Soundscript

My newly proposed soundscript for the “Stranger Than Fiction” clip will feature the watch as the narrator.  From the opening scene where the watch is sitting on the nightstand, the watch will introduce itself to the audience.  As Crick, the main character, begins to go about his daily business, the watch will be heard (only by the audience) commanding Crick to do things in an orderly way.  In the instance of Crick brushing his teeth and tying his tie, his wristwatch’s voice will be heard commanding his actions.

Research Question

How does our dependency on discipline affect our society?  To what extend are we controlled by orders and the demands of others?  How does the role of power factor into the workplace and the development of “super-scheduling devices”?

My Claim

Our dependency on discipline has led to new developments that take advantage of this dependency.  New watches and cell phones are emerging in the marketplace; these new devices are geared towards commanding us to perform actions, albeit preprogrammed by the user.  Such devices are designed to verbally announce the user’s upcoming schedule, important reminders, and other notifications.  While this may seem an innocent development, it is a very real possibility that this technology will someday enslave us: our tasks preprogrammed and assigned to us, and our lives carefully structured to increase efficiency.

Stakes

The stakes pertain to all societies as technology continues to develop and current trends of the workplace (power ladders, subjugation, etc) continue.  To what extent are we really dependent on such disciplines?  These are important to us because we would all like to think that we have control over our own lives and the way we do things.  The claim should be a step towards investigating this issue.

New Versus Old: The Soundscript

With the narrator now being the wristwatch, how will the connotations from Stranger Than Fiction be different than when the narrator was an author writing a book?  With the new narrator we will see the transformation of a previously implied dependency on the wristwatch to an immediately literal example of dependency on the device.

Support

I’d like to include articles and quotes from site such as Gizmodo.com, where information on upcoming and futuristic new designs for ipods, cell phones, and watches are emerging, such as the type of technology that would be necessary to (eventually) turn the ‘talking wristwatch’ idea into a reality.

Questions

I think I’ve settled on a better soudscript than I’d originally planned, but it’s been somewhat slow-going, trying to further develop the idea.  I wonder if I’ll be able to incorporate movies such as Office Space and Falling Down in the whole scheme of dependency on discipline, and the development of anxiety in the workplace as a sort of relationship between dependency on orders and the stress associated with low-lever worker roles.

Today Jentery exclaimed, “You’re all claim and no support!” Sounds like my last breakup.

Here it is! Enjoy! Go, the future!

Mock Paper (.docx)

UPDATE:

Indeed, how we make knowledge is the first question. For you sans Word 2007, below is the mock paper in two other formats:

Mock Paper (.doc)

Mock Paper (.rtf)

How can information be free when it’s formatted?

Sound-script explanation
My new sound-script would use a young woman’s voice, instead of an older man’s.  The narrator would use most of the original scripts, but change the French names of the places where Amelie’s parents work to common American names or an English translation of the French words.  The narrator would speak in American English, instead of French.

My Research Question
How does the nationality or language spoken, gender, and    age of the narrator affect the delivery of character introductions and how audiences of different nationalities, genders, and ages perceive these characters?

My Claim
All people are conscious of nationality or race, gender, and age, no matter how “color-blind” or unprejudiced we would like to idealize ourselves to be.  This consciousness is an anthropological trait belonging to all human beings.  A narrator’s power to sway or influence an audience in different directions comes from the degree an audience member can connect with them.  When the language/nationality, gender, and age of the narrator is changed, the cultural feel of a film and the audience’s perception of the character’s introduced will be altered.  This claim is reasonable because I think the film Amelie contains many elements that give the film a French or Parisian feel, beginning with first voice in the film, that of the narrator.  When the narrator is Americanized, that feeling could vanish.  The claim is risky because some people could argue that the nationality, gender, and age of the narrator is irrelevant because there is universality in the message of Amelie.

The Stakes
The stakes are mainly cultural or national.  Is is possible to change an audience’s opinion of characters by merely using a different language?  Do people subconsciously stereotypes of different cultures or nationalities?  The stakes are high because I think many people don’t want to be associated with any cultural bias that could change our interpretation of characters, but my claim and sound-scripts could give evidence that it can.

