In audio-visual media, narration has the power to engage and guide audiences.
Voiceover production plays a crucial role in engaging stories. It is popular for narrating movies, documentaries, and other media as well as bringing animated characters to life!
The narrator provides additional information to the story and evokes feelings that go beyond the visuals. Narration breaks down complex information and brings out varying emotions that increase audience engagement. A visual story with added voice connects better with an audience, making visuals more compelling and guiding the narrative.
But before we find out how narration achieves this, what actually is narration, and why do storytellers use it?
What does Narration Mean?
Human narration means adding a person’s voice to media like videos or the radio. When in the form of narration, the voice is not always a character seen on screen, which is referred to as ‘the voice of God’. However, narration can be from a character in the story when the storyteller wants to offer the audience information not learned through character-to-character dialogue.
Narration is added to help the audience follow the narrative more easily. For instance, an audience may not understand every detail in a documentary. Human narration provides additional information about what the audience is watching for extreme clarity and engagement.
Commercials often include a voiceover to attract viewers’ interest. This voice explains the product in the commercial or sells it to the audience through persuasion and a call to action.
Ultimately, narration is a tool used to entertain audiences, guide narratives, or convince consumers, but it can also be used to:
- Personalise the connection between the viewer and the content.
- Provide subtle clues and foreshadowing.
- Misguide the viewer in the case of an ‘unreliable narrator’, deliberately used to infuse content with twists.
- Immerse viewers in the storyline and characters.
- Show the thoughts of a character without their thoughts being clear to other characters.
Guide the Audience
Due to personal context, different audiences may view a story from varying perspectives. If you want all viewers to have a similar viewpoint of the scenes, then you may need to guide them through the narrative in a deliberate yet subtle direction.
This is where narration comes in. Just as incognito mode on iPhone allows users to gain information from the web privately, voiceover narration guides the audience through a story, providing information without being intrusive.
Narration acts as an unseen guide. It directs the audience to see the story in a certain way. The narrator does this by strategising the narration’s tone and style along with the script while changing the pace to stir action, reaction, sympathy, or mood in viewers.
Add Depth to Content and Context
When the content is purely visual, viewers might not fully understand the tone behind it, as context is missing. This dilemma can be solved through voiceover. Narrators can make it clear, through the tone of their voice, not just what is happening but how the audience should feel about it.
Meet Different Media Format Goals
Different media formats are designed to meet varying needs. A podcast may contain images and words only. A documentary may show actions across different scenes but lack voice. An animation may have the characters and action but lack emotional connection with the audience.
Narration proves to be versatile in any media format. It paints a picture in the viewer’s mind beyond the visuals or text.
How to Hire Narrators
Voiceover platforms like Voquent can help you find the voice you require for your content. Our search filter allows you to search for talent based on their voice via vocal tones, characteristics, pitch, language, and accent. You can also cast voice actors and narrators based on the needs of your project, such as medium, style, location, or gender.
Simply heart your top picks to shortlist them, and ask us for a quick quote!
Conclusion
Narration in audiovisual media adds depth and guides the viewers through the story with deliberate purpose and direction. It stirs emotions and lets viewers intimately connect with the action.
Narration is used in a range of mediums, including documentaries, ads, anime, and TV shows, to benefit the narrative’s clarity.
Cast Narrators
How to Record an Audiobook
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