Finding Their Voice

Finding Their Voice

Creativoices opens new doors for the local voice talent industry

By Anne P. Dela Cruz

Creativoices, founded by Pocholo Gonzales and Brian Ligsay (first and second from right, respectively), is the top provider of prequalified and professional voice artists in the Philippines

In
addition to high-tech imagery and visuals, using Hollywood stars’
voices to give life to lead characters has become a big attraction for
animated films. And these talents—like Bruce Willis as the raccoon RJ
in Over the Hedge—corner a big chunk of the films’ production cost.

This is not the case in the Philippines, however. Here, talents are
paid a measly sum for the use of their voices. Creativoices is out to
change this, though, with its mission to develop the local voice talent
industry and provide voice talents what they truly deserve.

Voice of Opportunity

Before Creativoices, Pocholo Gonzales was already making a name for
himself as a voice talent, while his friend Brian Ligsay was a deejay
who was also doing some voiceover work on the side. Seeing how
lucrative the business was, the two friends set up Uni Voices, a fully
equipped studio that offered all types of voiceover requirements to
clients. The business, however, was short-lived as the cost of
maintaining a studio was too steep.

Together with some friends, Pocholo and Brian repackaged the business
and went into voice talent management instead. Thus, the birth of
Creativoices Productions in 2005. Pocholo is CEO and managing director,
while Brian serves as marketing director. In focusing their efforts on
simply recruiting and managing voice talents (instead of owning and
operating a high-maintenance cost studio), Creativoices has managed to
become the number one provider of prequalified and professional voice
artists in the Philippines.

“Before
we started Creativoices, we noted that voice talents were being paid
differently depending on the job to be undertaken. In short, there were
no industry standards to speak of when it came to the pay scale,” Brian
relates. “Now, we can establish the standards for the kind of services
we offer. Besides, there is a big market for the services we offer.”

Unique One-Stop Shop

What makes Creativoices unique is the fact that the company is the only
Philippine-based online voiceover company that delivers voiceovers
within 72 hours of an order. A client just has to visit
www.creativoices.com and fill up the necessary forms. The site also
features sample voices so that a client can determine the kind of voice
he or she needs.

“This has been the in thing in the United States and we are just
duplicating this,” Brian explains. “The good thing about this is our
overhead costs have lowered substantially. We now affiliate ourselves
with studios and make use of them only when necessary.”

Tagged as the best place to shop for professional voice talents, voice
casting, and production services, Creativoices’ production team can
handle any type of audio requirement. The services they offer include
character voices for animation, computer game voiceovers, dubbing,
podcasting, commercials, promos, Internet audio marketing services,
audio books, multimedia voices, campaign creation, voice mail prompts,
public address announcements, and so much more.

“Our
talented lineup of field experts is at our client’s disposal, from
concepts to application,” Brian explains. “Script writing and original
music composition are also available, along with every conceivable
sound effect and style of prerecorded background music.”

Since both Pocholo and Brian were already recognized names in the
industry even before coming together in Creativoices, the company did
not have much problem looking for clients. It is affiliated with the
Advertising Suppliers Association of the Philippines and the Animation
Council of the Philippines. Clients include Toei Animation, Star
Records, Red Bank Concerts, DDB, Top Peg, and Holy Cow.

BIG Plans

Creativoices is building up its pool of talents so that clients can
have a wider selection from which to choose. One of its plans is to
offer training programs for budding voice talents. Brian advises,
however, that interested talents treat voiceover services only as their
second job since the industry works on a per project basis. “Most of
the jobs we get are on a per project basis, so it is not advisable for
voice talents to depend on these jobs for a living,” Brian said. He
points out, though, that “our talents will be paid rates that we
ourselves have established.”

Their ultimate goal is to create a council of voiceover talents that
will ensure that industry standards are in place. The council will aim
to make sure that its members are professionally trained voice talents
and that they are justly paid for their services.
Brian reveals
that for an announcer-type of project, a talent can get as much as
P15,000 for a 30-seconder job. Character voices go for P8,000 for 30
minutes, while a voiceover for a television commercial can go as high
as P25,000 for a 30-seconder. Surprisingly, the voice talents who dub
the Korean telenovelas that are popular these days are paid only P90
per script (a script covers one episode).

Also in the works is the plan to offer voiceover services in different
dialects and the development of a website that will be devoted to voice
templates.

“By next year, we
will be getting a bigger office space so that we can start offering
training programs for voiceover talents,” Brian shares. “There is so
much talent in the Philippines and I am confident that the country will
become a major supplier of voice talents not only for the region but
for other parts of the world as well.”