on the train, at home, at the movies, while working out, while doing dishes, in the bath...

在火車上看、在家、在電影院、健身、洗碗的時候，甚至連泡澡也在看。

But no matter where I'm watching,

但無論我在哪看，

I find myself constantly doing this one thing.

我發現自己都會做這件事。

What?

啥？

It turns out this isn't unusual.

但其實這情況並不罕見。

We polled our YouTube audience and about 57% of people said that

我們對 YouTube 觀眾進行了調查，大約 57% 的人表示，

they feel like they can't understand the dialogue in the things that they watch unless they're using subtitles.

他們覺得不開字幕的話，無法理解影片對話。

But it feels like this hasn't always been the case.

但感覺這情況並非一直如此。

So, to figure out what was going on, I made a call.

所以，為弄清楚其中緣由，我打了通電話。

Hi, my name is Austin Olivia Kendrick.

嗨，我叫 Austin Olivia Kendrick。

I am a professional dialogue editor for film and TV.

我是電影及電視劇的專業對白編輯。

I basically perform audio surgery on actors words.

我基本上就是影片對白的外科醫生。

Do you watch with subtitles?

你看影片開字幕嗎？

I– I do, actually.

我…我會開，其實。

I do, a lot of the time.

很常開。

So... Why are you think that we all feel like we need subtitles now?

那你覺得為什麼大家現在都需要開字幕？

I get asked this question all the time.

我很常被問到這個問題。

All the time.

超常。

It's something that is...

這個問題…

It doesn't have a simple, straightforward answer.

沒辦法用單一答案解釋。

It's very layered and very complex.

這牽涉很多層面，非常複雜。

And after talking to Austin for almost 2 hours, it's true.

在跟 Austin 談了兩小時後，她沒有騙人。

It's a very layered and complex topic.

這真的是個牽涉很多層面，非常複雜的問題。

But everything kept pointing back to one main thing.

但一切似乎都指向一件事。

Technology that got us from this...

科技讓我們從這樣…

–I'll get you, my pretty. –You should be kissed and often.

- 我會抓到你的，小可愛。 - 你應該經常被親吻。

-No, Richard, no. What has happened...

- 不，理查德，發生了什麼事了…

To this.

到這樣。

-Mom, I just woke up.

- 媽，我才剛起床。

...little slim-waisted birdy...

…一隻纖腰小雀鳥…

Let's start with microphones.

先從麥克風說起。

I'm going to use this clip from "Singin' in the Rain" to show how mics used to work.

我會用這段《萬花嬉春》中的片段來解說麥克風以前怎麼運作的。

Here's the mic, you talk towards it.

這是麥克風，你朝著它說話。

The sound goes through the cable to the box.

聲音會透過電纜線傳到箱子那。

A man records it on a big record in wax.

會有一個人把它錄在一張大蠟盤上。

This scene illustrates some of the difficulties and intricacies early sound recordings.

這個片段說明了早期錄音的一些困難和複雜之處。

Mics were big, bulky, temperamental, and required creative solutions to be hidden.

過去，麥克風又大又笨重、收音不穩，且需要發揮創意才能隱藏起來。

They were wired and recorded onto hard memory

以前的麥克風有線，而且是錄在硬盤上。

like wax and eventually tape.

像是蠟筒唱片和後來的錄音磁帶。

No matter how many actors were in a scene, all sound got recorded to one track.

無論一個場景中有多少演員，所有的聲音都被記錄在同一個聲軌上。

So performers had to be diligently focused and facing a certain angle so that their words could be picked up.

因此，演員必須集中注意力，面向特定角度，以便收音。

Otherwise...

不然…

You couldn't hear a thing.

什麼都收不到。

But technology's improved to the point where microphones don't impede performance as much anymore.

但隨著科技進步，麥克風已不會再那麼妨礙演出了。

They become better, smaller, wireless...

它們變得性能更好、更小，而且還無線…

and we use more of them to ensure that performances get captured.

加上人們會增加麥克風數量來確保收音。

What we typically are working with from production dialogue is 2 boom microphones

通常在錄製對話時，我們會使用兩支吊桿麥克風，

and then every actor has at least one lavaliere microphone hidden somewhere on them.

