Show and Tell
Onscreen text in visual storytelling
There are classic instructions given to kids writing school essays: “Tell me what you’re going to tell me. Tell me. Then tell me what you just told me.” It’s a concise, easy-to-remember way to explain the basic structure of introduction, essay body, and conclusion.
As adult professionals, we use slide decks rather than essays to communicate our messages. With slides, we can add some visual elements to reinforce our presentation, but they are mostly simple and static, so the majority of the information is conveyed by the narration and emphasized by onscreen text that echoes it. In other words, we’re still telling the audience what ideas we want to convey, with very little of it being shown to them.
So what is the best way to use onscreen text in a video, where we are showing so much of the message through visual storytelling?
Well, you know that saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words”? There is a lot of truth to that. Take this scene:
(one show, one tell)
With a quick glance, you understand the situation: a tough FDA auditor with a nervous quality assurance employee in tow is coming to a lab to conduct an audit. Note that there are very few words needed on the screen to fully convey this idea: the lab sign, the text on the characters’ paperwork, and the “Knock! Knock!”. There is a voiceover line for the scene: “When the FDA comes knocking, you need to be ready.” But you hardly need it. The entire scene communicates the idea to the audience by showing it to them. The voiceover emphasizes and supports the visual story rather than the other way around.
Now let’s consider this image, which has subtitles added for the voiceover:
(one show, two tells)
Subtitles are standard practice now and they absolutely should be, for reasons of accessibility (as well as because a lot of people keep the sound off on their devices). The subtitle text represents a second way of telling the audience what is happening. It's still pretty easy to understand what’s going on here, although it might take an extra moment because of the time needed to read the subtitles.
But contrast that with this image, which has added onscreen text meant to further emphasize the message:
(one show, three tells)
In this scene, there is still one method being used to show the audience what is happening (the image) but THREE methods of telling it (the voiceover, the subtitles, and the onscreen text.) The eye is first drawn to either the onscreen text or the subtitles, then to the “Knock! Knock!”, and then to the animated image- if there is time! Depending on how quickly someone reads, they may or may not be able to process all of the information in this scene before it moves on. It’s also a much more cluttered screen- the onscreen text partially obscures the lab sign, and the entire image feels out of balance.
It may not be intuitive, but adding more ways to show and/or tell the same thing can actually make your message less clear.
Onscreen text in a video does have an important role, but we have found it’s best used very sparingly. If you limit text to just the key ideas you want your audience to remember, you set them apart from the rest of the content- and make them much more memorable. You also want any text to be short enough to be read quickly- as a general rule, any text should stay onscreen long enough for the average person to read it twice- so word economy is critical.
I tend to think of onscreen text as similar to the type of notes I took in college classes- phrases that use only the most critical words, and that act as a memory prompt for an entire concept. In our experience, that usage of onscreen text is the most impactful.
For help on optimizing the use of text in your next video, or advice on how to convey a concept visually, contact us at dca@dcasf.com!