Finding My Voice

An aspect of “Down to Zero” that I hemmed and hawed over was how to use a narrator to stitch the pieces together.

Why Use a Narrator?

It’s a common practice to use a narrator in a documentary film. This trusted voice helps add continuity when you have a big cast of characters that are contributing to the story, like I do with this documentary. The narrator provides an opportunity to provide some additional context to what the interviewees are saying, translate new terms (there are a lot of them in the world of sustainability!) and provide additional insights.

When I wrote the Minnesota State Arts Board grant to fund “Down to Zero,” I included a budgeted fee to have a professional voice actor narrate the piece. Since I knew I was going to be covering really complex topics, I knew it would be a necessary element of the film.

I even had someone in mind for the role, my past collaborator Stephanie Henry. If you’ve ever been lucky enough to hear Stephanie’s voice you would know why. She has a smooth, lovely timbre and brings a nice enthusiasm and optimism to her speech. I thought that might come in handy given that the huge problems of climate change and housing insecurity can be a real bummer. Additionally, having worked with her before as an actor, I know she has great range and could get serious when necessary, adding poignancy to certain moments.

Life Imitates Art

In a previous post I mentioned that I got a new job in sustainable energy before I even found out that “Down to Zero” received the funding to proceed with production. Part of my role as Sustainability Program Manager at RMF Engineering has been to facilitate knowledge sharing across the team about our work in sustainability. I organized and ran a monthly webinar series modeled after a podcast: I invited a different guest each episode to talk about how their work helps clients meet their decarbonization goals. We covered everything from the regulations and certifications driving goals to the technologies that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

*Me speaking at the International District Energy Association (IDEA)’s summer conference about my work at the University of Minnesota.*

These webinars went so well that I was inspired to submit abstracts for opportunities to speak at conferences about sustainable energy. And wouldn’t you know, they went for it! In 2025, I have had two speaking engagements where I have counseled engineers about how to use storytelling to communicate their brilliant ideas to decision makers.

So I started thinking to myself, maybe I should narrate this.

Pros and Cons

Even though this idea of my serving as the narrator started to make sense, there were a few things that gave me pause.

Con: Directors Usually Stay Behind the Scenes, and It Gets Weird When They Don’t

First of all, directors are usually behind the scenes on their productions. The focus and attention tend to go to the actors (in a narrative) or subject matter experts (in a documentary). And so it should, since those are the faces you see when you view the final film.

Alfred Hitchcock lurks on the bus in “To Catch a Thief”
(source: *The Hitchcock Wiki*)

When the director does appear, it can get a little weird. I’m thinking specifically of directors who like to make cameos in their films, like Stephen King, Alfred Hitchcock and M. Night Shyamalan are all known to do. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of these directors, but when they appear in their films, it adds a certain level of hokeyness, as if it’s a little wink to the audience.

Con: I’m Goofy

The vibe that I bring to my speaking is sort of like Ms. Rachel for adults (if you have little kids, you know who I’m talking about).

Ms. Rachel, every toddler’s fave. I am not offended by the comparison.
(Source: *Variety*)

I am curious, friendly, and love to laugh at myself when I make a mistake. I like to think that this helps disarm listeners who might be intimidated by the subject matter I am discussing. They don’t need to be uncomfortable or embarrassed by not knowing all there is to know about decarbonization technology because I’m a friendly kindergarten teacher.

While a big part of me wanted to leverage this to help educate people, I was still hesitant because I didn’t want my goofiness to take away from the seriousness of the issues at hand.

Con: Lack of Objectivity

The last argument I contended with relates to objectivity. A documentary is journalistic in nature, and my husband Kevin Krein is a former journalist. When he wrote for our local newspaper, he practiced objectivity. He avoided sharing opinions (which was hard because his passion is writing opinion essays on music and life) and presenting facts accurately and fairly so that the reader could come to their own conclusions.

Inserting my voice as narrator could damage the idea that my piece is objective. I have gone through the trouble of featuring different voices who are supporting each other’s arguments, making it seem like what I am sharing are “facts.” If I were to connect the dots as my own narrator, it could hurt the credibility of the film.

Pro: Objectivity is a Lie

Allow me to get philosophical for a moment. I, like many others, believe that objectivity is a lie. While we can do our best to try to limit our biases based on our own personal experiences, I think it’s a fool’s errand. We all have biases and would be better off if we admitted to them and shared them with our audiences. It’s an argument for why we need diverse journalists with different life experiences: we will have a more rounded worldview if we read stories by lots of people with different biases.

I also feel that, whether I like it or not, I am a part of this story of Hillcrest Village. I have a responsibility to share the winding road of how I learned about the complexities of the project. My biases will certainly come out in the final cut of the film no matter how hard I try. I am splicing together people’s words based upon my understanding of them.

Pro: I am Good at Explaining Things

Part of what makes me good at my day job is my ability to break down complex ideas for clients, so why not let the audiences of “Down to Zero” benefit from that?

Pro: Covering a Leap

The critical factor that made my decision was a significant leap that happens in the middle of the documentary narrative involving the construction.

*On a site walk with passive-certified residence halls at Carleton College.*

During the eighteen months of construction (2021-2023) at Hillcrest Village, I was not active on the project. After they were completed, I had the idea of creating a follow-up documentary, so I missed my window to see what it looked like onsite during the construction process.

Luckily, just across the river at Carleton College, new passive house-certified residence halls were being constructed in 2024. These townhome-style buildings were similar in design to Hillcrest Village, and in December 2024, my pal Rob Hanson, Manager of Campus Energy at Carleton, allowed me to come onsite to tour the construction. He even invited the supervising architect and construction manager to come along, and I learned a ton on that walk.

The footage is really important for viewers of “Down to Zero” to get a feel for how different it is to construct a building designed with Passive House methodology. But, helping viewers with the leap of going from one project to another meant that I would for sure need to have a narrator explain what was going on.

And that narrator was going to me.

My Voice Ties it Together

At the time of writing this post, it is the eve of the day where I will record all of my narration segments. As I have edited together this hour-long documentary, I have added placeholders for each of the points I will make as the story goes on. I will break down definitions of words that architects and engineers use every day, fill in gaps of how the planning team got from point A to point B, and share some of my own experiences along the way.

And that’s the way it should be — I have shaped this whole documentary, and now my voice will tie it all together.