For my new sound-script of the opening voice-over scene of American Beauty, I plan to change the protagonist’s commentary to narration. The protagonist can be considered a commentator because he adds bits of analysis and reflection to the events depicted. He does not fully explain what the audience does not understand, as a narrator might. The narrator in my new sound-script will view the events from a different point in time. Instead of reflecting on the events of the scene from the afterlife, the protagonist will narrate from a position before the resolution of the film. One could argue that this change will simply tell and make the protagonist’s narration useless. His narration is in fact pivotal to the dissonance between ideal and material within the movie. Narration, as opposed to commentary, will place the audience directly into the tension of the events instead of placing the audience in the removed position of the afterlife which the protagonist speaks from. My proposed sound-script should alter and enhance the conflict between the layers of the soundtrack and visuals, because the protagonist’s commentary develops many of these points of dissonance to a limited extent. Also, changing the protagonist’s commentary to narration should engage my research question: How do layers of dissonance between the protagonist’s commentary, music, other sounds, and visuals develop the tension between the ideal and material in the clip from Sam Mendes’ American Beauty. This question is relevant because any piece of literature or film will have dissonance or harmony between societal ideals and the reality prevented in the work. The modes of production that the author uses to make these social statements might say something about the purpose, background, or assumptions of the author.

I am going to try to tie in Kozloff’s piece about criticisms of voice-over narration. Perhaps I could use a quote about “telling” through narration while addressing a counterargument.

My whole claim and sound-script idea seem to weak to me. That’s not really a question. Maybe, how could I make the claim and sound-script stronger?