Voices

[ali]

This is an experiment.

The game is based on this premise: people from many countries watch Cold Case, which is dubbed in many languages.
So, for example, Spanish people associate a particular voice to a character, but a French is used to hear another voice, and also a Russian or a Japanese: a lot of voices for the same character.
This is an important point, because a voice is also a distinctive quality, which identify a person and arouse feelings.
Here's why listening a movie in a different language can disorientate.

Here the rules:
1_ I posted some audio files with the dubbed voices (now in Italian, but it would be cool hearing many other languages) of the Cold Case team, and one extra-voice from another show.
2_ You must guess what character coincide with a certain voice: you need keen eye and luck.
3_ The solution will be published in a week (next Thursday, June 19).
4_ You can change your answer, but only the second one will be valid (if you correct a true answer making a mistake, I'll consider the mistake).
5_ The characters are: Lilly Rush, Scotty Valens, John Stillman, Nick Vera, Will Jeffries, Kat Miller, and CSI's Catherine Willows (I added her because it's easy with only two female voices ;D).

Here the voices:
#1:1.mp3 - 0.09MB
#2:2.mp3 - 0.12MB
#3:3.mp3 - 0.10MB
#4:4.mp3 - 0.15MB
#5:5.mp3 - 0.10MB
#6:6.mp3 - 0.08MB
#7:7.mp3 - 0.06MB

Come on, who's who?

[zoé]

This is a great idea, ali !
Is it me or they are really talking fast ?

Here's my guess : (mainly random ;D)

1- Lilly
2- Stillman
3- CSI chick
4- Scotty
5- Kat
6- Vera
7- Jeffries

[Khaya]

Hard...

I think:
1. Lilly
2. Scotty
3. Kat
4. John
5. CSI woman
6. Nick
7. Will

[riche]

Great idea ali.

These are my guesses:

1 Lilly Rush
2 Will Jeffries
3 Catherine Willows
4 Nick Vera
5 Kat Miller
6 Scotty Valens
7 John Stillman

---

As you say voices are important. It must be a little strange watching something and knowing that you are not hearing the voice as it was supposed to be.

I remember hearing an English comedian saying he did a live show in Germany (he does shows in French quite a lot as well) and did an impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He realised later that Arnold's movies are dubbed so his impression didn't match the way the movies are shown in the Germany. He still got a lot of laughs though.

[Collider]

Awesome idea... but REALLY difficult.

Thus far, the only one I trust myself to guess is #6 as Vera.

As to the others... I kind of want to go for #2 as Jeffries and #4 as Scotty... which would leave #7 as Stillman, but I'm fairly sure all three of these are wrong. I have absolutely NO idea about the girls' voices, 'cause they all sound exactly the same to me!! May have to ponder on this further.

[coldboneslove398]

1. Lilly!! Lilly is definitely a more toned-down kind of cop than Catherine. Plus, it sounds similar to the Lilly in the French dubbed version. I've only watched "Cold Case" a few times in a French dubbed version.
2. Jefferies
3. Catherine
4. Scotty, sounds very youthful.
5. Kat, I can hear some background noise. Sounds like it is from "Cold Case" than "CSI"
6. Nick, very gruff voice.
7. Stillman

3 and 5 had some difficulty.

[ali]

Jun 12, 2008 13:09:35 GMT -5 zoé said:

Is it me or they are really talking fast ?

Is it you: I think the same when I hear other languages.

Little curiosity: Lilly's voice actress was awarded as the best female voice of the year 2005, in the role of...Lilly Rush.

[lucie]

great idea! but they talk really fast:D

1.Lilly
2. Jeffries
3. CIS girl
4.Scotty
5.Kat
6. Nick
7. Stillman

[ali]

The solutions are coming...tomorrow.

As I can see, some voices are more difficult then others, and maybe there will be a surprise...
You have not much time to change your idea.

I'm preparing other files in another language.
If someone else want to challenge people with his own language, it would be nice.

[ali]

Ok, end game.

Here's the solutions (with the names of the voice actors...)

#1: Kat Miller ---> Laura Lenghi
#2: John Stillman ---> Fabrizio Temperini
#3: Catherine Willows*
#4: Scotty Valens ---> Andrea Ward
#5: Lilly Rush ---> Chiara Colizzi
#6: Nick Vera ---> Pasquale Anselmo
#7: Will Jeffries ---> Massimo Corvo

---

No one guessed Lilly and Kat, but italian Nick's voice is the more simple to recognize for non-Italian people.

If someone is interested in statistics, I made a table to compare the results.
Legend:
column A = # voice
" B = solution
" C = number answers
" D = correct answers
" E = % C/D
" F = graphic of the %
" G = best wrong choice

---

And now, the ranking (based on the percentage of correct answers)

1_zoé 5/7 (~71,5%)
2_lucie 4/7 (~57%)
3_Collider 2/4 (50%)
4_coldboneslove398 3/7 (~42%)
5_Khaya 2/7 (~28,5%)
6_RichE 1/7 (~14%)

Bravi!

