Voiceover

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Over Voice ( Engl. ) Is a technical term of the studio technology of radio broadcasting and in the film . It refers to the sound of a voice (English. Voice ) that (Engl. About over ) another sound recording or is placed over a scene.

The compound “Voiceover” is used in German as “Overvoice”, also with reversed word components, whereby it is a pseudo-borrowing or a pseudo-Anglicism .

Radio

On the radio, the voiceover occurs when translating original foreign language sounds and during interviews . In order to prove the authenticity of the original, the foreign-language original recording is played, but the translation spoken by a studio spokesman is placed over it. Ideally, the listener has the impression of understanding the foreign-language original without knowing the language; he "forgets" the voice actor . To achieve this, the producer has to leave room for the original. In the case of short programs in daily broadcasting operations - unlike long, elaborately produced programs such as radio features - there is generally no time for this effort; In addition, a radio report produced with a subtly used voiceover is longer. In everyday broadcasting, you usually hear voiceovers that almost completely cover the original acoustically and only let it through at the beginning and at the end. The duration of the original sound - due to z. Partly longer sentences due to grammatical reasons - strongly dependent on the respective language. In digital production technology, there is a special function developed for this purpose: ducking .

Voiceovers are treated differently on radio internationally. For example, Scandinavian broadcasters often do without a translation, i.e. a voiceover, for original English sounds, and only let a speaker summarize the content before or afterwards. A widespread knowledge of the English language in the population is assumed. On German radio, the foreign-language original sound is mainly translated using a voiceover voice, exceptions are sometimes live interviews on the radio and, in some cases, questions and answers are subsequently translated by the moderator in the context of TV programs with a dialogical format. In British radio, voiceovers are often specially staged: To translate an Arabic interview, for example , one uses a good English-speaking Arab who brings the relevant accent into the voiceover. This approach is not desired in German. Instead, especially in high-quality productions, great importance is attached to the original and the voiceover voice is made to sound particularly neutral. In doing so, however, the gender of the speaking person is usually retained (i.e. an interviewed man also receives a male voiceover voice), and if possible also the age, although this is not always possible with children's voices.

Movie

In the film, the voiceover became popular in the 1940s. Here, voiceover refers to the commentary , monologue or dialogue of one or more characters or a narrator that is not spoken in the scene , but rather placed over the scene, so to speak . - The word " off-voice " (derived from "off camera", ie not shown by means of the camera), which is often incorrectly used as equivalent, describes the monologue or dialogue of one or more characters who act as speakers in a scene act, but in the current setting can only be heard, but not visible in the picture.

A voiceover can clarify, ironic or contrast an event on the screen . This stylistic device is used, for example, to reproduce the thought processes of a person who is absent from the scene, or the unexpressed thoughts of a person present ( inner monologue ). Also one can Voiceover the reflection of the speaker used, such as when a young person in the picture is visible and the voice of the same, but now aged figure the events commented in retrospect (Example Stardust Memories ).

In literary adaptations, which often have to shorten the story lines when converting a novel to a feature length, a voiceover delivers e.g. B. historical background or the prehistory to a scene, or a character description or short biography of a newly introduced figure. The genre of film noir , which often addressed the hopelessness of a situation or a protagonist, used a voiceover to anticipate the fatal outcome of the story at the beginning of the film.

A voiceover can also be used after the film has been completed, although it was not originally intended in the script, because the director or the production studio , for example, is of the opinion that it can explain ambiguities in the course of the plot (e.g. the first rental version of Blade Runner ).

In documentary films , a voiceover in the form of a comment is a common stylistic device. Some feature films use voiceovers to give them a pseudo-documentary effect, such as the films by Peter Watkins ( The War Game , Punishment Park ) or It Happened Here by Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo .

Is used voiceover in the synchronization . Instead of completely replacing the spoken original sound , the spoken translations are superimposed on the original sound, with the latter remaining quietly audible in the background.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b William Guynn: The Routledge Companion to Film History, Routledge 2010, ISBN 978-0415776561 , S. 257th
  2. ^ Robert Porfirio: No Way Out: Existentialist Motifs in the Film Noir, quoted from JP Telotte: Voices in the Dark: The Narrative Patterns of Film Noir, University of Illinois Press 1989, ISBN 978-0252060564 , p. 53.