Day One -- Tuesday, September 28
This was Day One of actually working on this project, but today was my third visit to Intralink Films to provide the voice of Christian Bale in their proposed Batman Begins trailer. The last two times I came in, I recorded some lines for their trailer, but it was really just a favor for a friend that works there. Today, however, that friend said she would try to get me paid. That sounded good.
So we did the new lines for the trailer and when I finished I walked over to Chris' office. Chris is in charge of the money. Now, prior to this moment, it had never been discussed how much I might get paid for my contribution to their project. Chris opened up the negotiations with:
"What's your rate?"
Of course, I don't have a rate. I don't do voice-over work. This was a favor. But now I have been asked to provide the starting point of our negotiations. Concerned that I might come in too low, I went with my rate for doing a pilot.
"Twenty thousand dollars."
I was mostly kidding, of course, but it seemed better than saying, "a hundred bucks." Chris did not even bat an eye.
"We're going to have to work something out," was his reply.
He informed me that their "top guys" get $1600 plus 10%, so $20,000 was a little out of the acceptable range. I told him that I needed to call Erin, my girlfriend, referral for this job, and voice-over pro in her own right. I asked her what the going rate was for a day of voice-over work.
"Three or four hundred dollars," she told me.
I returned to Chris' office and told him, "She thought $1600 sounded about right."
We settled at $1500 + 10%, so slightly less than the "top guys" get, but greatly more than I ever expected to get. So my reading of Christian Bale's voice was good, but my negotiating skills were great.