V.O.

[avid-dreamer]

Hi people! I have a question.

I'm starting a new scene and I want to do a V.O. with a character that has been metioned, BUT not yet introduced. How should I write that?

For example:

Rodger (V.O.)
Blah, blah, blah...

What would I put in the place of Rodger if the male character has not yet been established? Or should I avoid that altogether?

Thanks for the help!!!

[Plot Device]

I've kind of been faced with this exact same problem myself.

Putting aside the fact that V.O. is looked down upon (I gritted my teeth and I went for the V.O in spite of how taboo it is), my decision was to go ahead and stick his reguler name into the character line anyhow. In my instance, the character did go ahead and TELL the audience his actual name by Page 2, so to me it wasn't a terribly painful mystery to force the audience to endure.

In other films, the character of Galadirel is the female narrator for all of The Lord of the Rings films. Her voice STARTS the entire film. And yet we do not meet her until well into Act 2 of the first film. And as a side-comment, I believe the choice of Galadriel was beyond perfect because she is the absolute oldest person in all of Middle Earth. Middle Earth is "only" 6,000 years old by the time Frodo is alive, and yet Galadriel is far older than that because she was born in the Halls of Valinor (that would be some sort of equivalent of Heaven) before the Earth itself was even created. So she is so amazingly old that it's reasonable to say that she "knows" everything about the history of Middle Earth, and so she therefore makes the ideal narrator for this tale. Her opening line during the first few seconds of the film was something like: "The world is changing. I can smell it in the air. I feel it in the water. I sense it in the Earth." (That's just a paraphrase of what I recall she said. I could be off.)

You might want to sample those scripts from the surprisingly large number of very successful films that utilized a narrator--half of the filmography of Morgan Freeman is a good starting point. And then Nicolas Cage is another actor who seems to absolutely love voice over narration.

[Plot Device]

One caveat I want to make here:

In some (admittedly rare) instances, the identity of the narrator needs to be kept hidden from the audience until the end. I can't think of such an example right off, but usually some kind of a whodunit might qualify. In that situation, my feeling is you want the READER of your script to be kept just as much in the dark as a hypothetical VIEWER in the audience of the yet-to-be-completed film would be. So in THAT instance, you will want to somehow disguise his WRITTEN identity on the page by giving him a DIFFERENT name in his dialogue headings. Perhaps "Male Narrator" will do.

[icerose]

VO is for recorded, telephone, television, audio and so forth. OS or OC is for characters who are talking but are not seen. Don't know if this answers your question or not.

[avid-dreamer]

Hmmm, splendid! I loveeeee Lord of The Rings! I have practically memorized the dialogue , hehehee...but I wonder sometimes if such a huge feature could get away with a few "taboos". I wasn't so sure if I could.

Thanks for the help! I'm just gonna go for it! :)

[Plot Device]

VO is for recorded, telephone, television, audio and so forth. OS or OC is for characters who are talking but are not seen. Don't know if this answers your question or not.


Wow, Icerose, that is so not what I have gathered all this time. Have I been doing it wrong then? Is not Galadriel's very first line written as:

GALADRIEL (V.O.)
The world is changing.

??

And in the Shawshenk Redemption, is not Morgan Freeman's very first line written as:

RED (V.O.)
When I first laid eyes on Andy,
I didn't think much of him.

??



::ETA::

Okay, I went and checked. Here's the script for Shawshenk:

http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Shawshank-Redemption,-The.html

And Red's first instance of voice over narration reads as follows:



RED (V.O.)
There's a con like me in every prison
in America, I guess. I'm the guy who
can get it for you. Cigarettes, a
bag of reefer if you're partial, a
bottle of brandy to celebrate your
kid's high school graduation. Damn
near anything, within reason.



::ETA::

And here's the opening page for The Fellowship of the Ring:

http://imsdb.com/scripts/Lord-of-the-Rings-Fellowship-of-the-Ring,-The.html

BLACK SCREEN

SUPER: New Line Cinema Presents

SUPER: A Wingnut Films Production

BLACK CONTINUES... ELVISH SINGING....A WOMAN'S VOICE IS
whispering, tinged with SADNESS and REGRET:

GALADRIEL (V.O.)
(Elvish: subtitled)
"I amar prestar sen: han mathon ne nen,
han mathon ne chae...a han noston ned
wilith."
(English: )
The world is changed: I feel it in the
water, I feel it in the earth, I smell it
in the air...Much that once was is lost,
for none now live who remember it.

SUPER: THE LORD OF THE RINGS

EXT. PROLOGUE -- DAY

IMAGE: FLICKERING FIRELIGHT. The NOLDORIN FORGE in EREGION.
MOLTEN GOLD POURS from the lip of an IRON LADLE.

GALADRIEL (V.O.)
It began with the forging of the Great
Rings.

[dpaterso]

Unless you're withholding the speaker's identity for story reasons, I'd just use RODGER (V.O.) -- and when we finally meet him, capitalize his name as usual on introduction.

