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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board    Discussion of...     General Chat  ›  Mumbling in Movies... Moderators: bert
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Scar Tissue Films
Posted: January 16th, 2019, 3:29pm Report to Moderator
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Anyone else notice that films are increasingly plagued by actors mumbling whole scenes of dialogue?

It seems to be reaching epidemic levels.

It's a problem compounded by music levels and atmospheric effects being incredibly loud.

Starting to put me off films altogether tbh.

I did a Google and noticed it's a pretty common complaint.
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FrankM
Posted: January 16th, 2019, 4:26pm Report to Moderator
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What? Mummies? I can't hear you over these explosions and background music...

I hadn't noticed this getting any worse lately, but that's probably because my hearing is especially bad at picking voices out of background noise. Now everyone else will know what it's been like for me

Everything I watch at home has the closed captions turned on. An alternative or complement would be cranking up the center channel of a decent sound system.


Feature-length scripts:
Who Wants to Be a Princess? (Family)
Glass House (Horror anthology)

TV pilots:
"Kord" (Fantasy)
"Mal Suerte" (Superhero)

Additional scripts are listed here.
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Gum
Posted: January 16th, 2019, 5:00pm Report to Moderator
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Yeah, you’re not alone. I can’t understand a damn thing anyone is saying anymore, it’s like they’re speaking Gaelic or Norse.

That’s why Netflix is king, they have subtitles for everything, which I just leave on now… indefinitely. Except when they do stupid things like release ‘Solo’ in the Canadian French version a week ahead of the English version; I don’t speak French. I thought no worries, I’ll just put on the subtitles, they’re speaking English anyway… subtitles were in French.
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eldave1
Posted: January 16th, 2019, 5:12pm Report to Moderator
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Concur!!

It makes me wonder, does anyone who makes these things listen to them in a room first - isn't that what effing sound editing is for.

Thank God at home I can watch with captions.


My Scripts can all be seen here:

http://dlambertson.wix.com/scripts
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stevie
Posted: January 16th, 2019, 5:17pm Report to Moderator
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Maybe caused by too many orphans in the
dialogue?  



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eldave1
Posted: January 16th, 2019, 5:48pm Report to Moderator
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Quoted from stevie
Maybe caused by too many orphans in the
dialogue?  


Ahhh - yes.


My Scripts can all be seen here:

http://dlambertson.wix.com/scripts
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Heretic
Posted: January 16th, 2019, 8:35pm Report to Moderator
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How many people experience this problem at the theatre?

I've noticed the same thing at home, but I don't remember ever having trouble hearing the dialogue in theatres (of course, half the time that's because they're just too loud throughout).

Curious if the apparent rise in these complaints is due to less-than-ideal home viewing setups and to quality, compression, and format issues with digital and especially streaming files.
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eldave1
Posted: January 16th, 2019, 8:43pm Report to Moderator
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Quoted from Heretic
How many people experience this problem at the theatre?

I've noticed the same thing at home, but I don't remember ever having trouble hearing the dialogue in theatres (of course, half the time that's because they're just too loud throughout).

Curious if the apparent rise in these complaints is due to less-than-ideal home viewing setups and to quality, compression, and format issues with digital and especially streaming files.


I'm beginning the think they just don't give a shit.


My Scripts can all be seen here:

http://dlambertson.wix.com/scripts
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Scar Tissue Films
Posted: January 17th, 2019, 7:02am Report to Moderator
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I've noticed it in cinemas/theatres (Here's looking at you Christopher Nolan!) but it's definitely more of a problem at home.

It's a combination of several things:

1. Acting. There's a new mumbling style that's become fashionable. It's so prevalent the head of the BBC informed directors to stop actors mumbling because they'd received so many complaints.

It's particularly bad in intimate/key scenes where the actors are imparting the emotional core of the story...and all you can hear. is bmmmff  bmmmmf lmmmf.

It's ironic that character based dramas that rely on talking are the worst culprits. They are becoming unwatchable without subtitles.

