Voice actors: this way for artistes' exit

Voice actor, artist? Of course, and my plumber is Michelangelo.

Why artistes' exit? Because any French voice actor (or any voice actor for that matter) who thinks he's an 'artiste' can do one (with the exception of the dubbers and narrators I'll talk about later). We participate in a commercial channel, we narrate scripts for corporate videos, and we have nothing to do with artistes. Let me explain.

Questions I've read about voice actors as 'artistes'

"What is the job of a voice actor? How is it different from being a stage or film actor?"
Answer: it's more than special, it's completely different (apart from dubbing and audiobooks): we're simply not artistes.
To be a voice actor is to be a service provider. It means serving a client by giving our time and bringing added value from our expertise, sensitivity, talent etc. in exchange for remuneration, thus participating in a commercial creative chain, just like the creatives, producers, sound engineers, editors - no more, no less.

"Doesn't it take talent to bring a script to life, whether it's a TV commercial or an internal factory safety video?"
Answer: it's easy to confuse art with talent. Of course you need talent - you need to be a good craftsman, like a carpenter, an electrician, a programmer, a web designer... I could go on and on. Doing your job well has nothing to do with being an artist. It doesn't make our job any less important, quite the contrary.
A well-interpreted TV commercial script will help connect with the audience and if marketing did their job well, will sell products - and keep the people who make them in work. A script for an internal factory safety video, to use the example in the question, if it's read properly, will ensure that the people who have to watch it don't fall asleep when it's being shown. Saving lives is pretty satisfying, isn't it?

What do you think about voice over in the context of dubbing?
Answer: in dubbing, we can talk about an artiste, and in audiobooks too. But why? Do you need more talent in these cases? Different techniques, yes; more talent, no. The difference has nothing to do with talent, but simply with the sector. In these cases, we are participating in an art creation chain, not a purely commercial chain (although, sometimes...).
There are also less glamorous, and therefore less mentioned, disciplines that are the poor cousins of dubbing: ADR, which literally brings films to life with sound, and audio description, which enables the blind and partially sighted to 'watch' a film. And sound engineers are at least as much artistes as we are in this particular case!

Let's stay grounded and calm our egos

At the risk of repeating myself with redundant truisms, we are no more artists than any professional involved in a commercial creative chain. I recommend a superb text that I have narrated, 'The Artistic Testament of Auguste Rodin. You'll find a plethora of advice for artists that can also be applied to us, particularly this one: "do your job like honest workers". And this one: "Work hard". And another one: "Practise relentlessly. You have to get used to the job". And... a plethora, I tell you!

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