I sound like a dweeb!

Yes indeed sincerity, but sincerity can be overdone to a sickly, cheesy extent, and I think all Americans know this, some American broadcasters are particularly good at being just a tad sickly-sincere, in their over-the-top inflections. The point is we can try too hard sometimes, even if it IS compulsive viewing, just waiting to see how dramatic someone can make a dull news story for instance, it's engaging viewing, you come away feeling good and impressed but it was about nothing at all really and your mind is none the better for it, because content is key. You have to decide whether your viewer is thick or stupid or intellingent and deliver your message accordingly and either respect their intelligence or speak to them as if they were 5 years old  

Yes indeed sincerity, but sincerity can be overdone to a sickly, cheesy extent, and I think all Americans know this, some American broadcasters are particularly good at being just a tad sickly-sincere, in their over-the-top inflections.

Doesn't it rapidly appear not to be sincere at that point? I think that faking genuine sincerity is very hard to do!

I actually thought the first examples were just fine. They sounded like the designer of the machine talking genuinely about it.

I'd far rather listen to, and believe there was some sort of contact with, a real person who really understood what he was talking about than hear a load of gloss.

I'm not even sure about the music. Good info and a good visual presentation should say it all. I hate flashy websites that tell me nothing useful. If I'm in machine buying mode I want direct, good information.

But lots of companies seem to have top managements that don't understand the products they fund, and so are attracted to gloss.  

I actually thought the first examples were just fine. They sounded like the designer of the machine talking genuinely about it.

Genuinely, perhaps - but not neccessarily as effectively as he could!

What actually prompted the original post was not so much the read as just the sound of my voice.  I'm much happier with the sound I got on the last sample, and I think the biggest difference is not using my "public speaking" mode.  I don't need to project for the microphone.  The tips on the reading and scripting will be helpful for getting a more professional-looking/sounding video.

I think videos can be a very effective communication tool both inside the company and to customers.  It's a lot easier to sit through a 5 or 10 minute video than to read through several pages of technical information.  My hope is that I'll have a good time making the video and that folks will be impressed enough with it that they'll want me to do more.  It would be a nice diversion from my usual duties.

I think a little music in the background helps bridge the gap when there's nothing to say.  The manufacturing environment is noisy and I am not a fan of videos that retain the recorded machine noise

I think I know what you mean Wildduck, sometimes a person who doesn't sound like a voice-over pro can connect a little better. But it really all depends on the target audience and the delivery format. There is also this thing about perceptions. We have all grown used to expecting a professional presentation when it comes to being sold to, and when we hear/see something unprofesional we think that the company might be cheap or doesn't care too much about making a professional impression. I think Karl's all too aware that he could get it voiced professionally for as little as $100, but I think he's making it an exercise of sorts for himself, which is really great to see too.

I know a very good voice who would do it for me for a very good price, but that's beyond the scope of the project, and doing it myself will give me a lot of flexibility as far as edits or different versions (for different audiences).  I proposed the video as an alternative to a written document with lots of pictures.  It's an experiment of sorts.

It's an experiment of sorts.

I think it's a good experiment. You discover a lot this way, and I don't see any reason at all why you shouldn't be able to make an extremely competent job of this - using your own voice.

I'd identify the voice type as very gentle and sensitive, the high siblilance (prominent S's) is better suited to a gentle and intimate delivery.

Well, the first video is getting pretty close to final form.  I ended up doing most of it with still images and panning/zooming within the stills.  The video clips I used were just scraps I found - they were not shot for this video and will likely be replaced with cleaner clips.

Here's a 20MB version of the 6.5 minute video - still in draft form
http://www.cheap-tracks.com/misc/Alcoa/sorter1b-6.wmv

I'm going to make one more run at the VO recording - there are a couple of little stumbles I want to clean up, and some mouth noises and background noises I want to either avoid or remove from the final version.

This will also give y'all a look into my day job.  I designed this machine from ground-up several years ago.  It is, admittedly, a knock-off of an existing machine.

Alcoa CSI makes bottle caps, and I design equipment that gets used by bottlers to put caps on bottles at rates up to 1200 bottle per minute.

Thanks a bunch for all your help.  The video is getting rave reviews here at work - there's a trade show in a few months and they are making changes to the booth plans so they can feature this video on a big plasma screen.

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I now know a lot more about bottle-cap sorters than I used to!

Say - did you play all or any of  the instruments in the mix?

How many audio tracks were used, or was is all "canned" ? ( Bottled?)
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Say - did you play all or any of  the instruments in the mix?  How many audio tracks ...

 bottled ... funny. Most of Alcoa (the Aluminum Company of America) would prefer cans, but here at CSI we favor bottles.

I didn't play nuthin'.  The music came from Pinnacle Studio, which has a limited implimentation of "SmartSound" music generation software.  You pick a style and a length, and then there are a few variants you can select like a bridge or a couple of solo styles.  I ran off a few 1 minute blocks and pieced them together to make one longer loop that I can chop up in a few different ways stretching out to fill the time required.

one track for the music.

Looking good zemlin. Watching your film reminded me of how difficult it is to match the script to picture in terms of timing. So congrats on that.

But, at times the music, the narration and the film are going at different speeds/pace, and at times it seems like the picture changes are too slow or the music is too fast, I think all that could be made to fit a bit better. The music is a tad loud too, I lost you on a few words.

Thanks.
I chopped the VO recording into lots of little bits and dragged them around to fit the video, and I can stretch video to fit the text if I need to - one advantage to working with stills.

I really haven't given any regard to the music wrt anything else - it's just there to fill the gaps.  Maybe I should pay attention to it.  I'll try to consider pacing things when I go through the final edit.

Yeah I think matching everything up helps the viewer absorb the message easier. The music on a film is a mood-setter and pace-setter. At the moment the music is saying this is fun and unimportant, but the pictures and read want you to take it seriously, so the message is a bit confused if you know what I mean. A bit like turning up at a corporate presentation dressed for the beach, a person would be sending mixed messages.