[Khaya]

I'm not even the worst! ;D

This was fun! Anyone got another?

We don't do dubbed voices on 'grown-up-tvshows' here, so I'm out.

[Collider]

Wow. I especially love the little statistics table!! Your handwriting is so neat!

Nice to see that (other than Non!CC!Woman) everyone else was apparently just as thrown by the girls' voices as I was. I'm quite glad I never got around to guessing them, now.

Congrats to zoé for getting 71%. Wow. And, yea, I totally agree with Khaya - an awesome, if confusing, game and I for one would love to see another one posted.

[riche]

Jun 19, 2008 10:48:20 GMT -5 ali said:

1_zoé 5/7 (~71,5%)
2_lucie 4/7 (~57%)
3_Collider 2/4 (50%)
4_coldboneslove398 3/7 (~42%)
5_Khaya 2/7 (~28,5%)
6_RichE 1/7 (~14%)

I'm number 1!

;D

I can't believe I did that badly, even random guesses would have done better than that

The only one that I was at all sure about was the Catherine Willows one. If I'd been wrong about that I'd have been very surprised. The voice was very similar in tone and style. Although I didn't understand what she said it sounded like something Catherine would say.

Thanks ali, interesting stuff.

[zoé]

Well, this comes quite as a surprise !
All the more so as the only voices (besides Vera) I was sure I were correct were Lilly's and Kat's
See, you didn't need to add a 3rd woman, it was already hard enough

Jun 18, 2008 10:46:28 GMT -5 ali said:

I'm preparing other files in another language.
If someone else want to challenge people with his own language, it would be nice.

Which language are you preparing ?
I only watch the show in English and so even in my mother tongue, it would be a challenge for me.
After some research, I found out that Cold Case is showing here on ProSieben on Wednesday nights. So I can set up a German challenge IF I remember to turn on the TV and miraculously manage to plug the TV out in my computer's sound card. But I got 5/7, so everything's possible ;D

Anyway, thanks for this game and the cool statistics !

[frenchfan]

Jun 18, 2008 10:46:28 GMT -5 ali said:

If someone else want to challenge people with his own language, it would be nice.

Ok with french voices now.
Lilly, Kat, Camilla (Bones), Stillman, Vera, Will, Scotty.


1 1.mp3 - 0.07MB
2 2 bis.mp3 - 0.07MB
3 3bis.mp3 - 0.09MB
4 4.mp3 - 0.06MB
5 5bis.mp3 - 0.06MB
6 6.mp3 - 0.08MB
7 7.mp3 - 0.07MB

[riche]

To simplify downloading I've put all of frenchfan's clips together in a zip and posted them on my website. I hope that is OK with frenchfan. I should have done this before for ali's files.

frenchfan_voices.zip - 490KB

[ali]

Jun 19, 2008 13:30:38 GMT -5 @riche said:

The only one that I was at all sure about was the Catherine Willows one. If I'd been wrong about that I'd have been very surprised. The voice was very similar in tone and style. Although I didn't understand what she said it sounded like something Catherine would say.

Catherine said: "Beautiful, intelligent, profound...engaging"

Jun 20, 2008 2:18:36 GMT -5 zoé said:

See, you didn't need to add a 3rd woman, it was already hard enough

You know...I'm evil!

Which language are you preparing ?

Not French...

Thanks frenchfan: I can play now!
But... I think I have to meditate...

[riche]

Jun 20, 2008 8:07:50 GMT -5 ali said:

Catherine said: "Beautiful, intelligent, profound...engaging"

Thanks for that ali. Listening again the first few words are quite obvious really The last word I didn't get. That voice is so similar to Catherine Willows it could almost be Marg Helgenberger herself.

---

French Voices

And the votes from the RichE jury are as follows:

1 Scotty
2 Camille (Bones)
3 John
4 Kat
5 Nick
6 Lilly
7 Will

Let's see how waaaaaaay out I can be this time. Hopefully not nil point

---

I've packaged up ali's mp3s so you can download them in one hit if you want:

ali_voices.zip - 720KB

I was thinking about posting some from the UK showings of CC but I think you might find them a little easy ;D

[ali]

Jun 20, 2008 15:52:50 GMT -5 @riche said:

Jun 20, 2008 8:07:50 GMT -5 ali said:

Catherine said: "Beautiful, intelligent, profound...engaging"

Thanks for that ali. Listening again the first few words are quite obvious really The last word I didn't get. That voice is so similar to Catherine Willows it could almost be Marg Helgenberger herself.

Literally the translation of the last word (affascinante) is "fascinating", but "engaging" was better.

---

1_John
2_Lilly
3_Scotty
4_Kat
5_Nick
6_Camille (Bones)
7_Will

My score will be...0%! ;D

[coldboneslove398]

French people talk too fast.

1. Stillman
2. Camille
3. Scotty
4. Lilly
5. Vera
6. Kat(? I think it's Kat...sounds like she's talking on a cell phone in the background noise)
7. Jefferies

#5 is weird...