I have now been developing and planning a feature-length screenplay for a good three or four months and I have just started to write it.
I have been debating over using narration for a few days now. I have read books like "The Screenwriter's Workbook" and "Story" which urge not to use narration in a film unless it's done correctly.
I wanted to use this narration to introduce the characters in a straightforward fashion, much like the introduction of 'The Royal Tenenbaums,' but I also want to make my narrator a character like 'the stranger' in 'The Big Lebowski'. These are just both scenarios where v.o. was used and it inspired me.
The film that I am writing is about a suburban family where many of the events take place at their home. The characters are introduced by an agoraphobic writer that refuses to leave his home; he watches the family in the house across the street from him through the gaps in his blinds of his upstairs window. This is supposed to hint at the fact that he is writing a novel about the dysfunctional family that resides across from the street from him. I also want the little bits of narration to be read like an audiobook would sound, I want it to sound the way a person would read something out loud.
I am beating myself up over actually doing this though, because this is my first screenplay, and it is a spec script; I'm a first-time writer and I intend to approach "important" people with this script one day, I do not know if I am taking too big of a risk by doing something that technically doesn't abide to the standards of screenwriting.
If anyone could help me out and tell me what you think I should do that would be great. Thanks!
I have been debating over using narration for a few days now. I have read books like "The Screenwriter's Workbook" and "Story" which urge not to use narration in a film unless it's done correctly.
I wanted to use this narration to introduce the characters in a straightforward fashion, much like the introduction of 'The Royal Tenenbaums,' but I also want to make my narrator a character like 'the stranger' in 'The Big Lebowski'. These are just both scenarios where v.o. was used and it inspired me.
The film that I am writing is about a suburban family where many of the events take place at their home. The characters are introduced by an agoraphobic writer that refuses to leave his home; he watches the family in the house across the street from him through the gaps in his blinds of his upstairs window. This is supposed to hint at the fact that he is writing a novel about the dysfunctional family that resides across from the street from him. I also want the little bits of narration to be read like an audiobook would sound, I want it to sound the way a person would read something out loud.
I am beating myself up over actually doing this though, because this is my first screenplay, and it is a spec script; I'm a first-time writer and I intend to approach "important" people with this script one day, I do not know if I am taking too big of a risk by doing something that technically doesn't abide to the standards of screenwriting.
If anyone could help me out and tell me what you think I should do that would be great. Thanks!