Documentaries and Films: The Voice Within
The field of documentary making is not simple. Content and research are important. So are photography, editing, direction, and a nice name. But the importance of the narrator in documentaries is probably glossed over. A narrator can make or break it.
Why voice is vital
You do not really notice how much you enjoy the documentary because of that unique voice of the narrator till the narrator changes midway in the series. All we get to hear then is an awkward voice droning on with the real feel of the original narrator conspicuously absent. A case in point is one documentary that I became fond of due to exceptionally fun narration by the narrator- the documentary was called “How do Animals do that?”. Somewhere in the 2nd or 3rd season, the narrator got changed from Hugh Bonneville (of Downton Abbey fame) to someone else. Imagine my consternation!
Then there are stellar narrators like David Attenborough- their narration is mature, they sound experienced, and credible. The more believable the narrator sounds, the better a documentary is able to do its job of informing and entertaining the audience.
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For animated films too, the more believable and accepted the voice actor, the better is the experience. The Aladdin movies were not really the same when Dan Castellaneta replaced the legendary Robin Williams as the voice actor for Genie.
The more comfortable you are with the narrator in a documentary (a wise old voice or a funny narrator) or that voice actor in the animated film (imagine a Morgan Freeman with that wonderful voice of his or Javed Akhtar narrating a poem savoring its each and every word), the better is your judgment of the experience of watching it!
Food for thought for Businesses
By the same logic, the customer or audience facing part of your business has to be the best at their jobs, trustworthy and charismatic. Do businesses with a front end to customers need to look at bringing a mature and credible voice at the forefront in customer interactions especially in voice calls?
In addition to this, with enough research into customer psychology, how customers react to different human voices, tones, and qualities, there could very well be a Customer Call Centre 2.0 in the future!
