Sunday, 18 October 2009
A German language version of Doctor Who
When I was in Germany, it struck me that the language barrier would be a real problem. Not all Germans speak any English and therefore this restricts how many would watch Doctor Who. Obviously the show could be shown dubbed in English or with subtitles but neither really convince. A better solution would be to film each scene several times, once in English, once in German & maybe once in French also. This would widen to appeal of the programme.
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20 comments:
Whovianologist FAIL.
Spara, have you actually WATCHED the German dubbed episodes? If you had you'd know they are perfectly acceptable, with vocal artists not only managing to get the right sort of voices, but also get the language to synch up with the mouths.
And, do you REALLY think that, in the current global financial crisis, anyone will want to go through the hassle of producing THREE times a given story and getting all the cast to be polylingual?
Seriously, DO YOU THINK THIS IS A REALISTIC SUGGESTION?
I'm just waiting for your next "work" (assuming you're not jammed in 'film outline' mode) which will no doubt be set in Berlin...
Subtitles or dubs. Easy, and I suspect both are done already.
So you want the cast and crew of Doctor Who - a show which has a nine month shoot for 14 episodes - to shoot each scene three times. And you think they'd have time for that? And that the cast (including every guest actor) would be able to remember their lines in phonetic German and and French?
Idiot.
"Subtitles or dubs. Easy, and I suspect both are done already."
Dubbing looks shoddy as the lip movements arn't in sync with dialogue.
And subtitles can be irritating.
"Spara, have you actually WATCHED the German dubbed episodes? If you had you'd know they are perfectly acceptable, with vocal artists not only managing to get the right sort of voices, but also get the language to synch up with the mouths."
I have not watched these episodes. However I have watched other dubbed programmes.
"So you want the cast and crew of Doctor Who - a show which has a nine month shoot for 14 episodes - to shoot each scene three times. And you think they'd have time for that? And that the cast (including every guest actor) would be able to remember their lines in phonetic German and and French?
Idiot."
Please refrain from using gratuitous invective.
It would not be difficult for actors to remember lines in German. They can learn them phonetically.
You honestly have NO idea how television works...
Cameron
Since we're all agreed about the spectacular awfulness of this idea, there is little to more to say. Meanwhile, I have finally bowed to popular pressure and updated the BC wiki page on Chatham Odyssey with all the sordid details of LBC gate, the Skins Doctor, and the law of diminishing returns over BC's latest... "adventures".
"You honestly have NO idea how television works...
Cameron"
Of course he does, the pixies in the box say their lines or else they get the hose again.
"Meanwhile, I have finally bowed to popular pressure and updated the BC wiki page on Chatham Odyssey with all the sordid details of LBC gate, the Skins Doctor, and the law of diminishing returns over BC's latest... "adventures"."
But no mention of the "become a canonical writer" competition, it's entries or the winner's attempt to bring some sort of continuity to the Chathamverse...
Drop me an e-mail and I'll tell you how it was supposed to end!
incidentally, I've finally posted what I'd written for my Grande Finale, "The Ultimate Solution"...
The Ultimate Solution - Prologue
The Ultimate Solution - Part 1
The Ultimate Solution - Part 2 (incomplete)
Spara, the mild irritation felt by you over subtitles is something you're going to have to live with. Filming each scene three times, with actors having to learn lines in three languages, is a fatally flawed plan.
"Spara, the mild irritation felt by you over subtitles is something you're going to have to live with. Filming each scene three times, with actors having to learn lines in three languages, is a fatally flawed plan."
I fail to see why. Filming could take place over a longer period of the year.
So you want less Doctor Who per year just to pander to the nation you've mocked and criticized in your BC stories for four years now?
But no mention of the "become a canonical writer" competition, it's entries or the winner's attempt to bring some sort of continuity to the Chathamverse...
Bloody hell, Bernie I must have missed that. My apologies.
Whereabouts is this wiki with the Chatham information on it please? This sounds like something I'd like to read.
"I fail to see why. Filming could take place over a longer period of the year."
It's still an expensive process. Doctor Who struggles with a budget at thirteen weekly episodes and one christmas special. Even once you factor in things like set design, props, costuming, prosthetics, cgi effects that can be easily reused to reshoot a scene three times, you've then got to consider the cameramen, sound techs, the people who control the lighting, pyrotechnics for any on-scene explosions, gags, blue-screen and wire work, you've then got the costs of make-up, catering, stunt-men, actors, extras, all of whom will be needed for three times the work. You need to obtain permission and money for location work and that's even before you yell 'action!'
The thing is, Spara, as someone who has actually done this kind of thing, dare I say... someone who knows the logistics of film and television making, every little thing takes time.
INT: Alien Spaceship.
The door of the spaceship opens and the Doctor and Amy continue to run down the corridor.
DOCTOR: Come on, Amy, we've got to get to the control room before Beep the Meep gets there!
AMY: I'm running as fast as I can!
Behind them, Beep the Meep runs through the door after them.
BEEP: I'll get you, Doctor! I'll use your skull as my toilet and I'll eat your eyes!
That... ten, fifteen second snippet of script can potentially take several hours to film, that's even if Beep the Meep is played by Ricky Gervais in an outfit pinched from a local furry convention and not a CG effect. Multiple shots, multiple angles, then you've the duff shots where Matt Smith tripped up and grabbed Karen's bum by mistake. It all takes time and in the industry, time is money. That's an action shot, a moving camera piece. Just shooting a three-way conversation could take most of your day and you want them to have to shoot it for at least three seperate versions? Then you've got all the post-production part where you've got to edit the damn thing together, each single shot has to be marked, catalogued and timed before you even allow the editor to start putting together an episode of Doctor Who.
Keep at the history teacher job, because you have no idea how expensive and time consuming it is to make good television.
Bloody hell, Bernie I must have missed that. My apologies.
I think I'll cope...:p
Here is the wikipage, now updated even with King Wierdo's deranged plans for German Who (and all his interesting story proposals he wasn't smart enough to record on his own blog) and, of course, full synopses of Bernie's work.
If he had been in charge since the start, there's no doubt Chatham would be as popular as Spara deludedly thinks he is...
Please, Bernie, FINISH The Ultimate Solution! I'm GASPING here!!!
I'm just writing up a synopsis for what I was planning to write.
Taking longer than I thought though, god knows how long it was going to be!
Actually, can I make a request?
Did anybody save the entire threads that chatham stories appear on? I wrote a couple of short bits on some of them, and don't seem to have my own copies.
They were in the Bonfire night special "Fire Starter", and the unfinished Sherlock Holmes story.
Thanks.
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