Originally posted by: MTHaslett
Trooperman has always made it clear he wants to hear all opinions and criticisms. I always keep in mind that he's doing a mountain of work and that it's a massive task to make a dubbed voice fit in with a production mix -- AND a very discouraging task as well. So it might do some good to always mix honey in with the vinegar so to speak.

Trooperman's limited resources have kept him from getting an actor to do all his dubbing-- but he has been using his own voice for Anakin. He says it's naturally that deep-- not "put on."

I wonder, Laserman, have you ever found techniques that help you "deal" with voice acting that you are "forced" to use? In other words, Trooperman is using the voice you heard and object to-- but do you have advice for making that track blend in with the others? (I'm not a mixer, so I may be using terms all wrong-- but I hope you get what I'm asking).

Oh, I completely understand. You work with what you have. I don't think the voice is electronically lowered, it just sounds like someone doing a cheesy voice in an octave lower than their normal one. If this is the case then i think it would benefit from a natural intonation. But this wouldn't exactly "fix" the issue. The issue is that the delivery is honestly worse than Hayden's, which is no surprise considering its a non-actor fan editor doing it. Its a very commendable effort to put yourself out there like that, but honestly if this is the "fix" then what is the point of re-doing it? Hayden's would be preferred, and it would blend better. The plus to re-dubbing all the dialog is that you are free to re-write it but I would say that what you gain through re-dubbing you more than loose in sheer implausibility. Listening to the footage made available, even things like "he's in there" and "yes master" come across as so jarring and out of place that i am dreading listening to the romance dialog, no matter how improved the scripted dialog may be. As a genuine "fix" to the film it is probably worse than what was originally there, although i will reserve true judegement until i see the whole thing, but I can't imagine it is drastically better than what was already previewed. Hence, as a genuine "fix" to the film it won't work in this aspect, it will merely be an interesting "alternate take" by a fan.

My suggestion to all of this is this: leave the raw materials and the edit open. Release the version being worked on when it is done, and then in the future it may be possible to get professionals--or at least those better than the editor--to come in and re-dub. This is by far the most extensive fan-edit i have ever seen attempted and I've been following it since it was proposed--but when i saw that the dialog was going to be re-written and re-dubbed to such an extent my fears were that it was going to come out sounding exactly the way it does now, which is amaturish and totally jarring. But audio dubbing is easy to fix. Hell, maybe some fan will see the edit and splice an improved version of the sound track together.

Anyway, i don't think i am telling anyone anything new. Anyone that watches the thing will know that the dubbing, at the very least, is "less-than-perfect". I'll be harsh and say it sucks because i believe in this project enough that i know it can be the best fan edit ever constructed if these glaring inconsistencies are ironed out. It was a bold thing to try to do, to entirely re-dub the main character, and it failed, but it can luckily be improved upon and re-done in the future. Maybe there are people here who could provide a better dub--i know when Trooperman first proposed it he asked around and everyone said "oh no, I'm not an actor," but maybe now they'll say "you know I'm not an actor but i think i would be more appropriate than Trooperman himself." If you look at all the fan films out there you occassionally run across some actors who are at a respectably professional level (ie Pink Five or whatever its called, amaturish though it still may be, is remarkably professional for a fan film)--perhaps if they see the final cut and you start asking again people will be more voluntary for their skills. I don't know what the complete history of this project is, but there are plenty of fanfilm discussion boards where you might find people, or people who know people, that can provide a more adequete level of skill for voice acting. Just a thought. Anyway, don't mean to sound too negative, i am very much optimistically looking forward to the completed project.