Can you turn it up please? AI could be used to make mumbling TV actors speak up as quiet line readings drive more viewers to subtitles
AI could help actors who mumble speak clearly, as more people turn to subtitles when watching TV shows and movies.
Some of today’s most popular shows and movies are criticized for being difficult to follow due to actors mumbling their lines.
There have been numerous complaints about the BBC’s Happy Valley, as well as HBO’s Game of Thrones and Christopher Nolan films such as The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar, which were marred by unintelligible dialogue.
A YouGov survey found that as many as 61 percent of TV viewers aged 18 to 25 use subtitles.
But now a solution is being proposed in the form of Clear Dialogue, an AI technology that isolates voices on the TV in real time.
Game of Thrones has received complaints that the dialogue is sometimes difficult to follow. (Kit Harington as Jon Snow and Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen in ‘Game of Thrones’)
Even the hugely popular BBC channel Happy Valley has received complaints about mumbling. (Catherine Cawood as Sarah Lancashire)
Tom Hardy as Bane in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. Many people complained that Bane’s lines were hard to understand
Developed by US company DTS, which is part of the Xperi entertainment group, it allows TV manufacturers to create “dialogue control”, The Times reported.
Director of Product Management Sven Mevissen said: ‘It separates the dialogue from all other audio elements and gives you the ability to adjust the balance between dialogue and non-dialogue.
“So that you can bring the dialogue to a level that is easier for you to understand.”
The feature could be introduced as early as next year.
That’s according to a survey of US adults conducted by Xperi, which found that 84 percent of viewers had difficulty understanding dialogue during TV shows and movies.
Earlier this year, Maestro viewers complained that they could barely understand the actors.
The biographical drama film follows the long-term relationship between conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein and actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein.
The film was directed by Bradley Cooper, who also played the role of Leonard. He co-wrote the screenplay with Josh Singer. Carey Mulligan also played the role of Felicia.
BBC crime drama The Jetty was axed just minutes into its opening episode due to audio problems (Jenna Coleman is pictured in the series)
Earlier this year, Maestro viewers complained that they could barely understand the actors. (Bradley Cooper pictured in the film)
The film received critical acclaim and was nominated for Best Motion Picture, Drama, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress at the Globes.
But viewers have complained on Twitter, X, that the film is “barely intelligible” as the actors are constantly “mumbling”.
Someone wrote: ‘The mumbling maestro… boring and so hard to hear the conversations when he and his wife talk over each other and his deep mumbling Ugh. Turned it off after an hour.’
And the BBC crime drama The Jetty, which saw Jenna Coleman make her debut as a detective, received dozens of complaints from fans about audio problems when it premiered in July.
Fans expressed their disappointment with X, claiming they couldn’t understand the story because of the constant “mumbling.”
Viewers flooded social media with comments to see if other viewers suffered. Some wrote: ‘The lighting, the sound, the dialogue, the acting. All terrible. #TheJetty.’
Film technicians have previously claimed that the trend of mumbling lines is a deliberate choice by directors who take the idea from cinema in order to give a more ‘realistic’ performance.
Malcolm Johnson of the Institute of Professional Sound told The Daily Telegraph: ‘Directors persuade actors to underplay their delivery and almost throw their lines away because they think it’s more realistic.’