Narration?

Semiazas

Semiazas

I'm wondering where people stand on narration in film and TV.
Particularly, the sort of narration in 'The Twilight Zone' where a narrator comes on at the start and end of each episode and explains what is going to happen (beginning) and what has happened (ending)
It's something I might experiment with at some point.
 
Narration of VO (voice-over) is a very powerful tool, and like all tools it can be over-done and over-used.

It can be very dramatic like in No Country for Old Men,

or it can be very humorous, like in 300.
 
In the case of Twilight Zone, I think it's less a form of narration than an introduction/summation, since Serling didn't typically speak further once the situation had been established. Hitchcock did that with his show as well.

My favorite forms of narration are those that are spoken by one character, telling the story of another character. Examples would be Sherlock Holmes (books and movies), Amadeus, and the first Conan movie.
 
There can be too little narration like in the original release of the movie, DUNE where if you didn't read the book, you were lost in the sauce of the science fiction world of the creator of DUNE. In the television release of DUNE, lots of narrations were added to make the movie easy to follow. And, you can have too much. Some Indie productions where therre are voices with images that do not enhance the story are just products of poor writing and poor filming. There are also Indie productions that have too little narrations. Getting an outside to watch the production for feedback is a good way to guage if you have too much or too little.
 
Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC said:
There can be too little narration like in the original release of the movie, DUNE where if you didn't read the book, you were lost in the sauce of the science fiction world of the creator of DUNE. In the television release of DUNE, lots of narrations were added to make the movie easy to follow.
Click to expand...

As a fan of the book, I initially wasn't crazy about David Lynch's version of Dune. But then I saw the TV miniseries, which made Lynch's movie look like a flippin' masterpiece. It was so jaw-droppingly awful I had to practically strap myself to the chair to sit through the thing. Somebody needs to do this story justice someday.

I must say that I liked the sparse narration in the original, though admittedly I had read the book.
 
Narration has to be integral to the script from the very beginning. Too often it is used as a band aid in an attempt to cover for poor writing or lack of coverage to name only two; it almost never comes off.

Two very different but excellent examples are "Forrest Gump" and "The Shawshank Redemption". A lot can be gleaned from watching those films, the DVD extras and the commentaries.
 
I've been looking at adapting the short story "the yellow wallpaper", I love the story but I had a hard time as it's mostly narrated, the BBC did a version of it but it was kind of boring and there was a recent feature that hasn't been released yet. I don't know what my point is, oh yeah, nope gone.
 
I agree with 2001 productions. Something along the lines of Sherlock or Even the A&E series of Nero Wolfe where Archie provides 'commentary' as a voice over helps to support the story line but does not replace it. I have heard it said never explain something verbally that can be shown visually, the term A pictures worth a thousand words comes to mind.

Steve
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top