Foreign Film Dubbing

Ask for the title of a foreign film that’s never been made (or any other suggestion that can give you a foreign film title—such as a colour and a household object—“The Green Ladle”).

Two players on stage perform a scene from this film, emphasizing physical activity and emotional changes, while two offstage dubbers watch their mouths, providing dialogue as soon as lips start moving, and stopping when they stop. Microphones are an asset.

This game is superficially similar to Foreign Film Translation, but its immediacy makes it a better improv game.

Like the Arms Scene, this game works best when the players doing the physical action take the initiative, and the players providing the words try to keep up. (The natural bias is in the other direction – the talkers will try to lead, which is less interesting to watch.)

Dubbers: Position yourself so you can easily see your player’s lips. Usually, the best position is in front of the stage diagonally across from the player, but if the player changes position, you may need to move. Rather than trying to invent a funny interpretation, say the words that seem “obvious”. This will often get a bigger laugh.

Onstage players: Have fun challenging their dubbers—talk in a brief burst and suddenly stop. Or open your mouth in song and hold the note. Use pauses. Stay in your dubber’s eyeline and take care to avoid “talking over” each other. Don’t move your mouth if the other player’s mouth is already moving, or two voices will be talking at once. When you do move your mouth, be decisive, and “take focus” by making your movements bigger. Likewise, when you’re not talking, reduce your movements. This creates a stronger illusion that the dubbed voice belongs to the actor. Find physical actions, and put a different emotion into each action. Don’t try to match your mouth to the words being spoken aloud – it undermines the idea that we’re seeing a translation of a foreign film, and also tends to hand over control to the dubber. But do listen to the words being given, and use them as the basis for your next action or emotional response.

Variants

Instead of each onstage player having a different dubber, have one dubber who must dub for two or three people on stage.