Tone of Voice in Video: Why Scripts Written Like Web Copy Fall Flat
Tone of voice is the part of a business video most companies forget, and it's usually the reason a well shot film still feels stiff. The script gets written the way the website was written, with the same careful sentences and approved phrases, and then somebody has to say it out loud. Writing for the eye and writing for the ear are different jobs, and a film made from the first kind sounds like a document reading itself.
Video is a conversation, not a page
A web page is read at the reader's pace. They skim, go back and skip the paragraph that doesn't interest them. A film runs at its own speed, and the viewer gets one pass at each sentence, in a voice, from a face.
That changes everything about how the words should work. Think about who you'd choose to talk to at a party. Nobody picks the person reciting corporate catchphrases. People drift towards whoever is warm, specific and easy to listen to. Video is like that party. Viewers choose who they watch, and they stop watching people who sound like a brochure.
Signs a script was written for the page
You can usually hear it in the first ten seconds. Sentences are long and stacked with clauses. Every claim is qualified, because the copy went through legal for the website. Jargon nobody uses in speech, like "solutions" and "end to end", turns up in every line, and the presenter sounds like they're concentrating on the words rather than the person they're talking to.
The other sign is the approved message. When somebody has been handed three key points to land, they spend the interview trying to remember them, and you can see it on their face. We see this most in testimonials, which is why our testimonial video production is built on unscripted conversation.
How to write for the ear
Read every line aloud before it's approved. If you run out of breath or stumble, the sentence is too long. Use the words you'd use on the phone to a client, not the words in your brand guidelines. Contractions help, because nobody says "we are" in conversation when they mean "we're".
Say one thing at a time. A paragraph on a web page can hold three ideas, but a spoken sentence should hold one. And give the viewer something specific to hold on to, like a number, a place or a moment, because specifics are what people remember from a film.
Often the best script is no script
For a lot of business video the right answer is to stop writing lines for people altogether. If the person on camera knows what the film needs to cover, a good interviewer can get them to say it in their own words, and their own words will always sound more like them than anything we could write. That's how most of our interview-led films are made, and the never been on camera page explains how it works for people who are nervous.
Where a script is needed, for a voiceover or an explainer, we write it to be spoken and read it aloud before anyone records it. The guide to how to write a video script goes into the detail.
Finding your tone of voice on film
A brand tone of voice written for a website usually describes how you want to sound: confident, friendly, expert. On film it shows up in smaller choices. Who you put on camera and whether they're scripted are the big ones, along with where you film them and how much of the pause before an answer you leave in.
The test is simple. Show the film to somebody who knows your business and ask whether it sounds like you. If they say it sounds like a corporate video, the tone is wrong, however good it looks. The brand film production page covers how we find the one true thing a film should say before we work out how it should sound.
FAQ
What is tone of voice in a video?
It's how the film sounds as a person talking: the words, the pace, who's speaking and whether they sound like themselves. It's set by the script, the casting and the edit as much as by the brand guidelines.
Why do corporate videos sound stiff?
Usually because the script was written to be read, with long sentences, jargon and approved phrases, and then somebody was asked to say it out loud.
Should a business video have a script?
Voiceovers and explainers need one, written for speech. Interviews and testimonials usually work better unscripted, with the person knowing the ground to cover and using their own words.
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