As much as I try and read all, or at least a majority of Mark’s posts, when time is not on your side, you often have to choose which posts you read based on their title. As soon as I saw “Voice Over Matter” however, I knew it was worth a look. In it, Mark recalls the story of how a famous voice-actor (Mark Elliott) came in to do some work and was there a grand total of 3 minutes, for which he was paid a tidy sum. It’s not a long piece, and while I recommend you check it out, the defining quote is this:
One of the crew guys grumbled a bit and said, “You paid him all that money for three minutes work?” Before I could say anything, the director said, “No, we pay him all that money because it only takes him three minutes.”
It makes me wonder why some studios insist on using celebrity voices when there’s clearly no advantage (cost or otherwise) to using them.