the call of duty, but whether I will be paid for it remains to be seen.

As is sometimes the case, the client will make changes to the script. In this case I was asked to correct several paragraphs -- this went back and forth about three times. For this extra work I was offered ¥1,000 yen. Was it enough? No. But by doing it I hoped (perhaps erroneously), that was I was strengthening the relationship between myself and the agency by showing them my willingness to do a little extra work without demanding to be paid.

This is an ongoing sore point for narrators in Tokyo. On one hand, as most people do, we love our native language and want to say the words correctly. On the other hand, why should we expend time and energy on fixing a script for someone when we aren't going to necessarily get paid for it?

The only observations I can share are: If you feel you are being taken advantage of, raise the red flag and tell your agent. If the changes are relatively minor, then point out that you needed to make some changes so that the narration would go smoothly and point out what those changes are to the client and/or agent. Most times I have found people to be grateful for the effort. On the other hand...

One time I came to a studio where, for reasons that escape me, at least eight members from the company I was doing the narration for were sitting in the studio. There was one among them who spoke English well. For the first hour, in the studio, during time they were paying for, I had to explain each and every correction I made (including the proper use of "a, an, the"). I finally said: "You have two choices: I can use up my recording voice explaining every single change to you, or I can go into the booth and do the recording... because we've already used up an hour of the three hours you've booked."

This created a flurry of comments and a discussion, and finally I was allowed to do the recording and they were forced to accept my changes. 

Should I have been paid for an extra hour to explain to them what I had changed? Perhaps. Once you do this work long enough, you will discover that some agents are very aware of the extra work you've put in, and they will offer, sometimes without prompting, extra payment. There are others who cannot be bothered and will pretend that that is part of your job -- it isn't, or shouldn't be, but this is Japan and there are many willing and able narrators right around the corner. So, you will have to weigh each experience separately and decide whether you have been paid appropriately or not. Good luck!