Messages in Bottles
Colin W D McLean
Voice Actor, Audio Describer, Presenter, Skills Trainer - Reassuringly Expressive
I know what it’s like to be that chap on the desert island with just a palm tree for shade, chucking message-filled bottles into the unforgiving ocean. I know what it takes too. Patience, certainly, but also unflagging optimism, belief and conviction. A clear sense that, while you may feel alone, you are somehow on someone’s radar. Fate’s if no-one else’s.
I know this because I’m a voice actor.
I sit in my home studio each day chucking bottles with messages (for which read ‘audition recordings’) into the vast ocean of the internet, wishing each one well but in the knowledge that vast numbers of these bottles will sink unopened and therefore unheard. A WAV beneath the waves, indeed.
There are many animals that would empathise, those that need to produce young in huge numbers just in order to ensure the survival of a vital few - think frogs or turtles here.
A better analogy in our world may be that of the fly fisherman - another born optimist (and, yes, guilty here too). Long hours, days and often weeks are spent in pursuit of the quarry, a salmon perhaps, with little or nothing to show for it. Nothing with which, indeed, to feed your family. There’s one thing that the fly fisherman truly understands, though, and that is that he will certainly never catch a fish unless the fly he so tantalisingly casts is actually in the water. No fisherman came laden home by merely sitting on the bank staring at a promising pool.
I’m not after sympathy here because those of you who are voice actors will know the feelings all too well. Those of who aren’t will most likely suggest I just find another ‘hobby’. Making bottles might be one suggestion.
It’s just that I’ve hurled another three into the ocean this morning and sitting quietly in the aftermath I find it helps my sense of purpose to keep wishing them well.
Sometimes, yes, with an auspicious tide, a few make it back to the island and those are joyous moments indeed. Quite often the same tide brings two or three at once. Those we deem feast days.
February was pretty lean. But now we are into March. Even the month’s name is dynamic. I’m off to find a few more bottles and to scan the horizon for a while. Do wave if you pass close by.
-oOo-
02.03.2023
Managing Director, K2 CAT
2 年Wise words, Colin. The cat underwriter in an MGA feels the same way about capacity. Lots of discussions - it’s the hope that kills you ??- but a few wins, too. Those are great days. Go well.
Award winning Voice Artist artist with Studiobricks booth & Source Connect Standard
2 年That’s partly why I don’t fish perhaps. I know the feeling all too well, casting our auditions onto the big wide web, only to hear the incessant sound of crickets. March on, we must, as soldiers into battle. For even the chance of auditioning, they say, is a privilege.
Counsellor
2 年Don't forget that when you fish you can also appreciate the river, the weather and that you're not stuck making widgets in a factory.
Scottish Voiceover, ex BBC Radio Senior Broadcast Journalist /newsreader , RAFA volunteer, Ex RAF
2 年This has made my morning and I think I will copy it and stick it up on my wall…now I’m off to the bottle bank to collect rather than deposit Have a fishful day Colin