Future Movies: How about Narative Voice Over?

[Steve]

In the process of discussing the Parsletongue issue, a new thought
came to me. 

The problem with these movies is that there is SOOOOOO much movie and
so little time. One reviewer commented that the movie was a 4 hour
story crammed into 2min 40sec.

I think the plot could be moved massive amounts in a short time if
Harry was doing a narative voice over as if he were recalling these
events. 

Something happens (whatever) the next scene is the trio walking to
class talking about the event, except we can hear what they are
saying. Harry/Daniel is explaining things in a voice over. This give
him the opportunity to explain a lot of the plot and various peoples
emotions in just a few seconds of walking down the hall. When he
finishes the narations, the scene switches to realtime and we hear the
trio reciting the line that are approprate for that scene. 

Now I said when I explained it above that Harry would narate like he
was recalling events. I only meant that as an illustration to help you
understand what I meant. In reality, his narration would have to be
more present tense.

To fill out the intro scene with the Dursleys, Harry could have been
hin that same shot reading a book, but we could have heard his thought
as he recalled the summer with no letters and no contact from his
friends and how he was worried, etc.... In few moments of naratative
tremendous ground could be covered. He could even have introduce the
Durley's party, then Hedwig makes noise, Vernon calls him down etc...

The same at the Weaselys, a few seconds of voice over could have told
us a lot about how Harry feels about the Weasley. He could have even
recounted seeing Ron's room while they all sat around eating
breakfast, them broke into realtime converstation about the purposes
of a muggle rubber duck etc....

You rarely ever see this techique used any more in movies, but I think
in this case where huge quantities of plot details have to be filled
in short time, it might work. After all, this is a story told from
Harry perspective. His thought in voice over would very much give us
that perspective. Think of the TV show 'The Wonder Years' with Fred
Savage. That show made excellent use of voice over to show us Kevin's
(Fred Savage) feelings and thoughts, and wasn't the least bit
intrusive or distacting.

Just a thought I had.

bboy_mn