Turning Figures into Facts

If you’ve ever listened to a presenter drone on and on about their latest sales figures or calculations, you may have secretly tried to stifle a yawn behind their back. 

Speaking about numerical information and translating it into meaningful information is a challenge at the best of times. Including it in a company video brochure or corporate narration should be used sparingly. Instead, it is useful to transform the numerical data into visual imagery wherever feasible.

When a voiceover artist has to deal with numbers in a script, they need some instructions from you. 

Do you want them to say “zero” or “oh“ for “0”.? Should they say “one hundred dollars” or “a hundred dollars” for $100? 

Little details like this are often a matter of personal taste yet need to be clarified at the beginning of the recording session.

A voiceover artist can make the figures come alive by using variations in pitch . For instance…when describing a trend displayed on a graph, they can move their voice pitch up and down to cover off highs and lows in the visual.

A change in vocal mood can also indicate whether the figures are considered to be "good" or "bad". The voiceover artist will sound more energetic when "good" and more sombre when "bad". It's the art of translating facts and figures into meaningful audio.