If the person is acting as a narrator for a documentary series (voice over only, no on-screen appearance), should the checkbox "Person is appearing as him/herself" be checked or not?
Yes.
You can also add "Narrator" as character AND appearing as him/herself AND voice only.
The result would be (for a male actor):
voices Himself (Narrator)
or for a female actor:
voices Herself (Narrator)
No for narrator you don't use the him/herself box, you just use the voice only box
I would not use himself or herself too, however one of our other heads is convinced it should be marked too.
MTQueenie:
It's not a role they are playing, they have no character name. They don't pretend to be someone else, apply an accent, manners, or clothes, etc. They are simply themselves, while narrating.
But if what you say is in the rules, please link it. :)
And that would mean that a lot of the narrated series I've come across here are added incorrectly, and several of them by HC's..... so hopefully one of them will reply here with a definitive answer. Or an admin, perhaps?
Thomas wrote:
I would not use himself or herself too, however one of our other heads is convinced it should be marked too.
That just doesn't make any sense to me since him/herself is for onscreen characters which a narrator isn't
momijigari wrote:
MTQueenie:
It's not a role they are playing, they have no character name. They don't pretend to be someone else, apply an accent, manners, or clothes, etc. They are simply themselves, while narrating.
But if what you say is in the rules, please link it. :)
And that would mean that a lot of the narrated series I've come across here are added incorrectly, and several of them by HC's..... so hopefully one of them will reply here with a definitive answer. Or an admin, perhaps?
Here you go from the faq
"If the person does not appear in the episode but only his or her voice is heard, the "voice of" property should be checked. This is common in animated shows, but also in some scripted shows in the form of a narrator.
If a person is not portraying a character role in the episode but merely being him- or herself, the "him/herself" property should be checked. If this happens, there are several options on how to name the character"
MTQueenie wrote:
Here you go from the faq
"If the person does not appear in the episode but only his or her voice is heard, the "voice of" property should be checked. This is common in animated shows, but also in some scripted shows in the form of a narrator.
If a person is not portraying a character role in the episode but merely being him- or herself, the "him/herself" property should be checked. If this happens, there are several options on how to name the character"
http://www.tvmaze.com/faq/16/episode-extras
Thanks, I am familiar with that FAQ. Which is why I asked where to find what you said specifically.
Because the first part of that says a narrator should be "voice of" and specifically mentions animated and scripted shows, and the second part says that if a person is not portraying a character role but merely being him- or herself then that should be checked and "if this happens there are several options on how to name the character".
So there is actually nothing in that FAQ that contradicts using both for a narrator in a non-scripted (documentary) show. On the contrary, it seems to suggest that is how to do it.
momijigari wrote:
Thanks, I am familiar with that FAQ. Which is why I asked where to find what you said specifically.
Because the first part of that says a narrator should be "voice of" and specifically mentions animated and scripted shows, and the second part says that if a person is not portraying a character but merely being him- or herself then that should be checked. So there is actually nothing in that FAQ that contradicts using both for a narrator in a non-scripted (documentary) show.
Of course there is, if you where supposed to check both voice of and him/herself it would say so, which it clearly doesn't and is doesn't specifically mentions animated and scripted shows, it just uses those type of shows as examples, it doesn't say that the rules only apply to those types of shows.
momijigari wrote:
MTQueenie:
It's not a role they are playing, they have no character name. They don't pretend to be someone else, apply an accent, manners, or clothes, etc. They are simply themselves, while narrating.
But if what you say is in the rules, please link it. :)
And that would mean that a lot of the narrated series I've come across here are added incorrectly, and several of them by HC's..... so hopefully one of them will reply here with a definitive answer. Or an admin, perhaps?
It's not as straightforward, as you suggest. When the actor doing narrating, he/she is likely using an "acting" voice, not their "everyday" voice. So, we need to define, is "Narrator" a role or not.
Since the opinions are divided, even between head staff, it'll be good to have clear-cut answer, because situation is pretty common for the documentary series.
David messaged me that i shall clear this up :)
Documentary narrator = him/herself
Scripted narrator like gossip girl = not him/herself
cheers
Juan
JuanArango wrote:
David messaged me that i shall clear this up :)
Documentary narrator = him/herself
Scripted narrator like gossip girl = not him/herself
cheers
Juan
Cheers, mate!
Worth to be added to the policy though.
tnt wrote:
Cheers, mate!
Worth to be added to the policy though.
Yes, should and probably will be added :)
JuanArango wrote:
David messaged me that i shall clear this up :)
Documentary narrator = him/herself
Scripted narrator like gossip girl = not him/herself
Excellent.
Good to know I was understanding it correctly. :)
MTQueenie wrote:
That just doesn't make any sense to me since him/herself is for onscreen characters which a narrator isn't
agreed.
JuanArango wrote:
David messaged me that i shall clear this up :)
Documentary narrator = him/herself
Scripted narrator like gossip girl = not him/herself
cheers
Juan
This makes sense. However the fact remains that sometimes documentary narrators are nevertheless reading from a script. It doesn't change anything. I just felt the need to point that out. Like when they hire famous actors to narrate a documentary, or in the case of almost any reality show where everything is pretty much contrived.