There are voices that have been connected in our minds with interpretations of our favorite songs, others that were impressed on the radio and others that are so special that we just need to hear them to understand who the person is talking without seeing it. There are also those voices that through the compilation in movies and animated series have given a second life to their heroes in Greek. Such a voice belongs to director, actor and acting teacher, Harmless Gika. A voice that has been uniquely associated with heroes such as Lion from the Thundercats and Winnie the Pooh while his name for many is identified with the field of compilation in our country.
"With good compilation, we can produce, a maximum, cultural and cultural product" says the same who responded positively to the invitation of newsbeast.gr to become our guide to this particular art that in some countries is flourishing.
With his answers he "illuminates" their profession actors for whom he typically says that "they have the technique to use their voice conveying all the emotions and the essence of a text, without having to use any other means of expression".
- How did you find yourself in the art world?
It was not a purely personal choice. Luck played its games and I came into the world from a man who loved and gave himself to art. You chose it consciously, leaving medicine at a time when the function of your doctor offered a guaranteed future, a better life, beyond the "lantern" of Mytilene, to follow another, uncertain and soul-destroying function, that of the "Hypocrite" », Writer, painter, poet and especially father. This was Nikiforos Gikas. My Dad!
- When does your relationship with compilation begin?
Shortly after graduating from the Drama School of the National Theater. Taking my first theatrical steps, there in the "pregnant art" company of the "Open Theater" of George Michaelides, I was lucky (the second time I mention this word in so few arads…. How important factor is "luck" in the end in our life and choices…) to meet, among others, Spyros Bibilas.
He "wrung" me, there in the dressing rooms, where I was preparing Minas (Hadjisavva) by painting the whole with waterproof "fumo", in order to go out to play Caliban in Shakespeare's "Storm", pretending, every day and every other, to be a stranger. »Changing voices. He took me, he took me to George Protopappas in ERT and that's where it all started.
- Is compiling an art?
Ha! Very nice question! He has the "momentum" to expose me, but I think I will try to answer "in return". If you are asked to compile a live action movie (actors play normally and not animated) and it happens, we say now, this movie is Shakespeare's "Hamlet" directed by Grigory Koznicev and the role of Hamlet is played by Innocent Smoktunovsky, do you have any first, very obvious evidence that art "smells" here?
Yes, I would say. Intensely! Shouldn't I play Hamlet? Yes!
Shouldn't I follow the acting paths, the technique, the dramatic approach of Gregory and Inocenti? Yes we must!
I do not make art? Yes I do! Many, and rightly so, will argue, "and why not enjoy Smoktunowski playing, in his own language, this extraordinary role?" "To enjoy the acting skills of this great actor, who according to many has played this role, best of all, all over the world!"
I agree with them! If they know Russian fluently I agree and augment. They will enjoy every acting detail. They will be enchanted! If they do not know Russian? We have a problem. The seventh art, the cinema that is, it is the power of the image. So if we add, to this magic of the image, a subtitle, in order to read and understand the translation of the text we are watching, we do visually, two things at the same time. We watch two images at the same time.
This means that in some of the two images we watch alternately, we will lose something. So finally the magic of the seventh art! But if we had the film dubbed, with great actors (which we have in abundance) would not we enjoy in its completion, this magical artwork, which you call cinema?
And with the illiterate, the elderly, the people with small or large vision problems, those who do not like a language because it just does not sound good to them, the immigrants or the economic refugees that we now host in our country, what do we do?
Do we teach them English in Greece and promote them in more developed countries? Do we let them get in touch with our richest language through domestic production, limited in recent years due to the crisis? The video games that have flooded the prime time zones?
I will conclude, then, that with good compilation, we can produce a maximum, cultural and cultural product. So, yes! Compilation, in my humble opinion, is an art!
- Does the fact that so many children's films from abroad have reached millions of people in Greece with your own voice fill you with responsibility?
The responsibility is always great when you make the decision, for whatever reason, to report your work in public. Especially when she addresses children. You carry the weight of the "model", which unfortunately I think nowadays, has been misinterpreted and operates in a latent form. The "Shame of the model"… "Caesar's wife is not enough to be honest, she must look honest" ..
- What is it that fascinates you about the process of giving your voice to a big screen hero?
