Narration

To narrate means to give an account, a story or a narrative. It is usually going through a sequence of events in chronological order to inform the audience of what is happening or has happened, it is direct contact with the audience and can be considered a form of breaking the fourth wall in terms of audio only if one of the characters are narrating.

From memory of watching them, there are two particular film openings that include narration/voiceovers which really stand out to me, rather than talking about the films openings and the story/narratives themselves I will purely talk about the voiceovers and positives and negatives of it as well as why i like or don't like it and why i think having a voiceover may or may not be useful.

Twilight

I did a blogpost where I looked into the fantasy genre and twilight was the film I analysed, in this post I spoke about the voiceover in this film which you can find here

From looking at the voiceover in this film I learnt that using one can be very powerful as it can give you an insight into the characters mind who is giving it, rather than just introducing you to the story. In the monologue, Bella says "Dying in the place of someone I love seems like a good way to go". This not only gives us insight into the story telling us it may be depressing or intense, however it lets us know a lot about the way Bella thinks as well as her personality, she seems like a very thoughtful person and we can also gather that love clearly means a lot to her. We immediately see from her tone and dialogue that she is a very intense character and so is the storyline.

This type of voiceover/narration isn't necessarily letting the audience know a background story, however its letting them know how a character feels through a monologue, this doesn't always mean the character is directly talking to the audience as sometimes the audience are not addressed by a "you" etc however most of the time it is for the audiences benefit or to set the mood of the film, for example, the mood twilight sets is a dark, heavy and painful one.

Tangled
I did a blogpost analysing this film and for part of it I spoke about the voiceover which you can find here

In this opening a voiceover is used to tell a story, one of the main characters, Flynn, introduces himself in a friendly and relaxed tone. Instead of telling us how he feels or his opinion on a situation he begins to tell us a story about a girl named Rapunzel. He begins his storytelling with 'once upon a time' and gives us the background to it telling us what had happened so many years ago. As he is telling the story we know it is in the past, therefore his relaxed tone at present is reassuring that the film has a happy ending, which will encourage people to watch it. Throughout this voiceover we find out that an old woman was keeping herself young by singing to a magic flower, the magic then transferred to the king and queen's baby girl - specifically, her hair - and the only way she would be able to stay young was if she kid-knapped the princess, raised her as her own and sang to her - activating her magic powers. This immediately tells us the story could be a 'roller coaster' in metaphorical terms, with an underlying sad storyline which we hope will be resolved but also a fun one, with the journey Rapunzel may take from start to end with her powers.

The main difference between the two types above is that tangled directly tells a story and on the screen, voiceovers like this will usually have clips of this story from beginning to end, whereas just a voiceover with no real narration of an actual story usually delivers thoughts and will show a significant event or a clip of something relevant that could be a metaphore for what the voiceover is saying in order to set the atmosphere rather than to inform. I like both forms depending on the type of film and what the producers are trying to convey as they are both very useful however I do prefer the voiceover used in twilight's opening as I feel like it is more emotionally effective and it doesn't give too much away however is all relevant to the story and the audience will realise this as they reach the end of the film - it is more mysterious.

There is an importance of clarity when it comes to narration, as the purpose of it is to inform or make someone aware of something, therefore it should be easy to understand and the message producers are trying to portray should be clear to the audience. Below are pro's and con's of narration

The pros of narration/voiceovers are...

• it can inform the audience of any background story or what is going on
• it can set a mood and atmosphere
• it can let you know more about an individual character
• it can emotionally connect with the audience

The cons of narration/voiceovers are...

• The actors voiceover could be very monotone and boring therefore make the audience become less interested
• It may only give one characters point of view or feelings, being bias

I believe having a voiceover or a form of narration is important and adds to the effect of the film, I think it is a perfect way to portray emotions and I would like to use it in my opening.