Discovering And Embracing A Child’s Talents
Before seriously exploring voice acting opportunities, there are ways in daily life where parents can detect their child’s knack for vocal talents. One of such ways is seeing if the kid enjoys the concepts of acting in general, such as storytelling and pretend play, during their pastime. This type of playing may include the kid creating characters, worlds, and scenarios with their own ideas, or imitating scenes, including using a specific vocal manner, from what they have seen in pop culture media. Speaking of replicating scenes, such behavior also indicates the child has a strong memory for memorizing lines with ease, which is also a very important quality to become an acting performer.
Parents can gauge their kids' interest further by encouraging them to experiment with their vocal performances more, including trying out imitating more voices of their favorite characters. If the kid enjoys it, their natural vocal talents can serve as a starting point of voice acting pursuits.
Getting Serious And Developing The Kids’ Vocal Talents
While the discovery of the natural talents for the kids' vocal performances is a great beginning, it is unlikely that it will be enough to be a strong contender for voice acting gigs. As the child’s enthusiasm about potentially becoming a voice actor is confirmed, parents should continue to find suitable vocal courses.
Vocal training is necessary due to the craft going beyond just imitating something seen on a TV screen, since the aspiring kid voice actor will have to primarily use their own natural voice instead of mimicking cartoon characters. Voice acting also requires understanding of vocal nuances, learning to control breath, and using clear articulation, which is something children are highly unlikely to learn on their own. Professional vocal coaches focusing on training children will help the aspiring kid actor to develop their skills and expand their vocal range. During their spare time, the child should continue practising their vocals as taught at the training, with the goal of further improving their performance and confidence.
Creating Portfolio And Searching For Voice Casting Calls
No matter the performer’s age, every actor should have their acting portfolio available at hand. Even more so when it comes to voice actors, as there is really no other way for the casting staff to initially evaluate their talents otherwise.
The main thing that every voice acting portfolio should include is a demo reel. While not exceeding the length of two minutes, the demo reel should typically include the highlights of the performer's previous work, as well as their diverse vocal skill set. The audio has to be of a clear quality, with as minimal background noise as possible. As the kid actor initially won’t have any voice acting credits to include, samples of various self-recorded audios of the child’s vocal talents from pre-existing lines will give the casting directors a good enough idea about the kid's range and talents. As soon as the young voice actor gains experience, the demo reel can be updated with their actual work.
Besides the audio reel, the voice actor’s portfolio should include all the basic information about the performer, including personal details, previous training, and experience.
Once the portfolio is ready, parents can start helping their kid search for appropriate voice acting casting calls. When searching through a dedicated casting online platform, there should be plenty of options to choose from in various upcoming projects for video games, animation films and shows, and commercials, as well as voiceover work. If the child fits the requirements, all that is left to do is apply with the newly created acting portfolio, and await for the decision of the casting staff.
Investing In Home Setup For Voice Acting Needs
Once the child’s voice acting career picks up and the gig amount increases, parents can consider investing in a home setup for their performance recording needs. At the very beginning, such an investment would be ill-advised, but if the voice acting turns out to be a serious passion for the youngster, it can significantly improve their pursuits.
Amongst the items that are necessary to do voice acting from the comfort of the home are a quality microphone and filters to reduce the plosives, closed-back headphones for the performer to hear the subtle details of their vocals, an appropriate audio interface, and software to actually record, edit, and mix the vocals.
Having a voice acting home setup allows not only to save on long-term expenses that would pile up by using a studio for every recording time but also provides flexibility and convenience for the child to record at any time available and required while remaining in the comfort of their own home.
