The Art of Voice Acting

By

掃碼聽讀

For as long as there have been cartoons there have been voice actors.In reality, voice actors are some of the best in the business, relying on nothing but their vocal talents in order to bring their respective characters to life. Their contribution to the media is as utterly phenomenal as it is uniquely challenging.

2Much of a voice actor’s career is spent in a booth reading lines to the surrounding air in a variety of tones and styles for each take. As Tom Hanks has been keen to emphasise, the transition from ‘regular’ acting roles to animated ones (specificallyToy Story1美國(guó)迪士尼公司出品的系列動(dòng)畫電影，湯姆·漢克斯在其中為胡迪配音。) is not an easy one, an often-gruelling process involving hour after hour of line reads to find the perfect take. Anyone who has enjoyed the pleasures of the Matt Berry sitcomToast of London2英國(guó)電視劇。will have some small appreciation of the frustrations endured by diligent voice actors at the hands of their overbearing sound producers.

配音演員這一職業(yè)，自從動(dòng)畫片誕生起就存在了。在現(xiàn)實(shí)中，配音演員多為業(yè)界翹楚，全靠發(fā)音天賦來演活自己的角色。他們?yōu)槊襟w做出了杰出的貢獻(xiàn)，他們的工作也有著非同尋常的難度。

2配音演員的職業(yè)生涯多半是在錄音棚中度過的。每一場(chǎng)錄音，他們都要對(duì)著周遭的空氣，用不同的語調(diào)與風(fēng)格念臺(tái)詞。正如湯姆·漢克斯一直熱衷于強(qiáng)調(diào)的那樣，從“常規(guī)的”真人角色到動(dòng)畫角色（具體地說就是《玩具總動(dòng)員》）的過渡并非易事。在為動(dòng)畫角色配音時(shí)，配音演員往往要經(jīng)歷一個(gè)飽受折磨的過程，在一個(gè)又一個(gè)小時(shí)的反復(fù)嘗試中，找到最令人滿意的一版配音。每一位享受過馬特·貝里的情景喜劇《倫敦榜樣》所帶來的樂趣的人，多少能了解勤奮的配音演員們是如何在專橫的配音制作人手下飽受折磨的。

3The great skill of the voice artist,then, is to be able to conjure characters through the power of the voice alone,often with minimal external resources.While performers may be gifted supplementary materials ranging from sketches to projections of footage, the general lack of other actors off which to bounce makes proceedings akin to working in a creative vacuum. Since cartoons aren’t quite so adept at conveying the infinitely varying subtleties of the human face,the importance of a decent voice behind the lines becomes even more acute.

4The quality of voice acting has coincided with the rise in quality of most animated fare in general, a trend accelerated with the ascent ofThe Simpsonsin the 90s. Combining the vocal dexterity of an impressionist3impressionist 模仿演員（常模仿名人言行）。and the emotive skills of trained actors, the exceptional ear that many great vocal performers possess is akin to that of a great jazz musician able to improvise melodies purely by virtue of hearing the notes in his or her head.

5A voice actor’s voice is their weapon,their predominant tool in crafting characters of a range and variety, as well as depth and subtlety, of which most‘regular’ actors can only dream. The Simpsons’ Hank Azaria has lent his talents to stalwarts such as Comic Book Guy, Cletus, Professor Frink, Snake4原名Chester Turley，Snake 為其昵稱。,The Sea Captain5原名霍雷肖·麥卡利斯特（Horatio McCallister）。, Superintendent Chalmers, Disco Stu and of course Mo Szyslak, while Family Guy’s Seth Mac-Farlane, a skilled voice actor in his own right, stretches his vocal capacity to the limit in order to voice Peter, Brian and Stewie Griffin, as well as Dr. Hartman,Carter Pewterschmidt, Sheamus, Tom Tucker and God himself.

3還有，配音藝術(shù)家們技藝的精湛之處就在于，他們往往依靠極少的外部資源，僅憑嗓音的魔力，就能令角色栩栩如生。雖然配音演員們會(huì)得到一些輔助材料，比如從動(dòng)畫的草圖到鏡頭投影。但總體來看，他們?nèi)狈ζ渌輪T的配合，如同在一個(gè)創(chuàng)意真空中表演。由于動(dòng)畫片不擅長(zhǎng)呈現(xiàn)人臉變化多端的微妙表情，一個(gè)契合臺(tái)詞的配音就顯得尤為重要。

4總體看來，配音的質(zhì)量與多數(shù)動(dòng)畫片的質(zhì)量在同步提升，這一趨勢(shì)隨著20 世紀(jì)90年代動(dòng)畫片《辛普森一家》的成功加快了。許多杰出的配音演員兼具模仿演員的靈活發(fā)聲技巧和成熟演員的情感表達(dá)技巧。他們擁有非凡的聽力，一如優(yōu)秀的爵士音樂家僅憑腦海中聽到的音符就能即興創(chuàng)作旋律。