然後每個演員至少還會別一個領夾式麥克風藏在身上某個地方。

These shrinking mics have given actors the flexibility to be more naturalistic in their performances.

縮小的麥克風能保證演員靈活度，幫助他們表演地更自然。

They no longer need to project so that their words reach the mic.

他們不再需要強調發聲來確保收音清晰。

They can speak softly, knowing that the tiny mic hidden on their body will pick up what they're saying.

演員們可以輕聲說話，因為他們知道隱藏在身上的微型麥克風能收到他們所說的話。

And my personal favorite example of this performance shift is Alec Baldwin on 30 Rock.

關於這個轉變，我個人最喜歡的例子是《超級製作人》中演員傑克·唐納吉的表演。

In a 2011 speech slash roast,

在 2011 年一場演說中，

Tina Fey says that "He speaks so quietly that she can't hear him when she's standing next to him."

蒂娜·費說：「他說話聲音小到，我站在他旁邊都聽不到。」

"And then you play the film back and it's there somehow."

「但回放片段的時候，他的聲音卻又莫名其妙的出現在那。」

Just listen to this whisper off between him and Will Arnett.

聽聽他和威爾·阿奈特的這段竊竊私語。

I'm not afraid of you.

我不怕你。

Yeah. Well, you should be.

是嗎？你該怕的。

Let's just see how it all shakes out in the meeting.

我們就等著看會議上會怎樣吧。

Naturalism isn't always the best for intelligibility, though.

自然的表演有時對台詞理解並沒有幫助。

Take Tom Hardy, an actor that I personally love but who famously is a mumbler.

以湯姆·哈迪為例，我很喜歡這個演員，但他出了名的講話含糊不清。

I mean... the mic picked that line up fine.

我是說…麥克風是有收到音。

Like, we can definitely hear that he's talking, he's saying something.

能聽到他肯定是講了什麼。

But once that mumble gets recorded, it's on to a dialog editor's shoulder to make it as intelligible as possible.

一旦那個咕噥聲被記錄下來，責任就落在了對白編輯肩上，他們得盡可能讓對話易於理解。

And that was a lot harder when everything was analog.

而這在以前使用類比式錄音設備時顯得特別困難。

While you could pick the best takes and physically splice them together,

雖然可以選最好的片段並將它們拼接在一起，

if some piece of dialog was truly impossible to understand

但如果某些對話真的難以理解，

then actors will come in and rerecord those specific lines

那麼演員就得重新錄製這些台詞。

in a process called ADR, or Automated Dialog Replacement,

這個過程稱作「同步對白錄音（ADR）」

which you can see Meryl Streep do in this scene from "Postcards from the Edge".

可以看到畫面中，梅莉·史翠普正在為電影《來自邊緣的明信片》進行同步對白錄音。

There isn't enough money in the world to further cause like yours.

想拓展這般事業，再多的錢都不夠。

That still gets done today, but..

直至今日，人們仍然會這麼做，但…

ADR also costs money because you're not only paying for the actors time you're paying for the engineer's time

ADR 需要花錢，不僅演員的時間要錢，工程師的時間也要錢，

and then the editor's time.

也得多付編輯錢。

So we try to do ADR, frankly, as little as possible.

所以，坦白說，我們會盡可能避免進行 ADR。

And so a lot of her job is making words sound better.

所以很多時候，她的工作是要讓對白聽起來效果更好。

The show I'm currently working on,

我現在正在編輯的這檔秀，

I remember in the middle of this one word

我記得在一個字的正中間，

there was just this loud metal clang that I couldn't remove.

有個響亮的金屬碰撞聲，我怎樣都無法消除。

So I had to go in and I had to find an alternate take of it that fit and then I had to fit it...

所以我不得不找別的合適的替代片段，把它擠進去，

to the movement of her mouth in that moment and then push it in.

然後還得配合當下女演員的口型，補齊那段音軌。

And once she's done with it it's sent off to a mixer,

一旦她完成這些步驟，音檔就會被送到混音師那，

who works to make sure the frequencies of the sound effects and music don't overlap with the frequencies of the human voice,

混音師會確保音效和音樂的頻率不會與人聲重疊，

something that's only possible now that the world has moved away from tape and into digital recordings.

