2 Thus, vocal performance is inscribed into the character from its very genesis. Of course, focusing on the dubbing of this fictional character is an interesting choice, given that he is originally a hobbit known as Sméagol who, corrupted by the Ring, becomes Gollum, named after his habit of making, as Tolkien himself put it, a ‘horrible swallowing noise in his throat’. My discussion will combine my own close analysis with a recent original interview conducted with Fröhlich, in order to engage with the insider knowledge of a practitioner in a sector of the creative industries that has been without a voice in scholarly debates for far too long. The dubbing scripting and direction as well as the vocal performance of Gollum were all undertaken by Andreas Fröhlich, a voice artist whose long career spans different forms and genres. The dubbing of this film franchise, and Gollum’s voice especially, received positive attention within fan, industry and press discourses in Germany. I will hinge my discussion around the work of one particular dubbing actor as it features in the German version of Lord of the Rings. Continuing with my interest in the lived experience of contemporary screen culture, I will now pay attention to dubbing actors: performing labour that is by its nature literally invisible and at the same time raises issues of transparency, the work of the dubbing actor needs to be understood beyond dogged fixations on dubbing’s supposed lack of originality, and authenticity, as well as the constraining matters of practicality, such as the need for lip-synchronisation. 1 This is despite the unquestionable importance of dubbing to cinema and television in a range of countries, and despite a resurgent interest in matters of globalisation within film and television studies. A truly double-tongued character: Gollum and two artists who perform him, Andy Serkis and Andreas Fröhlich.Īs I have argued in co-authored work elsewhere, the audio-visual translation practice of dubbing, where the audio track of an exported film or programme is replaced with one in the language of the target market, continues to be marginalised and reductively understood in a range of debates.
0 kommentar(er)
