Vancouver-based Playdate composes and curates music and sound for animation, motion design, documentary, and commercial live-action projects. Their services span original music, sound design, sound mixing, and voice casting and direction. Playdate works with legendary brands like Disney, Google, Target, Nickelodeon, TED, and Chevrolet.
Playdate relies on hiring quality voice talent to deliver exceptional results for their clients. Just a few years ago, Playdate’s regular practice for sourcing talent was to send casting calls to local talent agents and then arrange in-studio voiceover recording sessions.
Like innumerable things big and small, the onset of a global pandemic completely changed how Playdate was able to source and use talent.
Remotely finding the right fit
Playdate needed to adapt fast to vastly reduced local sourcing and in-person production options to meet client needs and keep the business moving.
Backstage provided the talent scope and diversity Playdate needed to pivot. Especially for one crucial mission.
Playdate was working on an animated project for a multinational personal finance company. They needed to cast a Latinx voice actor who could speak both English and Spanish for a role that demanded an energetic, engaging speaking style more than simple narration. Ideally, the talent would also match the light and humorous tone of the animation.
Playdate looked to Backstage’s large talent pool to meet the need. During their search, Playdate found the casting platform’s pre-screening and remote audition tools especially helpful, as they allowed them to receive custom auditions as part of candidates’ applications.
“With all recording being remote by necessity, we were able to use Backstage, which has a much wider reach in terms of talent able to record voiceovers from their home studios,” says Haggis. “Also, this project required bilingual Latinx talent so having a much wider reach—especially into U.S.-based talent—was beneficial.”
Playdate ultimately found just who they were looking for in voice actor Kevin Coxaj, who proved so versatile he actually landed two roles in the project.
Haggis was impressed by Coxaj’s talent and the high quality of his remote recording. He no longer assumed in-studio recording was the only way to get it right.
“Our experience with Kevin was great. The session was up and running in no time, his audio quality was great, and his performance gave the client all the options they could’ve asked for,” Haggis said.
Reinventing casting and production with Backstage
Suddenly having to face unprecedented production challenges ended up being a path to a better way for Playdate.
With Backstage, Playdate was able to:
- Hire the perfect voice actor for a critical project
- Satisfy requirements for high-quality remote recording
- Locate right-fit talent quickly and confidently, setting the foundation for remote casting and production for future projects
Backstage’s large, diverse talent pool was exactly the right resource at the right time. And the platform’s easy-to-use screening and custom audition tools to speed up casting have permanently changed the way Playdate thinks about talent.