I think that through "A Handful of Leaves" the narration is going to be one of the most important parts. Watching the theater kids read their lines at rehearsal sparked my interest in paying attention to the details of the narration. One of the interesting parts was when Kevin told the students to switch the script from first-person to third-person. Many of the students struggled with this task, some even had to re say a similar line 2 and sometimes 3 times. Kevin had also mentioned to the class that he would try and cut out some of this narration so that the whole play wasn't a script reading style show.
I think the narration in this play is going to be crucial to the success of the show. The narrator has to be one with the character and learn exactly how they were feeling at a particular time. Overall narration can be a hard role to fill, but done by the right person it can make or break a play or movie.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Listening to Juno
One of my favorite movie narrators is Juno,
Juno was released in 2007, bringing a comical spin on what would ordinarily be a stressful situation.
I have always enjoyed how she doesn't just talk to the audience, she talks and amuses herself in her own mind. By doing this the mood is always lighter, and it brings more of a variety to the viewer.
I think Dr. Merdinger's autobiography has enough comical happenings to create this sort of effect. The way he describes tension is put forth in a way to manipulate the scenes into being funny and amusing on different levels. When productions reach their audience on multiple emotional levels, it provokes a deeper understanding of the concepts and more retention of the content when they leave.
Juno was released in 2007, bringing a comical spin on what would ordinarily be a stressful situation.
I have always enjoyed how she doesn't just talk to the audience, she talks and amuses herself in her own mind. By doing this the mood is always lighter, and it brings more of a variety to the viewer.
I think Dr. Merdinger's autobiography has enough comical happenings to create this sort of effect. The way he describes tension is put forth in a way to manipulate the scenes into being funny and amusing on different levels. When productions reach their audience on multiple emotional levels, it provokes a deeper understanding of the concepts and more retention of the content when they leave.
My favorite Narrator
A Christmas Story, The Usual Suspects, The Royal Tannenbaums, Forrest Gump, Apocalypse Now, American Beauty, Lord of the Rings, The Sandlot...some of my favorite films with narration, but absolutely my favorite was Morgan Freeman in Shawshank. Perhaps because it is in my top 10 films of all time, but I think it lends towards the story in such a powerful and storytelling style. Generally, narration is a way to deliver complex or large amounts of information in a short time. We don't necessarily need narration for this reason, but I feel that it could be a useful tool to help accomplish the primary objective of the play, which is to shed light on the diary and encourage people to donate other items that hold history to the library.
Because we are telling two different stories, it might be possible to use both suggestions, the inner dialog that Michelle suggested for Leah and the on stage narrator / historical perspective that Joseph suggested for Dr Merdinger. If we go with the second, it could give us an interesting style for the transitions. We could go with the dreamy, foggy-like transitions going from memory to memory while the narrator sets up the scene. Think of being inside someone mind where bits and pieces of memories are floating around and they are the triggers for scenes.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Narration - Inner Monologue
Much of what people consciously report "thinking about" may be thought of as an inner monologue, a conversation with oneself. Some of this can be considered as speech rehearsal.
I saw the script which showing a series of interlaced scenes including dream, imagination, memory, association, speculation and sad motion from protagonist in the process of reading it. My idea is that the narrative can be carried out in the form of the first-person inner monologue. The means that protagonist will read her own psychological feelings. If to do so, may be the performance able to reflect the emotions and feelings from protagonist more directly, contribute to strengthening the rendering of the scene and convey emotion to audience more quick.
Narration in Video Games
Final Fantasy X (FFX) for the
Sony Playstation 2 is the first game of the title with fully voiced narration.
It was one of the first games ever to implement this function and now almost
every big name game does this. Now they even employ famous actor/actresses to
do voice-overs for video games. In FFX and following titles every cut scene and
every important conversation is voiced making the game more immersive
for
players. These narrations progress the story but also set a mood and emotional
content for people to become attached to. The story for these games are
generally very complex and unfold in a nonlinear path, this may be offsetting
for some but many people like the eastern style storytelling methods. I find
similarities to Dr. Merdinger story certain things just cannot be told out
right and have to be explained in detail to give context to the reader. If you
have never played a Final Fantasy game I suggest that you give it a try, they
are great stories with nice graphics and cool game mechanics. FFX is one of the
most interesting and inspiring games I have ever played. The intro cinematic
ties together visual and audio elements that have been copied and emulated many
times over.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqjsWPY21Xo
Friday, February 8, 2013
Narration in the Theater
In 2010 I had the pleasure of seeing The Master Butchers Singing Club in the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, MN (http://www.guthrietheater.org/plays_events/plays/2010/master_butchers_singing_club).
The play prominently featured a narrator character, a younger female half Native American, half German. She would stand close to the audience at the front of the stage, and narrate the story, as though she was apart from it. As a viewer, I was unsure of her role in the story, and often the stories she described would be acted out silently behind her.
As the play moves on, they begin to reveal that she is the modern day version of herself, recounting the tale of her parents meeting. About 3/4ths of the way through the play, time "catches up with her" and she stops narrating and becomes a full fledged character in the play.
I believe that in A Handful of Leaves, having a narrator will provide a great creative license for the digital media side of the show. It casts most of the action as something recounted or remembered, and opens up the opportunity for more dream-like, or memory driven images. What the actors act out what the narrator is saying, we will be able to use digital tools to provide images and feelings that are outside of concrete experience of the play.
The play prominently featured a narrator character, a younger female half Native American, half German. She would stand close to the audience at the front of the stage, and narrate the story, as though she was apart from it. As a viewer, I was unsure of her role in the story, and often the stories she described would be acted out silently behind her.
As the play moves on, they begin to reveal that she is the modern day version of herself, recounting the tale of her parents meeting. About 3/4ths of the way through the play, time "catches up with her" and she stops narrating and becomes a full fledged character in the play.
I believe that in A Handful of Leaves, having a narrator will provide a great creative license for the digital media side of the show. It casts most of the action as something recounted or remembered, and opens up the opportunity for more dream-like, or memory driven images. What the actors act out what the narrator is saying, we will be able to use digital tools to provide images and feelings that are outside of concrete experience of the play.
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