When you think of voice over narration, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Perhaps it’s a documentary, an audiobook, or Morgan Freeman? You might think of movie trailers, commercials, and The Shawshank Redemption. The many voice over styles have become integrated into our daily lives.
Voice over narration is all around us, often in the peripheral. Its uses are wide and varied and keep growing, especially in a post-COVID-19 world, where we’re constantly veering towards more online communications and less physical contact. Most likely, it will only continue to gain prominence and spread like wildfire behind the scenes.
Recording Voice Overs from a Pro’s POV
Online tutorials on recording audio or guides to being a voice actor weren’t around when I started in the industry, but I wish they had been. Before the internet made information available, in-depth knowledge was gained through personal experience and expensive classes. Our tech has refined, and the price of it has lowered, so now any voice actor worth their salt has a professional sound studio in their home.
A great example of how far technology has come is the ability to pull a phone out of your pocket, tap the screen and have someone speak directly to you with crystal clear audio and video nearly anywhere you go. Our thirst for content remains unslakable, and voiceover narration is a large part of that content creation.
Voice Over Narration Take More Than a Great Voice
Recording voice over narration calls for more than a great voice and the ability to read a script- it takes years of crafting an innate understanding of the spoken word and vocal delivery. As a female voice over actor with 30 years of experience in the industry, I can tell you that every job is unique and calls for a different skill or tone of voice. But to do that, it helps to know the different kinds of voice acting jobs.
Voice Over and Narration Are Different
I’m far from the first person to say that not all voice over is narration, but all narration is voice over. While the two are linked, voice-over doesn’t revolve around narrating a character’s inner monologue. It’s used for PSAs, infomercials, websites, eLearning videos, and much more. There are so many variations in voice work it helps to have a comprehensive guide listing the different styles and how each one is used for a specific purpose.
The Different Styles of Professional Narration for a Voice Actor
While there are ten main categories of voice over narration, there are almost 30 different styles between them, and the list keeps growing. The old saying, we don’t know what we don’t know, rings true for voice-over artists. Here is an up-to-date list of nearly 30 styles of professional voice over narration to help you find the one you need.
Voice Over Narration for Animation
Voice overs for animation, from a narrator’s point of view, voice overs for animation often have to deal with a storyteller that weaves everything together and creates a unique narrative experience for the intended audience. While people typically think of cartoons as animated content, the term animation has crept into other areas of the voice over industry. eLearning services often use narrated animated tutorials.
Gaming also incorporates the term for animating content either through an actual narrator who explains the plot and hero’s journey or individual characters who tell their stories to drive the in-game story forward through quests. Explainers are often called animations, as most of their visual content is produced in animation or whiteboard drawings.
Voice Over Announcements or Voice of God
Nicknamed VOGs, voice over announcements can enhance conference or award ceremony announcements, where you are asked to take your seats or introduce speakers. Announcements also cover sales or special promotions heard by store speakers and alarm systems. Applications are vast, such as:
- Amusement parks
- Subway stations
- Airline oxygen mask instructions
- Retail store announcements
- Award ceremonies
Narration for Audiobooks
If you’re not already familiar with audiobooks, they’re a story (book) brought to life through professional narration. A decade ago, the audiobook boom began, and publishing houses increased recorded versions of books. The indie pub market jumped into the game through the ACX platform.
These days, with services like Audible available to anyone with a smartphone, it’s never been easier to enjoy a story on the go. There are even full-cast productions of audiobooks now that feature realistic sound effects to immerse the listener in the story.
Audio Dialogue Replacement
Audio dialogue replacement, or ADR, is used in films and TV series, most frequently to cover audio that wasn’t well-captured. Actors watch the film and re-record their lines synching to the picture. Another term for this is dubbing.
Anytime you’ve seen an old Kung Fu movie with mismatched audio syncing, that’s a rough example of what poor caliber ADR used to be. Today, ADR is used when translating foreign films or presentations into another language. If you can still hear the original language mixed below with English translations performed over the top, this is known as localization.
Voice Over for Biographies
From audiobook trilogies to legacy films and documentaries, voice over narration for biographies is the art of professionally narrating someone’s life story. Sometimes they even incorporate the subject’s voice or showcase a family record read out loud by the narrator.
Character Narrations
When a character tells us what’s happening in the story, that’s character narration. Many voice-over actors don’t see much on-screen action but book a lot of work for cartoons or animated films. The technical term is character narration, which means bringing a character to life with believable human qualities and insights.
