Title
Make it funnier! The influence of the narrator in the AD of comedy and slapstick
Conference name
Intermedia. 5th International Conference on Audiovisual Translation
City
Country
Poland
Modalities
Date
19/09/2019
Abstract
The Audio Description of films holds some challenging problems especially for genres like action or comedy. A good describer may overcome these problems and create a text that covers all the necessary aspects. But especially in the genre of comedy and slapstick the success of the description lays in the end in the work of the narrator.
Presenting a funny text in a neutral way may kill all the fun - whereas a good narrator may change a not-so-funny-text into a funny AD. So choosing the right woman or man to voice your comedy description in very important.
She or he should be able to adapt the style or tone of the original and transfer this style into the spoken description. The overall challenge in this is to catch the comedy in the original without adding to much of your own. The show is still the film – not the description. So yes, be funny – as funny as the original - but do not put anything or at least only a little on top.
This presentation will focus on case studies about voicing comedy and slapstick. It will show how high the influence of the narrator especially in this genre is. Examples of good and not so good comedy AD will be presented and discussed.
Presenting a funny text in a neutral way may kill all the fun - whereas a good narrator may change a not-so-funny-text into a funny AD. So choosing the right woman or man to voice your comedy description in very important.
She or he should be able to adapt the style or tone of the original and transfer this style into the spoken description. The overall challenge in this is to catch the comedy in the original without adding to much of your own. The show is still the film – not the description. So yes, be funny – as funny as the original - but do not put anything or at least only a little on top.
This presentation will focus on case studies about voicing comedy and slapstick. It will show how high the influence of the narrator especially in this genre is. Examples of good and not so good comedy AD will be presented and discussed.