Dub over You Don't Have to Be the Bad Guy

26 lines 2 characters 1:54 of footage Free · no account · phone or desktop

Take over every line of You Don't Have to Be the Bad Guy and see how close you can get.

The scene

Twenty-six lines and almost all of them are Emmet's — twenty-two to the Man Upstairs' four, and the four are a single question asked in pieces: if the construction guy said something to President Business, what would he say?

What follows is the speech the whole film is built towards, and the pack breaks it into very short lines: You, don't have to be, the bad guy. It is a child talking to his father through a toy, which is why it is delivered so plainly. The last three lines undercut it completely — a hug, a warning to be careful, and the news that Emmet might explode.

Who you'll be playing

Lines you'll be taking

There are 23 more waiting in the studio.

Performing it

The unusual shape of this pack is the point: the speech is chopped into fragments, so your job is pacing rather than volume. Let the gaps sit. Emmet should be earnest and slightly hesitant, never rousing — the moment it becomes a motivational poster it stops working. The Man Upstairs' four lines are halting and awkward and should sound like someone who has not spoken in a while. Then switch tone hard for the final three lines, which are straight comedy. A good solo for practising restraint, or a lopsided two-hander where the second player gets the setup and the silence.

The dialogue is muted and everything else stays — the score, the room, the picture. You record each line over the silence and the scene plays back with you in the cast. How a dub is made · what the score measures.

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