SA

Writing a voiceover
Aim: to write a voiceover
What is a voiceover? Opening brainstorming session. (5 minutes)
Where do you find voiceovers?
●● advertisements – TV, cinema, and radio
●● documentaries – TV, cinema, and radio
●● short films as part of tours of museums/art galleries/tourist sites
●● children’s TV shows to narrate action
●● a trailer for a movie
●● information films – safety instructions on an aeroplane, for
example.

What genre characteristics do they have?

●● often an objective voice
●● they interpret the scene, provide information
●● they stand between the action and the audience
●● it is a vary flexible genre, with few rules because it is so widely
used: at times, for example, it can be broken up by people
speaking within the ‘action’ of the film.

Purpose:
●● to provide information, atmosphere, or background to a situation
●● to mediate the images or what is spoken by the people who are
actually involved in the situation
●● to sell something.

Audience:
●● often wide age-range.

Tone:
●● reflective, informative, descriptive.

Language and style:

●● must sound like fairly spontaneous speech (though without
pauses, hedges, and fillers). Sentences are usually quite short and
uncomplicated – one thing is suggested at a time to coordinate
with the fact that the pictures are also narrating
●● needs to be concise but not unfriendly

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●● it should aim to inspire a viewer/listener to stay with the show,

perhaps by hinting at what is to come
●● notice there is a difference between a voiceover (pre-meditated)
and a commentary at a sporting event, where the presenters are
in a live relationship with the action that is going on in front of
them.

Presentation in written form:

●● a mixture of the words used by the speaker and the description of
images presented.

In the following example, the speaker is using the voiceover to reflect

on experience of a personal life and career that has gone wrong:

THE LAST LINE – voiceover script

EXT – OUTSIDE CONNOR’S HOUSE – DAY
Connor and Lucy get out of their car and the press are bombarding them.
VOICEOVER – CONNOR
It’s a constant battle, everywhere I go; even just near my home. They won’t leave
me alone. Always wanting a shot, story, something? There comes a time when you
have to wonder, is it all worth it?
EXT – OUTSIDE CONNOR’S HOUSE – DAY
VOICEOVER – CONNOR
Now Lucy’s left, the one person who always believed in me from the beginning.
My reputation’s gone downhill because of this stupid rumour. Before this, offers
were pouring in, every director wanted me. My life’s over. The answers don’t come
from the bottom of a bottle. But where the hell do I turn now?

In this example EXT is outside; INT would be inside.

You now need to transcribe one for yourself. Try this advertisement
for food from one of the UK’s leading food stores. You can find it on
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHFKE6PD_6U
Use the transcript above as a model. You need to create the words,
but also to give some idea of both the music and the pictures. You
could do this in columns as shown on the next page.

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Script Instructions Onscreen

The text that should be
recorded.
The innovative Softskin
system treats wrinkles and
tissue irregularities using
radiofrequency technologies.
Instructions for reading the text.
Upbeat tone.
What appears onscreen during
the segment.
Model’s face, with focus on
lack of wrinkes around the
eyes.

The conventions of this sort of voiceover can easily be mocked, as you

will see in the following video, which imitates the genre, tone, and
language of the original:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07qYg6mtJp0
Here is a link to a documentary on the Sahara desert. You need to
watch it from the beginning to minute 4.35:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nozGd5sy7Js
In a group:
This is the beginning of a 60 minute programme. In what ways is the
voiceover preparing you for what is to come?
Here’s someone talking about the practicalities of doing a voiceover
for a movie. Pay particular attention to his advice about linking tone
to content:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY8NmHQN7fw
And now, five minutes of five different voices in a spoof movie trailer
that shows you five different sets of voiceover techniques in as many
minutes – as they say, parent/teacher guidance is advised:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQRtuxdfQHw

Moving on
You now need to create some text for yourself.

Activity 1

Write a voiceover advertising an item of clothing or a beauty

product in which you aim to make it extremely desirable for
people of your own age.

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Activity 2

Write a voiceover where you introduce viewers to a room in your

house as though you were making an advertisement. You can
either tackle this seriously (like the Marks and Spencer video)
or more frivolously (like the spoof advertisement for Bangor’s
psychology department). You may be able to find other types of
advertisement to imitate (car adverts, for example).

Activity 3

Write a voiceover about the same room. This time, it is for a

serious documentary about the stresses and strains of family life.
Now reflect on:
Your language choices, purpose, audience, and tone and try to
establish what these two different voiceovers have in common
(genre characteristics) and what perhaps makes them part of the
same type of communication, whilst at the same time conferring
upon the writer the need to adapt to different rules.

Ideas for other voiceovers

●● You have been asked to write a voiceover that introduces a TV
programme about one of your hobbies. It can either be a trailer
for the programme or it can be the scripts for the first five
minutes of an hour-long piece. You should write 600–900 words.
●● Write a voiceover for a documentary about the difficulties that
students face if they need to mix school work with a need to earn
money. You should write 600–900 words.
●● Write a voiceover for a video that aims to give guidance and
advice for teenagers on how to succeed in interviews. You should
write 600–900 words.