Rorschach's Voice

[sad lieutenant]

Again, it's one of those examples that highlights the awkwardness of translating something like WATCHMEN, specifically designed to be the ultimate in printed sequential art which used (and abused!) every single tool in the comic book box o' tricks, to another medium such as film.

The simple use of differently drawn speech bubbles visually tells the reader straight away that Rorschach is all f ucked up after working the Roche case. If Jackie E uses two as noticably different methods of actual speech in the movie, will the audience necessarily pick up on the change itself and suss out the reason for it? Will it come across as convincing when actually heard in Dolby/THX/whatever as opposed to being created by the reader's own imagination, or just a tad, well... silly?

Agreed... And how ais Snyder and Co going to indicate that it is Rorschach speaking in a wide shot with a bunch of characters? I'm thinking of the meeting of the Minutemen, pre-child-molestor immolation. No creepy voice, you cannot depict talk bubbles on the screen -- and he's wearing a rag over his head with shifting, symmetrical blots on it.

My arch-fear is that they have the blots move whenever Rorschach speaks -- like a oscilloscope of sorts. And I have a greater and totally irrational fear that as the blots shift, they're going to have some awful foley-effect.

 

[sad lieutenant]

Not the best of quality but until summat better comes along, here's a snippet of that very BBC comics doc featuring His Beardiness himself giving his own interpretation of arguably his most renound character's dulcet tones:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FS60iN0g2I

Awesome! Did you upload it? In any case, thanks.

The throaty monotone was just what I had imagined, but I surprised by the awkward cadence of his speech. Was Moore just high as fawk/ lit up on absinthe/ have lousy public reading skills, or was this intentional? It made me think of Haley's performance in "Little Children" a bit. Not that I want our Rorschach to sound like he's stuck in pre-pubescence (as Ronnie is in "Little Children") -- but both Ronnie and Rorschach are products of being damaged good, personality-disorder-wise.

 

[CaptainGenerica]

That interpretation of Moore's is quite good; it's different from anything I'd imagined... which isn't saying much actually. My imaginings of Rorschach's voice have been limited by my own voice when I've tried to read it out loud, and I can't easily speak as low as Moore.

That voice is great for Rorschach, but it's harder to imagine runty red-headed Walter Kovacs speaking like that. But I guess we'll see.

Edit: I just remembered that when Walter speaks to Doc Malcolm Long in prison, he lacks the squiggly speech bubbles--indicating that he speaks normally when "disguised as Walter?"

 

[Captain Carnage]

Either that, or the fact that he isn't having to speak through two layers of latex with viscous fluids sandwiched inbetween.

 

[StorminNorman]

Either that, or the fact that he isn't having to speak through two layers of latex with viscous fluids sandwiched inbetween.

No. The same, normal speech bubbles are used at the first meeting of the Crime Busters. He was wearing that same mask then.

 

[Captain Carnage]

Good eye. During that meeting, Rorschach still had, as Dan so poetically puts it later on, all the buttons on his overcoat by and large, before working the Roche case went and bent his mind totally outta shape - the squiggles, certainly whilst in costume and concealed behind his 'face', come thereafter. I think we can summize that it was from this point onward that he developed the "horrible monotone voice" and wearing the mask now acts to amplify and exaggerate the overall disturbing effect of this, hence the squiggles to indicate the change between his masked voice circa 1966 Crimebusters meeting and post-1975 Roche incident traumatized mental collapse.

Question. Is the unmasked Rorschach in prison any less Rorschach? Is he really 'disguised' as Walter during this time? He objects to being referred to as such by Long, and all of his responses, affectations, and actions when it comes to takin' out the trash of Big Figure and his goons are all still distinctly Rorschachian throughout. Hurm.

 

[Sandman138]

Awesome! Did you upload it? In any case, thanks.

The throaty monotone was just what I had imagined, but I surprised by the awkward cadence of his speech. Was Moore just high as fawk/ lit up on absinthe/ have lousy public reading skills, or was this intentional? It made me think of Haley's performance in "Little Children" a bit. Not that I want our Rorschach to sound like he's stuck in pre-pubescence (as Ronnie is in "Little Children") -- but both Ronnie and Rorschach are products of being damaged good, personality-disorder-wise.

It's totally intentional.

Moore makes it very obvious that Rorschach and his philosophies are the product of childhood traumas both physical psychological. They are shown quite often to be little more than rationales for deeper problems. Why does Rorschach believe so much in Truman, because of a morally objectivist assesment of Hiroshima, or because he wants his father to love him. For everything he says to the psychiatrist in The Abyss Gazes Also, a look at his actions reveal his practices to be contradictory to his claimed principles. He writes of his disdain for those who live off welfare, while living off of his only friend and he is able to brush off the Comedian's attempted rape of Sally Jupiter as nothing more than a moral lapse because he admired him so much.

In other words, he was a paranoid enacting a boyhood fantasy dues to a lot of psychosexual trauma. I really hope that Haley works off of this voice. The inflection and cadence work perfectly. I also like how low and raspy it is, that's always the impression his word balloons gave me.

