Notes on movies:

-Captions: a narrating device

-Flashbacks: off screen speech or interior monologue

-Voice-over narration: viewers hear someone recount of series of events from a time and space different from that simultaneously pictured

-Narrators: They can be a third person voice outside the story of events or a character/participant in the story world

 

                People might object to the use of voice-over narration because it takes away from the “cinema.”  The argument seems to be that movies have been trying to separate themselves from theater and literature and they do so by showing rather than telling.  The haters of narration think that it is the lazy way out.  That a producer or director that decides to include narration is not using their most artistic and creative abilities and is rather taking the easy way out.  I think in essence, the disapproval of narration stems from directors who are trying to turn an amusement, cinema, into an art.

                 Kozloff feels the need to defend voice-over narration because she sees how much it can add to a movie and not detract.  She says that voice-over narration is “no more or less inherently valuable or cinematic then any other element of film. And when this device is well-executed, it opens up inimitable avenues for filmmakers.”  I think she has a great point.  Narration is no different than great camera angles or intuitive lighting.  All of these elements are what make a good movie great.  Also, she explains how voice over really does add to a movie’s content especially historically.  A narrator is able to set the historical scene for the listener with the listener having to do background research just to watch their $13.00 movie.  In terms of business, the average customer does not go to the movies to see a work of art, rather they go for entertainment and escape.  They also don’t want to pay $13.00 to see a movie where they are lost because they don’t know the historical context. 

                I wouldn’t say that I am very familiar with voice-over narration.  I actually don’t really notice it and I am going to have to spend a few minutes thinking about movies……hold on…………. “Simon Burch,” “Clueless,” “Forrest Gump,” that’s all.  Kozloff’s writing did not really intersect with my familiarity except for her saying that most people don’t really think about narration.  I think that I am going to analyze “Simon Burch.”