Voice-Over "anchor"

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  • Voice-Over "anchor"

    Continuing from my last post about techniques on how to write Voice-Over movies...

    Let's say that the frame of the story is the protagonist breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to camera, "I Tonya" style. The character is sitting in a confessional booth speaking to a Priest (i.e. the audience)

    If I want to cut back to that shot every 15 or so pages, would I use a slug line each time, and would I need a new scene description each time?

    Nothing changes in the scene. It's literally just a person speaking. So it seems awkward to write "INT. Confessional Booth- Day. We are back in the booth. It's exactly the same as it was earlier"... ! Or worse to try and invent some mild change in the scene to give myself something to write instead of just launching into the dialogue straight after the slug line.

    Curious!

  • #2
    Re: Voice-Over "anchor"

    This is just a solicited opinion, but given the example you’ve cited, and if it were my pen in hand doing the writing of the screenplay, I’d say “yes” to a slugline every time A.) if only for the sake of production, and B.) because it is a new scene in the timeline of the story.

    In other words, you’ve changed the setting so that it’s entirely different from the previous scene, or to put it another way, you’ve moved the camera again or changed the POV — at least from the audience’s perspective — through the magic of film editing.

    Conversely, during the filming of your screenplay, the confessional scene actually would be shot all at the same time, of course, both for the sake of convenience and for budgetary concerns. Those would be the main reasons to be able to separate scenes for a shooting schedule. How many “Confessional” scenes do we have in the movie? We have “x” number of “Confessional” scenes. Let’s light them and shoot all of them on the same day and get them in the can, one and done.

    Yes, POV or camera movement may be written with the newfangled “mini-slugline,” too, as long as the location is generally the same throughout — such as a house for a main location and then “mini-slug” its various rooms — but this example you’ve given seems not to be such a case as that.

    As for the description, no changes are necessary so that you wouldn’t need any more than one line of description to the effect of “Conversation resumes from where it previously left off.”
    Last edited by Clint Hill; 02-05-2019, 07:23 PM.
    “Nothing is what rocks dream about” ― Aristotle

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    • #3
      Re: Voice-Over "anchor"

      Originally posted by TravisPickle View Post
      Continuing from my last post about techniques on how to write Voice-Over movies...

      Let's say that the frame of the story is the protagonist breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to camera, "I Tonya" style. The character is sitting in a confessional booth speaking to a Priest (i.e. the audience)

      If I want to cut back to that shot every 15 or so pages, would I use a slug line each time, and would I need a new scene description each time?

      Nothing changes in the scene. It's literally just a person speaking. So it seems awkward to write "INT. Confessional Booth- Day. We are back in the booth. It's exactly the same as it was earlier"... ! Or worse to try and invent some mild change in the scene to give myself something to write instead of just launching into the dialogue straight after the slug line.

      Curious!
      You so need a new slug line because it's a new scene, just as if you'd cut back to any other location after leaving it for fifteen pages and returning to it.

      On the other hand, if nothing has changed, you might just pick it without any description or -- if you realize, as I have that the attention span of the average reader is not as high as you might desire, you might want to drop in a line each time, something like -- the location is as we've seen it before.

      You don't need it but -- up to you.

      NMS

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      • #4
        Re: Voice-Over "anchor"

        Originally posted by TravisPickle View Post
        Continuing from my last post about techniques on how to write Voice-Over movies...

        Let's say that the frame of the story is the protagonist breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to camera, "I Tonya" style.
        I haven't read it, but you can download the I, TONYA script here and see how they did it, if you want.

        https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/s...s-9313356d361c

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        • #5
          Re: Voice-Over "anchor"

          You definitely need the slug line every time as Tiger said. Imagine that during production there's a person whose only job is to read the slug lines and lump those scenes together so the narration shoot day can be budgeted out. That might not be a sure thing, but it's plausible. Some person with no other context and who hasn't really read the script looking for the slugs.

          As for the line of text after the slug line, maybe the key is to describe the character's state of being. Without having read that script, here's how I might do it:


          INT. THE KITCHEN CONFESSIONAL - DAY

          Back to Tonya chain-smoking, livid as she recalls the previous scene's story.

          TONYA
          I mean come on! What an idiot!

          or

          INT. THE KITCHEN CONFESSIONAL - DAY

          Tonya's frozen by this memory. Wounded. Forgets to puff on her cig.

          TONYA
          I mean... this is supposed to be my mother.

          INT. SKATING RINK - DAY

          Back to the 5 year old Tanya being castigated by her mother.

          LAVONA
          They're going to hate you. I would.



          etc.
          - - - - - - -
          Script consulting still going strong.

          Details and updates here, as always: http://messageboard.donedealpro.com/...ead.php?t=9901

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          • #6
            Re: Voice-Over "anchor"

            Brilliant, thanks so much
            Btw that's a great transcription from memory

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