Animated characters can often be quirky or have specific ways of speaking that resonate with the intended audience. Character narrations can also be non-animated, like Morgan Freeman’s dual role in The Shawshank Redemption as both a character, and a narrator telling us the story in a way that makes sense. It’s not uncommon to see the same person speaking in the role of the main character and also portraying two characters (or more) simultaneously, depending on the series or film – and the range of their voices.
Commercial Voice Over Narration
Whenever a brand or company has a product to advertise through commercials, if there’s a voice describing the product or service to consumers, that’s commercial voice over narration. Companies turn to pro voice actors to record audio for their commercials because they know how to interpret a script and make it work with the target audience. Commercial voice over and advertising have become inextricably linked over the last several decades. For the most part, it helps make a more effective commercial.
Corporate Voice Over Narration
Corporate narrations are used for many different purposes. Because corporations are enormous entities with countless levels of administration and departments, there are two different kinds of voice over put to use in corporate narrations – internal and external. While external deals with how the corporation wants to appear to the outside world, internal covers communications inside the company, from memos, training programs, policy information, project timelines, and more.
Documentary Narration
Documentary narration is the Holy Grail of professional voice over artists – just look at Morgan Freeman. At its core, narration for documentaries is the art of telling a historically accurate story. They’re often the first thing thought of when someone mentions voice over and are one of the industry’s most frequently used forms of narration.
eLearning Narration
With the world of education finding itself online in recent years, eLearning narration is the method of providing voice work for a school, service, or business to instruct students and employees. Any time you see an online course and hear a narrator teaching the essential elements of the subject, that’s eLearning narration.
Non-Profit Voice Over Narration
Storytelling isn’t limited to movies and films – charities, NGOs, and non-profit organizations turn to professional voice actors for tasteful approaches to the delicate subject matter. Narrators for non-profit companies often act as the voice of the charity and set a tone for the narrative or cause they advocate for. They tell the story in a way that doesn’t sound preachy and lets people know why they should care about a cause or how they can get involved.
Voiceover Narration for Explainer Videos
Explainer videos are manageable tidbits of insightful information written to make sense of a topic or quickly fill the audience in on how to solve a problem. While they range from expository information about a product, service, or process to telling people how to lift objects safely, the most common examples of explainer video narration are fun facts and how-tos.
Government Voice Over
Government voiceover isn’t limited to the seemingly obvious narrative content like PSA’s ads and political spots – they’re also used to announce new initiatives and speak on behalf of and between the different government departments.
When a government official signs off on a new law, policy, or program, their team will often turn to a voiceover actor to present the information either internally or externally – similar to corporate narrations.
Voice Over Narration for Radio Commercials
Radio commercials and ads have been in use for decades. Whenever a radio station needs to secure funding for its programs, they turn to advertisers who use professional voice actors. Because the medium has no visual to fall back on and audiences have a purely auditory experience, advertisers rely on voice actors who can speak to the average person and create a memorable scene from nothing but words, sounds, and a well-written script.
Voice Over Impersonations
Because voice actors are quite literally voice actors, they’re usually quite good at impressions of movie stars. From Sigourney Weaver to Reese Witherspoon, if you’re looking for a celebrity impression or soundalike, there’s a female voice actor who can sound exactly like them.
Voice Over Narration for Infomercials
Infomercials are what’s known in the industry as direct response voiceover. Everyone has seen an infomercial because they’re practical, persuasive, and lucrative. Typically accompanying an on-screen product, infomercial narration is the art of connecting an example of a product story with a target audience. Marketers present a narrative to viewers with an endearing tone and proof that their product works.
Website Voice Over Narration
In 2022, brand identity is achieved by talking to an audience on a human level, speaking to the person behind the screen, and stating your mission statement. Voiceover narration for websites is about introductions and building trust between them and the audience.
The best voiceovers for websites can set a tone and sound genuine. It tells a story to audiences about who they are, what they stand for, and why they should be heard in the first place. By talking to people in a way that makes sense, brands get to form a connection with their audience over a relatable narrative.
Family Friendly Commercial Voice Over Narration
Just about anything for kids and young families; whenever a studio wants to produce content for a younger audience, it’s usually something animated that uses professional voice over. Narration and the use of a narrator are also typical in family-friendly films to make the story less confusing for a younger audience. You’ll often see or hear the narrator as a wise older storyteller who sets the scene and guides the events.
Medical eLearning Narration
Medical eLearning narrations require more than a great voice and a talent for the spoken word but a knowledge of the medical content in the script. Many voice actors in the medical eLearning field have some background in health sciences or a highly functional understanding of the topics being taught.
Because of their deep-level understanding of the content, professional medical voice actors have a knack for the genre. They can make confusing medical information palatable by breaking it down into knowledge that’s easy to follow and retain. This process allows health care workers and patients to learn at their own pace.
