Chapter 245: Voice Acting Exerpts
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Bai Zhi was aware of Meng Fan’s voice clips from his stream and had seen the videos as well. Although he often fooled around, she could tell Meng Fan was a very skilled player in the voice acting realm. He was able to manage all aspects of a wide array of character types.
After seeing the voice clips the crew had a.s.signed to Meng Fan and seeing Meng Fan’s blank expression, Bai Zhi questioned: “These are a bit too easy, no?”
“They’re okay, I’m just not sure which segment to choose.”
It was simple, but Meng Fan wouldn’t deliberately select a difficult one either. As a newcomer to the voice acting industry, and as a person who has already done 150 or so smaller roles, Meng Fan was not a picky dubber. Even if it was a simple clip, he was confident he could make it s.h.i.+ne.
“You can’t decide? Is there any that you really want to dub?” Bai Zhi asked.
“Not really, I’ve already dubbed everything I want to during my streams.” Meng Fan responded.
Bai Zhi rolled her eyes. “You’re such a jester.”
“I’m actually very Buddha-like, okay.” Meng Fan smiled.
“That’s the most difficult trope to deal with.”
Bai Zhi rolled her eyes again before going into thought. Smiling, she waved a staff member over. “There must be more clips in your library, right? Don’t worry about how many characters there are or what genre it is. The difficulty also doesn’t matter either.”
“There are. Give me a minute.” The staff member a.s.sumed Bai Zhi was dissatisfied with her compilation of voice clips and hurriedly came over with their newfound clips.
Bai Zhi browsed through the options, circling lines as she spoke. “Either way you can’t choose, so I’ll pick one for you.” After circling it, she handed the paper to Meng Fan and smiled. “I’ve already informed the crew to check out your voice acting clips before selecting scenes. It seems they still don’t understand your abilities, or at least have a grasp of your specialties. They didn’t even prepare you a female script!”
“I only play around with female voices on stream. I think I’ll pa.s.s on doing it on the show.” Meng Fan received the list.
Bai Zhi smiled. “What, are you worried that a female voice will ruin your fierce Iron Hero namesake?”
“Oh, I’m not worried about that.”
Meng Fan looked at the lines that Bai Zhi had circled, his expression downcast. “Sis, are you looking for a little sister?”
They were all male and female dialogues; mature ones include some fighting exchange scenes like the famous cold, heartless, and unreasonable arguments from “Princess Returning Pearl”. There was also an argument scene with Bai and desk manager Tong. Didn’t this also require him to switch between genders?
Bai Zhi smiled. “Don’t mess around. I want both little sisters and brothers.”
Meng Fan looked at the ones that hadn’t been circled and found a few that he wanted to dub. They were not easy either. After circling a few, he then fell into a quandary so he handed it back to Bai Zhi: “I circled a few more, too. Help me pick two.”
Bai Zhi took the paper and looked. He had circled a Zhuge Liang monologue from the 1994 version of “Romance of Three Kingdoms,” the last scene by Bai Yingyu or Uncle Three from “Da Zhai Men,” the dinner scene from “The Message,” the banquet scene from “Let the Bullets Fly,” the first meeting scene from “In the Name of the People,” and the eighth emperor’s coronation scene from “Yong Zheng Dynasty”…
“Do you want to dub one of these roles, or… all of them!” Bai Zhi was shocked. It was already very difficult for an individual to reenact a group scene, and even more so for all of these cla.s.sic group scenes. If there was a ranking system, these scenes would be among Huaxia’s top 10 group dialogues!
“I’ve never tried dubbing any of these scenes on stream, and haven’t even thought about some of them. I feel like they will be challenging enough.” Meng Fan said. “Uhm, is this too arrogant?”
“Arrogant? Your ego’s already gone through the roof!”
Bai Zhi took a closer look and said: “If you can do these well, it would be explosive. But they are a bit long, so some parts need to be shortened. How about… doing the clip from ‘The Message’ since there are two and a half female voices? As for the other one… If you can’t decide, then stick with ‘Da Zhai Men’. You’re guaranteed to make the audience cry.”
“Alright. Then it’s set.”
Meng Fan nodded. He would have taken half a day just to pick one, and he even had to choose two. It would have been easier if they just tossed him two roles to begin with.
Bai Zhi was already done selecting the two clips she wanted to dub and felt conflicted on which scene to choose for her collaboration with Meng Fan. She was very confident in his abilities since he could adapt to any role. Her main concern was herself.
Bai Zhi suddenly remembered a scene as her eyes lit up. “Hey, how’s your English?”
“British English or American English?” Meng Fan responded arrogantly.
“Really?” Bai Zhi pulled out her phone and dug up a video she’d been saving. “Then I’m going to choose this one.”
Meng Fan clicked on the video where a girl appeared immediately followed by a male voice over from outside the frame saying “NO”. Meng Fan knew immediately what film this was from the first scene, let alone the fact that Benedict c.u.mberbatch was about to appear.
This was a scene from season 2 of “Sherlock,” a dialogue depicting the most cla.s.sical rivalry between Sherlock and Irene. The most outstanding moment was when Irene needed to complete the phone pa.s.sword set “I’m —- locked”. Irene’s pulse accelerated during the conversation, her eyes dilating as she came into realization before unlocking the phone with “I’m Sher-locked”.
I’ve been Sherlocked, or I’m in love with Sherlock.
This was Meng Fan’s favorite scene from “Sherlock” aside from all the speedy speculation monologues, loving it even more than the dialogue between Sherlock and Watson. He didn’t expect this to be Bai Zhi’s choice.
“Is this okay?” Bai Zhi asked.
“Yeah, it’s fine. But…” Meng Fan thought for a moment, then said: “The collaboration should focus on you as the star, but this scene is clearly focused on the male. The female role is clearly weaker. Maybe you should pick one with a female lead, I’ll support you.”
“This is where you lack industry experience. The partner in a collaboration must be strong too for the act to stand out. Since you’re the one dubbing it, it’ll be okay. It’s settled then.” Bai Zhi genuinely wanted Meng Fan to stand out. “Besides, don’t we have to pick another one? I’ve already selected one. The dialogue between Da Yuer and Duo Ergun from ‘Xiaozhuang Mis.h.i.+,’ or the dialogue between Eighth Concubine Mi and Ying Si. Choose one.”
Neither of these scenes actually had a male supporting role.
“What do you mean you’ve already decided! Are these the only options?”
Meng Fan took a look. As a voice actor, he was naturally familiar with both of these scenes. Although Mrs. Ning Jing’s performance in “The Qin Empire II: Alliance” was outstanding, it was still a male dominated show. Hence, Meng Fan decided to go with the ‘Yuer, you’re cursing me!’ scene from “Xiao Zhuang Mis.h.i.+,” which was a female lead drama.
“Alright, that’s the one. Let’s see which segment the production team decides to broadcast.”
After locking down the clip, Bai Zhi was exceptionally happy. She loved both of the scenes they’d selected together, which she normally would never get the chance to dub. She counted this recording as completing one of her dreams.
“Then let’s practice on our own first, and then do a run-through together.”