First Real short video

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dylanpipe

Active member
Hey Guys,

I am in the process of making my first real movie. It is a narrative fiction, and the plot is that this guys plane crashes he's the lone survivor, but its really all a dream and he wakes up from the nightmare and then values life a lot more. It's hardly a movie, it can only be 5 minutes max.


But, what my question is how do I go about narrating/ voice over it. Because the actor does not say anything while on camera but I intend to have some sort of narration over it. But I sorta need help where to start, if that makes any sense. Do I simply annotate everything he does, or do I story tell whilst he is doing different things?

Thanks.
 
We could here his thoughts as narration or it could be him recalling what happened as a voice over.
 
dylanpipe said:
Hey Guys,

I am in the process of making my first real movie. It is a narrative fiction, and the plot is that this guys plane crashes he's the lone survivor, but its really all a dream and he wakes up from the nightmare and then values life a lot more. It's hardly a movie, it can only be 5 minutes max.


But, what my question is how do I go about narrating/ voice over it. Because the actor does not say anything while on camera but I intend to have some sort of narration over it. But I sorta need help where to start, if that makes any sense. Do I simply annotate everything he does, or do I story tell whilst he is doing different things?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Most people who write scripts or make films, tend these days to avoid 'voice over' narrator styles. They were popular in the past, and there have been a few good examples in more recent times, but basically 'voice over' is a method that goes against the point of film, which is the visual story telling.

It's sort of like dialog... for some set of writers, the long monologs are great, everyone acclaims the writer... but most people's attempts at such length deliveries fall far short (and the actors often don't help in such deliveries...), and end up being a major point of criticism.

On to your brief 'log line'... of all the well trodden plot lines... 'it's all a dream' is one of the most popular, and thereby one of the most disliked. We've seen "A Christmas Carol" any number of times, and the dream-bad-things-happen-wake-to-be-a-better-person has been done to death.

In terms of 'real life', I don't know what causes people to make mid-life changes 'for the better'... I do know that my father-in-law always used some early childhood example of someone stealing his bike, as justifications for being a selfish asshole, so I don't know how many nightmares he would have to experience before he turned into a 'better person'... (even recent heart attacks and attendant surgeries hasn't changed his attitude about possessions and money...).

As for the technical setup of recording voice over... given a 'nolo budget' film... get setup with a reasonable microphone, find the quietest place available to you, place the microphone as close to the speaker as possible, and record multiple takes to get the 'best one'.
 
Right on man, thanks.

I was thinking about doing a what he was thinking, kinda inside his head thing. But my video production teacher thought that telling a story whilst this was going on, which I like I just think it would be rather hard to come up with a story that wouldn't take away form the video or make it too confusing for the viewer .
 
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