5配音演員的嗓音是他們的武器，是他們塑造形形色色角色的主要工具——這些角色或同類或多樣、或深刻或細(xì)膩，是大多數(shù)“常規(guī)”演員無法企及的。在《辛普森一家》中，漢克·阿扎利亞出色地完成了多個(gè)角色的配音，包括漫畫男、克萊圖斯、弗林克教授、斯內(nèi)克、船長(zhǎng)霍雷肖、校監(jiān)查默斯、迪斯科·斯圖，當(dāng)然還有酒保莫·希什拉克。在《惡搞之家》中，優(yōu)秀的配音演員塞思·麥克法蘭也將自身的發(fā)音能力發(fā)揮到了極致，為彼得·格利芬、布萊恩·格里芬、斯特威·格里芬以及哈特曼醫(yī)生、卡特·皮尤特施密特、希默斯、湯姆·塔克和上帝進(jìn)行配音。

6The king of the medium is arguably Mark Hamill, a man whose unusual career trajectory has taken him from the starring role in the most iconic film franchise of all time to becoming arguably the most versatile and respected voice actor of his generation. Hamill can do it all, his roles ranging from Skeletor inMasters of the Universeto Chucky in theChild’s Play6美國(guó)系列恐怖電影。remake. It’s a testament to Hamill’s extraordinary skills that his incarnation of The Joker is still held up as the truest and most complete version of the character, ahead of the likes of Jack Nicholson, Joaquin Phoenix and even Heath Ledger.

7The skillset required isn’t just restricted to TV and movies. From Roger Clark’s peerless evocation of Western antihero Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 27一款以美國(guó)西部拓荒史為題材的動(dòng)作冒險(xiǎn)類開放世界游戲。to Troy Baker’s nuanced portrayal of damaged survivor Joel Miller in The Last of Us8索尼電腦娛樂公司發(fā)行的一款動(dòng)作冒險(xiǎn)生存類游戲。, the gaming world has seen a rapid evolution over the past few years in the standard, and consistency, of its vocal performances.It’s little surprise that some of the finest voice actors working today do so through the medium of gaming. It’s an ideal showcase for a performer’s work. Artists can expect to have their work heard hundreds of times across thousands of cumulative hours of gameplay. With the meteoric rise in quality of gaming storytelling, chameleonic performers such as Nolan North, Troy Baker, and Hamill himself choose video games as their predominant means of employment.

6在這一行業(yè)中，馬克·哈米爾可以說是王者。他職業(yè)生涯的發(fā)展軌跡非同尋常，從有史以來最經(jīng)典電影系列的主演轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)橥呏凶疃嗖哦嗨?、最受尊敬的配音演員。哈米爾可以勝任各類角色，從《宇宙巨人希曼：?jiǎn)⑹句洝分械镊俭t王到翻拍版《鬼娃回魂》中的恰吉，都是由他配音。他塑造的小丑超越了杰克·尼科爾森、華金·菲尼克斯甚至希思·萊杰的版本，時(shí)至今日仍被認(rèn)為是對(duì)這一角色最真實(shí)、最完整的演繹，這證明了他非凡的配音能力。

7并非只有電視劇與電影才會(huì)用到配音技能。從羅杰·克拉克在《荒野大鏢客2》中對(duì)西方反英雄角色亞瑟·摩根精彩絕倫的演繹，到特洛伊·貝克在《最后生還者》中對(duì)受到真菌感染的幸存者喬爾·米勒精準(zhǔn)細(xì)膩的刻畫中可以看到，近幾年來，游戲世界中配音表演的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)及穩(wěn)定性已經(jīng)迅速提升。因而，當(dāng)今一些仍在從業(yè)的最優(yōu)秀的配音演員在游戲行業(yè)謀求發(fā)展就不足為奇了。對(duì)于演員而言，游戲世界是一個(gè)展示技藝的理想舞臺(tái)。配音藝術(shù)家們可以期待玩家在累計(jì)數(shù)千小時(shí)的游戲中數(shù)百次地聽到他們的作品。隨著游戲解說質(zhì)量的飛速提升，像諾蘭·諾思、特洛伊·貝克以及哈米爾這些一人千面的配音演員便選擇將電子游戲作為主要的工作領(lǐng)域。

8The talents of actors are often overrated, their suitability and success dictated often as much by circumstances of birth, attractiveness or other trivial characteristics. The voice actor, however,is an artist, a performer utilising nothing more than the human voice to craft characters as a musician employs the keys on a piano keyboard.

8演員的天賦往往被高估了。他們與角色的匹配程度以及所獲成功常常也受其先天條件、魅力或者其他微不足道的特征影響。配音演員則是藝術(shù)家，他們塑造角色全靠人聲，就如同鋼琴演奏家運(yùn)用琴鍵。