Performance(s) of Voice Actors in the Simil Sync Technique: The Other Side of Dubbing.

This study will focus on the performance(s) of voice actors in non-synchronized dubbing. This type of non-synchronized dubbing, which is known as simil sync or the semi-sinc technique, is a dubbing modality that, in Italy, is used for the localization of factual programs and non-fiction television programs. Simil sync inherited some elements from the standard dubbing and some elements from voice-over. While the original soundtrack is audible below the Italian dubbing (like voice-over), the original utterances are ideally entirely covered by the voice actor, who respects the original pauses and the length of the original utterances (like dubbing) but not the lip sync. Simil sync may be characterized by a histrionic tone of voice of the voice actors. This overacting is generally found in factual genres, which are more entertaining and usually considered trivial. However, this type of performance has begun to appear in newscast interviews on television. The paper seeks to investigate this phenomenon in terms of ‘estrangement’ effect. On the one hand, the voice actor’s performance may deviate from the classic ‘flat’ journalistic tone of voice of the speaker, and, on the other hand, the audience may associate the histrionic tone of voice with the reality television show genre. In other words, performance(s) in simil synched products may become an element of distance and otherness related to the genre, the original version, and the audience.