SAE Magazine

154 I n addition to the appearance of a character, our familiarity with the sound of its voice, whether it is friendly and pleasant or alien and repulsive tells us about the character’s personality, spirit and sometimes even their position in the narrative. In many cases the person we see on the screen is not the person behind the voice. This is of course the case with animations and films which have been translated and dubbed into another language where it is clear that the voice and the actor do not belong together. Regardless of this the impression made by these voices comprises quite a fundamental component of the film’s success and the drama and the atmosphere the film wants to convey. It was no accident that, for example Sid in the film Ice Age was voiced by Otto Waalkes in the German version, or that Bastian Pastewka voiced Melman the giraffe in Madagascar. The more the actor is depersonalised by computer, the more important the voice behind the character becomes in order to give that last touch of reality. Voice over actors put their own interpretation and considerable acting skills into these voice overs. This performance gives rise to a so called ancillary copyright which must be compensated for, gener- ally by the producers paying a one-off fixed fee. In the German version o Caribbean the actor who Jack Sparrow lead role pl ceived a fixed fee as usua out to be a box office hit a dizzying amount of pro The voice over actor to the view that the fixed f he received had not ad quately taken his acti skills and his contributi to the film ito account. doing so he referred to provision”. In accordan the copyright holder able right to a remuneration if the a noticeably disproportiona gain received from the ex The claim was brought o Disney Group producer provided information ab therefore the voice over reasonable consideration The Bundesgerichtshof [G Court] agreed with thi performers such as actor How to value the contribution of unseen actors PRODUCTION & KNOW HOW // LAW

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