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[Rirukuo]

Hi : )
My friends and I are doing a skit at a convention i April. We were thinking of doing it the same way we did our last skit: take the lines we want in the skit from the dubbed version of the anime and edit it. It worked perfectly last time, and we got such a good response on it. But this time we stumbled upon a problem. Only the first season of the show we are doing the skit from this time has been dubbed! And most of the lines we were planning on using is from the second season..
But our idea is really good, and we don't want to discard it just because of this problem. So we were thinking... At the stage we are preforming the skit there is a big cinema screen in the background. We thought that if we did the skit with the original Japanese voices we could have subtitles on the big screen.
Do you think it would work? Or would it be to hard to follow?
The screen is so big that if we have the subtitles on the top of the screen, we would not stand in front of it at all while we're on stage.
sorry for the long post.
If you have any other ideas we would love to hear them too! Thanks for reading!

[Visage]

Greetings Rirukuo,

I am rarely (if ever) a fan of skits where subtitles are required throughout the entire skit to understand what is happening. The subtitles are rarely large enough to read comfortably. If they are, they are often very distracting from the action on the stage. It's easy for audiences to get bored, moreso when the skit isn't in their language.

I realize not everyone in the group may be an actor, but in this case it might be better to have the group record their own lines. If someone "sounds" more like a character that isn't theirs, they could also consider swapping parts for recording purposes (example: the Yugi cosplayer sounds better as Kaiba; have them switch for recording purposes only). If the entire group isn't comfortable with speaking parts, maybe have other friends help with the recording by speaking their lines for them.

The method you used is a great idea when the source is dubbed, but I don't think it's going to have the same success when the primary language is not the native language of the audience majority.

[mokulen22]

Personally I never liked skits with subtitles. Anime North used to have a group of Japanese cosplayer who did the entire skit in Japanese and it was, sorry to say, confusing and boring for the audience. They had random signs but you couldn't see them unless you were in the front row.

[Rirukuo]

Ok, thanks a lot, both of you! We're going to try recording it ourselves. But since our primary language isn't english, and we have to do the recordings in english because the con is so international, we are afraid that we don't speak english well enough to make it sound good. Or that we'll have that horrible norwegian-english dialect. But we'll try our best! If it doesn't work out I think we will have to go with the subtitles. But thanks for the input! It really helped me see things from another perspective.

[belligerent]

Do you have any good friends who are native English speakers (online or otherwise) who would be willing to record lines for you?

[Rirukuo]

No, we don't : / But I have heard that I speak english very fluently, and I'm at the top of my english class, so I think it might be ok on my part (Not trying to sound superior or anything!). But I have never heard the other 4 members speak english seriously, so I don't know about them. But I think we can make it work.

[kaligoddess]

Ask around the internet to see if there's someone willing to say the lines in a voice chat not so you can record it, but so you can hear the proper pronunciation, syllabic emphasis and flow. That can help you tone down your natural accent.

There will probably be people willing to help tweak your dialogue to come out a little bit more natural. A large problem with translations is that they end up being a little too formal because dialects/idioms/etc. aren't generally taught in schools. (How do you do? vs. Hey! or What's Up?)

There are some chats and the like around that are specifically for learning/practicing languages, so even if you can't find a friend to help you out, you can probably a native speaker to give it ago if you're willing to help them out with your language.

[temanocosplay]

The pros and cons I see happening with subtitles are
Pros: People will actually tell what you are saying. I never get good seats for masqs. because I don't like waiting all day in line so I sometimes have a hard time hearing what people are saying.

Cons: People might end up paying more attention to the subtitles then what you are doing. I read fast so I personally wouldn't have a problem but others who read slower might miss what you are acting out because they are too focused on reading.

In the end its your groups decisions though ^ _ ^

[Rirukuo]

Thanks for the suggestions and your opinions! :3
We had our first recording two days ago, and it went fairly good, so we're going with that instead of subtitles.

I have one more question though, sorry. Will a skit be automatically be labeled "bad" if the english isn't perfect?
We are doing a higurashi no naku koro ni skit, and the person playing and being the voice of Rika had a lot of trouble saying her lines right when Rika is in her "serious" mode where her voice is very mature, and she also says a lot of complex words. So after we heard trough everything again and again, my other friend, who is the voice of Rena, and I both agreed that I would be a lot more suited to being the voice of "serious" Rika, because I have a darker more mature voice, and my english is better. But we have no idea how to tell her, because if I do "serious" Rika's lines she will only have two lines to say, and we know that she thinks it is really fun to do the voice acting.
Should I tell her? I know that she will say yes, but she'll probably be hurt.

[Blue Leader]

I wouldn't say that it would be labeled "bad" if the English isn't perfect, or even if the voice acting isn't perfect. I doubt anyone will go expecting to see grade-A acting by professional actors (I don't mean any offense by that).

However, if you feel uncomfortable about it, one idea is to try the Voice Acting Alliance. There are tons of people on that forum that voice act for fun as a hobby, and many of them are quite good. If you have the time, you could try holding an audition for people to try out for the parts, and then edit their recorded lines for the skit when you get them all.

[Rirukuo]

Ok, thank you! It's a bit reassuring to hear that it won't necessarily be labeled bad, hehe

And, wow, I checked out that forum, and it's so amazing! We definitely don't have the time for that now, but If we have to do more skits that requires voice acting I'm sure we'll use the Voice Acting Alliance. Thank you so much for the tip!