The new sound script vs the multimedia composition
My new sound-script will augment my clip and strip it of it’s “French feel” and fatherly tone by Americanizing the language and changing the narrator’s sex.  I think that many Americans believe that the French language is beautiful and charming.  When Americans watch this film in its original state, they might romanticize the film further because of the language.  When the narration is delivered in English, will Amelie lose it’s magic?  A young female narrator could have less credibility as a storyteller compared to a wise old man because she could lack crucial life experience.

Artifact
I think I would use Kozloff’s Introduction because she writes that most of her research has been on American and British narrative feature films.  She commented that French filmmakers often use narration to comment upon or subvert Hollywood patterns.  I think her writing could help me in my analysis of this French film, and my attempt to change its culture.  I am also considering finding books from the library about how French cinema reflects French culture.

Questions
My question is to figure out whether my research question really contains a general subject, time span, place, a body, and a social issue.  Also I’d like an opinion on if keeping the original script, but changing the language, sex, and age of the narrator is enough change to have a significant effect.

To raise your spirits, let’s begin with a clip:

Now, let’s whip up the framework for a Major Paper 1 on a new sound-script for Roger & Me.

First, aside from making a new sound-script, what do we have to do?

• Make a complex claim about why your sound-script matters and how it intersects with an important social issue relevant to your film or TV show.
• Be supported by intertextualized evidence from the following materials:

• Your new sound-script,
• Your film or TV show (visuals or sounds),
• At least one peer-reviewed journal article or academic text outside of the course material, and
• (OPTIONAL) A selection from the 121 course material.

• Demonstrate an awareness of your sound-script’s rhetorical strategies and conventions.
• Use writing strategies that are proper to academic writing to argue why your sound-script matters.
• Include an appropriate title.

Ok, now we also need to make sure we cover the course outcomes. Today, we’ll focus especially on the first three and begin with some important pre-writing questions.

• Who is our audience? What do they expect? (MLA, for one)
• What evidence do we have to work with? (I’m thinking of at least five here.)
• What tools from class do we have to work with? (I’m thinking of at least five here, too.)
• What’s our primary artifact of analysis? And what is the gist of it? What is it arguing? How is it engaging Roger & Me?

Now that we have a toolbox, the prompt, and the course outcomes in hand, let’s frame the paper.

• Introduction: What might it include?
• Body: What might it include?
• Conclusion? What might it include?

Here’s an example paragraph that I wrote about Roger & Me for 121, should you wish to use it as an example. Note the use of three-step analysis.

In his 1989 documentary film, Roger and Me, Michael Moore assumes the role of narrator, a position through which he verbally arranges the visual material, describes and contextualizes it, and ultimately makes an argument about it. That argument is essentially that General Motors (GM), and particularly GM’s chief executive officer (CEO), Roger Smith, ruined the economy and culture of Flint, Michigan when they closed their factories and consequently laid off over thirty thousand GM employees. Importantly, Moore grew up in Flint. As such, Roger and Me might be understood as Moore’s way of speaking for the people of Flint–representing them through the film, articulating their histories and best interests on their behalf, and circulating those representations, histories, and interests to an audience beyond the city’s physical limits. For example, consider a trailer for the film, in which Moore declares: “To raise [the people of Flint’s] spirits, I made this movie.” The visuals corresponding with Moore’s voice-over narration consist of a large crowd of (ostensibly angry) people, who are presumably from Flint. This crowd collectively exclaims, “Fire Roger Smith! Fire Roger Smith!” And so, in subsequent scenes, the audience witnesses Michael Moore engaging in a hopeless search for the elusive CEO of GM. Of note, the audience also hears Moore sarcastically narrating his own experiences, helping the audience move from visual to visual and transitioning them between the documentary’s informational gaps. In short, the audience is to understand Michael Moore not only as the documentary’s narrator, who synthesizes audio and video with the film’s plot and Flint’s history, but also as a type of superhero or champion, who seeks justice for the people of Flint at all costs. However, if we consider arguments such as Linda Martín Alcoff’s “The Problem of Speaking for Others,” then Moore’s voice-overs and narrative approach, especially his appropriation of others, may be ethically problematic. Additionally, when considering the generic conventions of Roger and Me as a documentary, Moore’s various rhetorical moves, though persuasive, might very well lead an audience to inaccurate or extremely biased conclusions about Flint’s people, culture, and economy. The next question is, then: How might an alternative mode of narration resolve the apparent dissonance between Moore, as narrator, and the city of Flint, as Moore’s “subjects”?

