Gaiman, N., & McKean, D. (2007). Signal to noise. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Signal to Noise is a graphic novel written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean. The narrative is about a filmmaker who is dying of cancer. He is working on his last story in his head knowing that he will not have enough time left to turn it into a film. The graphic novel shows alternating segments of the director’s last months and the simultaneously developing story titled Apocatastasis. The filmmaker’s narrative describes the turning of the millennium in a European village in the last hour of the year 999. The story shows how the villagers deal with the end of the millennium that many expected to be the end of the world. An epilogue of the graphic novel is about the filmmaker’s producer who looks back on his life, death and work ten years after his passing, at the turn of the millennia in the year 2000.
Signal to Noise (Gaiman & McKean, 2007) is relevant to my project on many levels. I want to particularly emphasise the techniques to communicate the protagonist’s internal thought processes.
Large parts of the graphic novel are internal monologue. The protagonist tackles his creative struggles, and at the same time is swayed between the urge to ignore his approaching death and the constant unpleasant reminders of his mortality. Inner monologue is a useful tool to communicate a character’s thought processes. In written form as in this graphic novel inner monologue is an accepted and convenient way to transmit feelings and emotions.
This, however, is not as easily translated into a cinematic context and thus has a direct influence on my short film project. The filmic equivalent of inner monologue is voice-over narration. Respected experts in the field of screenwriting tend to warn against its excessive use. Robert McKee (1999) goes so far as to say that “the trend toward using telling narration throughout a film threatens the future of our art” (ibid., p. 344). He urges the use of skilful dramatisation in which meaning is expressed without explanation, without “on the nose” narration (ibid., p. 345), which he feels “takes little talent and less effort” (ibid.).
I was aware of the voice-over problem since the start of my project. My story mainly deals with a single protagonist’s inner emotions and thought processes as he is entering his own subconscious. Voice-over would indeed be a convenient narrative device. Instead I strive to use visual imagery or dialogue to communicate the character’s subjective state in the borderland between reality and illusion. I see this as advantageous for two main reasons. Firstly the viewers’ intellectual capabilities are more challenged and thus more respected. This leads to a greater audience satisfaction if executed skilfully. Secondly, film as an audiovisual medium is used appropriately with a good balance of audiovisual information. This does not strictly exclude voice-over narration, but expresses my wish to keep it to a reasonable minimum.
One does not have to fully agree to McKee. There are indeed film examples that successfully demonstrate good use of elongated sections of voice-over narration. As an alternative to “classical” voice-over narration a film like High Fidelity (Frears, 2000) allows the protagonist to address the audience directly throughout large parts of the movie. This is much more engaging for the viewer than to listen to a voice-over narrator for nearly two hours. Adaptation (Jonze, 2002) uses the protagonist, a screenwriter, to make a direct statement to McKee in the last scene of the film. The protagonist becomes aware that he is using voice-over narration and that “McKee would not approve” (Kaufman & Jonze, 2002, p. 99). He frees himself from such prescribed concerns and rejects McKee’s authority because the use of voice-over “feels right. Conclusive” (ibid., p. 100). This eventually must become the credo for any creative decision. To do away with well established principles may at times be the only valid decision.
References
Frears, S. (2000). High Fidelity. Burbank, CA: Buena Vista Pictures.
Gaiman, N., & McKean, D. (2007). Signal to noise. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Jonze, S. (2002). Adaptation. Culver City, CA: Columbia Tristar Home Video.
Kaufman, C., & Jonze, S. (2002). Adaptation. New York, NY: Newmarket Press.
McKee, R. (1999). Story. London, UK: Methuen.
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