Tuesday 15 November 2011

Face-Dubbing is always worse than Voice-Dubbing

Xan Brooks writes for The Guardian about a dubbed star in Andrea Arnolds Wuthering Heights:
"On first seeing the film, Howson noted with dismay that his performance had been dubbed. "I felt really hurt," he said this week. "All the things I had to do in the film – the cold mornings, the difficult scenes – and then they use someone else's voice." 

I think it is funny to think that such a traditional problem - harking back to the days of new-talkies dubbed in post-production - is still used and, crucially, only mentioned to the actor after-the-fact.

As bad as Howson feels, it is nothing in comparison to the absolute tragic phonecall Josh Pence recieved whereby, not only was his voice going to be dubbed - but his entire face! Armie Hammer is due to star in The Lone Ranger and J.Edgar but Josh Pence only has upcoming projects in Battleship and ... wait a sec ... The Dark Knight Rises. Seems Pence has it all figured out.

Then we have the ongoing debate regarding mo-cap technology. Despite Zoe Saldana's acting in Avatar, she recieved little celebration for it. No nominations at The Golden Globes, Emmys or Oscars - despite the film casting her in the lead-female role and winning, or being nominated, for all three. This is something that Cameron believes is a tragedy and proves how little the acting world has embraced the new-technology. Andy Serkis would agree I'm sure.

2 comments:

  1. Agree with everything you said. It must be so hurtful to find you've been dubbed and no one has told you. There's one famous Indian actress, Rani Mukherjee, who is known for her smoky, sexy voice - and she's been dubbed in some of her first films. The producers thought people wouldn't like her voice. That's insane, right?! About Avatar: I was very surprised not to hear anything about Zoe, most people don't even know her name (I admit, I can't remember her last name).

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  2. In fairness, I hate AVATAR and everything about it. Even the 'technology' which was praised - and indeed, I praised it - i now resent as every forces themselves to push out 3D films!

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