Week 4

In a World Film

In a World is a 2013 film that follows the life of a struggling vocal coach, Carol after receiving a job to be the voice over for a movie trailer. The movie addresses many themes and one of these themes includes how a female makes her mark in the voice over world which was originally controlled by males. As the movie progresses we get an understanding of carols life and her family, and it is clear that her father (the voice-over king) is consistently reminding and encouraging carol to give up on the voice-over world as she doesn’t have what it takes and that the industry isn’t for a female. However after the movie trailer is released, carols voice is the one chosen to be used as the voice over. From here carol choses to use her vocal coach training to coach females with squeaky and or too feminie voices, to make their voices heard in a world which was once ruled by man (In a World, 2013).

The performance techniques used within this movie include:

o   The face. This is continuously used by carol, her father and Gust when they are getting ready to speak. It is their warm up.

o   Volume and projection. This is used throughout the film to let the listener know when and what to feel. For example when carol raises her voice we know that she is angry and or excited. Her feeling is then showed by how she projects her volume and the way in which she does it.

o   Breathing. This is shown within the film just before Carol does her voice-over for the movie trailer. This can be seen as she takes a minute to focuses on her breathing before she starts talking.

o   Gesture, eye contact and posture are other techniques used within the film that act as a visual picture to the words being said.

Some important techniques used to alter voice-over include:

o   Creative devices (when a human voice is used over images)

o   Educational or descriptive devices (used when a video is not shown)

o   Commercial devices (used within TV advertisements)

o   Translation (used within TV programs)

o   Character devices (when a narrator tells the story) (Stonely, 2015).


Reference List (Week 4):

Stonely, T. (2015). Voice Over. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice-over. Last accessed 31st March 2016.