Voice-overs!

Hello! A promised I have come back prepared to explain the different types of voice overs I think we should definitely consider using for our film opening.

The first movie I chose was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. This movie  relies heavily on the voice over as a way to carry out the story, and even says the same line as the character at times. Without the voice over, the whole story would probably be Raoul and Dr. Gonzo screaming the whole time. This movie, especially, uses voice overs to incorporate the character’s thoughts, actions, and motives to the audience and why they do or don’t do certain things. If we go this route for the film opening, relying heavily on voice over, then we have to make sure we time the scenes correctly with the character’s lines, and we have enough going on that a voice over is absolutely necessary. Using voice over to this extent may hurt our production so we have to make sure we edit the scenes well so it works.

The second example is from Fight Club. This movie doesn’t rely so much on voice over as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but is still incorporated to explain to the audience how the character thinks, why he thinks that way, and what was going on in his head. This voice over is funnier and even freezes the scene to show that the events taking place on screen are in the past. Also unlike Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the voice over does not overlap with the character’s dialogue or explain what is going on in the scene. Instead, the voice over is used after the character is done talking and only describes what he’s thinking and what is going on in his mind at the moment. I think this type of voice over will be the one we end up choosing. Are voice over has to describe what our character was feeling, thinking, planning, and doing before and during the event. This voice over will help us not only develop our character, but our plot as well.

Lastly, the infamous Breakfast Club ending. This voice over is different from the others. Instead of describing the characters, it is at the end of the film. As seen, the teacher reads a note written from the students (i.e the Breakfast Club) and the contents of that note is the voice over. The voice over in this case is a way of explaining the ending, how each character was affected by the Saturday school, and shows the character development of each character. It won’t really add to our benefit to use this voice over since it normally shows character development and we shouldn’t really place character development at the beginning of the film.

Overall, looking at the different types of voice overs really helped me understand exactly what type of voice over I would like to see in the film and which one would fit best with our character. I think the 2nd example is the best because we can use it to describe what our character was thinking at that moment and how it affected him. Especially with our topic of injustice in the court system, explaining how something affected our character is an important element of the plot.

Hopefully my group members agree with me. I’ll keep you guys posted.

Until then, keep watching!

References:

Gilliam, T. (Director). (1998). Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas [Motion picture]. USA.

Fincher, D. (Director). (1999). Fight Club [Motion picture]. USA

Hughes, J. (Director). (1985). The Breakfast Club [Motion picture]. USA.