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.