I Have Had It with Mumbling Actors

I'm finding it interesting that so many people watch these shows with subtitles/closed captioning on when in my day, the average American refused to watch a subtitled foreign film because they hated to read a movie.

 

Some of us just love mumbling in any language! ....as long as the mumbling has deep bass....

 

Elementary (and I don't have a problem understanding English accents) and Blacklist are the two shows I automatically crank the volume on so I can hopefully understand the dialog. I don't know why they bury the actors so much. On the other hand, apparently David Carradine was so stoned while filming Kung Fu that he whispered all his lines but I have no problem understanding him. I have vague recollections of a TV Guide article that mentioned that the sound guys hated him.

 

Naw, the mix on Blacklist is fine. James Spader is an actor with theatrical experience and he knows how to vary his voice all over the place to get maximum attention and still emote what's needed for the character. That guy is one helluva actor.

There are shows that have serious dialogue mixing problems, and usually it's an issue where the dynamic range overwhelms the dialogue. There was a famous British show recently where thousands of viewers called up their stations and complained about not being able to understand the dialogue; the mixer came forward and said, "what you heard was the director's creative choice." He also admitted he had fought with the director to bring the dialogue up more, but lost that battle.

 

What did you say?

 

Here's some of the articles I referenced:

For God's sake stop mumbling: BBC admits 'issues with sound levels'
after inaudible dialogue in new period drama Jamaica Inn leaves viewers furious
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ewers-struggle-hear-dialogue-Jamaica-Inn.html

Sort the sound! Viewers complain about BBC One’s
'muddy' Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
http://tv.bt.com/tv/tv-news/sort-th...onathan-strange-and-mr-norrell-11363981636577

Turn it up! As Benedict Cumberbatch returns in period drama
Parade's End, BBC is hit by complaints the dialogue is inaudible
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...nd-BBC-hit-complaints-dialogue-inaudible.html

I think this is remarkable that lots of people are noticing that a) some actors mumble their lines, and b) sound mixes are not controlling the dynamic range to make sure the dialogue is always intelligible. Dialogue is #1: if you can't understand the actors, then the acting, the story, the characterization goes out the window and the whole show is for nothing.

For the record, I would say that Benedict Cumberbatch is a fantastic actor who really knows how to enunciate, and I think he's totally fine. The mix... I dunno about that. Sherlock has been fine to my ears.

 

We recently watched the 2000's version of THE FORSYTE SAGE, the British production that would have run on PBS here in the States. We stumbled upon the first episode running on a local PBS and then found that it was streaming on Amazon. Regardless of where we watched it, the dialog was wholly unintelligible to both of us. After blasting the audio to try to understand it, we gave up and put on the closed captions/subtitles for the rest of the series. I suspect the problem was largely from mumbling actors with their thick accents. I don't recall the sound mix being at fault.

Harry

 

Exactly our experience on 50% of the shows we watch, regardless of origin.

 

Thanks for posting these links, very interesting.

I watch a lot of older British shows..my favorite being Inspector George Gently. NEVER had an issue understanding dialogue. Sometimes the accents
in the show are a bit stumping, but not due to mumbling.

Current shows are a different matter. It really is maddening.

 

I seem to mostly have problems with the new Doctor Who series going back to a few years.
I seem to not understand about 20-25% of the dialogue. I thought it's the British accent.
But I see other BBC shows (Sherlock and Downton Abbey) and older shows and I don't have that much of an issue
though I do miss a little bit in them also but not nearly as much.
Mind you I know my hearing is not great these days because I do mishear consonants often.

 

These were interesting examples. I have watched Jamaica Inn and Parade's End, and as an Englishman, they were hard to decipher.

In the case of those examples, it's clearly not just a matter of viewers struggling where accents are different to their own (granted, Jamaica Inn was full of pretty thick regional accents, but I'm from that end of the country, and it was still very hard work).

On the other hand, when I read on here that people struggle with the likes of Sherlock, to my mind that must be more a difficulty with accents than a problem with the mix, as the dialogue comes over clearly here

 

Some actors can raise the mumble to an art form:

 

Both me and Bo are with ya brother.

 

Naw, Sherlock is fine, even on this side of the pond. Downton Abbey is fine, too, though once in awhile if there's a really thick Scottish brogue, I might go "huh?" a couple of times. They had a Scot in an episode of Gotham last night, and I had a couple of those moments. But definitely a fine mix.

 

my man...

 

what pisses me off more? loud music over the mumbling Actors! Why do they have to have music in the background when ppl are speaking?

 

Worse than that is "outside" noise. Two people are standing on a busy street and the street noise drowns out everything they're saying. We get the fact that it's supposed to be noisy, but really, we don't need to be deafened by said noise: wind, cars honking, people shouting, airplanes overhead, brakes squealing, etc. We've all heard that before, so let's hear what the characters are saying. We HAVEN'T heard that before.

 

+1000

 

If they want to create realism with all the surrounding noise then they should also have the actors say "what?" every once in a while.



I do know that it is supposed to be hard to understand Brad Pitt here. I just think it is funny.

 

Hysterical. I love this movie.

 

Indeed. I think I have the solution:


SHATNER EVERYTHING

 

I've been saying that for years, but you put it so well. I really don't understand why the problem persists.

Perhaps most people never really listen to other people so they don't find anything amiss?

 

A good sound mixer tries to pull the dialogue up and not let the effects and music overwhelm it. Generally, the guy mixing the dialogue is the lead re-recording mixer running the session, and the music and FX guys work under him as part of the team. TV shows typically get only 2 guys: a dialogue guy and a music/FX guy. Even then, the dialogue guy is the one in charge, and dialogue "theoretically" runs the show.

But if you get a strong-willed director or producer that comes in and says, "hey, we paid $50,000 for that music! I want to hear it all the time!", they're gonna get what they asked for -- even if what they want is wrong.

Note that Chris Nolan made The Prestige, and he has been roundly criticized for bad dialogue decisions in his past movies. Remember what happened with Interstellar? One theater chain had to post these signs after too many complaints:

I gotta say: Shatner does not mumble. I worked on Boston Legal on and off for three or four years, and both he and James Spacey were first class at knowing their lines and doing an impeccable job. And they had tons of dialogue every week in those courtroom scenes.

 

Madam Secretary is another offender. It's annoying low level, soft-spoken dialogue requires an immediate turn off.

 

Agree, Shatner was not a mumbler...not even close.