Briefly explains your new sound-script (e.g., its purpose, audience, and narrative style).

The purpose of my new sound script is basically to make Cher sound smarter, less priveleged, and less of a Valley girl, to connect more with the original story, and see what the effect is. The audience is everyone, really, but mostly my 121 peers and Jentery. I am going to retain a female speaker, probably myself, and try to speak in a more intelligent manner.

States your research question (from Response Paper 1.4).

My question for my research paper is going to be “How is Cher’s personality conveyed through the visuals versus the narration in Clueless?”

Expresses the main claim of your first major paper and why you believe the claim is reasonable and risky.

 I believe that although the visuals show that she is rich, pretty, popular, and likes to shop, it shows little about her actual personality. Her voice brings her real character to life, especially with the insights into her thoughts we are given through the voice over. Her voice very distinctly tells us she is rich, white, priveleged, self absorbed, and not terribly bright, but sweet and compassionate.My claim is risky, because it implies that Cher’s personality is far more dependent on her voice than her appearance– that to change her voice would be to change who she is, but is also reasonable because I have evidence that Cher’s voice was more researched than her appearance, and thus meant to be more important.

Explains the stakes of your argument and why your claim and new sound-script are both important/Articulates how your new sound-script serves to augment, critique, or complicate your chosen film or TV show/ Provides one artifact (e.g., a journal article, academic text, or selection from the course material) that you will be using in support of your new sound-script.

For my new sound script, I’m going to make her sound more mature, intelligent, and aware, through better vocabulary, removing the whine in her voice, and removing its inherent tone of privelege and stereotypical Valley girl. Of course, in this sound script, I run the risk of making Cher into a less lovable character, which would not make the audience happy, but may get the message of do-gooding across more easily. As Koslov says “voice over narration has been a major element of narration since the thirties; so very common that it actually passes the average moviegoer unnoticed”. This is a very valid point, particularly when the voice over is very… expected? is that the word? Like it is in Clueless. I want the audience to notice the voice over, for it tells more of what kind of person Cher is, disregarding the Valley girl and all that, I mean that she really does want to do good, and genueinely cares about people, instead of passing over her and disregarding her acts as misguided and/or selfish.

Raises any specific questions you have about your claim, your analysis, or your research. Of course, your questions can be about any nervousness or frustration you are having. Remember: both nervousness and frustration are a part of the writing process

I’m kind of sketchy on what my social issue really is… something to do with privelege, but what specifically? I also don’t really know how to make my paper as complex as it needs to be… I think part of my paper could tie into privelege and service, as that is what the movie is about, Cher trying to provide others with service, but… I just don’t know.

My new sound-script for the film 300 looks into several things, one of which is the idea of speaking for others. The film speaks for the historical tale of the Battle of Thermopylae. The movie depicts the (all-white) Spartans as men that are practically gods. The Spartans in the film contain just about every generic manly man stereotype one could think of. The Persians on the other hand, are depicted to have feminine features. I am writing my sound-script towards a general audience as well as towards movie producers and directors. For my first major paper I will be researching the idea of East vs. West that has been developed throughout our society and which is present in the film 300.

Overall, I have a lot of nervousness and frustration towards this paper because I can’t completely compile my ideas into one concrete plan.

Artifacts: I will take concepts from Alcoff’s article about speaking for others.  Essentially the Spartans and the Persians during the Battle of Thermopylae are being spoken for by the director of the film.