Speaking personally, I don't like voice overs, especially when they're poorly done or used as a crutch in place of visual storytelling (which covers 90-something percent of voice overs in produced films... and 99-something percent of voice overs in spec scripts... not that anyone's asking for my opinion). Feel free to prove me wrong and write the most brilliant voice over ever!

If the actor's voice must be recorded in a sound studio or another location and later added to the sound track, use RODGER (V.O.) This includes narration. If the actor is present in the scene, but off camera, then use RODGER (O.S.)

-Derek

[avid-dreamer]

VO is for recorded, telephone, television, audio and so forth. OS or OC is for characters who are talking but are not seen. Don't know if this answers your question or not.

I was following the examples set in a few of the screen plays I am studying: example: Lord of The Rings, Indiana jones and The Temple Of Doom. V.O is used when a character is speaking and he/ she is off camera.
I'll copy and paste:

LORD OF THE RINGS BLACK CONTINUES... ELVISH SINGING....A WOMAN'S VOICE IS
whispering, tinged with SADNESS and REGRET:

GALADRIEL (V.O.)
(Elvish: subtitled)
"I amar prestar sen: han mathon ne nen,
han mathon ne chae...a han noston ned
wilith."
(English:)
The world is changed: I feel it in the
water, I feel it in the earth, I smell it
in the air...Much that once was is lost,
for none now live who remember it.

INDIANA JONES:

EXT. COLLEGE - DAY
Students walk along brick, tree-lined paths.

INDY (V.O .)
Archaeology is...


INT. COLLEGE LECTURE HALL - DAY

[avid-dreamer]

One caveat I want to make here:

In some (admittedly rare) instances, the identity of the narrator needs to be kept hidden from the audience until the end. I can't think of such an example right off, but usually some kind of a whodunit might qualify. In that situation, my feeling is you want the READER of your script to be kept just as much in the dark as a hypothetical VIEWER in the audience of the yet-to-be-completed film would be. So in THAT instance, you will want to somehow disguise his WRITTEN identity on the page by giving him a DIFFERENT name in his dialogue headings. Perhaps "Male Narrator" will do.

Oh no, I'm not withholding the identity. The character is mentioned a few times before his appearance and I just wanted to begin this new scene with his voice.

[avid-dreamer]

Unless you're withholding the speaker's identity for story reasons, I'd just use RODGER (V.O.) -- and when we finally meet him, capitalize his name as usual on introduction.

Speaking personally, I don't like voice overs, especially when they're poorly done or used as a crutch in place of visual storytelling (which covers 90-something percent of voice overs in produced films... and 99-something percent of voice overs in spec scripts... not that anyone's asking for my opinion). Feel free to prove me wrong and write the most brilliant voice over ever!

If the actor's voice must be recorded in a sound studio or another location and later added to the sound track, use RODGER (V.O.) This includes narration. If the actor is present in the scene, but off camera, then use RODGER (O.S.)

-Derek

Take a look at the clip I pasted for Indiana Jones. The V.O. I intend to use will be similar to that. It will be only a few words.

[Plot Device]

Unless you're withholding the speaker's identity for story reasons, I'd just use RODGER (V.O.) -- and when we finally meet him, capitalize his name as usual on introduction.

Speaking personally, I don't like voice overs, especially when they're poorly done or used as a crutch in place of visual storytelling (which covers 90-something percent of voice overs in produced films... and 99-something percent of voice overs in spec scripts... not that anyone's asking for my opinion). Feel free to prove me wrong and write the most brilliant voice over ever!

If the actor's voice must be recorded in a sound studio or another location and later added to the sound track, use RODGER (V.O.) This includes narration. If the actor is present in the scene, but off camera, then use RODGER (O.S.)

-Derek


This has always pretty much been my understanding. (And yes, I know V.O is considered LAZY writing, but I did it anyway!!!!! So shoot me!! :tongue)

[dpaterso]

BANG! That's for doing it!

BANG! That's for doing it even though you knew better!

-Derek

[icerose]

I use VO for police band radios and things like that, so I use them quite often in my scripts. I rarely ever use narrative, in fact I can't think of a single script I've had a narrator in.

[Plot Device]

Here's what Derek said to me:

:guns:

BANG! That's for doing it!

BANG! That's for doing it even though you knew better!

-Derek






And here's my response:

:e2thud:

[Plot Device]

I use VO for police band radios and things like that, so I use them quite often in my scripts. I rarely ever use narrative, in fact I can't think of a single script I've had a narrator in.



For a police radio (which I do have in a few scripts) I would use:

POLICE DISPATCHER (ON RADIO)
Attention --all units.

[dpaterso]

As with all things, as long as it's clear and doesn't confuse, you're probably going to get away with it.

-Derek

[xhouseboy]

V.O. doesn't always have to be attributed to a narrator.

It can also be used as a run on from a previous scene in driving the story forward. i.e. the tail end of a character's dialogue bleeding into the next scene when that character doesn't feature in the next scene but the character he was conversing with does.

e.g.

