Help set Ben's voice free!
Donation protected
Hi all, My name is Ben Bowman, and this is, regrettably, a personal appeal.
For those who may not know me personally, here's a brief background:
I was a professional dancer for 23 years, the majority of those productive years here, in New York City.
Since retiring from the stage due to injury ('though age was definitely catching up to me), I've made my living by wearing a lot of hats. In the pre-COVID days, the average month would find me teaching dance classes, tending bar at both a comedy club in midtown and a traditional bar/restaurant in Tribeca, acting in an off-broadway four-character play and playing drums out, with my bar-band. A very good month might find me choreographing or staging a work for the Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation. Unfortunately, since March 16th, all of these jobs and side-hustles have been shut down completely, with no timeline or even a guarantee of reopening. However, there is still ONE thing that I did (and have done, for over a decade) before the pandemic, that is open to me ; Voice Over. VO is an ideal career to pursue while sidelined by the pandemic, as auditioning, booking and recording sessions can all be done from home...
Except, I can't.
COVID has elevated trends in the industry which previously were luxuries to necessities and, after trying to get by on unemployment for 5 months (in NYC), the prerequisite necessities are unaffordable, as is one other major sticking point. Until I can resolve the issues listed below, my agent cannot submit me for work, which is why I'm making this awkward plea.
Requirements as per my agency:
1 - Artists must have a suitable microphone and computer connected to the internet by ethernet (Check. Got those covered, as those have been necessities since 2009).
2 - Artists must have adequate recording software (Check. No problem).
3 - Artists must have a space with good sound-isolating properties, for the recording of clean vocals.
Here's where the problems start. Prior to COVID, virtually every audition was a record- at- home MP3 submission, but if you booked the spot, you'd do the session at a sound studio. I live in a 325- sq.- foot apartment facing a busy street. I don't have the room to build a permanent booth and, although you can buy professional portable booths, they start at around $3,000. Not. In. Budget.
but, hey! I'm a handy guy and should be able to build a fold-down booth that will do 90% as well. I've sourced materials and should be able to get it done for around $200.
4 - Artists must have Source Connect Standard or Pro.
To explain; All sessions with a creative director and audio engineer now, by necessity, have to be recorded remotely. Hence the iso booth.
Think of Source Connect as an ultra-high-fidelity audio version of zoom, but dedicated to recording. SC replaces an older and more expensive technology called ISDN, and is now the industry standard. Although I imply that SC is less expensive than ISDN, it's not that inexpensive. SC Standard is $35 monthly as a subscription, or $650 for a license. OK, not too usurious, but since my unemployment Insurance will no longer cover my rent moving forward? This too is out of my budget.
SC is also famously difficult to properly install and test and might require the services of a technician and purchase of additional hardware so, whether I subscribe or buy, $1,000 is the number to leave some runway for unexpected expenses.
5 - Artists must be available and eligible to take work on notice of booking.
NOW we get to the heavy lift. Even if I had all the above requirements in place, I STILL can't take work, because the Union(s) that govern TV, radio and film VO have, over the years, given me all the deferrals they're ever going to give me before I pony-up my full dues (a deferral allows you to work within the union, and helps determine union eligibility. I've worked more than my fair share and it's not an unreasonable demand). I confirmed this last week with an extremely un-empathetic SAG-AFTRA rep, so: membership dues + annual dues = $3,202.
Yeah, you read that right.
Ok, let's add the budget.
Folding Iso Booth, home-built: $200
Source Connect + surprise expenses: $1,000
Union Dues: $3,202
Total expected expenditure: $4,402
As things have a tendency to work out differently than you anticipate, I've rounded up to the $5,000 figure, for wiggle room.
I launch this with a deep sense of humility. I'm humbled in admitting that I need help. I'm angered that I don't have the security or income to assume more debt. I'm saddened that beseeching the aid of strangers is more likely to lead to a positive result than leaning on my family. I'm embarrassed to ask for help when so many others are suffering worse than I am, and I'm mortified that the first people to view this: my friends - actors, dancers, musicians, choreographers, artists and comics - who are, like me, trying to paddle their canoes through this crisis with a cocktail straw, might think that i'm hitting THEM up for money ( I don't want your money, but I don't have twitter or snapchat, so if somebody wants to create an awesome hashtag and help me with traction, I'll buy you a new hat).
I can only say, as my final appeal, that waking up every day knowing that I could be doing something more productive than re-wiring lamps for my retiree neighbor and manfully abstaining from alcohol until after dinner fills me with an anxiety that is hard to express. This anxiety is made more manifest, in that the clock is ticking. Each day that passes and I'm unable to assure my agent that I've satisfied the requisites to be submitted for work renders me more irrelevant and increases the odds that I'll be purged from their client roll.
Should you choose to, your investment may not be life-changing, but could be life-saving, as September is going to get very ugly, financially
And, with that, I cast my fate upon the waters.