My research question deals with the movie trailer for I Am Legend, starring Will Smith. Though it was originally a novel published during the 1950s, it has been transformed into sound and video. As explained in my Response Paper 1.4, “I am going to be researching the question of how, in I Am Legend, the power of voice-over-narration has the ability to expose the shifting tones of the trailer as well as correlate with the shifting imagery. This is an important question because it allows the audience to understand how voice-over-narration can draw attention to the shifts in tone. By effectively conveying the tone, the trailer can appeal directly to the targeted audience and fulfill its purpose of promoting the film.”

This is important in the big picture because by being able to manipulate sound to shift the tone and mood of a film, one can effectively target any audience. This is an economic point of view which allows money to be generated. The new sound-script would be targeting an audience who is into science-fiction and action. I believe that I could make this trailer, although effective already, even more powerful. A sense of mystery could be vamped up, while at the same time, portions of the trailer could have a sense of serenity and peacefulness. I want to prove that sound and voice-over-narration has the ability to fully shift the mood and feeling of video just by slight changes.

This research question and claim is reasonable and risky because it does make sense when you think about it. Sound is a powerful tool, which if harnessed correctly, can yield results which are desired. Shifting tones can be somewhat difficult to do just by having the voice-over-narration shifted. To clearly hear a difference in mood during the beginning, middle, and end of the trailer, much of the sound-script must be altered in a perfect way to match up visually with the scenes.

The stakes are economic and financial, which is why it is so important. The new sound-script could create tones which appeal to a wider audience which draws in more people to see the film. Is it possible to make the tones shift from a somber tone to a happy and cheerful tone just by changing the audio? Perhaps a complete change of the sound-script to create a feeling of delight could be done. This would be quite difficult with the current visuals, but it can be done. Though, the question here would be, how effective would this new sound-script be in drawing in the audience? Creating all these changes to the sound can potentially make the success of the film great, or greatly diminish.

Erik Davis states in “Acoustic Cyberspace”that “‘Atmosphere’ might be a good way to describe this aspect: sound produces atmosphere, almost in the way that incense—which registers with yet another sense—can do. Sound and smell carry vectors of mood and affect which change the qualitative organization of space, unfolding a different logic with a space’s range of potentials.” The tone can easily shift the film’s atmosphere just by adjusting what is played through the speakers. That is why this question is so important. How does the voice-over-narration and sound expose the shifting tones of the trailer? By means of words, music, or both? Can words be just as effective as the music playing? What connotations come from the diction of the trailer?

1. New Sound-Script:

This sound-script is primarily directed to my peers in 121B. Since the class is talking about voice-over and its importance, my claim deals with another aspect of voice-over and how it might more effectively engage the viewer of the movie. In this sound-script, I will focus on recording a voice-over for the same scene in A Mighty Heart with Angelina Jolie where her character is having to confront what happened to her beheaded husband before she gives birth to their child. I really felt that the voice-over’s style was effective, so I don’t want to drastically change the format, but rather include a greater emphasis on sound effects (like heavy breathing) in the cut. Minimal words will be said and instead of a narrative of what happened to her husband, I want to experiment with other sound effects that might also convey the message of the clip

2. Research Question:

How can the mere act of breathing engage the audience in a deeper manner rather than the use of words?

3. Claim:

The sound and visuals angles in a clip are both intertwined to create a harmony in the movie, but there are different types of voice-over which can be more effective in creating that unity in the clip. In a movie such as A Mighty Heart, the selected clip was intended to show the raw emotion of Jolie’s character. Just expressing her feelings verbally doesn’t convey that raw emotion in the way that short, heavy breaths do. So in some scenarios, sound effects can be more convincing than mere words. This is a risky claim because sound effects aren’t effective in every type of voice-over narration, so I need to clearly express the difference and give examples of correct and effective usage.

4. Importance of Claim and Sound-Script:

As stated in the first category, the class is studying the importance of voice-over narration, so my claim and sound-script present a different style of voice-over which further engages the idea of how voice-over might be important in the film industry.

