Voice over is an important component of a wide variety of video productions. But what is a voice over really?

Whether you’re talking about a YouTube promotional video for a business or an Oscar-winning documentary, you’ve likely heard voice-overs hundreds of times without realizing it. Those disembodied voices are there to provide insight and context for what you see on screen and if you strip them away, you’d be left with a lesser product.

In this post, we’re going to examine the art of the voice over by telling you 3 really cool facts about how VO production works. If you’re an aspiring director, making a marketing video, or another type of content creator, you’ll want to read this.

1. What Is a Voice Over?

As discussed above, voice overs can come in many forms depending on what the production entails. Narration, for example, is common in documentaries to explain what’s happening on the screen. You’ll also see narration in some Hollywood productions, where the narrator might provide some background on a character or drive the plot of the film.

Commercials of all kinds usually have some kind of voice over explaining why the customer should purchase the product/service. Audiobook services, lifestyle apps, and podcasts make use of voice actors to bolster their production value. Even things like city transit systems and airports use voice actors and automated voice replies to announce stops, disruptions, flight changes, etc.

2. VO Acting Is Its Own Thing

Much of the time, an aspiring actor will do voice acting on the side to earn extra money, but there are voice acting specialists out there as well. It’s a growing industry, however, one where a small number of the most sought-after actors get a huge amount of work. 

Sites like amazingvoice.com subvert this by finding great voice actors and connecting them with content creators. Visit them to learn more about what they do and how you can find a voice actor for your next project.

3. The Intricacies of Producing Voice Over

Getting a good voice over performance is so much more than reading off of a script into a microphone. There’s a reason why there are professionals dedicated to the art of the voice over. If you’re producing a voice over, you need to get a few things straight.

First, you should be producing the voice over work in a professional studio with high-quality recording and editing equipment. If you’re on a budget and producing something on a smaller scale, find yourself a quiet space in a small room. When you have a large empty room, you’re going to hear a lot of reverberation on the voice, which has to be painstakingly edited out.

Equipment and environment are just one part of the equation. The actor has to be able to speak slowly and enunciate clearly in order for the words to have the right effect. A lot of this comes down to the writing as well, so put in the work beforehand to make sure that what’s written is going to sound good no matter who the actor is.

Make Your Voice Overs Work

Now that we’ve answered the question, “what is a voice over?”, you can get to work creating the best voice over for your visuals. Producing quality content takes a lot of expertise and the better voice over you can get, the better your end product will be. 

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