A question about dubbing (re-recording voices in film).
Asked by
rebbel (
35553
)
July 15th, 2013
I would like to ask your opinion on dubbing, please.
Some evenings ago I was watching a Attenborough docu on Giant Squids.
The scientist ‘chasing’ the squid (for decades, I believe) was a Japanese man.
He could understand (some) English, but (almost) couldn’t speak it.
So the documentary makers dubbed a voice over his.
They used a man that was also Japanese (or Japanese sounding) for that.
I had the idea that they let that guy talk English in a ‘wooden’ way (as if the scientist was able to speak English himself but in a ‘wooden’ way (I mean maybe put words in the wrong order, or small vocubalary).
Also, the guy whose voice was dubbed in spoke with a clear, thick Japanese accent.
What do you think of dubbing (in general)?
And what about dubbing in this particular case?
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4 Answers
I’ll just leave this here: http://www.wimp.com/voicebefore/
Now I wonder if the guy doing the original voice knew they were going to redubb his voice.
I think dubbing is a film making technique used to enhance the experience of the film
Dubbing is often necessary to cover technical audio problems and mistakes that occurred during filming or taping or to replace one voice with another when the original voice is deemed in post-production to be unsuitable for a variety of reasons.
Dubbing is also used in movies for non-singing actors who must sing, as in the famous case of Audrey Hepburn being dubbed in “My Fair Lady” (which was not well received by her fans). In a grand experiment, dubbing was not used in the recent “Les Misérables”—not altogether successfully, many say.
Sometimes in documentary interviews they used a simultaneous interpreter during the interview. Simultaneous interpreters TEND to not be native English speakers. They exist but usually.. you know. Anyway… This speaker may have been used because he was the simultaneous interpreter for the interview and not picked for his voice or accent.
* In case anyone was wondering what a simultaneous interpreter is, it’s someone who listens ands translates into another language at the same time. It makes interviews go much faster. It’s really difficult because you have to listen, translate and speak all at the same time.
Sometimes the over-dubbing of a simultaneous interpreter is a good thing, but I would prefer translated subtitles. I would much rather watch a foreign-language film in the original language with English subtitles or captions, than have the dialogue dubbed in English. That way the film maintains the original sounds and rhythms.
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