5 Best Practices for Creating Voice-Overs

When it comes to giving feedback, you've heard the saying: a picture is worth a thousand words. We've taken that to another level by enabling you to provide voice-over video feedback with pinpoint instruction. 

Because the voice-over is such a critical component to your coaching feedback and the app's functionality, we want to make sure you are equipped with a few tips and tricks to ensure your voice-overs are as good as they can be. Follow our five best practices and you'll be a pro in no time.

Five tips for creating a voice-over

1. Turn down the volume of your device as you record.  When you are recording a new voiceover, we combine your voice with whatever is happening on the screen. This is incredibly useful when you combine voice instruction, slow motion playback and the use of our drawing tools. But, if the volume of the original video is too loud, your voice-over will sound too cluttered with the feedback of the original video and your voice recording over the top.  Simply turn down the volume as it plays back and you'll be able to have both the original audio and your voice at good levels.
2. Landscape for landscape, portrait for portrait. This is a simple one, but all important. If the original video that you are working with was recorded in landscape mode, make sure you device is too. Similarly, if the original is in portrait, make sure you record your voice-over in portrait mode. This will prevent the dreaded 'black bars' from appearing in your finished video and will ensure you maximize your screen real estate.
3. Turn drawings on, then clear them as you progress through your recording. The usual flow of a voice-over will have you playing back the original video while talking over it. Then, you'll often pause the video and use the drawing tools to point something out.  When you're done talking about that specific moment, be sure to 'Clear' the drawings before you continue playing the video forward. This way, you can use new drawings throughout your voice-over without cluttering the screen with drawing elements.
4. Use 'pinch to zoom' for close ups.  While you are recording, you can zoom in using pinc to zoom so you can point out specific details. You can also use 'two finger pan' to pan the video as you are zoomed in. It's super useful and works great to highlight those subtle details throughout the video.
5. Stay focused and keep it short.  We've found it most helpful to convey instructional information on 1-2 key areas of improvement so that your athlete can get the most from your feedback. That means, keep you videos short. Ideally, your clients will send you clips that are under 2 minutes, and your voice-over feedback should be kept to under 10 minutes.  Think about the key takeaways that you want to convey and make sure it's clear and simple. Also, keeping videos shorter will make them faster to upload and download from the cloud. We automatically sync all videos and manage the space on your device, so it's helpful to keep things quick.

Following these key tips will make you a voice-over pro! After a few attempts, you'll get the hang of it and you'll be helping your clients reach their true potential, even when you're thousands of miles apart!