Voiceovers

We decided on two possible scripts for the voiceover to our cold open, both are below:

1.
They always say, "What you don't know won't hurt you". But here, "They" are wrong, because it did hurt me... a lot. [pause] It's kind of complicated to tell you, so I'll have to show you. It all started with the interview for my new job.

2.
See that? yeah, that's me. I may have died- and yes I am speaking whilst looking at my dead body, but it's alright because it wasn't my fault. It all started with my job interview.

The second script is more informal and a more joke-like tone than the first. We recorded both of these scripts over the footage, before deciding the first one suited the atmosphere of the film better. Although the title sequence of our production is a lighter atmosphere, there is still a underlining still atmosphere. We thought the second script seemed out of place compared to the first, although to improve the first, we could make it longer, to cover the whole of the cold open scene. But we can't think of any extra information that would be needed in the voiceover that wouldn't lower the formality of the script. We thought opening the voiceover with a quote or saying is a good way to start, as it gives a theme for the film,  and has been used before in film making, such as

Remember Me (2010, dir. Allen Coulter)-
The opening line is "Gandhi said that whatever you do in life will be insignificant. But it's very important that you do it."

True Grit (2010, dir. Ethan Coen, Joel Coen) -
After the distribution logos, "the wicked flee when none pursueth-proverb 28:1" appears on screen before going onto the opening credits

Similarly, Pulp Fiction (1994, dir. Quentin Tarantino) appears with a definition of "pulp" on screen for the opening. As shown below.



Opening scene of Pulp Fiction (1994)

So, because of the effectiveness that we believe the first script has over the second, we decided to use that one.

Although we would have like to record the voiceover using professional equipment, such as an Edirol or at least an external microphone to re-create the same atmosphere and smooth recording used in professional films. Although we could of had access to this equipment, it was a lot easier and less time consuming, to simply record the voiceover through the internal microphone in the Mac, straight into the iMovie software, which is how we ended doing the voiceover. This still wasn't a bad option, as there was options to change the audio more than if we'd recorded on a simple voice recorder. The room in which we had to record in had a slight echo,  but despite that and a few takes to ensure we had the script was articulated properly, I think the recording was rather successful.