Originally posted by: Dantha Fodder
I appear to be in the minority when I say this, and Trooperman, please consider this constructive criticism. I am not a troll and definitely appreciate what you're trying to do with your edit.
I actually can't get into the voice. I'm sorry. I find it a bit too jarring and distracting.
I think its the fact, that while the recording is of an excellent quality (I'm thinking you must have a pretty sweet setup there!) I just don't think the voice suits Hayden Christensen.
It also sounds too, 'dubbed' I guess, when compared to the surrounding dialogue (ie Portman's dialogue). The atmosphere/environment of the recording, also doesn't match the scene in which it has been placed. I don't know whether this can be fixed by adding some reverb/other EQ's or something?
Now for the constructive criticism part. I think it may be a little more natural if perhaps the lines were re-recorded by a trained actor. I'm not sure if you've had training in the past, but you might want to put out a call to all budding actors in your local area and conduct auditions for possible candidates (I'm not sure, you may have already considered/done this). I'm pretty certain someone out there, who is training/trained as an actor, could do it for nothing. Heck, you could even post samples of possible candidates on this site and we could vote the one that is the best!
My intention is not diss you or the (otherwise) quality work you're doing mate. I encourage it. I just wanted to give my 2 cents worth. Hope I don't get shot down in flames too much.
I appreciate your criticism- however, it's too late in the game at this point to have it redone by anyone else. At this point, I just want to get this to a point where it's releasable, and then release it.
Here's the good news- if this thing is a success, there's a possibility that for the dual-layer version, I'll send all of the audio to a professional sound editor who will mix and match all of the dubbed voices and and the original voices, and make the audio quality as similar as possible.
Also, there's certainly enough intricacy to my sound mix to create a 5.1 surround track if people wanted that, so this person would put the audio into surround as well- I just have neither the time nor the ability to do that.
I think it's worth it because even if the dialogue winds up sounding "dubbed" in the final film, in my opinion it's such a relief to be able to enjoy the movie again, that I forget these things really quickly. Almost like watching a movie in B&W or letterbox on a 4x3- after the first 5 minutes, you don't notice it anymore.
But I do acknowledge that the garage scene is messed up somehow, and I'll be recording that whole scene a second time, farther away from the mike this time, and matching mouth movement more closely. But I don't see an issue with the "argument" clip. I guess Anakin's voice could be mixed a little softer, but other than that, I think the acting is good, myself. (I am a little biased, of course
) As I've said, if there's ever the opportunity to turn the recordings over to someone that does it for a living, then I might just do that because they could achieve a higher level of perfection mixing the voices.
OK, Sluggo! I didn't think the recordings were that bad- it just wasn't the style I was aiming for. I hope you all like "British Jar-Jar", because I'm pretty sure that's what it'll be
I'll post a clip soon.
If you are really open for space, you could always tack in alternate audio tracks for him?
I appear to be in the minority when I say this, and Trooperman, please consider this constructive criticism. I am not a troll and definitely appreciate what you're trying to do with your edit.
I actually can't get into the voice. I'm sorry. I find it a bit too jarring and distracting.
I think its the fact, that while the recording is of an excellent quality (I'm thinking you must have a pretty sweet setup there!) I just don't think the voice suits Hayden Christensen.
It also sounds too, 'dubbed' I guess, when compared to the surrounding dialogue (ie Portman's dialogue). The atmosphere/environment of the recording, also doesn't match the scene in which it has been placed. I don't know whether this can be fixed by adding some reverb/other EQ's or something?
Now for the constructive criticism part. I think it may be a little more natural if perhaps the lines were re-recorded by a trained actor. I'm not sure if you've had training in the past, but you might want to put out a call to all budding actors in your local area and conduct auditions for possible candidates (I'm not sure, you may have already considered/done this). I'm pretty certain someone out there, who is training/trained as an actor, could do it for nothing. Heck, you could even post samples of possible candidates on this site and we could vote the one that is the best!
My intention is not diss you or the (otherwise) quality work you're doing mate. I encourage it. I just wanted to give my 2 cents worth. Hope I don't get shot down in flames too much.
