How to write a script that fits the runtime before you record it
Ask Vizard Agent to cast the narrator before the script is final, measure how fast that particular voice actually speaks, and then tighten the writing to fit the runtime. A standard words-per-minute figure will be out by a good few seconds over a minute, and those seconds always come off the end, where the conclusion is.
What do you type into Vizard Agent?
Tell Vizard Agent the order of operations you want. Left to itself the natural order is script first, then voice, then discovering the problem at the end. Asking for the voice to be cast first is what makes the measurement possible, and a firm runtime matters, because a soft brief like "about a minute" can only produce a soft result.
Prompt
What does Vizard Agent actually do?
The measuring happens before the recording rather than after it. Two voices reading the same paragraph can differ by fifteen per cent, so a script sized on a general figure is sized for a narrator nobody cast. Cutting forty words from a draft takes a minute; finding the overrun after recording means re-recording, a hurried read or a lost ending. In the session behind this article it:
- Prepared the narration text for an explainer with a fixed runtime and counted the words.
- Cast a narrator voice for the piece and measured that narrator's real speaking pace.
- Searched for the footage each section would need.
- Tightened the script to fit the runtime at the measured pace, filled the remaining visual gaps now the sections were sized, and finalised the narration.
- Generated every narration segment and took word-level timings from the recorded audio, a second measurement rather than a repeat of the first.
- Built the cards and the cut against those real timings.
When does this not work well?
Pace isn't constant even within one voice. An emphatic passage runs slower than a list, so a single figure drifts across a long script, and past a couple of minutes the measurement has to be taken per section. Unscripted presenters give Vizard Agent nothing to measure against, and heavy pauses have to be budgeted separately.
Common questions
How wrong is a standard figure? Enough to cost several seconds a minute. Vizard Agent measures rather than assuming.
Where should the cuts come from? Wherever you name. Tell Vizard Agent which lines are untouchable and it cuts elsewhere.
Can I reuse the pace next time? Yes, for the same voice. Vizard Agent reports it so you can.