Documentary Voiceover Provider
As a British Male Voiceover there are cliches that abound everywhere, which is fine. After all, no self respecting male voice artist from the UK should be without a David Attenborough impersonation up their sleeve.
I’m not advocating an impersonation of the great man in a documentary film, as that’s a model that seems to work best in the local advertising space. I believe one of the main reasons why his style is referenced so frequently though is because of the way he approaches the script.
It goes without saying also that he carries immense credibility in the factual documentary space, particularly when it comes to science and nature.
Science Documentary Narration
This brings me to my approach. I like to study those that are great at documentary narration and cherry pick the best parts, which can be incorporated into my style.
David Attenborough
David is a master of sentence delivery. He knows exactly where to emphasise a word and where to leave a pause to get the most emotional impact out of what seems completely relaxed and informal.
Professor Brian Cox
Professor Brian is another great ambassador of the British Voice in documentaries. His appeal lies in his ability to explain very complex subject matter in a way that leaves you enthralled and better informed.
His brain is incredible and thats part of the fascination for me. The subjects he covers are immense, almost inaccessible to the laymen and deeply scientific. However the real engagement comes from his passion for the subject, a skill I’ve also learned to apply to Medical Narration
I feel drawn in, even when sometimes the physics has left me behind and therein lies the secret to his appeal for many.
Historical and Factual Documentaries
I think a combination of the two approaches above can be applied to any kind of documentary VoiceOver work that is factual or historical (even both).
Factual content is often stranger than fiction, but can be brutally dull if not delivered with conviction. I recently completed a read for a documentary that was originally aired in another language. This wasn’t a dubbing project, it was a complete re-instatement of the documentary, targeted at reaching English Speaking Audiences.
The subject was based around World War One Aviation and as it was littered with facts, dates and quotes and had the potential to be quite dry. So how did I approach this to get the best engagement for British documentary viewers ? By adding a little bit of character.
Additional Voiceover Services
Having the ability to offer additional services for your documentary client is a great way to solve multiple problems for them at once. One client was thrilled to hear that I offer music composition and post production audio mixing within my portfolio offer and our relationship quickly grew.
Character Narration in Documentaries
I made an offer to the client to voice some of the characters that were being quoted, demonstrating a good range of accents and styles. They loved that it added an extra dimension to their project and at no additional burden of having to hire additional Voice Actors to achieve it.
Music And Voice For Video
What started out as a commodity service for a pilot production, then developed into me taking responsibility for all aspects of audio within the post production phase, in addition to my VoiceOver services.
I think there is appeal in being seen as a ‘one stop shop’, as after all, we as creative freelancers are always looking to solve a clients problems, exceed their expectations and help them be dazzled by success.
Need A British Male Documentary Narrator ?
If you have a documentary film, video or radio spot that would benefit from a British Male Voiceover then please reach out and I’ll be happy to help. Additionally if you are looking to hire multiple freelancers in the audio space for post production work or music / sound design composition, I may be able to help there too.
You can see and hear my work at www.jamesfowlervoiceover.com
James