With gratitude to all who had the patience to read this far! - Love, -B.
For those who may not know me personally, here's a brief background:
I was a professional dancer for 23 years, the majority of those productive years here, in New York City.
Since retiring from the stage due to injury ('though age was definitely catching up to me), I've made my living by wearing a lot of hats. In the pre-COVID days, the average month would find me teaching dance classes, tending bar at both a comedy club in midtown and a traditional bar/restaurant in Tribeca, acting in an off-broadway four-character play and playing drums out, with my bar-band. A very good month might find me choreographing or staging a work for the Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation. Unfortunately, since March 16th, all of these jobs and side-hustles have been shut down completely, with no timeline or even a guarantee of reopening. However, there is still ONE thing that I did (and have done, for over a decade) before the pandemic, that is open to me ; Voice Over. VO is an ideal career to pursue while sidelined by the pandemic, as auditioning, booking and recording sessions can all be done from home...
Except, I can't.
COVID has elevated trends in the industry which previously were luxuries to necessities and, after trying to get by on unemployment for 5 months (in NYC), the prerequisite necessities are unaffordable, as is one other major sticking point. Until I can resolve the issues listed below, my agent cannot submit me for work, which is why I'm making this awkward plea.
Requirements as per my agency:
1 - Artists must have a suitable microphone and computer connected to the internet by ethernet (Check. Got those covered, as those have been necessities since 2009).
2 - Artists must have adequate recording software (Check. No problem).
3 - Artists must have a space with good sound-isolating properties, for the recording of clean vocals.
Here's where the problems start. Prior to COVID, virtually every audition was a record- at- home MP3 submission, but if you booked the spot, you'd do the session at a sound studio. I live in a 325- sq.- foot apartment facing a busy street. I don't have the room to build a permanent booth and, although you can buy professional portable booths, they start at around $3,000. Not. In. Budget.
but, hey! I'm a handy guy and should be able to build a fold-down booth that will do 90% as well. I've sourced materials and should be able to get it done for around $200.
4 - Artists must have Source Connect Standard or Pro.
To explain; All sessions with a creative director and audio engineer now, by necessity, have to be recorded remotely. Hence the iso booth.
Think of Source Connect as an ultra-high-fidelity audio version of zoom, but dedicated to recording. SC replaces an older and more expensive technology called ISDN, and is now the industry standard. Although I imply that SC is less expensive than ISDN, it's not that inexpensive. SC Standard is $35 monthly as a subscription, or $650 for a license. OK, not too usurious, but since my unemployment Insurance will no longer cover my rent moving forward? This too is out of my budget.
SC is also famously difficult to properly install and test and might require the services of a technician and purchase of additional hardware so, whether I subscribe or buy, $1,000 is the number to leave some runway for unexpected expenses.
5 - Artists must be available and eligible to take work on notice of booking.
NOW we get to the heavy lift. Even if I had all the above requirements in place, I STILL can't take work, because the Union(s) that govern TV, radio and film VO have, over the years, given me all the deferrals they're ever going to give me before I pony-up my full dues (a deferral allows you to work within the union, and helps determine union eligibility. I've worked more than my fair share and it's not an unreasonable demand). I confirmed this last week with an extremely un-empathetic SAG-AFTRA rep, so: membership dues + annual dues = $3,202.
Yeah, you read that right.
Ok, let's add the budget.
Folding Iso Booth, home-built: $200
Source Connect + surprise expenses: $1,000
Union Dues: $3,202
Total expected expenditure: $4,402
As things have a tendency to work out differently than you anticipate, I've rounded up to the $5,000 figure, for wiggle room.
I launch this with a deep sense of humility. I'm humbled in admitting that I need help. I'm angered that I don't have the security or income to assume more debt. I'm saddened that beseeching the aid of strangers is more likely to lead to a positive result than leaning on my family. I'm embarrassed to ask for help when so many others are suffering worse than I am, and I'm mortified that the first people to view this: my friends - actors, dancers, musicians, choreographers, artists and comics - who are, like me, trying to paddle their canoes through this crisis with a cocktail straw, might think that i'm hitting THEM up for money ( I don't want your money, but I don't have twitter or snapchat, so if somebody wants to create an awesome hashtag and help me with traction, I'll buy you a new hat).
I can only say, as my final appeal, that waking up every day knowing that I could be doing something more productive than re-wiring lamps for my retiree neighbor and manfully abstaining from alcohol until after dinner fills me with an anxiety that is hard to express. This anxiety is made more manifest, in that the clock is ticking. Each day that passes and I'm unable to assure my agent that I've satisfied the requisites to be submitted for work renders me more irrelevant and increases the odds that I'll be purged from their client roll.
Should you choose to, your investment may not be life-changing, but could be life-saving, as September is going to get very ugly, financially
And, with that, I cast my fate upon the waters.
With gratitude to all who had the patience to read this far! - Love, -B.
Organizer
Benjamin Bowman
Organizer
New York, NY