5. Artifact:

I think the best artifact to use is Kozloff’s article, the “Introduction.” I am discussing the basics of voice-over in my claim and in order to do so I need to use the initial definitions presented to the class. This is a common ground which most of the class understands.

6. Questions about Claim:

– In what scenarios do sound effects create a negative effect towards a clip from a movie?

– Not a question, but I’m concerned about my ability to provide evidence to support my claim, and not be redundant in my paper.

My research question is how the revelations that voice-over narration provides impact the audience’s opinion of Will. In particular, how do these stylistic elements evoke a different reaction to Will than his personality alone evokes, and a different reaction than if the viewers met him in real life?

The original soundscript for my clip from About a Boy mixes Will’s voice-over narration with dialogue between Will and Angie. My new soundscript will keep some of both but will also introduce voice-over narration by Angie. In her commentary, she will call attention to and dismiss some or all of the faults Will displays in the scene: artificialness/deception, shallowness, self-absorption, and a lack of compassion. For instance, when Will falsely declares how deeply he loves children, Angie seems to believe his scam in the original film. In my soundscript, she will scoff at what she considers a blatant attempt to fool her and reflect that she finds his display charming. She will guide the viewer toward personally developing a more positive view of Will by offering a favorable interpretation of his character flaws herself, by demonstrating that he has not succeeded in duping her, and possibly through the cultural stereotypes associated with her feminine voice (that’s an argument I’m still toying with).

Some may argue that making Will likeable defeats the purpose of giving him such an obnoxious personality, but such critics fail to recognize the complexities of a well-produced film. Will is not a stock villain but the protagonist. For the viewers to become emotionally engaged in his struggles, blunders, and triumphs, and thus find the film engaging, they must develop a connection with him in spite of his repulsive character. I believe the film already allows the audience to do this to a certain extent. Angie’s narration would build upon what the filmmakers have already done, adding one more way the audience can connect with Will.

Other critics would reject the addition of Angie’s commentary as gratuitous. They would complain that it provides no new revelations about Will as compared to the original soundscript. This argument misses the purpose of Angie’s narration, which is not to supply extra information about Will’s personality but to interpret and comment upon the information, guiding the audience’s thoughts and impressions in the intended direction.

My new soundscript attends to how the audience’s view of a character is somewhat independent of the character’s personality, heavily dependent on other techniques used to portray the character. This is largely a contrast to how we form opinions of others in real life: without a screenwriter crafting a careful lens through which we view someone, we must rely more heavily on raw personality.

For my artifact, I’m favoring Kozloff’s article, “A Defense – and History – of Voice-Over Narration.” I particularly like the sentence where she says, “Indeed, narration is such a powerful device for deepening characterizations and leading viewers to share a character’s perspective that some film theorists see ‘the voice’ as a counterpoint to “the gaze.” (Italics mine) A huge part of my new narration is that Angie sees Will in a positive light in spite of his flaws; I want the audience to do the same when they listen to her.

I do have a few questions/problems. First, I noticed the major-paper description requires a source outside the course material. I did a fair amount of searching online tonight for one, and I’ve been unsuccessful so far. I knew what I wanted to find, and I felt like it must be out there somewhere, but I just couldn’t find it. I expect the lovely librarians at Odegaard can help me, though. Second, when I was talking to you during virtual office hours, you recommended that I address the topic of gender since I introduce a female narrator. You said gender could even be the social issue my claim attends to. I really like that idea, but I’m struggling with what to say about gender in relation to my claim. I did find one article (http://psp.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/32/6/806) that sort of said feminine/female voices are seen as “sensitive” and kind,” while masculine/male voices are “cold” (807). I had a vague idea that a female voice dicussing Will’s faults portrays him in a better light than his own voice does, or that Angie’s female voice makes people more inclined to agree with her claims that Will’s a good guy, or something…

My final problem is about my quote addressing a social issue. Right now, my social issue is how we perceive characters independently of their personality, but I’m not really sure whether or not this is an acceptable issue. If I can find some way to engage gender, then my social issue can be about the stereotypes and associations surrounding male vs. female voices. But, as I said, I’m struggling with the gender thing.