As I've mentioned multiple times now, we are planning to incorporate a voice-over as a main aspect of our opening's audio. A voice-over is a non-diegetic sound, meaning it doesn't come from the narrative world, and it is often used to "provide more context and enhance an existing narrative." (What is a Voice Over?) In the case of our opening, a voice over would work to provide insight on the thoughts behind our character. We want to give the audience a taste of what is driving our character without giving them the full story. This is the concept of 2+2 that we learned about in our storytelling lesson. One of the 2s being what the audience is watching and the other one being the message the voice over is providing, which isn't transparent enough to be redundant but it does the job at making the audience imply what Grace's reasoning is.
When adding the other sounds to the opening, such as environmental and synchronized sound, we were struggling to figure out how we would incorporate this voice over. We had pitched the idea of a voice over to our teacher a few weeks ago and she had given us the green light but warned us about making it last continuously throughout the whole opening, which might've ended up sounding lazy; so, apart from some of the research I've already made that included voice-overs, we decided to look at a few other movies that use voice-overs to see how they did it.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
In this film, the voice-over is giving insight on the character's feelings on his friend's loss. What caught my attention in this voice-over, though, is the way in which you can hear some synchronized and environmental sounds in the back of the voice-over. For example, toward the end we see the main character on a cemetery working with other prisoners. At this point the voice-over is going on but the work of the men on the grass can be heard faintly in the back. Another example, is at the start when a man is seen driving a car, the voice-over is heard but so is the environmental sound of wind in the background. Another aspect that caught my attention was the fact that the voice over paused throughout the scene and diegetic sound could be heard in between. When the men were eating, the voice over paused and you could see the character's expression and the diegetic sound of men talking and laughing to each other. I think that this works to make the voice over feel more natural and like you're truly inside this character's mind, since you're also listening to the environment around them.
The Goodfellas (1990)
I really like this example because it is also the opening of the movie, so I feel like it can be applied better. Although this voice over is far more clear at depicting the character's thoughts, I think that the way it is structured is useful for my own. Regarding credits, I like how the voice over paused to allow some credits to roll before continuing with it, so I'll definitely keep that in mind. But, before that, when the voice over had just started and the main statement of "I always wanted to be a gangster" was made, it was followed by the synchronized, loud sound of the car's trunk closing in order to add drama to the statement. The idea of using other types of sound to enhance the voice over is something that interests me, as I could maybe try to do that with the prayer that I've included in different parts of the opening; this could add a sense of eeriness and suspense to the voice over itself. Just as the other example, the sounds of the environment can also be heard under the voice over, like the honk and ignition of a car driving past.
These examples gave me some type of idea on how to structure my voice-over. I think that the way it is included into the opening is just as important as what it's saying. I will experiment with this to find the way in which the voice-over sounds the best and adds the most to the narrative. Until the next, bye bye!!
No comments:
Post a Comment