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in qixiangtianwai, lin su is the only female voice actor and director in the founding team. with more than ten years of experience in the industry, she has used her voice to create many classic characters in games, animations, radio dramas, and film and television dramas - wuliang tahimeko in "honkai impact 3", gan yu and qin in "genshin impact", gongsun li and ah ke in "glory of the king", tyrande in "world of warcraft", skye in "valorante", concubine yan in "qin shi mingyue", "hua xu yin zhi fu life" (radio drama) song ning...

from the initial bold crossover from finance to dubbing, to the current advancement of "acting and directing", she has always been active in the front line of "voice" productivity. we tried to explore a corner of the industry of female dubbing workers through lin su's perspective. in addition to countless classic characters, there are many voices about this group that deserve to be heard.

the first lesson in dubbing is to learn to “speak human language”

lin su majored in finance in college and worked in taxation after graduation. dubbing was not her dream since she was a child, but a small hobby that she took up later when the internet emerged. "at that time, i saw someone online dubbing the novel and turning it into a radio drama. i thought it was very interesting."

after work, lin su signed up for a dubbing club. just like the current subtitle group, he participated in dubbing work for free out of interest. although the club is small, it has all the essentials, from screenwriting to directing to post-production, which gave her a relatively complete dubbing experience. "many people in the industry who are now engaged in commercial radio dramas are actually the same group of online sound enthusiasts back then."

in terms of vocal conditions, lin su does not consider himself a talented player. without systematic training, she initially had limited vocal conditions and often felt frustrated during auditions. "at that time, there was a phenomenon in the online dubbing circle. sweet and sweet voices were popular, but i always felt that was not the correct way of expression." lin su decided to enroll in a professional training class to understand what real dubbing is. kind of.

in the training class, she studied under wu erpu and xu min. the former was a voice actor for ultraman, and the latter was a taiwanese voice for phoenix tv. she has voiced for many famous actors such as jackie chan, andy lau, and tony leung in film and television dramas. from them, the first lesson lin su learned was to "speak humanly" in front of the microphone.

many people's imagination of dubbing is to strain their throats to beautify a new voice. this is often self-defeating and loses the original charm of the voice. the first lesson in dubbing is to fully understand your original voice and what kind of timbre it will appear after being transmitted through the microphone. this is the basis for all future voice shaping work.

this professional training allowed lin su to gradually feel the true charm of dubbing. from an unknown novice in the class, he gradually became the top student who would be the first to be named by the teacher to demonstrate in every class, and he used this as an example. taking the opportunity, he started his career as a professional voice actor. "i know how mediocre my voice is in front of truly talented people, but this is not necessarily a shortcoming. instead, it gives you many possibilities to shape your voice. the only thing you can do is to study more and start with small roles. , continue to practice and improve your business capabilities.”

"female voice" is not just sweet

in the early days of entering the industry, lin su encountered almost all the dilemmas that a new actor would experience. for example, you may not get the audition, or you may get replaced temporarily, or you may only be cast in small roles that no one cares about for a long time.

however, in lin su's view, these are not necessarily valuable experiences in his career. she even feels that the best way to train new voice actors is through inconspicuous group dramas in film and television dramas.

"this kind of scenes often involve a lot of people talking at the same time. even if the character you play does not fit the character very well, it will be easier to hide your clumsiness because it is a group scene. it is precisely through this experience that new actors slowly grow."

but lin su lamented that as the demand for dubbing in film and television dramas has decreased, it is almost impossible for young actors new to the industry to get experience from these small roles with a market atmosphere. they often need to quickly find a more popular timbre on the market as soon as they start, and blindly get closer. as a result, many actors are crowded on the same type of sound track, and the homogenization of timbre becomes more and more serious.

taking game dubbing as an example, lin su observed that the most popular female voice on the market is still the sweet and cute lolita voice. when working as a dubbing director, the most common dilemma she faced was finding a suitable "big voice" to play roles such as mothers and elders. there are even some actors who are obviously more suitable for "big voice" roles, but because such roles are difficult to be seen, they give up the style that they should be deeply involved in and squeeze into the "small voice" track that is completely unsuitable for them, which in turn causes unsatisfactory results. necessary involution.