(rough/poor example)

Detective shows someone a photo of the guy he's looking for.

SOMEONE
Yeah, I know him...

NEW SCENE HEADING.

Detective's strolling up the driveway of a certain house.

SOMEONE (V.O.)
... he used to live at 22 Beach Drive. But
that was years ago...

[icerose]

Yeah I've done that too where I have VO for a conversation that already took place and shows the action of them following what's being discussed.

[nmstevens]

VO is for recorded, telephone, television, audio and so forth. OS or OC is for characters who are talking but are not seen. Don't know if this answers your question or not.

I'm afraid you're incorrect about this, icerose.

OS, or OC is reserved for character who are supposed to be physically present in the realm of the scene, but are not visible within range of the camera.

Say, for instance, you had a scene between someone in a room, talking to someone behind a bathroom door, who is, for whatever reason, supposed to remain unseen.

That person, behind the door, would be OS.

Someone shouting from outside a window is OS.

That's because, even though we only hear the voice, the *character* is supposed to be physically present within the realm of the scene -- sort of just around the corner.

Voice Over is different. Voice Over is a voice that is outside the realm of the scene. Whether belonging to one of the characters or to a separate narrator, the implication of a Voice Over is that, even though we, the audience can hear it, the people in the scene are unaware that it is going on.

It exists, for lack of a better term, in a different reality.

As for what one uses for voices on the phone or coming over the radio -- I tend to use (ON PHONE) and (ON RADIO).

That pretty much makes it clear.

NMS

[icerose]

That's what I meant when I said that NMS, I guess I didn't express myself very well.

That's good to know on the phone and radio thing, I do use that clarification but I use VO too to tell them they are not in the realm of the scene either.

[NikeeGoddess]

everything you said was right, ice.
traditionally, VO is used for radio an phone devices - it's not wrong to do so. using ON THE PHONE or ON RADIO is just more specific but technically during the production the sound people just call it voice over - the specifics tells them what filters to use.

[ricetalks]

Look at the script for American Beauty. I think the open pretty much the situation you describe.

[Ron Maiden]

i tend to follow the rule that (as others have already mentioned) V.O. is for people not present in the scene and O.S. (i use full stops ~ is it acceptable as opposed to VO/OS?) is for someone there that we can't see.
having said that, i'm dithering again - which do you use for someone you can see but isn't physically present - ie, soemone on TV, or someone on a computer screen? (I've got a scene where characters are talking via webcam).

TIA

[jonpiper]

. . . which do you use for someone you can see but isn't physically present - ie, soemone on TV, or someone on a computer screen? (I've got a scene where characters are talking via webcam).

TIA

Ron, the following is from the Network script.

INT. CONTROL ROOM - 4th FLOOR

The clock wall reads: 6:30. Typical control room. A
room-length double bank of television monitors including
two color monitor screens, the show monitor and the
pre-set monitor. Before this array of TV screens sits
the DIRECTOR, flanked on his left by the PRODUCTION
ASSISTANT (GIRL) who stop-watches the show, and on his
right by the TECHNICAL DIRECTOR who operates a special
board of buttons and knobs. (On the TECHNICAL
DIRECTOR's right sits the LIGHTING DIRECTOR). At the
moment, the show monitor has the network's Washington
correspondent, JACK SNOWDEN, doing a follow-up on the
attempted assassination of President Ford in San
Francisco --

SNOWDEN (ON MONITOR)
-- the first attempt on President
Ford's life was eighteen days ago --
and again yesterday in San Francisco --

DIRECTOR
(murmuring into his mike)
-- Lou, kick that little thing shut
on ground level --

SNOWDEN (ON MONITOR)
-- In spite of two attempts --

The show monitor screen has switched over to show film
of President Ford arriving at the San Francisco airport --

SNOWDEN (V.O. ON MONITOR)
-- Mr. Ford says he will not become --

Notice the use of both V.O. and ON MONITOR here since Snowden is not shown on the monitor for this brief time while footage of President Ford is shown.

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
(murmurs)
-- forty seconds --

DIRECTOR
(murmurs into mike)
-- twenty seconds to one --

DIRECTOR
-- one --

HOWARD BEALE'S image suddenly flips on-screen --

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
-- thirty seconds to commercial freeze --

DIRECTOR
-- head roll --

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
-- rolling--

The DIRECTOR and TECHNICAL DIRECTOR turn in their seats
to join HARRY HUNTER and his SECRETARY in a brief
gossip --

HOWARD (ON MONITOR)
Ladies and gentlemen, I would
like at this moment to announce
that I will be retiring from
this program in two weeks' time
because of poor ratings --

The DIRECTOR has whispered something to HARRY HUNTER'S
SECRETARY which occasions sniggers from the SECRETARY
and from HARRY HUNTER. The TECHNICAL DIRECTOR stands to
get in on the joke --

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
(to DIRECTOR)
-- what'd you say? --