Sound: External voice over

All stories in this type of narration are presented from a point of view outside the story. The narrator can report the action, describe people, places and things, present the speech of the characters, present the internal life (the thoughts, feelings, relations and consciousness) of any of the characters and comment on the characters and events in the story. Third-person narrative is used in some films to add another dimension of external narration to the narration or moving image and can present expository information, report the inner life of characters and comment upon the events and characters within the story.

An example of external voice over is American Beauty

The narrative in the opening of American Beauty is the voice over of the main character. In the opening few minutes the audience are informed about the basics of the main character and his surroundings; for example, the voice over tells us the name of the main character, Lester Burnham, introduces his neighbourhood and his age:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMqwSTe5rvo

The audience are given an insight into the mood of the character and in what direction his life is going by the sentence: "I'm 42 years old. In less than a year, I'll be dead". The monotone expression suggests to the audience that Lester could not care less that his life will be ending shortly and the lack of emotion and plainness in his voice support this, along with the following piece of speech which is "an in a way, I'm dead already", further suggesting to the audience that Lester has experienced something or is not experiencing anything to make his life worth living, and he feels dead because of it. Lester goes on to explain the dullness of his life by announcing that "jerking off in the shower" will be the "highlight" of his day and that "it's all downhill" after that. Lester describes how he "gets exhausted" just watching his wife Carolyn do what many women would do on a daily basis, suggesting to the audience that he is lazy. The audience learn more about Lester's life as he tells us that it "wasn't always like this" and that he and his wife "used to be happy". Through the use of narration in American Beauty we learn that both Lester's wife and daughter think he is some "gigantic loser", this suggests to the audience that he has a strained relationship with both of them and they find it difficult to interact altogether as a family. By Lester agreeing with the view of his wife and daughter by admitting that "they're right" suggests to the audience that he does not have any confidence in himself and that could be the main reason for his lack of popularity within his family. The use of narration at the end of the opening changes in the tone of the voice, the voice seems to pick up and is much lighter and hopeful as Lester explains that he has "lost something" but that it's also "never too late to get it back". Overall, the use of narration within the film opening of American Beauty informs the audience about the current mood and out look on life that the main character has, as well as revealing some basic information about himself and the cause of how he is like he is and that he plans to change it around.