August 10

Using and Recording Narration in Video Production

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Voice-over narration is an extremely common way to tell a story in film and video.

Narration is often used in a documentary style video, but certainly not always. In fact, some documentary makers feel it is a sign of quality when they can tell the story without relying on narration.

 

woman speaking into a micrphone.

Some movies and other types of fictional stories rely on voice-over narration. Often, it’s used as a way for the character to reminisce about the past.

Voice-over narration can be used to reveal what a character is thinking, but not saying. Do a voice-over narration of your character’s thoughts, and intersperse it with the spoken dialogue. It can be hilarious to juxtapose the thoughts and what really get said.

Narration can be as easy as an off-the-cuff commentary recorded while you’re shooting. Or, you can write narration (before or after you shoot) and have that narration recorded separately from your video.

You can easily hire a professional narrator locally by calling audio production facilities, or you can use any one of dozens of online voice-over services.

TIPS TO DO IT YOURSELF

Narration doesn’t have to be done by a professional, especially if your video is for the web. That’s one of the joys of the web, people like seeing real people and don’t want to listen to a corporate-sounding ANNOUNCER.

 

video camera crew

 

If you want to be your own announcer, speak slowly and clearly. Stand up and put a smile on your face. Be enthusiastic!

If you’re going to record narration separately from shooting, make sure your room is as quiet as possible. Turn off the air conditioner or any other background white noise.

Know what kind of mic you’re using and how far you need to be away from it. A microphone that comes on board an inexpensive video camcorder should be at least two feet from your mouth.

A lavaliere microphone should be about eight inches from your mouth.

Most handheld microphones should be about eight inches as well.

  • Record as many takes as you need to.
  • Practice.
  • The biggest mistake novices make when recording voice-over narration is speaking too quickly. Slow down.
  • Enunciate clearly
  • Ask someone to listen to you and don’t be embarrassed.

If you want truly professional sounding narration but don’t want to go to a high dollar professional studio, sound-proof a small corner of your work area.

One of the biggest features of a professional voice-over recording studio is the sound proofing on the walls. All background extraneous noise is stopped dead by the foam-covered walls.

Once you hear how extremely quiet an audio studio is, you’ll be amazed.  It’s a bit creepy and disconcerting when you first walk into a fully sound proofed room.  There’s a lot of noise around us, even in the quietest environments, that we learn to ignore.  A microphone will pick it all up.

cardboard and foam sound booth
My portable “sound booth” might not win any good housekeeping awards, but it is effective. And it cost only about $5 because I cut the foam from a pad that was too large for the bed.

You can imitate a professional audio recording studio at home by getting some foam rubber at the fabric section of any Wal-Mart. (Check out a craft store or fabric store for a bigger selection.) I actually used foam from a mattress topper.  The picture you see is the portable sound proofing I made for myself from cardboard.  I glued all the foam pieces to the trifold cardboard.

Professional sound-proofing foam is cut with lots of ridges to provide a larger overall surface area and better sound absorption. This is the same concept as using egg cartons as sound proofing material. Egg cartons work OK, but not as well as softer foam and certainly won’t give your studio a feeling of elegance.

You can also use carpet remnants on the walls for sound proofing. Get them free by asking a carpet installer for the leftovers he’s planning to toss in the trash.

I hope this information helps you make better videos.

Lorraine Grula


Tags

Audio for Video, easy ways to record audio for video, how to record quality audio in video, storytelling narration, voice over narration


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