This piece was interesting because it went over the different definitions of voice-over, its use through history, and why it is underrated and why it shouldn’t be. Someone could object to voice-over by degrading it like in the movie Adaption or writing a critique by saying that a movie isn’t good because it used voice-over narration. Such people object to voice-over narration because they believe it is taking away from the art form known as cinema. They see that combining other art forms with cinema degrades the whole meaning of cinema and they see other art forms as a threat to the existence of cinema. As Kozloff wrote, “From the beginning, film aficionados have felt the need to defend cinema as an art and do so by setting it apart from other media, especially theatre and literature.” Film critics and lovers alike love to separate art into different categories which, in my opinion is completely wrong. She even says that intellectuals and filmmakers saw “in speech the death of film art…film is a visual art, speech should never have a leading role.” I completely disagree. All arts are unique yet similar. One art can learn from another and to even extend this idea, art can learn from science and vice versa. No matter how different the subject matter there is something to be learned and contributed from every category. It is the same with people- no matter how different the person is from you, you can learn something from them. They can leave a mark in your life, just as different arts can leave their signature in cinema. In turn cinema leaves its powerful message to world through it’s medium of various arts.Kozloff defends voice-over narration because of its impact on movies and the audience. Voice-over helps us to learn more about a certain situation, about a certain character, or even the character’s thoughts. All in all voice-over can enhance the viewer’s experience if done right. Kozloff uses many examples to defend her point including the movies Cries and Whispers, Lolita, Taxidriver, Days of Heaven, American Beauty, and Fight Club. She describes the use of voice-narration from the time sound came into movies in the 1920s till the present.Seeing the vast use of voice-over narration one would think there’d be no need to defend it. Kozloff even says in her introduction that voice-over narration has become such an integral part of movies that us movie-goers of the recent generation don’t even notice its existence. I think this is true because personally I never really knew what voice-over narration was, and even if subconsciously I did, I never noticed it in movies. I believe that Kozloff has given me a better understanding of the different voice-over narrations, and now that I know what it is, I will be looking out for it in movies. Once you learn something new about movies, don’t you notice it when you go watch one? I know when I learned about the different english terms in high school, I started noticing them in books, and when I learned new vocabulary in dance, I would notice it when I saw a performance.Looking at the definition of voice-over I am considering Fight Club, The Notebook, and Memoirs of a Geisha for my analysis on voice-over narration. I am not sure if Memoirs of a Geisha and The Notebook can be considered as having voice-over narration but I believe that Fight Club has quite a bit. I believe The Notebook has a lot of voice-over narration as the story is that of an old man telling his his wife their love story. Memoirs of a Geisha is told through the eyes of the geisha herself, and although Kozloff says this isn’t a type of voice-over narration, I am sure there are parts in the movie that can be considered voice-over narration.Questions:Fight Club:“Which parts are good examples of voice-over narration?”“How does voice-over narration help us learn more about the characters and enhance our viewing of the movie?”  The Notebook: “How is the old man telling his love story to his wife voice-over narration? What characterizes it as voice-over narration?”“What some good examples of voice-over narration in the movie?” Memoirs of a Geisha:“Can this movie be considered as having voice-over narration?”“If so what are some good examples and how does it enhance our viewing?”  

“This is much, much, stronger than a visual experience, which tacitly distances you, places you in a transcendent, removed position, rather than embodying you at the center of a new context. My question here is: why are acoustic spaces so effective in this regard? What is it about sound that is so potentially immersive? I think it has to do with how we register it—how it affects different areas of the body and mind than visuals do. Affect is a tremendously important dimension of experience, and one of the most difficult to achieve in a visual environment.” (Davis, Acoustic Cyberspace)

The word choice throughout the talk is very sophisticated and gives us an extravagant taste of his opinions. This paper was a complicated read and though I didn’t understand all of it he used good evidence to make his point. Throughout the talk he uses various sources of evidence such as the radio, sounds from earlier years to now, and the different meanings of words to emphasize the importance of sound on our generation. This quote also implies the importance of sound over visual experience. Sound is very important to our generation and has become a way of individualizing ourselves. Individuality and uniqueness are two important topics in our world today and I believe music is one of the many solutions we have created to form an identity for ourselves. But I disagree with the fact that visuals aren’t important because I believe they are just as important as sound. First impressions aren’t made by sounds but by looks, and the way we interpret the world around us is a balance between the visual and the acoustic. It says acoustic spaces affect us in the body and mind but so do visuals. I believe that visuals can equally make me a feel an emotion just as a certain sound or song does. At the end of his talk, Davis says, “all popular music functions, particularly for young people, as a way to construct and define a whole worldview.” And I completely agree but what about visuals? The way we perceive this world isn’t clear-cut into acoustics and visuals. Instead it is a combination of the two. Only with a combination between sounds and visuals can we completely understand the world around and make our interpretations of it. Some may argue that those that are blind or deaf can only perceive one way or the other and that they are successful. I agree but when we have both doesn’t it make it a more wholesome experience? God gave us five senses so why not utilize them all to understand ourselves and our surroundings better?

“For example I quoted Chion in the paper when he says, “Sight is generally what we rely on for orientation, because the naming and recognition of forms is vastly more subtle and precise in visual terms than with any other channel of perception.” I used this quote to explain how when watching movies, we focus on the images and characters that we see. This would lead you to conclude that, “The idea that recognition is more precise in visual terms leaves little purpose and reason for using sound and narration in films.” (Nordstrom, First Major Paper)

Megan directs her paper toward other 121 students and her writing was simpler to understand. Once again this author quotes how visual images plays a vital role in our life but here she says that the visual images impair our ability to pay attention and focus on sound. This may be true, but I believe that sound enhances the visual perception and that the visuals enhance the sound perception. I believe that both sounds and visuals and all of our other senses play a vital role in how we perceive the world. Megan gets her point across by using quotes as evidence. The quotes are sophisticated and help get her point across.

 

Relating the 2 quotes:

Both quotes emphasize the importance of either sound or visuals but neither of them emphasizes the importance of both. I believe that both sound and visuals are vital to understanding the world around us.  

One of my favorite service learning experiences was my volunteer service at a hospital in India during the summer before my senior year. I worked with my uncle in his hospital and helped with taking blood pressure, temperature, pulse, and other basic medical procedures that could easily be learned. This experience was very positive and productive because it allowed me to help those in need. I worked with the families of the paitients and saw some of the conditions these people were living in. I believe by doing medicine you can help those less fortunate than you as my uncle is doing and being a part of that was amazing. This experience will carry on to my other service learning opportunities as many of the same skills will need to be used when dealing with children. The same respect needs to be given to the children as was given to the paitients. You have to be paitient and work through problems together. Although these two services will be very different, they will also be very similar.  

The playlist seems to follow this person’s life from when he was a little kid to where he is now.

Other songs that might fit on his playlist are more hip hop/rap/r and b songs such as I’m So Hood by DJ Khaled, Kiss Kiss by Chris Brown, Hip Hop Police by Chamillionare, Get Buck in Here by Akon, Hit the dance floor by DJ Unk, and Superman by Soulja Boy.

From the playlist I can assume that he lived in Scotland, that he is asian, he played mario, he watched pinky and the brain and animaniacs as a little kid, he moved, he started liking gangsta music, he might have been part of a sports team at newport, he came to the University of Washington, and joined the frat Sigma Nu.