I understand that a spec script is supposed to avoid a lot of the fancy extra-tricky stuff and just tell the story. I am working on a farcical comedy with a writing partner and we try to be accomodating to one another's "absolute bugaboo's" about writing. So here's the problem...
We have a scene near the beginning of our story with a character alone in her apartment, reading a letter from a favorite eccentric relative. So far, we have seen this main character only in her "normal world." She is about to be thrust into the world of the eccentric relative.
As she reads the letter to herself, I envision this scene as hearing the relative in VOICE-OVER, speaking the words of the letter, continuing with this narration as the visuals change from the character in her apartment to the relative's eccentric world, seeing that world and the things the continuing voice-over narration describes in the letter.
And then the character's reading is interrupted and we move on to something else.
I like the feel of this, it works for me and it also works for my writing partner BUT my partner says it is an ironclad rule for spec scripts to NEVER ever use VOICE-OVER or flashbacks. Not that it can't ever be done right, but that so many new writers have done them so badly or unnecessarily, that when readers see the dreaded word VOICE-OVER or FLASHBACK, they groan and wish they'd been assigned a different script to read.
So... how evil a deed is it to have voice-overs in a spec script? And, could anyone suggest an alternative?
We have a scene near the beginning of our story with a character alone in her apartment, reading a letter from a favorite eccentric relative. So far, we have seen this main character only in her "normal world." She is about to be thrust into the world of the eccentric relative.
As she reads the letter to herself, I envision this scene as hearing the relative in VOICE-OVER, speaking the words of the letter, continuing with this narration as the visuals change from the character in her apartment to the relative's eccentric world, seeing that world and the things the continuing voice-over narration describes in the letter.
And then the character's reading is interrupted and we move on to something else.
I like the feel of this, it works for me and it also works for my writing partner BUT my partner says it is an ironclad rule for spec scripts to NEVER ever use VOICE-OVER or flashbacks. Not that it can't ever be done right, but that so many new writers have done them so badly or unnecessarily, that when readers see the dreaded word VOICE-OVER or FLASHBACK, they groan and wish they'd been assigned a different script to read.
So... how evil a deed is it to have voice-overs in a spec script? And, could anyone suggest an alternative?
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