I appreciate your criticism- however, it's too late in the game at this point to have it redone by anyone else. At this point, I just want to get this to a point where it's releasable, and then release it.
Here's the good news- if this thing is a success, there's a possibility that for the dual-layer version, I'll send all of the audio to a professional sound editor who will mix and match all of the dubbed voices and and the original voices, and make the audio quality as similar as possible.
Also, there's certainly enough intricacy to my sound mix to create a 5.1 surround track if people wanted that, so this person would put the audio into surround as well- I just have neither the time nor the ability to do that.
I think it's worth it because even if the dialogue winds up sounding "dubbed" in the final film, in my opinion it's such a relief to be able to enjoy the movie again, that I forget these things really quickly. Almost like watching a movie in B&W or letterbox on a 4x3- after the first 5 minutes, you don't notice it anymore.
But I do acknowledge that the garage scene is messed up somehow, and I'll be recording that whole scene a second time, farther away from the mike this time, and matching mouth movement more closely. But I don't see an issue with the "argument" clip. I guess Anakin's voice could be mixed a little softer, but other than that, I think the acting is good, myself. (I am a little biased, of course
) As I've said, if there's ever the opportunity to turn the recordings over to someone that does it for a living, then I might just do that because they could achieve a higher level of perfection mixing the voices. It also sounds too, 'dubbed' I guess, when compared to the surrounding dialogue (ie Portman's dialogue). The atmosphere/environment of the recording, also doesn't match the scene in which it has been placed. I don't know whether this can be fixed by adding some reverb/other EQ's or something?
It would have been better if Portman was dubbed as well. Too bad about that. If you're talking about the garage scene (as far as EQ and reverb is concerned) then I think everyone recognizes there's a problem with that and it'll be fixed.
Never really thought of it that way! But this comment decides it, I think:
Actually, I was reviewing my Jar Jar recordings and I was just horrified on how they turned out. Could I formally request that they be removed from consideration?
It would have been better if Portman was dubbed as well. Too bad about that. If you're talking about the garage scene (as far as EQ and reverb is concerned) then I think everyone recognizes there's a problem with that and it'll be fixed.
And I can't wait to hear a Brit Jar Jar. I think that would work amazing well to tie in the OOT, sense everyone had a British accent pretty much.
Never really thought of it that way! But this comment decides it, I think:
Actually, I was reviewing my Jar Jar recordings and I was just horrified on how they turned out. Could I formally request that they be removed from consideration?
OK, Sluggo! I didn't think the recordings were that bad- it just wasn't the style I was aiming for. I hope you all like "British Jar-Jar", because I'm pretty sure that's what it'll be
I'll post a clip soon. If you are really open for space, you could always tack in alternate audio tracks for him?
That could be. Another thing I was thinking of was playing a sample of each alternate ADR voice track during the future commentary track, for a behind-the-scenes perspective on how I arrived at my final choices.
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I've just been thinking about the Anakin ADR awkwardness issue, and I think the problem is that I screwed up on how I actually physically recorded a lot of the lines- close to the mike. On an actual set, the mike would have been farther away. Now, some scenes are better than others in this regard, but for particularly offensive scenes (like the garage) I'll try to just rerecord the dialogue farther away from the mike, which I think will help a lot.
I don't think a new actor is needed because I don't think the problem is with my acting- if you saw the movie all the way through, I think you'd agree. And the original reason I did it myself was convenience- I know exactly what I want, and when I want to make a dialogue change, I'm able to cut it in instantly and see whether it'll work. The problem in a few scenes is that the voice sounds unnatural (like it was recorded on a soundstage).
I want you all to understand that I could definitely spend a few more months working on this and have plenty of stuff to work on, just trying to get the voice mixed right. But I can't- people have been waiting on this forever. It's time to release it.
So I'll do whatever I can in the less than a month that I have remaining (as far as tweaking the voices and making them fit) but there is a limit and unfortunately I do not do this full-time. Right now, I haven't even finished doing the Clone War or the conference at the beginning of the film. After that, I have to do another pass on the film and eliminate all of the encoding glitches and the pacing problems. After I do that, assemble the movie, and render the video, IF I have time then I'll really get in depth into tweaking the voices.
Thanks everyone,
TM