這是現在我們已經從磁帶錄音轉為數位錄音才有可能做到的。

That is a big challenge.

這很困難。

Carving out those frequencies, that space...

裁切出那些頻率，

amongst every other element of the mix for the dialogue to be able to punch through

音檔中每個元件之間的空間，以便對話能從中穿透，

and not be all muddied up by any other sounds that exist in that band of frequencies.

而不會跟該斷音檔中其他聲音混在一起。

But even with all that work, lines of dialog can still be hard to understand.

但即使做了這些工作，對話仍然可能難以理解。

The kind of feeling has been if you want your movie to feel quote unquote cinematic

這樣說好了，如果你想讓影片有「電影感」

you have to have wall-to-wall bombastic, loud sound.

就必須讓它充滿誇張、響亮的音效。

A lot of people will ask like

很多人會問：

"Why don't you just turn the dialog up?"

「為什麼不把對話聲音調大？」

Like, just turn it up.

「調大聲就好啦！」

And... if only it was that simple.

要是真有這麼簡單就好了。

Because a big thing that we want to preserve is a concept called dynamic range.

因為我們想保留一個叫動態範圍的概念。

The range between your quietest sound and your loudest sound.

也就是最小和最大聲音之間的範圍。

If you have your dialog, that's going to be at the same volume as an explosion that immediately follows it.

如果對話與緊隨其後的爆炸音量相同。

The explosion is not going to feel as big.

那個爆炸就不會感覺那麼大。

You need that contrast in volume in order to give your ear a sense of scale.

需要音量上的反差，才能感受到兩者差距。

But the thing is, you can only make something so loud before it gets distorted.

但為防止聲音扭曲，你只能將音量放大到一定的程度。

So if you want to create that wide dynamic range you have no choice but to push those quieter sounds lower

所以如果想創造較大動態範圍，沒有選擇，只能把那些比較小的聲音壓得更低，

instead of pushing the louder sounds louder.

而不是把較大的音量拉得更大聲。

So explosions go up and dialog comes down.

所以，爆炸聲拉大，對話聲拉小。

Which brings us to the Christopher Nolan of it all.

說到這就不得不提到克里斯多福·諾蘭了。

-A separate structure within the others—

—其他東西中的獨立結構—

-Pushing out of orbit!

推出軌道！

Nearly every film of his has been criticized for its hard to hear dialogue that essentially begs for subtitles.

他的幾乎每一部電影基本上都因聽不清楚台詞，導致需要字幕而受到批評。

But as as this headline explains, he likes it that way.

但正如這個標題所寫的，他就喜歡這樣。

According to an interview in a book called The Nolan Variations,

根據《諾蘭變奏曲》書中的採訪，

he said that he gets a lot of complaints,

他說他收到很多抱怨，

even from other filmmakers who would say,

甚至是來自同行的反饋，

"I just saw your film and the dialogue is inaudible."

「我剛看了你的電影，對話聽不見。」

"But the truth was it was kind of the whole enchilada of how we had chosen to mix it."

「但事實上，我們是故意選擇這樣混音的。」

And in his 2017 interview with IndieWire, he said

而 2017 年接受 IndieWire 採訪時，他說：

"We made the decision a couple of films ago that we weren't going to mix films for substandard theaters"

「我們在幾部電影前就決定了，不會為配合低於標準的影院而混音。」

And this is kind of the crux of the matter.

這就是問題的癥結所在。

The content that we watch here and here and here is not mixed for us, primarily.

我們在這、這和這裡觀看的內容，主要都不是為了我們混音的。

Rerecording mixers mix for the widest surround sound format that is available, typically like big release films that is Dolby Atmos,

音效混音師會以最廣的環繞聲格式為目標混音，像是通常院線片都會是杜比全景聲，

which has true 3D sound up to 128 channels.

也就是擁有多達 128 聲道的 3D 立體聲。

The thing is, if you're not at a movie theater that can showcase the best sound Hollywood has to offer...

