I make a lot of short explainer videos with myself doing the voiceover. Sometimes – after the video has been reviewed – clients will ask me to just replace a sentence here and there. “Can’t you just re-read that part?”

The thing is, the pitches of our voices change during the day and from day-to-day. This depends on stress levels, how “warmed up” the vocal cords are, what you eat or drink, or even how a chair may make you sit up straighter. All these things have an effect on the parts of the body that tighten and loosen the openings that air goes through to make your voice.

It’s evident when bits of voiceover have been replaced and that sudden change in pitch can make people lose focus and detract from your message.

This is why I spend more time getting the script right and having clients listen to readings before I finalise the video. Changing video takes longer than one might imagine, and especially voiceovers.