July 2022
Intermediate to advanced
394 pages
10h 58m
English
Narration is not the worst thing to happen to a documentary, but bad narration might be, which might explain why so many filmmakers want to avoid it at all costs. We’ve all seen films that were talky, preachy, hyperventilated, and dull. But there’s also narration (or extensive voice-over commentary) that makes films funny, sarcastic, spare, poetic, and elegant. Enron, Super Size Me, Grizzly Man, and For Sama, among many films, have effective narration. Enron’s narration is the most traditional, in that it’s spoken by an unseen person, the actor Peter Coyote, who has no identity in the film other than to provide information that moves the story along. Super Size Me, narrated ...
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