Wow- why didn't that occur to me? I did all of my recording sitting down, not acting out the part, and close to the mic (hence the constant volume level).
At this point, my friend, as controversial as all of this is, I think it's clear you've got to devote some serious thought to doing a version which retains Hayden's original voice in addition to the one you've already dubbed. As repugnant as it is to you, it may satisfy those less bothered by Hayden's performance. That way, people will have a choice.
You know that if you don't, then as soon as you release this thing someone else will immediately pull it apart and do a version that may not be up to the same level of quality that you'd like, and by that time it'd be out of your hands. I'd say it would be better for you the editor to do it before anyone else.
Good point. I really can't stand the thought of someone tearing apart my movie- better to deliver everything from the get-go. It honestly wouldn't be difficult to put Hayden back in at the end for an alternate audio option- the only hard part would be dealing with the lines I've changed. Putting Hayden back in would involve some serious compromises creatively. But it's possible, and that way, there'd be something for everyone.
The good news is that I can put anyone in for Anakin if they do a good job. Myself, Hayden, myself doing a second run, or another actor. I am definitely not going to make the base mix WITHOUT Anakin's voice available to public, because then anyone could edit/dub SOTDS how they see fit. But if someone wanted to do Anakin, it would be very easy to put them in. Actually, my dream scenario would be a guy and a girl (actors) volunteering to do Padme and Anakin and doing it in the same room. I think that would bump up the realism considerably.
But I think I began to realize something after reading this comment:
no one has yet uttered one negative comment about the Lama Su voice, and most people I've discussed it with think it's really great (based on the snippet we've seen from the trailer).
This is true. Lama-Su sounded great with minimal effort. Nute Gunray sounded great with minimal effort. Jar-Jar and others sound great... with minimal effort.
The reason Anakin's taking me so long to get right is because... it was recorded badly. It's never going to be "right", or up to professional standards, unless I do it again. I was sitting down, recording close to the microphone, and probably focusing more on lip synch than on actually acting out the part.
Here's my plan. I'm not going to spend any more time mixing Anakin's voice just yet.
A) I'm going to finish all of the video, encode it, and put it on to DVD. Done.
B) I'm going to tweak the sound mix- except for Anakin's voice. His voice will be muted in this version.
C) Synch, burn, and put DVD in.
D) Run the movie and do a "retake" of Anakin. I'll be standing up. I'll be acting the part out. I'll walk when he walks. Actually get angry when he gets angry. Etc. I can be far away from the mike, too. My equipment is good enough to where it'll pick it up very clearly even at a distance.
Then, I'll drop this newly recorded dialogue into the picture, tweak it, and finish the sound mix. Because I think that the amount of time spent on Anakin thus far has been to make something that doesn't work work, and that if I do a new recording in the way Laserman suggested, mixing Anakin will be as easy as mixing Lama-Su and the others.
You guys have opened my eyes quite a bit. Thank you.
More later...