Voice-Over Accreditation: What’s It All About?
December 17, 2007
Nikki Saco, a versatile voice actor, was initially “uneasy” earlier this year when approached about a plan to form a professional society to accredit voice talent.
“I honestly wasn’t sure how the voice-over industry would benefit,” she writes in a new feature on VoiceOverXtra.com.
Yet today Saco is vice chair and on the Board of Directors of that new organization: the Society of Accredited Voice Over Artists, or SaVoa.
What eased her mind? How do voice actors benefit? And … how does the accreditation process work, anyway?
Nikki Saco answers these questions and more in a new comprehensive article, available free at www.VoiceOverXtra.com, an online resource for voice-over success.
An interesting idea.
If it gains any traction expect a deluge of accrediting “standards”.
While I think it’ll be great to show differing levels of proficiency and technique, you’ll have to be careful not to alienate your performers, like the meltdown over at radiodaddy, for example.
I’m not sure what occurred at RadioDaddy but avoiding meltdowns is always a good thing.
One of our big concerns when we began developing the accreditation program was to avoid any kind of elitism. We didn’t want to create a country club. We wanted a trade guild. So we started by adopting accreditation criteria based on recognized standards and not arbitrary concepts we were pulling out of our hat — or some part of our anatomy.
In fact, some voice overs don’t think we raised the bar high enough. If anything we may be alienating them. This is a first step. We’ve left room for improving and developing the accreditation program in response to industry demands. But we really think it’s possible to say we want a level of competence in the industry without making anyone feel incompetent.