Voiceover Methods

Below is the description of the various methods of producing a professional voiceover:

NARRATION:

Narration means to record a script without any original audio as guide track, at the speaker’s own natural pace. Audio recordings for museum, for example, normally do not require a certain time restriction on the recording. A visitor listening to a museum tour through a headset is being sent from station to station by pushing a button when at a new station.

TIME SYNC:

Any text translated into another language will have a different length than the original. French, for example, uses about 20% more words to say the same thing as English.

When you want the new voiceover to be the same exact length as the original, the translated script will need to be synced to match the original.

Directors in the studio will watch your video and adapt the script to match the original recording. The director will hear the original audio with a head phone and speak your translated text at the same time in a comfortable rhythm or speed. When a translated paragraph is too long, the director pauses and shortens the paragraph, then repeats the same process until the adapted text fits perfectly. This ensures that your entire video is spoken at the same speed and sounds as if it were originally recorded in the native country.

PHRASE SYNC OR ON-CAMERA:

When your video has a person speaking directly into the camera, then there are several ways to handle the dubbing:

• When the person starts speaking into the camera, you can leave a little bit of the original audio, then fade out and starting with the voiceover. It is clear in this instance that the video has been dubbed. Leaving a little bit of original audio audible, will require that the new script be adapted even further to match the exact time of the person on camera.
• The second possibility is to do a voice over called "phrase sync" or "corporate lip sync". Phrase sync is a step below lip-sync. The translated script is adapted to match the breathing pattern of the speaker on camera; when the speaker opens the lips wide, the voice over tries to use a word with similar lip movement. The speaker, in effect, acts and breathes like the on-camera person, opens and closes the mouth as much as possible to the same rhythm as the on-camera person. It is still noticeable, however, that the on-camera person is being dubbed.

MOVIE LIP SYNC:

Movie lip-sync is the most expensive and time consuming of all voiceovers; every sentence needs to be re-worded to match the exact movement of the lips of the person on camera. Only the top professional directors can rewrite such scripts. Movie lip-sync takes 3 to 5 times as long inside the studio as regular voiceover. As the name indicates, movie lip sync is normally only used for feature films, corporate videos normally require phrase sync only.