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question:  ADR and looping -- what are they?

answer: By voice actor, Paul Liberti

After a long recording session, we all get a little "loopy" but.. ADR stands for Automatic Dialog Replacement.

Dialog that cannot be salvaged from production tracks of a film or cartoon must be re-recorded in a process called LOOPING or ADR. You may know it as "dubbing."

For those of us that work on POKEMON - we are dubbing a cartoon originally produced in Japanese! (I play six different voices on the series). We watch the cut cartoon on a screen, and hear a series of beeps in a headphone giving a countdown to the beginning of the line. We then have to match the lip flap - AND have emotion - AND have it make sense - AND stay in character . no easy task when you have been given the line only moments earlier.

In film, ADR is also used for background ambience, known as "Walla Walla." Here, actors mumble and converse to create a sense of a background scene, such as the background sound at a restaurant. I have even dubbed dogs barking. The audience has no idea any of this is going on . nor should they.

ADR for a lead film actor is a time-consuming task. He or she watches the image repeatedly while listening to the original production track on headphones as a guide. The actor then re-performs each line to match the wording and lip movements exactly. Actors vary in their ability to achieve sync and to recapture the emotional tone of their performance.

A very funny example of this is in the film SINGING IN THE RAIN in which the star's voice is being replaced over the line -- "Our love will last till the stars grow cold." The LOOPER is played by Debbie Reynolds. In reality, Debbie Reynolds' singing voice was replaced by the first actress - Jean Hagen! That's Hollywood! It's all a little loopy . isn't it?


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