SCHEDULE A DOG & PONY SHOW

For the Gabuduck app Miko and Cola we had inexperienced child actors playing 3 of the 4 major voiceover roles in the book.  And this book is big by iPad ebook standards, 64 pages of fun and frolic!  So how do you wrangle child actors, keep their interest while recording over 120 lines of copy and ensure you get a great performance?  Patience, fun and preparation!

The characters Miko and Cola were played by Ava and Karmen, two precocious 8 year old girls with big personalities.  We decided to cut their roles together to let them read against one another.  It took three sessions with the girls to get their lines dialed in: session one was a piece of cake with the girls just nervous enough to quell their natural tendency to be, well, 8 year olds.  Through sessions two and three, in spite of a heavy duty raid on the studio’s cookie jar, the girls really hung in there even while getting a little crazy.  They both took direction like pros and there were no situations we couldn’t handle.  If the lines got a bit tough they helped each other out, stayed on mic most of the time and gave line repeats until we had what was needed.  They were real pros.

The character Sherman the Mouse was played by 4 year old Declan and he was a trooper.  (Full disclosure: he’s my son!)  Dad would feed him the line the way it needed to be read and Declan would repeat back until he nailed it.  There were moments where he no longer wanted to read and the trick here is to take the break and do some playing.  Sherman’s lines were cut over three or four days in my home studio with frequent stops to play Hot Wheels or Wii Star Wars but when it was all done and the edits were finished we had a great read by the little man.

Cutting child actors is a big change for the VO director.  You need to get out of your chair, get in the room with the kids and help them through their lines.  Mic stands and headphones can be intimidating to adults, just think what it’s like when you aren’t even 10 years old yet.  We used jokes, cookies, frequent breaks for play and lots of patience and laughter.  We ended up with great reads from three wonderful kids and a fantastic story that I’m sure your kids will enjoy as much as mine does.

The other night I sat in as guest producer during a voice talent workout. For those unfamiliar with the concept, a voice talent workout allows a group of talent to get together and put themselves through the paces without a client present.  They critique each others reads, give encouragement and, ultimately, they create a community.
For the last decade or so the trend has been for voice talent to work from home. The joke most often heard is how nice it must be to wander down your hall and make money in your jammies.  I’m not going to say that wouldn’t be nice but I do believe that we’ve lost something because of it.  There’s no obvious peer group anymore, no obvious competition. The spontaneity two or more talent would bring to a script when in the same room has all but disappeared.   Which brings us back to the idea of community and why I think all voice talent should get involved in a workout group.  Get out there, meet your peers (and your competition) and hone your craft.
In this particular workout (I’m talking about you Melissa Moats!) the organizer kept things moving along nicely with a specific schedule, an absolute necessity.  Comments were kept positive, each talent was encouraged to choose something outside of their normal comfort zone and everyone had three chances to read the script and get it right.  After a break there was an audition round, in which everyone had a chance to audition a script chosen by the organizer, and then Q and A with the guest.
As a producer I walked away impressed, motivated and excited about the talent in our market.  Being an active reader of many audio forums, I’m forever amazed at some folks in LA or NY who claim there are no good non-union talent.  Certainly the talent is more concentrated in those two main markets, but to outright dismiss anyone outside of those zip codes is patently ridiculous.  There are some real gems in smaller markets like Las Vegas–people who regularly book jobs nationwide–and it was great to be reminded of that.  We all need voices to get our work done; someone has to carry the message.  Creating a community of talented voice professionals right here at home can only benefit each of us who has a hand in producing media.