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Mumbling TV actors: The heart of the mutter
BBC News ^ | July 16, 2013 | Ben Milne

Posted on 07/17/2013 6:29:47 PM PDT by EveningStar

The BBC's new director general Tony Hall has complained that actors aren't speaking clearly enough in TV drama. Is it time to cut the mumble, asks Ben Milne.

"I don't want to sound like a grumpy old man," Lord Hall tells the Radio Times, "but I think muttering is something we could look at." ...

Trends in acting haven't necessarily helped. Method acting tries to capture the "truth" of a character - even if that character can't be heard properly - rather than bowing to stodgy old considerations about being audible from the cheap seats.

Its foremost proponent was Marlon Brando - a man given the nickname "Mumbles" by his Guys and Dolls co-star Frank Sinatra. This was an actor who put cotton wool in his mouth, while playing Don Corleone in The Godfather, to make himself less intelligible ...

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: cinema; dialogue; film; methodacting; movies; mumble; mumbling; muttering; realism; realisticdialogue; television; tv; unintelligible
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1 posted on 07/17/2013 6:29:47 PM PDT by EveningStar
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To: Borges; DollyCali; Perdogg

ping


2 posted on 07/17/2013 6:30:21 PM PDT by EveningStar ("What color is the sky in your world?" -- Frasier Crane)
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To: EveningStar

We use the subtitles. It helps the kids practice reading, too!


3 posted on 07/17/2013 6:33:02 PM PDT by Tax-chick (No pun intended, no punishment ... If I offended you, you needed it.)
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To: Tax-chick

I use subtitles when they’re available.


4 posted on 07/17/2013 6:34:28 PM PDT by EveningStar ("What color is the sky in your world?" -- Frasier Crane)
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To: EveningStar

Muttering and loud background noise or music.

Sometimes, I have to replay a portion of the dialogue several times just to figure out what a character said.


5 posted on 07/17/2013 6:35:43 PM PDT by TomGuy (.)
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To: EveningStar

I agree, of course it’s epidemic with everyone, so partly just reflected by the new actors.

To go along with this is realistic whispering in the movie production. Gets so low you can’t tell what’s going on - along with dark shadowy scenes.


6 posted on 07/17/2013 6:36:53 PM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Technological progress cannot be legislated.)
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To: EveningStar

And here I thought my hearing was going bad.


7 posted on 07/17/2013 6:37:24 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: EveningStar

WE watch Longmire on Monday night and the mumbling is the bad. We will run it back several times trying to understand some of the dialog.


8 posted on 07/17/2013 6:37:30 PM PDT by Ditter
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To: Ditter

Ozzie Osborne is the king of mumblers. I can only make out about 20 percent of what he says.


9 posted on 07/17/2013 6:40:07 PM PDT by Signalman
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To: the OlLine Rebel

"Mmmmbllserga, Skully. "mbbmleffty razzaloh."
10 posted on 07/17/2013 6:40:49 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: EveningStar

Don’ You Go Rounin’ Round to Re Ro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPY-sCiRCeA


11 posted on 07/17/2013 6:41:21 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: DollyCali; Perdogg; EveningStar; Borges; Mr. K; Blondie; altura; mylife; Mama_Bear; Jack Deth; ...

Daniel Craig is one of them.


12 posted on 07/17/2013 6:41:30 PM PDT by Perdogg (Cruz-Paul 2016)
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To: TomGuy

I went to an audiologist for this very problem. I had just been turning the TV up and up and up and still couldn’t understand a damn thing anyone was saying.

The audiologist told me to adjust my TV so that the bass was all the way down and the treble was all the way up.

It changed my family’s life. I’d been blowing everyone away with volume and pausing the show every fifteen minutes to ask, “What’d he say?” Now the volume is reasonable and even my hubby says that he can hear things better.


13 posted on 07/17/2013 6:42:42 PM PDT by Marie ("So a Hispanic shoots a black and is acquited by women, but it's still white men's fault" ~ Wargas)
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To: EveningStar
Nearly as annoying as the flashlight idiocy. That is when they walk into a room with the blinds drawn and they turn on their flashlight.

They don't open the blinds, they don't turn on the fricking light, they turn on their flashlights. Apparently they don't actually want to see what is in the room.

14 posted on 07/17/2013 6:43:36 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Revenge is a dish best served with pinto beans and muffins)
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To: TomGuy

I’m glad I’m not the only one who has a problem with what is being said on tv shows these days. I despise the way they increase the volume for music or special effects sounds, then drop the volume when the characters speak. I find I have to turn the volume up to hear what they’re saying, and then quickly turn it down again when there’s a noise or music. They do this with movies too, and it’s frustrating as all hell. I’ve started watching programs and movies with the subtitles on regularly.


15 posted on 07/17/2013 6:44:21 PM PDT by mass55th (Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway...John Wayne)
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To: the OlLine Rebel

And you know who are the worst offenders. The British. I miss half the words in their shows because either they’re using a phrase which is strictly British or they mumble.


16 posted on 07/17/2013 6:52:11 PM PDT by MondoQueen (ii)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

As something of a flashlight junkie, I especially notice that.


17 posted on 07/17/2013 7:03:54 PM PDT by ansel12 ( Santorum appeared on CBS and pronounced George Zimmerman guilty of murder, first degree. March-2012)
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To: MondoQueen; the OlLine Rebel

Note the source of the article. The Brits don’t like it either. :)


18 posted on 07/17/2013 7:06:23 PM PDT by EveningStar ("What color is the sky in your world?" -- Frasier Crane)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

"Rmmbblestiffle, Skully.
Razpootal mumbowlfod."

19 posted on 07/17/2013 7:15:10 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: EveningStar

uh uh uh what about totus


20 posted on 07/17/2013 7:19:06 PM PDT by bigheadfred (barry your mouth is writing checks your ass cant cash)
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