2. Sound not being optimised to TV screens/Soundbars etc...though it's a problem on even really expensive surround sound systems. Even if you set individual levels, raising the sound of the central speaker and turning down the surround...the mumbling just gets louder, not clearer...

3. Music and Effects that are mastered to be as loud as possible and override all the dialogue.

I find I have to watch a film with remote in hand: Dialogue scenes need to be up in the thirties to hear, scenes with music have to be as low as 8 to be bearable. There's just a massive discrepancy between the two.

This might be a symptom of the "Loudness" problem with modern music...the complaint that all music is mastered to be as loud as possible at the expense of dynamic range so it stands out on the radio.

4. Plain old bad sound mixing. Directors and editors who know the lines inside out are not realising the dialogue is incomprehensible or they are simply not taking the time to mix the levels properly...it's not something that effects old movies...so it's clearly a problem in the modern process.

Whatever is causing it, it's a problem that's getting worse.


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eldave1
Posted: January 17th, 2019, 11:45am Report to Moderator
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Quoted from Scar Tissue Films

I find I have to watch a film with remote in hand: Dialogue scenes need to be up in the thirties to hear, scenes with music have to be as low as 8 to be bearable. There's just a massive discrepancy between the two.


YES!

Me and wife watching movie.

WIFE
Could you turn it down, please?

Moments pass.

WIFE
Could you turn it up, please.

Rinse and repeat.


My Scripts can all be seen here:

http://dlambertson.wix.com/scripts
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FrankM
Posted: January 17th, 2019, 12:11pm Report to Moderator
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Quoted from eldave1


YES!

Me and wife watching movie.

WIFE
Could you turn it down, please?

Moments pass.

WIFE
Could you turn it up, please.

Rinse and repeat.


Just get a second remote.

Nothing could possibly go wrong.


Feature-length scripts:
Who Wants to Be a Princess? (Family)
Glass House (Horror anthology)

TV pilots:
"Kord" (Fantasy)
"Mal Suerte" (Superhero)

Additional scripts are listed here.
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Gary in Houston
Posted: January 17th, 2019, 12:52pm Report to Moderator
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Can you guys give some specific examples of this, because I guess I haven’t noticed it. But I also play movies at about rock concert volume levels on my Telly.


Some of my scripts:

Bounty (TV Pilot) -- Top 1% of discoverable screenplays on Coverfly
I'll Be Seeing You (short) - OWC winner
The Gambler (short) - OWC winner
Skip (short) - filmed
Country Road 12 (short) - filmed
The Family Man (short) - filmed
The Journeyers (feature) - optioned

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Scar Tissue Films
Posted: January 17th, 2019, 1:15pm Report to Moderator
Of The Ancients


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I first noticed it in Brokeback Mountain.

Heath Ledger was just mumbling all the way through.


It currently infests every BBC Drama. The worst was Eddie Redmayne in Birdsong.


It's a problem in almost all Christopher Nolan films...usually just some actors.

Tom Hardy is perhaps the main culprit. In a recent series, Taboo, he was almost impossible to understand.

Rampage in A Team.


I started the thread after watching about three films in a row that were like this, with the last: A low budget film called the Ballerina, taking it to ridiculous levels. The actors mumbled and whispered through the main emotional scene that described the backstory. Even if you were sat next to them, you wouldn't have been able to understand it. I had to go on Wikipedia to read what the plot was about so I could essentially ignore the actual film.
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eldave1
Posted: January 17th, 2019, 1:18pm Report to Moderator
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Quoted from FrankM


Just get a second remote.

Nothing could possibly go wrong.


Funny!


My Scripts can all be seen here:

http://dlambertson.wix.com/scripts
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eldave1
Posted: January 17th, 2019, 1:21pm Report to Moderator
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Quoted from Gary in Houston
Can you guys give some specific examples of this, because I guess I haven’t noticed it. But I also play movies at about rock concert volume levels on my Telly.


Colin Farre - In Bruges. Great movie if you watch it with close caption. Undecipherable if you don't.

Bohemian Rhapsody a great example of the volume thing.  


My Scripts can all be seen here:

http://dlambertson.wix.com/scripts
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