It doesn’t need to break the sound barrier. Nor does it need to lift you out of your chair. If there’s anything else that Soul musicians like Bill Withers have given to the world, it’s in finding the power in the break of the breath, and not just the voice. In a 2009 Documentary entitled ‘Still Bill’ by Directors Damani Baker and Alex Vlack, the artist opens up on the story of his life and the fact that he hadn’t released a song since 1985, and indeed, till his death … now that’s quite a breath.

In the world of video and film production this couldn’t sing more true than it does today. The powerful delivery of a line is wholly incumbent upon the pace, tone and rhythm, in the subtle details wherein we find our humanity. It’s the subtle details that affect us subconsciously and make us hear not simply the content or the information, but the person and their story. As soon as Bill Withers was done making his songs for the world and became a father to two children, he went on making the songs for himself, which is not a far cry from what he did from the start. Bill’s legacy shows us that there’s a big difference between trying to be authentic and being yourself. Born with a stutter and far from the popular kid in his town, Bill had to learn to love what “disabled” him in order to understand what enabled him. But more than anything I think Bill’s stutter and all the challenges he faced growing up in West Virginia taught him how to love himself slowly, patiently, to endure with quiet enjoyment the shaky emotion in his own voice.

When creating your story, whether its for a wide-reaching brand, a singular product or a service, it might seem counter-productive to dig backwards, but this is perhaps as important as the final script itself. Discovering the vulnerable and emotional moments that underpin the vision and the people behind your product, brand or service, is vital to creating a visual story that shows an authentic face. And in today’s fast-moving world, what with all the inter-connectivity of social media, bringing out the raw and the honest aspects of your brand’s origin and story is a way of inviting the customer into your family and community to help you carry that story forward. Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, famously claimed that “being good is good for business”, well in the case of marketing in 2020 we could refine this: “being honest is honest for business.” Wait that doesn’t seem like it makes sense … Or does it? Well, by putting out an honest face, i.e. a piece of content that is truly representative of the vision and the people behind it, is a surefire way of getting genuine engagement with your brand that is reflective of an authentic response from your audience.

The most powerful voice-overs on a video are always the simplest and the ones that use the most breathing space. It is these breaths in between that allow for the impact of the emotion which flowed from the line exactly prior – so if one breath throws out a line, the second holds it in, and in doing so, the viewer holds it with you. In this way a voice-over script ought to be more closely sung (a la’ Bill Withers) than it should be read, because while reading highlights the information, singing emphasizes the emotion, and sometimes Bill walked right along the middle of those with a kind of sing-talk; showing that the word is only as powerful as how you say it. He’d quote an old Southern saying from time to time: “If ain’t said right it probably ain’t right.”

Here’s some videos with voice-overs we were proud to create over the years:

Thanks for the realness Bill,

Anthony M.