問題是，如果你不在可以展示好萊塢最好音效的電影院…

you can't experience all of those channels.

你就無法體驗這些聲道。

So, after the movie is mixed for the 128 Atmos tracks,

因此，在電影已混成 128 聲道全景音效後，

somebody has to create a separate version of the film's audio where all those same sounds live on one or two or five tracks.

還必須有人另外混一個所有聲音都存在於一個、兩個或五個音軌中的版本。

This is called the downmixing.

此過程稱作「縮混」

Downmixing is the process of taking that biggest mix and folding it down into formats with lesser channels available to it.

「縮混」是將大混音音檔折疊成音軌較少格式的過程。

So say Atmos down to 7.1 or 7.1 down to 5.1 or 5.1 down to stereo, stereo down to mono.

比如說，將杜比全景聲的音檔調低至 7.1 或從 7.1 調成 5.1 或 5.1 到立體聲，立體聲到單聲道。

Unlike old TVs that were gigantic and had a ton of space for speakers,

與體積大且有大音響空間的舊電視不同，

TVs today are super thin like this one that I have in my living room is about the same thickness as my iPhone.

如今的電視非常薄，像我客廳的這台電視，它的厚度跟 iPhone 差不多。

So even though it's outputting the same mono or stereo sound that an older TV might, it's still going to sound worse

所以即便輸出的是與舊電視相同的單聲道或立體聲，音質仍然會更差。

because you have to have tiny little speakers to fit into this tiny, sleek form factor.

因為音響要很小才能容納進這種小巧、時尚的外形中。

These tiny speakers are also usually on the back of the TV.

而這些微型音響通常也位於電視背面。

So the downmixed version of this movie that went from 128 channels down to just 2

所以這個從 128 音軌減成只剩 2 個音軌的混音版本

is going to sound even muddier when it's pointing away from you.

會聽起來更加模糊，因為聲音是朝著你的反方向播放的。

And when you're watching on your phone or a laptop, it's generally not much better.

而在手機或筆電上觀看時，情況通常也好不了多少。

When you combine not great speakers, naturalistic mumbly performances,

不太好的音響、自然但含糊的表演、

dynamic range featuring bombastic sound over dialogue, and a flattened mix...

遷就動態範圍而調小的對話音量，再加上壓縮版本的混音…

It's no wonder we have trouble hearing what's going on.

也難怪我們聽不清到底說了什麼。

And it seems like the industry knows this because TVs today are shipping with all kinds of settings built in, like this intelligence mode.

而整個產業似乎都知道這一點，因為如今的電視都內建了各種設置，比如這個智能模式。

You can put on active voice amplification in hopes of making that dialog track come through just a little bit clear.

您可以啟用主動擴音功能，好讓對話音軌更清晰一些。

But of course, that's more band-aid than it is solution.

但當然，這治標不治本。

The way movies get mixed likely isn't going to revert back to super pristine dialogue.

電影混音的方式不太可能回到以前的樣子。

So the solutions we have are, one:

所以解決眼下情況的方式有，一：

Buy better speakers and only go to theaters that have impeccable sound.

買更好的音響，跟只去支援高規格音效的電影院。

Two: Take a chill pill and try to just worry a little bit less about picking up every single word that gets said.

二：吃顆鎮靜藥，別總想聽清每一個字。

Or, three...

或是，三…

Just keep the subtitles on.

就開字幕吧。

For people who are deaf or hard of hearing subtitles make movies and TV shows accessible

對失聰或有聽力障礙的人，字幕能讓他們無障礙的觀賞電影和電視節目

and this accessibility has just expanded in recent years.

而字幕使用近年來越來越盛行。

Laws have been passed to ensure that movie theaters have at least a few screenings a week with captions.

目前已通過法律確保電影院每週至少要放映幾次有字幕的電影。

Pretty much every streaming service has standardized them

幾乎每個串流媒體平台都有標準化字幕，

and speech recognition technology has made them accessible in pretty much every YouTube video and TikTok.

而語音識別技術讓幾乎每個 YouTube 和 TikTok 影片都可以擁有字幕。

Plus, they're super easy to toggle on and off.

況且，想開關字幕超級容易。