Voice Over Narration for Pharmaceutical Companies
Pharmaceuticals are great at making their products relatable by setting a scene people can relate to. Pharmaceutical companies use voice over for many purposes, like online training, internal memos, or guidelines for clinical trials. Still, the most well-recognized use might be the lightning-quick disclaimers found at the end of a drug commercial.
Voice Over Narration for Podcasts
Over the last few decades, podcasts have become one of the most prominent mediums for on-the-go audio content – and growing industry for the professional voiceover actor. Where movies and television rely on video components to tell stories, podcasts are meant to be heard and achieve their storytelling through the spoken word alone. By freeing the audience from a screen, they get to listen to a narrative and pay attention to the story while going about their day-to-day lives.
Trailer Narration for TV and Film
When you think of a movie trailer, you probably go to the words of a bold-sounding narrator with a great voice and tantalizing video snippets – and you wouldn’t be wrong. Movie trailers are one of the most famous voiceover narration tropes of all time, and there isn’t a person out there who’s seen a movie but not a trailer for one. They’re one of the most fundamental marketing aspects for any new big-screen production. Usually, They include an epic voiceover narration that gives the audience enough of a hint about the story to keep them excited to see it for months.
In the same way movie trailers get people excited for the next big-screen blockbuster, TV trailers promote the pilot episode of a new series or the season finale. The narrations for a TV series typically continue throughout each season with teasers for the next week’s installment, at least before streaming became mainstream. Using a professional narrator to create intrigue for the story gives audience members a chance to remember to watch it. It is something to look forward to, not just for the pilot but every week if the series gets picked up.
Brand Promotion Voice Over
Similar to website narration videos, brand promotional campaigns use professional voiceover narrators to tell stories about their products or service. Usually accompanying flashy or endearing video elements, the script for your typical promotional video includes intricately researched combinations of words designed to elicit positive feelings for a brand or company.
Voice Over Narration for Public Service Announcements
Public service announcements are another placement for voiceover narration. They’re used as a quick call to action whenever there’s an important message from the government, an urgent product recall, or a serious topic that needs to be addressed. Common examples of PSA videos include anti-smoking campaigns, wildfire awareness videos, and of course, the most relevant topic from the last few years, Covid-19 mandates and health-safety videos.
Some PSA’s even include an audio recording from actual victims, survivors, and patients affected by the subject of the PSA. By weaving personal narratives with the voiceover audio, we can hear about what might happen if they don’t take the public service announcement seriously.
Telephony Voice Over Narration
Telephony voiceover audio, at its most basic, is a set of prompts and voiceover options used when calling into a business or voicemail over the phone. While voicemail telephony is simple and to the point, with directions to leave a message and press pound when they finish recording, the voiceover used for business telephony is more intricate.
It relies on several layers of narration recordings to help guide customers through different channels and departments, such as customer service or billing, and offer prompts like a record button to leave a message. When recording audio for business telephony, the narrator has to record the script out of context from the final product and puts extra attention to ensuring that all of the sounds and words customers need are in line with one another and musically correct.
Audio Guides and Tour Narration
For a long time, audio guides were limited to pre-recorded content for museum-goers and art enthusiasts to listen to between exhibits while on location – but that’s changed considerably with the advent of smartphone technologies.
These days, all somebody needs to do is download an app, and they can access thousands of hours of tour narrations and audio guides no matter where they are. Whether for a city, factory, or country, tour narration allows people to visit note-worthy landmarks, hear every story, and create a custom itinerary at their leisure.
Voice Over Narration for Video Games
When people hear the phrase narration for gaming, they tend to think of an intro to the characters or a quick rundown of the story, but in the same way, animation needs voice actors to portray characters so does the gaming industry.
Video game narration is one of the fastest-growing opportunities for voiceover actors. The market is bursting with potential, and it seems like a dozen new ones are released monthly, which is true.
Types of Voice Over Narration in the Future
Platforms like the Metaverse are already poised to revolutionize how people interact with each other and shop online – voiceover narration will play an increasingly integral role in a purely digital medium. Virtual and augmented reality might feel like decades off, but they already exist in active use today.
As much as it might seem like someone would need high-tech gadgets like the Google Glass or an Oculus headset to brave the next digital frontier, most smartphones already have the technology to access a virtual reality. If you took part in the Pokemon Go craze, you’ve already experienced augmented reality. Today you can find AR in tourism apps that offer users interactive dialogue with A.I. interfaces built on voiceover narration.
Heading into the next generation of online interactive experiences, VR is an absolute game changer for the voice over industry. When people think of VR, they assume it’s all about the gaming industry, but they couldn’t be more wrong.