Published at 5th of March 2020 2:51 am

Chapter 246 GGain Characteristics by Coincidence, Gain Skills by Force

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Maybe because he’d spent too much time in the recording studio, or something else entirely, but Meng Fan had grown accustomed to rehearsing in an enclosed space.

The set was well-equipped for recording and it even had a recording studio — a large one filled with a lot of people. It was not possible to herd everyone else out just so Meng Fan could practice by himself.

After asking an employee, Meng Fan headed inside an empty breakroom and shut himself in to practice.

Although there was no dubbing equipment, Meng Fan had his live stream assistant and black magic earbuds. With them, he could monitor and control the status of his voice at any time.

“The Message” was a group scene. Meng Fan had to dub seven roles: two women and five men.

Meng Fan picked up the live stream assistant and played the scene again. He’d seen the movie before, but that was a long time ago. He had to familiarize himself with the characters so he could find their uniqueness.

Out of the seven roles, six of them didn’t use the original audio track. Only Alec Su’s role of Bai Xiaonian used the original audio. All six voice actors had been top tier in the industry, and they were able to pick up the attractive qualities of all six actors and their roles. There was a deliberate attempt to imitate the voices of the six actors, which Meng Fan naturally was not able to do. He skipped ahead to look for the distinct characteristics of each role. Although he couldn’t imitate their voices directly, he could still rely on the actors’ original sound.

Meng Fan was able to capture the beauty of Gu Xiaomeng, played by Zhou Xun, while also incorporating her emotion and malice. Meng Fan also captured the coldness of Li Ningyu, played by Li Bingbing, while adding a hint of patience and wisdom. For Yan Zhiguo, played by Zhang Hanyu, Meng Fan managed to depict an iron-like coldness on the surface, yet a stubbornness emanating from his bones…

Bai Xiaonian, played by Alec Su, was an extraordinary character that was the hardest to grasp. He had to encapsulate his femininity, simplicity, and his rashness, as well as his subtle stupidity. It was slightly difficult. When Meng Fan watched the movie, he had been genuinely surprised by Alec Su’s acting skills. Su had successfully performed the fragile role of Bai Xiaonian.

The characteristics of Takeda, played by Huang Jiaozhu, was the easiest to express. All he had to do was use a Japanese accent while delivering the original Japanese lines. As for Meng Fan, Japanese was not an issue.

As for the two roles played by Wang Zhiwen and Ying Da, Meng Fan decided it was best to follow the original script.

After watching the scene once, Meng Fan extracted all seven roles and rehearsed them individually. Afterwards, with his +8 Voice Acting skill and +8 Voice Appeal, he found no problem in the output of emotional energy and consistency. It was simple to just use his vocal range to imitate the original sounds of the actors.

For voice acting, imitation was just the starting point. Sculpting a character with your voice was the ultimate goal.

It didn’t take long for him to familiarize himself with all seven roles. He then began to practice transitioning between the characters. When this was done, he rehearsed alongside the scene from the film. By then, it had smoothly flowed out like water on stone.

He was basically done after running through it twice to get used to the technicalities of several characters speaking at once.

Would he remember all the lines?

Meng Fan had a decent memory, but what’s more important is that he had his black magic equipment: He didn’t have to memorize anything. Of course, there would be a prompt screen on the recording set, and he could even directly read off the script if he wanted.

After running through it again and confirming its smoothness, Meng Fan fixed a few knots and decided to stop rehearsing altogether.

He switched to the scene from “Da Zhai Men” that had several people speaking at once. However, most of the characters only spoke one or two lines and were not important to the main plot. Meng Fan was able to select four characters to dub: Bai Jingqi played by Chen Baoguo, Bai Yingyu played by Liu Peiqi, Wang Xiguang played by Lei Kesheng, and Eighth Uncle Yu played by Li Xue Jian. All of them were well-known experienced actors in the industry.

There was a lot of pressure on Meng Fan to dub this scene.

It didn’t take long for him to complete “The Message,” but after an hour or so of rehearsing “Da Zhai Men,” Meng Fan was still unsatisfied.

There were a lot of characters in “The Message” but Meng Fan was confident enough to say that his dub could even match the original soundtrack. However, with “Da Zhai Men,” aside from Bai Jingqi’s clip being a voiceover, the other three all featured the original voices of the actors, including the main character of this scene, Bai Yingyu. The acting skills could be felt deep in your bones. The other two were also overpowered, which made Meng Fan feel awed.

Chen Xin, the voice actor who dubbed Bai Jingqi, was top tier in the industry as well. The roles he’d played could be described in countless ways, having voiced roles such as Zhang Wuji, Ma Yongzhen, Emperor Ba Xian, Lu Zhenhua, Zang Ma, and more. He was also the permanent voice actor of well-known actors like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat, and Ekin Cheng

Now, Meng Fan didn’t want to create a version that just basked on the glory of the previous roles; he only prayed that his voice acting would be worthy of these gods. In other words, he only wanted to pay his respects!

He practiced for another hour.

Dong Dong

He heard a knock on the door. Someone pushed it open, and a head peeked in.

“How’s rehearsal going?” It was Su Qingcen. “Sister Bai has pulled out most of her hair by now, and you’re shut in here. How scary is this

show?”

“Me? I’m okay.”

Meng Fan had just been prepared to take a break as he exited the room. “You’re done already?”

“Already? It’s almost nine!” Su Qingcen said.

Meng Fan checked the time. Counting the promotional photoshoot and the script selection, five hours had already passed. When he realized this, his stomach rumbled in protest.

Su Qingcen held in a snicker. She knew that Meng Fan wouldn’t be able to go out in his current state so she teased him: “I was just about to grab some late night snacks. You wanna come?”

“Of course, I’ll go!”

Meng Fan had been wanting to get food anyways, and thinking of the delicious food that Su Qingcen had listed earlier, his stomach began to rumble again.

Su Qingcen was stunned. “Huh? Really? Can you even come?”

“Why can’t I? I’m almost done with rehearsal. Wait.” Meng Fan headed to Bai Zhi’s room, and asked: “Sister Bai, how’s it going? When do you want to rehearse the collaboration? If you’re going to be a bit later, I’m going to leech some food off Shan Jin bro. Oh, and I’m almost done rehearsing.”

“I’m not done here. You’re really that close? Then go ahead. Come back soon though; I think director Xu and the vocal assistant, professor Di, are going to be a bit late…” Bai Zhi barely uttered the words when she gestured towards the doorway. “What a coincidence. Speak of the devil.”

The two who entered warmly greeted Bai Zhi, Su Qingcen, and Meng Fan. After asking how the progress was, they paid close attention to Meng Fan. Surprised and a little suspicious, they inquired: “I heard you chose the group scenes from ‘Da Zhai Men’ and ‘The Message’? These two are very difficult. We selected them last season, but no group wanted to reenact it. And you’re going to do it alone? How is the rehearsal going?”

The two had already watched Meng Fan’s dubbing clips that Bai Zhi had suggested when she requested him as a guest. Otherwise, no matter how much Bai Zhi insisted, they wouldn’t have agreed unless Meng Fan had the same level of popularity that Mr. Wang Jinsong had last season!

Meng Fan was anxious to get food, but if he left now, they would misunderstand Bai Zhi and think she’d found an unreliable guest star. “Rehearsal’s been pretty…successful, I guess. How about I do a run-through for you? Maybe you can help me check it.”

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