The Shawshank Redemption wouldn’t be as memorable a movie if it weren’t for Morgan Freeman’s narration throughout! Movies, be it animation or others, have normalized the notion of voice-overs pertaining solely to the movie industry.
However, it is not so; we are here to tell you about it! Let’s begin by clarifying what a voice-over is; Voice-over is the process of recording someone’s voice and inserting that recording into other media like movies or video games. However, voice-overs are not reserved for the world of movies only and can be used in a wide range of industries.
Voice-overs are not merely the act of reading aloud from a script. The voice-over artist must be able to portray the message naturally and convey the emotion appropriate to the script while focusing on the content. A voice-over artist must also be able to improvise accordingly while adhering to a rigid delivery timeline.
The characteristics of a voice-over include; a voice of narration often used through the runtime of a movie, an off-screen voice that tells the audience about critical facts, an informative voice often used in commercials, or a scripted statement read in a specific way.
While voice-overs are used in everything from television to radio advertisements, they are a means of adding creativity and have also made their way to corporate video presentations, eLearning modules, and podcasts.
Currently, voice-overs have found their way to every nook and corner of the digital media world, so let’s take a look at the presence of voice-overs apart from the movie industry:
- Voice-Overs in Social Media Campaigns:
Social media reels won’t be as enticing as they are if it wasn’t for voice-overs. Social media campaigns make or break a brand these days, for which it is essential to have interactive content.
While content creators are always on their A-game, only visuals can only get you to a certain point of satiety at the audience’s end. Interactive social media campaigns for products are an essential part of a marketing campaign, and voice-overs are how you’ll get to promote your brand and introduce it to the world.
- Voice-Over in Advertising:
Countless brands and companies have hired celebrities to be the voice or rather voice-overs of their advertisements. Most advertisements have a voice-over artist briefing us about the product. However, it is not always possible for celebrities to come on board with endorsements and the next best option is to hire a voice-over artist with a voice similar to the celebrities.
This gives a brand the exposure it seeks while also looking enticing in a unique manner. Therefore, it is essential to use a bold and appealing voice to be the voice-over of your advertisements over mediums like television and radio.
The surge and popularity of audiobooks continue to increase, and so does the work for voice actors. While in some cases, the authors tend to read the books themselves, voice-overs are the new narrators in this case.
Lingual bifurcations call for voice-overs of audiobooks in multiple languages, which makes the listener’s experience more dynamic and impactful. Moreover, voice-overs are assigned to different artists in multi-character audiobooks for an immersive audience experience. Clear, concise reading and enunciation via the voice-over artist are essential to perfect audiobooks.
- Video Games:
A video game is nothing without a character’s voice, taunts, grunts, and disses! So naturally, engaging the players in the video game requires voice-overs. As a result, these voice-overs include dragons, samurais, and all kinds of distinct characters with distinct sounds.
Video games are a massive industry for voice-overs as every video game genre has a character interaction that needs to be done in different voices for the players to understand the premise and choose the character they like.
- GPS + Virtual Assistants:
Alexa, play my favorite song! Hey Siri, how’s the weather in Nairobi today? Most of us have virtual assistants to help us with various things like calling people to get the news; virtual assistants and GPS are known for a distinct voice.
Voice-overs of a prominent, easy-to-understand tone are used when developing GPS and virtual assistance audios, and voice-overs are also easy on the ears.
- Corporate and Educational Videos:
Every educational video nowadays is accompanied by voice-overs and visuals, making it extremely easy for students to understand concepts. The same tactic is used for corporate training videos for employees to understand an organization’s vision and particulars better.
You will often encounter voice-overs in training materials, human resources videos, university courses, and the like. Voice-overs in corporate and educational videos add a humanized and personal touch to the content for the viewers, making it easy to connect to the concept.
- Health and Wellness Videos/Podcasts:
The pandemic has made most of us subscribe to multiple health and wellness video channels and podcasts. Voice-overs are used extensively in videos of meditation, guided workouts, yoga videos, wellness videos, and podcasts propagating healthy living, healthy diets, etc.
These voice-overs channel a very motivating yet calming tone, which is just right for the audience to understand the importance of health and wellness, exercise instructions, and healthy recipes.
The real heroes of documentaries are not actors but the voice-overs! Voice-overs contribute heavily to explaining the documentary, how the clippings attached to the same are relevant, their sources, and much more.
Voice-overs keep a viewer hooked to the documentaries; they set a tone for what is about to be unraveled and the emotions to be conveyed. You must have often come across brilliant voice-overs in wildlife documentaries on Discovery to true-crime documentaries on Netflix.
Announcements are live voice-over projects. While some might be pre-recorded like disclaimers, some are to be done live like the ones on the radio or sports matches.
Voice-overs are also present as the voice you hear on the subway platform constantly announcing the particulars of every train. This requires the ability to think on your feet, unlike other voice-over gigs wherein one has time to read a script.
Conclusion: Voice-overs are prevalent in most places, even outside the world of movies. They add a personal touch, a sense of awareness different from the visual appeal, and appeal to a greater audience by impacting emotions and rendering clarity.