When W.C. Fields said never work with children or animals, his intended meaning was that they would steal the scene. But if you have ever tried working with either on a creative project, you may have derived your own meaning from this famous trope.
As a mom who has spent the better part of six years tucked away in a studio with her two professional kid voiceover actors, I’ve got some helpful and practical advice to share on how to get the best VO performance from kid talent.
Kids Love Homework!
Okay, so maybe kids don’t love homework, but they are used to getting homework. Be sure to give your talent homework to do before a recording session. The more prep time and information they have upfront, the more likely they are to be ready to go and on point come recording time. Scripts, character breakdowns, mock-up presentations, pitch materials, artwork, animatics, reference videos, and vocal reference samples are all helpful… it’s all about exploring creative materials that support the goal of the accompanying voiceover.
Meet & Greet
A meet and greet with kid talent via video chat or phone is a helpful step whether you will be doing a live-directed VO session or the talent will be self-recording and delivering finished audio. Use this time to break the ice, set expectations, answer any questions, and run a few practice lines to make sure your creative vision is in line with the kid’s understanding and delivery style. This will also quickly reveal whether they did their homework!
Tech Support
Make sure to consider the technical aspects and logistics of the voiceover recording. If it is a live directed session, do you have a professional studio arranged? Can the talent arrange a professional studio for you? Better yet, does the talent have a professional home studio with live hosting abilities? It’s best to hammer out all of the techy stuff upfront to be sure you have everything you need come the delivery date. If the kid talent is going to do a self-directed session, presumably a parent will be helping with the recording, direction, technical aspects, and file delivery. Make sure the parent responsible has the technical savvy necessary to deliver you clean files in the desired format.
Direction
Whether it’s before a self-record or during a live session, make sure to offer clear and relatable direction so talent can translate your vision to their performance. Once I was in a session and the producer told my daughter Cassie to sing a song in a way that would “make people reach into their pockets.” To a then 8-year-old, with no formal understanding of money other than what she received from the Tooth Fairy, this direction had no meaning. She didn’t understand that instead of the song’s typical upbeat tone, the producer wanted her to sing a more emotional rendition that would move grandparents to buy the cute toy for their grandchild. Lost in translation. Another time someone asked my other daughter Sabrina, can you sound like a giant angry turtledove? Nailed it. She knew exactly what the director wanted. Moreover, this type of language encouraged a playfulness in her performance. (Side note, this direction from a fellow Tongaler was Sabrina’s favorite creative feedback of all time!) Speak their language so you can both aim for the same target.
Caveat: You also need kid VO talent that CAN take direction and implement that feedback into the voiceover performance, which brings us to experience…
Experience Counts
Experience counts when it comes to selecting talent for your voiceover. Please don’t assume that because a kid can read they can do voiceover (it really is voice-acting!) We’ve done – or re-done I should say – several voiceover projects that were originally recorded by the producer’s neighbor’s friend’s kid who once had a role in the school play. Make sure your talent has the experience, ability, and training (which could be voiceover training, acting, or theater experience potentially depending on your project) to help you achieve your specific creative goals.
A few questions to consider: How involved are you going to be with the actual VO recording? Are you going to be very hands-on hosting a live directed session? Or do you have one million other things to do and you need clean files with plenty of creative options delivered to you yesterday? Matching the level of experience to your needs will help make sure you don’t regret working with a kid in the first place!
Try It Their Way!
If you are hiring kid talent for your creative project, chances are it is to lend authenticity to a voiceover that wouldn’t be as believable coming from an older-trying-to-sound-younger talent. If you already have takes you’re happy with, consider giving your talent creative leeway to record the script their way, time permitting of course! Recently, we hosted a client session for a branding campaign that was very collaborative and fun. The creative team already had all the takes they needed from Cassie. At the very end of the session, they asked how she heard the script. Cassie threw out an unexpected voice for a one-liner that made the creative team laugh and they ended up using it in the final cut! (That campaign has since gone on to receive over 1 million views in under a week!) So, if the nature of your project allows, try tapping into that natural kid-like performance. You might be pleasantly surprised and hear something from a perspective you didn’t originally think of!
Help if you need it!
Good luck! If you need me, you can usually find me drinking coffee and editing voiceover files. If you need the Glow Girls, they can hop in to our home recording studio for you at a moment’s notice. And if you need help finding great kid VO talent, give me a shout!
