How to Train Your Dragon (2010) Writers: William Davies (screenplay), Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders Cressida Cowell (book) Adam F. Goldberg (additional screenplay material) Opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTcQGzUfXE8 Closing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXDSa-7VWpI Opening VO HICCUP: This...is Berk. It's twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death. It's located solidly on the meridian of misery. My village. In a word: sturdy. It's been here for seven generations but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunsets. The only problems are the pests. You see, most places have mice, or mosquitoes. We have--dragons. Closing VO HICCUP: This...is Berk. It snows nine months of the year, and hails the other three. Any food that grows here is tough and tasteless. The people that grow here are even more so. The only upsides are the pets. While other places have ponies or parrots, we have--dragons. Dialogue on Dialogue: The voice overs in this film serve to not only to complete the circle from the end back to the beginning, but to illustrate the shift in thinking of all the characters. When the film begins, the people see dragons as their enemy ("pests" in the opening monologue). The closing monologue serves to clinch the shift by using the word "pets" to show that what were once enemies are now colleagues.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Writers: James Cameron, William Wisher Jr. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tksN5Jaan9E Sarah Connor (V.O.): Watching John with the machine, it was suddenly so clear. The Terminator would never stop, it would never leave him, and it would never hurt him, never shout at him or get drunk and hit him, or say it was too busy to spend time with him. It would always be there and it would die to protect him. Of all the would-be fathers who came and went over the years, this thing--this machine--was the only one who measured up. In an insane world, it was the sanest choice. Dialogue on Dialogue: V.O. is used at this moment to give utterance to Sarah's reflection as she watches her son John interact with the machine. It seems like an abrupt shift in the storytelling, but it works because Sarah is an action character who's not given to sharing her inner feelings with other characters. It's hard to picture Sarah saying this out loud. But it's necessary to give us a sense of how she feels about John, and why she might feel pushed to go on the shooting rampage that follows. If she fails, she knows her son will be safe.

The Imitation Game (unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a clip) -- INT. COFFIN - A FEW MINUTES LATER ... Alan is now inside a coffin. He’s KICKING AT THE WOODEN BOARDS ABOVE and SCREAMING TO BE RELEASED. It’s not helping. From above, we hear the familiar LAUGHTER OF THE SCHOOLBOYS. REVEAL: The “coffin” is make-shift; the Boys have constructed it out of the broken floorboards of a half-finished classroom. Alan is buried underground, and they’re nailing him in. ALAN TURING (V.O.): Do you know why people like violence? Because it feels good. The THUMP THUMP of nails entering the boards. ALAN TURING (V.O.): Humans find violence deeply satisfying. But remove the satisfaction, and the act becomes... Hollow. FROM INSIDE THE COFFIN: Alan goes silent. The Boys pound away, but the silence unnerves them. BOY #1: Alan? Alan? BOY #2: C’mon don’t be such a kike about it... BOY #3: Leave him to bloody rot. The Boys LEAVE. Dialogue on Dialogue: There's a lot of voice-over used in The Imitation Game, but I found this scene to be most effective. It's well-written -- the voice-over here effectively explains why Alan stops fighting without explicitly saying it. But I also like the contrast between emotional and dispassion. His voice-over throughout the movie is so intellectual, so distant and removed, but I think you see in scenes like this that he's not the remote genius he pretends to be.

Will, this is great. I love the use of callbacks as they do precisely what you note in your commentary. Thanks!

This is an example of a good use of V.O. narration, Will. Appreciate the suggestion!

Great example, Melinda. Also a portent of Alan's death. Thanks!

Movie - Adaptation Youtube - https://youtu.be/_VseQe4TFsg Robert McKee: [Audience applause] OK, thank-you, thank-you. We have a long three days ahead. Years from now you’ll be standing around in a posh cocktail party congratulating yourself on how you spent an entire weekend locked in a room with an asshole from Hollywood for your art. Charlie Kaufman: [voice-over] I am pathetic, I am a loser... Robert McKee: So what is the substance of writing? Charlie Kaufman: [voice-over] I have failed, I am panicked. I've sold out, I am worthless, I... What the fuck am I doing here? What the fuck am I doing here? Fuck. It is my weakness, my ultimate lack of conviction that brings me here. Easy answers, rules to shortcut yourself to success. And here I am because my jaunt into the abyss brought me nothing…well, isn't that just a risk one takes for attempting something new? I should leave here right now. I'll start over. I need to face this project head on and... Robert McKee: ...and God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. God help you. That's flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character. Ok, that’s it, one hour for lunch. [back in the seminar] Robert McKee: You cannot have a protagonist without desire, it doesn’t make any sense, any fucking sense. You follow? Good. Anyone else? Charlie Kaufman: Sir, what if a writer is attempting to create a story where nothing much happens, where people don’t change. They don’t have any epiphanies, they struggle and are frustrated and nothing is resolved, more a reflection of the real world? Robert McKee: The real world? Charlie Kaufman: Yes sir. Robert McKee: The real fucking world. First of all you write a screenplay without conflict or crisis, you’ll bore your audiences to tears. Secondly, nothing happens in the world? Are you out of your fucking mind? People are murdered every day. There's genocide, war, corruption. Every fucking day, somewhere in the world, somebody sacrifices his life to save somebody else. Every fucking day, someone, somewhere takes a conscious decision to destroy someone else. People find love, people lose it. For Christ's sake, a child watches her mother beaten to death on the steps of a church. Someone goes hungry. Somebody else betrays his best friend for a woman. If you can't find that stuff in life, then you, my friend, don't know crap about life! And why the FUCK are you wasting my two precious hours with your movie? I don't have any use for it! I don't have any bloody use for it! Charlie Kaufman: Okay, thanks. Comment: A brilliant movie filled with voice-over that perfectly conveys the inner thoughts of every person who has ever tried to write a screenplay.