Once upon a time voiceover talent put shoes on and left their homes to go to studios to record what was mostly union work. Then chips got smaller, technology got better and equipment that had been extraordinarily expensive was now in a price range people could afford. Talent started to set up small recording spaces in their own homes. They were faxed a script, they recorded onto zip disks and dropped them into FEDEX.
Then the internet happened. Really happened.
All of a sudden you could work with people all over the world and they could work with you. Digital industries grew up and they needed all types of voiceover, not just radio, TV, cable and in-house videos. There was suddenly all of this new work to be had.
And very little of it was union. New industries didn’t think of the union when they went looking for voiceover actors, they found them the way they found everything else. Online. So, much of this new work was non-union and the ratio started to shift.
That created a problem for union VO actors, who were told they couldn’t do any of this work because it wasn’t union – so keep the day job. And it created a problem for non-union VO’s who wanted to join the union but had built up a client base of non-union work and weren’t about to – or couldn’t afford to – give it up.
But there’s one problem there. That’s a myth. It’s simply not true that the ONLY work a full member of SAG-AFTRA can do is union work and that everything else is in violation of Global Rule One. It’s not true that the only way to do both is by resigning the union and becoming a “fee paying non-member”. There IS work that union talent can find and do that’s not union work without breaking any rules, without going Fi-Core and without working off the card. You just have to know what type of work it is and how to do it.
I’ve been a union member for 20+ years and have served on the AFTRA NY Local Board and Broadcast Steering Committee. Currently I serve on the SAG-AFTRA National Voiceover Performers Committee. I know where the union and non-union worlds collide and I can help you figure out the type of work you can do that’s not union and how to do it.
Disclaimer: While a member of the union’s VO committee, advice and opinions are my own.