Week 10: Voice Over, Soundtrack and Rough Cut

Week Ten

Workshop
This week was about voice over, soundtrack and reviewing the rough cut that we had made of our creative project.

I wasn't present for this workshop so i decided to do some of my own research online:

"When we think of voiceover, our minds often leap to an omniscient narrator who tells us a story from somewhere else and describes what we’re seeing to us. 

Another type of voice over, employed by protagonists rather than omniscient narrators, is the type used commonly in hard-boiled film noir films. Here, the narrator, who is also the main character, punctuates the overall narrative by providing voiceover narration where he or she speaks directly to the audience.

As filmmaking and storytelling has evolved, both of these forms of voiceover narration have begun to feel antiquated. With writing instruction putting an emphasis on “showing not telling”, the idea of revealing important information through voiceover is at times now thought of as a cop out. Voiceover may be used as a way to detach dialogue from a particular image. This technique is used especially well in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

In this technique, the writer uses voiceover to place lines that would have chronologically been spoken at a different place or time over an image in a separate one. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, this is used to create a tapestry of time and space. It’s used very subtly in the following clip after he says “I did”."

( Source: https://www.lightsfilmschool.com/blog/voice-over/1592 )

This article was useful because it told me about voice over narration in fictional film rather than documentary so i cangt a well rounded perspective and understanding of it.it allowed me to understand different types of narration and supported its arguments with examples, for example i now  i know that omniscient narrators are often seen in film noir films and its where the protagonist also is the voice over explaining the narrative. while this article was informative i did find that, although i felt the fictional narration was useful, it could have branched out into non-fictional films just to provide a more knowledgable and expanded view.

"How to make a great documentary narration: 

1) Attract Audiences with a Great Voice

A good documentary voiceover reads smoothly and clearly, and enunciates well. Documentary narrators often have particularly engaging voices and are unlikely to exhibit any kind of displeasing characteristic — like shrillness — which would make listeners want to tune out.

2) Narrate to Match the Documentary’s Tone

These days, you can find documentaries about all kinds of topics, from global warming to the lives of pop stars. Most documentary filmmakers know to choose a documentary narration that fits the content and tone of the film (sometimes this even means choosing an accented voiceover).Traditionally, you’re probably not going to hear the voice of a teen girl narrating an environmental documentary, just as you’re unlikely to find a solemn professorial voice narrating a Beyoncé documentary.This isn’t a hard and fast rule, obviously, and the choice of voice talent may depend on the target audience as well. For instance, an environmental documentary aimed at kids would not be ill served by a youthful voiceover.

3) Enhance Your Documentary Narration with Localization

In the interest of appealing to different audiences, some documentaries may choose to localize documentary narration for different areas of the world.The documentary “Planet Earth,” for example, used professional narration by David Attenborough for the original BBC version, while Sigourney Weaver provided the voiceover for the Discovery Channel’s US version. Localising documentary voiceovers by using more than one narrator may be recommended for films hoping to reach audiences from diverse language backgrounds."

(Source: https://www.accreditedlanguage.com/2016/08/18/how-to-make-a-great-documentary-narration/)

This source was very useful As we we as a group were planning to do a voice over it allowed me to understand the different tips and techniques needed to make a voice effective and relevant to the film in creation. - *we didn't end up recording a voice over narration for the documentary as the interview proved to be enough content and well informed to act as an almost voice over than ran throught the entirety of the documentary. i feel that while a voice over would have worked, it seems almost ore professional without one and becomes much more intimate and engaging with an interview that can act as a conversational effect with the audience. i feel the intimacy is an important part of our film and the interview works really well with the intimate and soft musical interludes used in our documentary.