"Me, Myself and I" : Research on Voiceovers

"Me, Myself and I" : Research on Voiceovers

Further independent research for the film and update with progress.


24/03/13
AB

Research on Voiceovers

It had been difficult to upload the blog lately as there had been mocks to prepare for. Despite this, of course we’ve carried on working with our film and right now we’ve just finished the sequence of the frames that we’re going to use. Currently we’re in the process of recording voice overs. Here's a rough preview of what it looks like right now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbyev5cy3Ns

 

I thought I’d do some research regarding how to do this successfully and so I’ve been looking at films to find some inspiration on how to do this; on how to use the voice over to be informative, yet remain mysterious to hook our audience  and be quite comedic. I’ve watched “Bridget Jones Diary” in which voice over was used to help tell the story which worked extremely well.

 

It’s a perfect example of how to use the voice over in comedies. However as our film deals with a sensitive issue, handling of the voice over must be done with high sensitivity just like how we filmed the scenes.

 I happened to watch “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” directed and written by Stephen Chbosky over the weekend. After putting my intentions on watching it on hold, I finally found the time to see it. I wasn’t quite sure what it was about as I had no time to read more about it but the trailer had sparked curiosity in me that made me want to see it. As the story unfolded, I couldn’t help but draw parallels between this film and our film and so I was delighted by this discovery. Like the protagonist from Chbosky’s film- Charlie, May and him both suffer from a psychological disorder. Out of the films I’ve seen to alike our film to regarding its genre, this is the closest I could find. Though unlike “Me, Myself and I”, it had very light trace of comedy but was heavy on drama, romance and coming of age. Its target audience was adolescents and as it was a coming-of-age film, in my opinion it had successfully met its target audience. Aside from the fact that it was starring a well-known actress- Emma Watson the construction of characterisation of Charlie and representation made the film intriguing.

 

In the trailer as audience we’re left to immediately sympathize with Charlie as he opens with typing on his typewriter accompanied by the voice over reading it “Dear friend…”. It gives us access to his thoughts and it’s as though we’re the person whom he’s writing to. He does this throughout the whole film, just like Bridget Jones; he documents his experience. The film was moving and at the same time it was relatable, the film had effectively made a connection with its audience. This had made me think about the way in which we should approach the making of the voice over for our film. To somehow make a fair balance of comedy and drama- combine “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and “Bridget Jones” style of voice over, to make the narration realistic and enjoyable.  

After watching this film I happened to come across another recent film which stars another central character that suffers from a psychological disorder as well; “Silver Linings Playbook” written by Matthew Quick and directed by David O.Russell. It was less alike to our film as the target audience is aimed for those in their adulthood but nonetheless helpful for drawing comparison our film to. I studied how humour is created in this film; most of its humour is done through the inappropriateness of the characters. We laugh from astonishment of how they’re so ridiculously grotesque. Unlike “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”, the humour in this film is done through the mimic of the life of adolescents. Regarding the comedic element, I think that our film will take the same approach as "ThePerks of Being a Wallfower" as the humoour for "Silverlinings Playbook" is too mature or our target audience. Overall, this weekend had been extremely helpful as it enabled me to have a refreshing approach to our film. I can’t wait to discuss this with my group as we try to tackle the voice over for our film, hopefully it will help us achieve our goal.