Character narration

we have decided to narrate shot 8, this will have the character calmly talking over the visual of him frantically running. we have intertextualised the American Beauty opening.

here is the original speech;

lESTER (V.O.)

My name is Lester Burnham. This is my neighborhood. This is my street. This... is my life. I'm forty-two years old. In less than a year, I'll be dead.

INT. BURNHAM HOUSE - MASTER BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS

We're looking down at a king-sized BED from OVERHEAD:

LESTER BURNHAM lies sleeping amidst expensive bed linens, face down, wearing PAJAMAS. An irritating ALARM CLOCK RINGS. Lester gropes blindly to shut it off.

LESTER (V.O.)

Of course, I don't know that yet. He rolls over, looks up at us and sighs. He doesn't seem too thrilled at the prospect of a new day.

LESTER (V.O.) (cont'd)

And in a way, I'm dead already.

And here is our edited version for our film;

My name is James Burnham. Behind me is a prison where I have spent the last two weeks. Infront of me is the unknown. I am 25 years old, and less than 6 months ago I led a 9 to 5 life: simple, boring, straight forward. Of course, i didnt know then that i would be in this situation.

We have made the monologue show the characters personality, this way we could mold him into a respectable character. An example of this would the "i have" rather than "i've", this makes it seem more formal and less conversational. The colon make his life seem more formulaic and listed.