kids VO vs Adults VO

[Julie Williams]

Welcome, Sunday!

How would you say the biz of kids VO differs from adults?

[Sunday Muse]

How would i say the v/o biz differs from kids to adults?
I think there's way more demand for kids voices today than many years ago...and a lot of producers and casting directors want kids doing the voices for kids cartoon characters. They feel it has more appeal to the children watching the show. This is what i was told from some of the creative team of Blues Clues. They want kids to feel they are being spoken to on their level.
When a child auditions, he/she is being heard for his 'natural' voice, not a character voice of a 50 yr. old frog. Kids are brought in based on their natural voice whereas adults need to develop a wide range of characters so they can be seen for as much as possible. This makes the job/audition more demanding for an adult, and fun too!
hope that helps.
sunday

[Jon Morss]

Sunday,

I think this is great. However, isn't there sort of risk with this? That is, if the series goes on for a couple of years the kid's voice is more than likely to change, thus meaning the part will have to be re-cast.

Jon

[jsgilbert]

My experence has been a bit different.
Most producers I know, commercial, video games or cartoon do not like working with kids very much. There are a few exceptions and if it's an on-camera thing, not much choice.

When it comes to voiceover, my understanding is that adults voice kids voices 100 to 1 over kids. Maybe 50 to 1 in L.A.

Adults can maintain the voice over many years, while kids voices change frequently, which means future prospects for use of any particular character are shot down significantly by the use of a kids voice. Of course, they can call for a national audition to find a sound alike at any time and to replace a finnicky adult actor as well.

Adults don't have to have their parents with them. Even the producers that tend to like kids, can't stand the parents of the kids.

Numerous laws mean limited recording schedules for kids. It ain't so easy to get a kid to pop in and do a few pick up lines.

The inability for many kids to consistently deliver meaningful performance while in a "vaccuum" -- V.o. has no sets, costumes, props and sometimes not even other actors to feed off of. Many of the challenges of v.o. require changing lines atthe last minute or not getting copy much in advance.


Inability of children to change emotion's quickly, offer meaningful reads or use life experiences to enhance the read.

There were many studies done in the past (I believe I was part of one that Landor Associates did in the late 80's) that showed there was no advantage to having children perform v.o. Other children and adults were not able to correctly identify true children's voices from professional adult actors in most cases.

Anyone remember the study where kids thought that race jockeys (the kind that ride horses) were kids?

I produced the dialog for Mattel's Mother Gooses Farm in 1996, which won tons of awards. The children's voices wer all performed by adults, including several roles performed by M.J. Lallo

I have produced audio for numerous educational projects and many interactive projects and the hiring of actual kids voices is, has and as far as I'm concerned will always be a last resort.

Go listen to M.J.'s demos, Lani Minella, Lucille Bliss, Nikki Rapp, and many other working talent to hear how good an adult can do kids voices.

[Sunday Muse]

Hi Js,
I think you've TOTALLY misunderstood my point....I was saying that kids are in demand in CERTAIN series, like in NY, Wonder Pets and Dora and Super Why. They want kids not adults because they are looking for a real kid sound. I am an adult voice actor who does tons of kids voices so i can certainly say from experience that adults do an amazing job as kids... my point was not to say that adults can't do kids voices...they can, but a real little kid is a real little kid and they do sound different....i would never go against adults working in this business....and i totally disagree with you that producers don't like dealing with kids or that it's hard for kids doing long days in the studio...most studio records are 3 - 4 hours max and the kids i know doing Super Why etc. are superb at what they do. Also, it's true, they have to re-cast when the kid's voice changes and it does cost more money but if that's what the producers are looking for, then they obviously have the time and $ in the budget for it.
I personally was shocked when so many kids were being brought in for roles instead of adults, but the reality is that it's mixed today. That may not be your experience in commercials, but with cartoons, there is a demand for kids.
Adults, by far, have the most range but kids CAN do the job when they are sought out.

[Sunday Muse]

HI Jon,
the risk is a known fact from the producers when they choose to cast kids. They have the money in the budget and when the child's voice changes, they put out a big search and re-cast. I have auditioned for these re-casting sessions, but if they start with a kid, they tend to go on with a kid. I personally don't know why they would bother wasting so much time and money on child after child, but some producers really want real kids voices and they stick to that.
hope that is somewhat informative.
best,
sunday

[Jon Morss]

Sunday,


Cool. Thanks. Yes this pretty much answers the question. Personally I think it is great that they are looking for kids to play kid roles. Actually I sort of wish that Pixar and Dream Works would do the same.

As far as the voice changes with kids, one example I have is with the Anime Full Metal Alchemist. My daughter and I attended Anime Vegas 2007 and Aaron Desmuke, who voiced one of the lead roles in the anime as Alfonse was asked time and again to repeat a line from the anime. The issue was that he was about 10 or 11 when he voiced the part and now he is 14. His voice is no where near where it was at 11 so he just could not satisfy the adoring fans. He gets alot of flack for this as well. It was sort of sad to see. The fans just don't get the fact that he has grown. or what he says "I'm a Man" and can no longer mimic that voice. The up side to this is, if they have another series of Full Metal where his character is older, he now has the ability to portray that perfectly.

This is just an observation and not a complaint. A father myself, I think it is a great thing you are doing working with kids to help them become better actors. I'm sure it will give them a jump on the rest of the folks that start later.

Thanks,

Jon

[jsgilbert]

Hi,
I didn't mean to contradict you or start a tempest in a teapot. Your main argument appears to be that there is a difference between the way a kid does a kid's part and an adult does a kid's part and that the difference is qualitative.

I contend that the best adult actors that routinely perform kid's voices do as good a job as the best kid actors (or better) and are in most cases easier to work with. Studies seem to indicate that this is also true. I work extensively in interactive media; video games and very rarely does the industry emply actual kids. Granted, budgets are considerably less for most games than cartoons, but this industry has been able to identify numerous adults that can perform kid's voices quite well. I mentioned some of them. It would appear that some producers specifically look for kids to do kids voices and eschew the use of adults. I believe them to be in the minority and I honestly have no idea as to their motivation.. Of course, one highly promoted, expensively produced work that employs some kids will tend to overshadow 20 similar projects that employ adults, and might give the impression that kid v.o. actors are highly in demand.

It would still appear that the bulk of opportunities available to kids, in terms of overall acting, are for on-camera work. Even then, we seem to wuite frequently find actors in their 20's playing the parts of 17 year olds (Smallville, etc.)

[Sunday Muse]

thank you for your clarification.
best,
sunday