Narration Demos | Shawn Fitzmaurice Voiceover
Narration is all about Perspectives
Narration is all about perspectives – understanding them, inhabiting them, and, most importantly, sharing them. There’s a reason it’s one of the most effective – and time-honored – storytelling techniques in human history; narration makes people feel included.
Today, the tradition hasn’t just carried on but evolved. Narration has become more than a literary device meant to tell people a story – it’s a fundamental aspect of modern culture. From advertising to education, the medical industry to industrial workplaces – voice over narration is intrinsically intertwined with all of it.
And most of us don’t even realize it – at least until someone from the voiceover world points it out.
Without narration, we’d all know each other a little bit less.
Without narration, we’d all know each other a little bit less. Now, this isn’t a shock to anyone working in or around the voiceover industry – but there’s a lot more to narration than what they teach us in high school.
A lot of us already know about first, second, and third-person narrations. But its scope extends way beyond the amount of contextual awareness a narrator has. It’s about acting as the intermediary. Rather than outright telling a story, this type of narration is about sharing a unique perspective. The POV of a business or institution, a patient story or PSA announcement – its uses are as wide and varied as the people meant to hear it.
Voice Over Narrations by Shawn Fitzmaurice
It doesn’t matter what you do or which industry you work in – chances are you’ve heard voiceover narration used at least once. Be it an industrial safety video, corporate onboarding, lab procedures, or a flashy office presentation – the sheer range of use for voice narration is almost too comprehend. Let alone explain in a single webpage. The truth is, you could probably hire a narrator to explain the history and applications of narration.
Thankfully, Voice Over Narrations by Shawn Fitzmaurice narrows it down a bit and focuses on four major types of narration:
- Industrial Narration
- Corporate Narration
- Scientific Narration
- Medical Narration
What is Industrial Narration?
Whenever someone sees a workplace safety video or needs to complete e-learning modules as part of a warehouse training course – that’s industrial narration. Whether the focus is set on communicating new procedures from the higher-ups to a ground crew or preparing new hires for work that’s a little bit more dangerous, industrial narration is all about bridging informational gaps and mitigating potentially hazardous situations.
But it doesn’t stop there. For every workplace safety video and internal facing narration – there are also external industrial narrations. Consider any time a manufacturer or developer puts out an ad or public service announcement about their company values. By using industrial voice over narration to convey these messages in ways that are as meaningful as they are memorable, it builds trust between themselves and the everyday consumer.
What is Corporate Narration?
Not unlike industrial narration, corporate narrations are most often used to communicate in and around workplace settings. Sometimes the focus is on sharing messages between management and employees. Other times, it’s as straightforward as a commercial. However, the key differences lie in setting, application and impact. Instead of workplace safety videos, corporate narrations emphasize building trust and inspiring calls to action.
These narrations can be anything from internal memos and boardroom presentations to highly targeted ads meant to elicit a positive response from potential consumers. More often than not, the client-facing side of these narrations are meant to change preconceived notions about a brand by adding personality and tangible voice to an otherwise faceless corporation.
What is Scientific Narration?
Delving into the more technical side of voiceover, scientific narration is the delicate art of delivering complicated research. It’s about presenting studies and papers in a way that’s as easy to digest as it is to share with peers and students. While there is a bit of overlap with medical narrations, these types of voiceovers tend to broader topics with more complex focuses. Think of anything that falls outside the purview of medical sciences. Like physics, astronomy, and the natural world.
Some easy-to-spot examples of scientific narration would be documentaries on the Discovery Channel or National Geographic. Any program thats used a narrator to explain how volcanoes work or stars form, uses scientific narration.
What is Medical Narration?
Medical narration plays an integral role in not just healthcare but the communication, practice, and education of it. By condensing complex medical information into understandable and relatable content. Medical narration makes it easy to not just teach doctors on the go. It educates patients and their families about procedures and after-care.
From the voice acting side, what sets medical narration apart from other types of narration? It requires a more specialized background and functional understanding of complicated – and highly specific – medical knowledge. With these types of narrations, there’s no room for misinterpretation or mispronunciation of medical terms. It’s up to the voice actor to portray the content believably for doctors, students, nurses, and patients.
