Going green is big everywhere . It is  right thing to
do. And it can be profitable, if done right.

I’ve been devising ways to become more efficient in my
voiceover business, which not only is serving to sustain the planet in my own
small way, but to make my workflow effective and efficient.

From where we came

Once upon a time, I relied on a fax machine to receive
scripts or get them by email and print out the documents. This was before e-commerce
and the purchasing of goods online became the norm. Getting supplies and
business machinery involved a trip to the office supply store for thermal fax
paper, toner, ink cartridges, reams of paper and pencils to mark my scripts. Of
course there were two dedicated telco phone lines, each to the studio’s land line
in addition to a fax line. Plus, it was a big deal to finally migrate from my
pager to my first cell phone, circa 1996 (which at the time sounded like everyone
was speaking to me through a wind tunnel.) And no, there was no such thing as a
“smart-phone” that received email and had internet in those days.

 

Applying Green
Principles to a VO Business

Today the studio operates on a fraction of the paper, toner and ink
cartridges we used to consume here. There’s less to recycle and we’re saving trees too. There’s less
wear and tear on the fax (which is now integrated into the studio land line)
Now I’m looking into eliminating the land/fax line, and moving into an even more
paperless workflow with the purchase of a Neatdesk document scanner and  considering online fax. The iPad has become a
part of this new method, especially with reading long-form narrations, and
audiobooks. No more page-turning issues and all that entails!  It’s all saving costs, and driving
profitability as well as workflow efficiency.

Marking Scripts

I must admit it took a while for me to let go of printing my
scripts so I could mark them as needed with my trusty pencils. Now I’m working
nearly 100% paperless, but it was a process that started after building my
vocal isolation booth. I needed to keep my ISDN codec, and  computer/laptop’s fan noise isolated from my
microphone to reduce the sound floor. I added a monitor, wireless keyboard and
mouse, and iPad to the mix inside the booth. Now I use WORD and/or the iPad
app, Good Reader to highlight, embolden, notate , edit, and/or mark my scripts
in colorful ways to make each my own special roadmap to the read that can be
immediately changed up at any director’s 
desire.

I’m strongly considering finally letting go of the land line
we’ve had for 20+ years in lieu of my mobile device. That move will reduce another
monthly expense. Oh yea, and I won’t miss all those “robo calls” that now
comprise nearly all the inbound phone calls to that line these days.