in fact, with the rapid development of the two-dimensional animation and game industry, the situation of female voice actors in recent years has become much more optimistic than before. "for a long time, the demand for male voice actors in film, television dramas and radio dramas has indeed been higher. especially in the early years when the crew recruited voice actors, the number of male actors may be twice that of female actors. but the two-dimensional field is slightly different. due to the differences in audience and market the reason is that there are not a few female characters in the work, but the current problem is that these female characters are too single, which to some extent limits the more comprehensive development of the voice actors. "

problems in the industry cannot be fundamentally solved overnight, but in lin su's view, as long as today's voice actors find a style that suits them, continue to improve their skills, and continue to be active in the industry, it is not a problem to support themselves. "the reason is very simple. as long as you match well, your loud voice will definitely be heard."

voice actors' incomes vary for many reasons

for a long time, there has been a lot of speculation about the income of voice actors. in the early years, in the field of film and television dramas, there was a discussion about the salary comparison between voice actors and film and television drama actors. and even in the dubbing industry, with different roles and different qualifications, there will always be differences in income.

in lin su's observation, in the field of game dubbing, the salary gap between male and female dubbing actors is generally not obvious. "as long as their skills are on the line, the basic remuneration that most voice actors can receive is the same."

but it is undeniable that the income structure of voice actors is sometimes not just the voice performance itself. differences in the popularity of games and different characters in the games will also lead to differences in commercial value such as game peripheral sales and offline activities. lin xu told reporters that in terms of online discussion and fan stickiness, the female audience group will be relatively more active, which will directly lead to a stronger market appeal of male voice actors and a gap in income. "if they are also top-level voice actors, the male actor's income can even be several times that of the female actor."

of course, at this level, there is very little that the actors themselves can do to change. lin su still advises young actors to focus more on improving their professional capabilities. "i don't object to them expressing themselves more and showing their personality in self-media. i don't rule out that someone can find a track that is more suitable for them in the process. but at the same time, i will look at this matter very cautiously. if you still want if you take voice acting as your main job, you must not put the cart before the horse.”

there will always be chaos, but you can choose not to get lost

the dubbing industry has not been developed in china for a long time. after the era of dubbing and filmmaking in the early years, the industry actually experienced a period of chaos with mixed results. even today, dubbing is still an industry with a low threshold.

lin su felt this deeply. "so i suggest that voice actors read more. on the one hand, it means actually reading aloud to practice their basic language skills and text response ability. on the other hand, it is also the nourishment of culture, which can make an actor more accurate in interpreting the role. , and can also improve personal quality.”

in the industry, lin su has always had a female dubbing senior who he regards as a benchmark. she is li li, who has played the leading role in many famous film and television dramas such as "legend of sword and fairy" (zhao ling'er) and "eternal dragon sword" (zhou zhiruo). ye. lin su has worked with li ye many times as a dubbing actor and dubbing director, and she was deeply impressed every time.

after many years of working in the industry, lin su admitted that he has never seen some so-called "big masters" who rely on experience and skills to solve problems, but li ye is different. "she is extremely dedicated and focused when dubbing, and her energy is so great that even the people around her will..." i was inspired. when i was dubbing with her, i felt that my speech had improved and i made fewer mistakes.”

in the process of cooperating with her as a director, lin su discovered that li ye had no airs like his predecessors. when dubbing some cartoon characters that she doesn't often come into contact with, she is very willing to listen to opinions that are more suitable for the characteristics of the work, and takes the trouble to try and find the most suitable voice. "you will feel that she is really capable of being an 'actor' the two-character senior.”

in lin su's view, there will be so-called chaos at any time and in any industry. in the dubbing industry, whether it is the arrogance brought by rich experience and impressive achievements, or the vanity brought by traffic and marketization, these are pitfalls that most people need to face and avoid stepping into. in the early years when the market was not standardized, lin su also encountered the dilemma of not being able to get money after dubbing.

therefore, although he enjoys the happiness of simply being a dubbing actor, lin su is now also a dubbing company partner and dubbing director. after seeing the power of role models, she insisted on cultivating her own new "voice" power. because relying on individual actors to fight against industry chaos has limited capabilities, the situation would be better if there were companies with standardized operations. "i can't say how much it can change this industry, but we have suffered so much, so let's not let them suffer again."