Voice Overs

Voice over - A piece of narration in a movie or broadcast, not accompanied by an image of the speaker.

In some film trailers, Voiceovers can be a very significant aspect. Voiceovers are often dipicted by the genre of the movie, for example, a serious documentry film is highly unlikley to have a voice over on the trailer as it is more suited for fiction type genres.

Functions of a Voiceover.

• Voice overs can reinforce the title of the film
• Helps us make sence of the narrative by giving the target audience background information
• Informs us about the Main characters
• Showcases the stars in the film
• Informs audience about production and producing comanies (directors especially)
• Builds a sence of anticipation 
• Sets the tone for a film
• Summarise the storyline for the narrative

Conventions of a voiceover

• Usually a males voice
• American accent
• Deep typical tone
• Exaggerated and stressed words i.e. the film title
• Different tones for different genres
• Often authoritative
• In unison with music and often words on the screen 

An important aspect of Voice overs is that they work in conjunction with what is playing on the screen and help set a scene and mood.

 Here are some examples of film trailers with Voiceovers:

Honey 2

All of these trailers have many things in common. For example they are all non-fiction genres and are for a younger niche audience. This can justify the use of voiceovers.Voice overs can set the mood of the film as mellow and not serious/tense. Voiceovers fail to build tension within a movie as the sound non-digetic.

 In this trailer it gives us information regarding production companies and other essential components towards the film. In this instance it shows the 'Universal Pictures' and the  mentioning of  the music featured in the film (in Honey 2 this includes La Roux, Estelle and Far East Movement.

 The voice over adds/builds a sense of anticipation about the film, having an exciting and upbeat tone to their voice, and in honey 2 the voice over suits the mode of address, i.e. teens. It exaggerates on the main character, inviting you to 'join in' when the voice over states, "When the battle begins, go every step of the way", setting an exciting tone which is encouraging people to see the film. The upbeat ton especially relates to the pace and atmostphere of the movie itself. This may have an effect on the audience which would inform them, adds a sense of anticipation to make them want to see the movie even more which is highley influenced by the cast and music.

It reinforces the title of the film, and in this case says it in the end, to be a lot more likely to remember the title later this is to lure the audience to remember the movie. The build-up which led up to the title sets the excitement for the release of the film, encouraging people to see it.

Here are some more trailers which use voiceovers as a narrative or an reinforcement of the movie

The karate Kid

The Smufs

Here is a useful video of voiceovers and how they work: