Invisible Storytellers started off with a really nice image. Kozloff describes oral storytelling as one of the oldest, most fundamental narrations, while cinematic storytelling is the youngest technologically dependant narrations. And then to combine the two… She then goes on to define what exactly voice over narration is, describing it as the narration by somebody who is in a different time than what they’re narrating, among other requirements. The history of voice over narration was also really interesting, seeing how it developed over the years. The first article was about that, and the second one goes more in-depth, showing how it first started (broadcast radio). Even with Voice over narration spanning close to a century, there is still fierce debate over it.

Many opponents of voice over narration deride the directors who use it as lazy. Also many people argue that films are art, and thus they should be treated as it, not diluting it with vioce over narration. They say that cinema is unique in its capacity to convey images and meaning to to viewer. While this may have been true, nowadays, I think, movies are more an outlet just to relax. Instead of studying the actors actions and guessing on what it means, voice over narration can tell the viewer what the actor is thinking. Of course, that means that there would be less variety in the interpretations of the movie. And thus, opponents of voice over narration argue that it means the directors are insulting the viewers, by telling them and not letting them figure out on their own.

From her word choice here “So it has been throughout the history of filmmaking. Many have issued pronouncements against voice-over, and few have murmured in its defense” it makes me think that over the years, all anybody hears about Voice over narration is negative. Many Pronounce the faults of it, while few murmer the virtues of it. Kozloff seems to be a very big proponent of voice over narration, and is very passionate about it. Thus, she would want to do something about it; get people to know the other side of voice over narration. How it can enhance a story. Kozloff writes that voice over narration can effectively add whole new layers to a movie at could be achieved otherwise. She also says that since oral commentary is one of the most basic and fundamental narrations, doing voice over narration will only serve to heighten your experience by making it feel more “natural”

For me, think about movies I watched, I cant really come up with any movies off of the top of my head that featured Voice over narration. I suspect it is because like Kozloff said, a really fundamental type of narration. Thus, I can assume that when I watch a movie, I don’t pay attention to voice over narration. I take it in, but because oral commentary has been wired into the brian from all those millenia, I just take it in without thinking. Looking over films, I think it’d be interesting to do analysis for A Clockwork Orange