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07.05.2008
ENTRY #31
CAPTAIN WILLARD (V.O.) Saigon. Shit. Still only in Saigon.
[No, wait -- here: ]
JIM (V.O.) Thirty. Shit. Only thirty entries in two-and-a-half years.
[Jim,
shirtless, sweating, types at the computer. A large,
blackcircular fan spins overhead, sounding like the blades of a
helicopter.]
JIM (V.O.) And, yet I
persist, re-surfacing with another offering whenever I feellike
it. How did I get to this ignominious juncture? “How.”
“Why.” A lot of good those words do me now.
VOICE OVER
AND OVER
To
use voice-over or not to use it. It bears a stigma --
it’sregarded as a crutch for someone who lacks either the ability or
thewill to incorporate exposition into the scenes of the
story. Convention wisdom weighs heavily against using it.
So, what kind of screenplay calls for voice-over as a respectable and necessary contributor to the tone, style and story?
A
highly complex and oblique story which needs a voice-over to keep
theattention of the audience? No, it’s the job of the writer and
thedirector to make the story accessible -- unless obscurity is desired
--in which case, there’s no need for voice-over.
A screenplay
that’s “novel-esque?” -- Because it’s an adaptationof a novel, of
course -- a sprawling one with time-cuts of yearsbetween
segments. It requires a voice-over to catch up theaudience with
all the events which occurred off-screen before the storyresumes.
But
the voice-over can’t simply be filling in the off-screen actionbetween
the years and seasons of the story. That’s flatutilitarianism --
a criminal act.
So, the lead character does a voice-over (unless
it’s the “observer”character who is spinning a tale about a memorable
person). Howis the voice-over written? Will it sound like
someone is simplyreading passages from a book? Or actually
talking to “you?”
It seems that the voice-over should sound like
how this characterspeaks in the scenes of the film; tell a tale in his
authenticvoice. Maybe the voice-over should have an
engagingcharacter/story flow unto itself.
But, in summation, I
haven’t made anything clear about when to use ornot use voice-over
narration, despite my attempt. Maybe that’sbecause it’s entirely
an instinctual call. You have to feel thatit fits the style, tone
and portent of the story. And, well, youjust have to be right.
[Jim stops typing. He lets his head fall heavily onto the keyboard.]
JIM (V.O.) The
typing clanks along, in dysrythmic fits, like the broken clock oftime
that sent me on a zig-zag trail to this outpost. In the pasttwo
and a half years, a lot has happened that you should know about ...
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You may contact
Jim
Uhls at
uhlsblog@gmail.com
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