The Art of Voice Acting

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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美國迪士尼公司出品的系列動畫電影，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，自從動畫片誕生起就存在了。在現實中，配音演員多為業界翹楚，全靠發音天賦來演活自己的角色。他們為媒體做出了杰出的貢獻，他們的工作也有著非同尋常的難度。

2配音演員的職業生涯多半是在錄音棚中度過的。每一場錄音，他們都要對著周遭的空氣，用不同的語調與風格念臺詞。正如湯姆·漢克斯一直熱衷于強調的那樣，從“常規的”真人角色到動畫角色（具體地說就是《玩具總動員》）的過渡并非易事。在為動畫角色配音時，配音演員往往要經歷一個飽受折磨的過程，在一個又一個小時的反復嘗試中，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。雖然配音演員們會得到一些輔助材料，比如從動畫的草圖到鏡頭投影。但總體來看，他們缺乏其他演員的配合，如同在一個創意真空中表演。由于動畫片不擅長呈現人臉變化多端的微妙表情，一個契合臺詞的配音就顯得尤為重要。

4總體看來，配音的質量與多數動畫片的質量在同步提升，這一趨勢隨著20 世紀90年代動畫片《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聲技巧和成熟演員的情感表達技巧。他們擁有非凡的聽力，一如優秀的爵士音樂家僅憑腦海中聽到的音符就能即興創作旋律。

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、或深刻或細膩，是大多數“常規”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角色的配音，包括漫畫男、克萊圖斯、弗林克教授、斯內克、船長霍雷肖、校監查默斯、迪斯科·斯圖，當然還有酒保莫·希什拉克。在《惡搞之家》中，優秀的配音演員塞思·麥克法蘭也將自身的發音能力發揮到了極致，為彼得·格利芬、布萊恩·格里芬、斯特威·格里芬以及哈特曼醫生、卡特·皮尤特施密特、希默斯、湯姆·塔克和上帝進行配音。

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 27一款以美國西部拓荒史為題材的動作冒險類開放世界游戲。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行的一款動作冒險生存類游戲。, 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在這一行業中，馬克·哈米爾可以說是王者。他職業生涯的發展軌跡非同尋常，從有史以來最經典電影系列的主演轉變為同輩中最多才多藝、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：啟示錄》中的骷髏王到翻拍版《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，時至今日仍被認為是對這一角色最真實、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用到配音技能。從羅杰·克拉克在《荒野大鏢客2》中對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》中對受到真菌感染的幸存者喬爾·米勒精準細膩的刻畫中可以看到，近幾年來，游戲世界中配音表演的標準及穩定性已經迅速提升。因而，當今一些仍在從業的最優秀的配音演員在游戲行業謀求發展就不足為奇了。對于演員而言，游戲世界是一個展示技藝的理想舞臺。配音藝術家們可以期待玩家在累計數千小時的游戲中數百次地聽到他們的作品。隨著游戲解說質量的飛速提升，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。配音演員則是藝術家，他們塑造角色全靠人聲，就如同鋼琴演奏家運用琴鍵。