An alternative to cliche narration...

J

jimmygreen

Member
I'm making a film that has little dialogue, and much of the story plays on the mind of the main character. The easiest option for me would be to write a script for the narrator (main character) to speak, but that seems such an uncreative way to relay information. So I was thinking ok, I can have him writing, but that would take up too much screen time. So... I don't know I just don't like narration.. I heard a quote - "narration/ voice overs are a feable attempt to cover the film's wounds, they are the bandages"...

So anyone have any ideas, other than a plain voice over...
 
As far as I am aware, the only way to do it would be to use a form of stream of consciousness, constantly cutting between images of reality, fantasy, and memory. It will be confusing without voice-over, but if you want it to be confusing, that shouldn't matter.

Voice-over narration is not inherently bad. It's just very difficult to do well. It's perceived as a weak solution to a film's problems, because if you're trying to save your film through narration, there's something wrong with your film.

But, when the narration is planned from the beginning, and well executed from the beginning, it can take a film to new heights.
 
So many people say "don't use VO" that it's ridiculous. The only time I have a problem is when the VO is saying something that's happening on the screen and is completely redundant.

Fight Club, Rounders, Forrest Gump, Goodfellas, Shawshank Redemption... all used VO. Yeah, a lot of people say those are the exceptions and not the rule, and most of them tried making the movie's work without VO, but they didn't work. If you've tried conveying something every other way and V.O. is simply the only way to make it work, do it. With everyone else too scared to use it it's not really as cliche.

This assumes the story is interesting enough for us to care to begin with.


Also, I think V.O. is only a bandage on the film if it's added in post production to cover large plot holes and not thought about while on-set. Which many, including myself, have done before.
 
Generally, don't use VO. If you can find a great reason to use it that ADDS, then go for it. If it FIXES, then toss it. If it solves a problem, then toss it, because it will make the film weaker.

Why can't you tell the story visually? That's the question you should be asking. Look at the films that came out before we had sync sound. They managed to deal without VO. I think you can, too.
 
kevin spacey's monologue over his typical day montage at the beginning of American Beauty.

it sounds like you may be in a similiar situation.
 
V/O can work really well in some instances. I liked it in "Lord of War" which I finally saw recently.
Most scripts don't use it though.
 
Thanks for all the repllies.. havn't seen lord of war.. so i'll go and watch it... I think i've made up my mind to try not to use voice over in the conventional sense, but disguise it subtly in something...
 
Also, consider that if this is a major consideration:
and much of the story plays on the mind of the main character.
Click to expand...

Then film is perhaps not the best medium for this story. Sounds like it should be a novel instead; novels take place largely in the character's mind, and that's one place film can't really go, film is for stories that play out in front of us.

Not telling you not to do it, just to think it through and make sure that what you're attempting to do is well suited to the medium.
 
the only good alternative to narration is slililoquy. Having the protagonist talk directly to the audience while the rest of the world pays no mind. Otherwise, deliver the story in the story. The background stuff is either narration of sililoquy. Having it written would be lame... That sounds like un-acted narration. ANd by the way, it is also cliche. The protagonist in SLC Punk did a mixture of Sililoquy and Narration. It worked well.
 
You might want to take a look at the way V.O. is handled in the televison series, Dexter. As far a breaking the third wall and talking directly to the audience goes, this is a very difficult thing to do without pulling the viewer out of the story. When it's done well, it works, when not, well...
 
i never seemed to be bothered that much when there was a VO except when the character is acting like the audience is dumb and has to point out what your seeing. i enjoyed adaptation's voice over which is also made fun of in the film
 
I wrote a script that had the protagonist being interviewed years later in a black room, a la Charlie Rose. It allowed me to shift the story around and tell it non-linearly. Although it worked I slowly eased it out of the script to make room for more storyline events. Finally it was just three scenes and it had to go. The finished script is the better for it being gone, but it did help me get the content down and learn more about my protagonist along the way.

If there was a trick to it I would say that the dialog was always 'off', that it did not really set you up for the next scene. In some scenes it was ironic, at other times funny. In a few cases the interviewer would throw the next question out and the next scene would answer it, sort of, not perfectly... Dialog should never be spot on, but behavior should be.

Ultimately film is a visual medium, and you should endeavor to use as little dialog as possible. Voice over is just dialog squared. If it is clever, use it. If not, then it's a crutch and you need to ditch it or evolve it into something else.

Sometimes all you need is a foil for your protagonist. Maybe a potted tree that he has in his apartment that he talks to. If so the dialog MUST NOT BE SPOT ON. If he takes a cab ride back home from being dumped by his girlfriend then he should complain to the tree about the cab ride:

"I hate cabbies. Its so much work to find one in this God forsaken city! You think... Christ they're everywhere!; but they all have fares and they're just speeding along their way... Then you do get one, and it's crap. But at least you got one, at least for a little while you're not that schmuck on the corner trying to find a cab in the rain..."

Bob
 
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