Is it considered bad to narrate during a montage?

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  • Is it considered bad to narrate during a montage?

    Hi Guys,

    I'm trying to write a 3 year training montage. While the protag is growing through the training, the coach is explaining the context behind the training. Is there an effective way to accomplish this without it being considered bad?

    I say "bad" because I read somewhere that you should avoid speaking during a montage and let the action speak for itself.

    Your thoughts?

    Thank you,

    KENTA

  • #2
    Re: Is it considered bad to narrate during a montage?

    Wherever you read that is crazy. Do whatever you want.

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    • #3
      Re: Is it considered bad to narrate during a montage?

      Awesome! Thanks Ron

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      • #4
        Re: Is it considered bad to narrate during a montage?

        Don't take me as the authority figure on this. Your writing is the authority figure. If it works it works if it doesn't it doesn't. Nobody can tell you for sure what or what not to do unless they are paying you.

        From what I gather, based on what you said, it sounds like it would work much better to have a tonally correct and non-expositional narrative during the montage than to have nothing at all.

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        • #5
          Re: Is it considered bad to narrate during a montage?

          Only if it doesn't work.
          TimeStorm & Blurred Vision Book info & blog: https://stormingtime.com//

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          • #6
            Re: Is it considered bad to narrate during a montage?

            It's not bad form per se.

            It's easy to imagine that it could work.

            Be careful of the pitfalls of both montages and voiceovers: voiceovers can be redundant. Montages can be non-dramatic.

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            • #7
              Re: Is it considered bad to narrate during a montage?

              Maybe check out the new Ocean's 11 movies. Act Two in those movies is practically one long montage with VO. Maybe check out how they do it, how it works, how it doesn't, and go from there.

              And like most screenwriting "rules" -- be brave enough to break 'em.

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              • #8
                Re: Is it considered bad to narrate during a montage?

                Originally posted by F.Scott.Frazier View Post
                Maybe check out the new Ocean's 11 movies. Act Two in those movies is practically one long montage with VO. Maybe check out how they do it, how it works, how it doesn't, and go from there.

                And like most screenwriting "rules" -- be brave enough to break 'em.
                I hope I'm not stepping on any toes here... but I don't think the newer Ocean's movies are exactly a form I'd seek to replicate. Or one I'd seek to watch, ever ever again.


                But I have very weird tastes in films sometimes...

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                • #9
                  Re: Is it considered bad to narrate during a montage?

                  Originally posted by KENTA View Post
                  Hi Guys,

                  I'm trying to write a 3 year training montage. While the protag is growing through the training, the coach is explaining the context behind the training. Is there an effective way to accomplish this without it being considered bad?

                  I say "bad" because I read somewhere that you should avoid speaking during a montage and let the action speak for itself.

                  Your thoughts?

                  Thank you,

                  KENTA
                  Generally speaking ... I think passing three years in a MONTAGE is a real challenging task, and especially when it's focused on "training," whatever it may be for. That's a lot of training and if it isn't for getting prepared to do a space flight or a very deep ocean dive or a long trek across Arctic ice, it seems to me it would be difficult to get through it without introducing a boredom or ho-hum quotient.

                  How much screen time do you reckon this is going to consume?

                  You rarely want to "explain" things in a movie; things should be self-explanatory by dint of the action and the events and what characters do and how they do them and what they decide, and in most cases be self-evident vis-a-vis a character's motivations (he's going after this guy because he's the guy who killed his daughter, sort of thing).

                  So I'd be very cautious about this. I'd write it and do the best job of it I could, and then study it and develop it and if I became satisfied with it I'd have others read it to see how it's flying in their perceptions.

                  I dunno, I'm just hard pressed to imagine a MONTAGE than spans three years of calendar time.

                  One thing's for sure: I'd devote a fair amount of effort toward finding a different way of establishing what you want this MONTAGE to establish in your story, and avoid it if I could.

                  At the same time, I readily admit that I might read what you have in mind and exclaim, "Oh yeah, that works!" because my comments have no real foundation other than the generalities that apply and your description of what your MONTAGE is about, which was, afterall, pretty thin.

                  Good luck with it in any case!

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                  • #10
                    Re: Is it considered bad to narrate during a montage?

                    What's the difference between your montage and all the montages cut from screenplays and/or movies?
                    "I am the story itself; its source, its voice, its music."
                    - Clive Barker, Galilee

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                    • #11
                      Re: Is it considered bad to narrate during a montage?

                      Thanks again for the help folks!

                      I wouldn't expect the 3 year training montage to take up too much screen time. Maybe a minute. It would be something like Disney's Tarzan. If you recall, there was a montage showing young Tarzan transform from a boy to full grown Gorilla. It would be similar to that, but it would contain a voice over of the teacher reflecting on the student's growth over the 3 year period. Oh, and there wouldn't be a Phil Collins song playing.

                      KENTA

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                      • #12
                        Re: Is it considered bad to narrate during a montage?

                        Originally posted by KENTA View Post
                        Thanks again for the help folks!

                        I wouldn't expect the 3 year training montage to take up too much screen time. Maybe a minute. It would be something like Disney's Tarzan. If you recall, there was a montage showing young Tarzan transform from a boy to full grown Gorilla. It would be similar to that, but it would contain a voice over of the teacher reflecting on the student's growth over the 3 year period. Oh, and there wouldn't be a Phil Collins song playing.

                        KENTA
                        It seems much more workable when you describe it like this. Maybe get it done in 50 seconds. You don't want the narration to be a lecture but easy going talk that hits the highlights and embelishes what we are seeing.

                        Good luck!

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                        • #13
                          Re: Is it considered bad to narrate during a montage?

                          I don't know if it's exactly the same thing... but I really like in Before Sunset when Hawke is "narrating" his new book and they show images from the original film while he does so.

                          Totally hooked the romantic in me.
                          writer/actor/geek-cliche

                          www.kurtedwardlarson.com

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