 

[Acid Snowman]

It's totally intentional.

Moore makes it very obvious that Rorschach and his philosophies are the product of childhood traumas both physical psychological. They are shown quite often to be little more than rationales for deeper problems. Why does Rorschach believe so much in Truman, because of a morally objectivist assesment of Hiroshima, or because he wants his father to love him. For everything he says to the psychiatrist in The Abyss Gazes Also, a look at his actions reveal his practices to be contradictory to his claimed principles. He writes of his disdain for those who live off welfare, while living off of his only friend and he is able to brush off the Comedian's attempted rape of Sally Jupiter as nothing more than a moral lapse because he admired him so much.

In other words, he was a paranoid enacting a boyhood fantasy dues to a lot of psychosexual trauma. I really hope that Haley works off of this voice. The inflection and cadence work perfectly. I also like how low and raspy it is, that's always the impression his word balloons gave me.

Exactly. I brought that point up in the 'who is the hero' thread, and I think this applies to the other characters as well. Watchmen is a dark examination of the motives beneath 'heroism'. Rorschach is escaping trauma by distancing himself from his real personality, Hooded Justice is beating up crooks just for a sadistic buzz (you could say this applies to the Comedian as well, minus the homosexuality), Veidt considers himself the only one capable of saving the world, Doctor Manhattan (for most of the story) doesn't even care about humanity, showing that heroic acts are rarely selfless.

Back to Rorscach's voice, I think it should be monotonous, but get slightly higher-pitched as he panics at the end.

 

[brobdingnag]

Agreed... And how ais Snyder and Co going to indicate that it is Rorschach speaking in a wide shot with a bunch of characters? I'm thinking of the meeting of the Minutemen, pre-child-molestor immolation. No creepy voice, you cannot depict talk bubbles on the screen -- and he's wearing a rag over his head with shifting, symmetrical blots on it.

My arch-fear is that they have the blots move whenever Rorschach speaks -- like a oscilloscope of sorts. And I have a greater and totally irrational fear that as the blots shift, they're going to have some awful foley-effect.

When you talk your mouth and therefore your face moves. It stands to reason that the blots would move when Rorschach speaks.

 

[TNC9852002]

OMg, I wish that they would make a teaser trailer soon, completely narrated by Haley as Rorschach.

-TNC

 

[sad lieutenant]

OMg, I wish that they would make a teaser trailer soon, completely narrated by Haley as Rorschach.

-TNC

Yeah... Just audio of a journal entry with some b-reel footage or some fancy graphic-work that yields a blood-stained happy face. For the geeks.

 

[brobdingnag]

Every time I see those edges around the word balloons, I think of Tom Waits.

Bingo, thats exactly who I was thinking. In fact Waits, other than being too tall might not have been a bad choice for Rorschach if they had made it 15 years ago.

 

[Sandman138]

Bingo, thats exactly who I was thinking. In fact Waits, other than being too tall might not have been a bad choice for Rorschach if they had made it 15 years ago.

I was rooting for him back in the day, but Haley is too perfect.

 

[toddly6666]

I'm hoping Rorschach just talks normally, because Jackie has an interesting voice without doing too much. If he does the rasp voice, it's gonna sound cheesy. I don't mind it being muffled due to the mask, but I don't want it raspy.

 

[CARNAGE-COMETH]

Funny I always heard the voice of a Snake.

I don't know what that means but when I read Watchmen and look at that ink blot and read his words I imagined like a raspy slithering hiss.

Kind of like G.I. Joe's Cobra Comando combined with Bale's Batman grunts when he was angry in Batman Begins.

lol

 

[TNC9852002]

They should definitely have a full trailer done by March.

-TNC

 

[arman200]

march is reasonable. I can't imagine it any earlier because it comes out in 2009.

As for Rorschach's voice, I always imagined A creepier version of the question, seeing as that's who Rorschach is. It's described as Creepy and monotone, so it's fairly easy to imagine.

As for the Alan moore reading, that can be found in the video section of www.watchmencomicmovie.com

 

[Indrid Cold]

He should sound like no face in Dick Tracy.

 

[luke1234]

his voice should be a low rough rigged voice

 

[Cagefighterkip]

he should sound like someone who's been smoking from age 10 to age 90, just a raspy, gross, gasping voice... but also somehow dangerous and mysterious and (maybe) alluring...

 

[CaptainGenerica]

Agreed... And how ais Snyder and Co going to indicate that it is Rorschach speaking in a wide shot with a bunch of characters?

Well by that time we'll have become familiar with his voice so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. But I have a feeling they'll avoid wide shots when dealing with Rorschach.

 

[Magenta666]

i always thought it would be a monotone voice, quite and low.

 

[Nivek]

He should sound like Kenny in South Park.

 

[Rac]

I thought David O'Hara's voice when I were reading Watchmen.

 

[Knightsaber Priss]

Not the best of quality but until summat better comes along, here's a snippet of that very BBC comics doc featuring His Beardiness himself giving his own interpretation of arguably his most renound character's dulcet tones:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FS60iN0g2I

Here's a better one I found.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh1_yUb20Z0