Nonfiction Sound and Story for Film and Video

5Voiceover Narration and Story

Narration sometimes gets a bad rep. We have all heard a video—possibly in the training or educational genre—where the narrator puts us to sleep. The script may be the culprit. Or the choice of reader. Or the style of the reading. Or possibly all of the above. In fairness, the narrator or copy may not be to blame. Other critical audio elements may be missing—things such as compelling interviews, provocative music, authentic sound design—and so the production leans too heavily on the narration to do all its storytelling work. In many instances, narration isn’t called for at all. We both work on many productions where we intercut interviews to tell a story without relying on any “outside” voice to connect the threads. ...