Everything! The loneliness of the "booth" (the soundproofed recording room), the concentration, the readiness, the reflexes, the madness, the director's instructions, the understanding and decipherment of the interpretation of the foreign language actor and finally the enjoyment of your own creation on the image of the hero you play.
- Do you single out any of your roles?
No, I do not single out any role. Everyone, from the largest to the smallest, is part of me. These are my moments that I enjoyed every second of their recording.
- Was there a movie that made it very difficult for you and why?
It may sound arrogant, but it does not. I have not had any difficulty in any movie or series that I have lent my voice to. On the contrary, for 30 years, I have been having incredible fun!
- I imagine that this work requires coordination and synchronization. Is this process easy?
Requires good actors! The Voice Actors voice) abroad are usually the best theatrical actors of each country. They have the technique to use their voice to convey all the emotions and the essence of a text, without having to use any other means of expression.
This great practice of the professional "Hypocrite" combined with concentration and a sense of rhythm, are enough to succeed in the field of compilation. Synchronization, the so-called lip-sync, with digital technology, but also the correct adaptation of the text by the director is now one of the easiest elements of compilation.
- How much time and preparation is required to have a film from English to Greek?
For a movie, nowadays, it can take up to 4 months to deliver a job. We have the definition of the director by the company that undertakes the compilation, receiving texts and materials from abroad, the definition of a translator who will translate the foreign language text into Greek to deliver it to the director, exchanging e-mail with abroad in order to make Greek the jokes of the film as well as words or phrases "key", distribution of roles and finding roles that will probably have to be approved from abroad and little by little after all this is done, we enter the process of registering the roles and end of editing and mixing to deliver the film abroad.
- Why in Greece do we still insist on subtitling?
I analyzed in your previous question about the problematic operation of subtitling in cinema or television. However, I think that in Greece, we do not have the culture of preserving and protecting our language. This great tool, which shapes our way of thinking and our attitude towards life. Which has highlighted great scholars, poets and writers with its diversity.
We as a people have not been taught "we" but "I". "Do you know who I am…", "I, I can…", "I, I am…", "I, I have…", "I, I know.". We did not learn to see what our neighbor does not have, what he does not know, what he needs. We have developed an "Individual Democracy" and not a "Collective".
And unfortunately our governments also contributed to this, with the complete lack of policy on the preservation and protection of both the written and the spoken language of the Greek language. We systematically prepare the Greeks, with "Our Xenolatreia" to leave their country for a better tomorrow abroad, instead of looking at this better tomorrow to offer it to them in their place. We cater to "foreign" employees, instead of making "masters" in our country.
- Are there any voices you admire? If so, which ones?
Of course! And I'm glad you gave me the opportunity to name them. They are all great actors and many times I envy and would love to do what they do.
Tasos Masmanidis (my teacher, I will admire him for a lifetime !!!), Eleni Dakoronia (the sweetest and most tender female voice in my ears), Spyros Bibilas (what an actor, what an ethos, what a huge range of voices !!!), Argyris Pavlidis (what an actor, what a substance, what a maturity !!), Tasos Kostis (I adore and envy his talent and his endless humor), Costas Triantaphyllopoulos (what an actress… what a nice bass hue !!), what Dinos Soutis say… I envy his divine bass !!!), Manolis Giorgos (one of the most mature and mature actors with an excellent bass voice !!), Konstantinos Tsakonas (worship !!!), Vina Papadopoulou (the goddess of compilation !!!) , Chrysoula Papadopoulou (what an actress !!!), Voula Costa (I envy her… !!!), Maria Zervou (divine voice… unique !!!), Nikos Papadopoulos (what talent, what unlimited possibilities !!), and from younger generation George Mataragas, Chryssa Diamantopoulou, Zoe Katsatou, Stelios Psaroudakis, Andreas Evangelatos, Aphrodite Antonaki, Georgia Ioannidou D. I could write pages on pages…
Would you encourage a young person to get involved in the world of compiling?
And of course! As long as he does it with the seriousness and professionalism that this space imposes. Do not see it as a sideline or easy part-time job. Do not fall into the big trap that the field of compilation has fallen in recent years. The "fasonatzidiki" technical production, of the degraded, easy product, that some supposed experts and self-proclaimed "gurus" of the genre, are evangelizing in the field.
See it as an "act of art" because believe me, the world of compilation is, if you do it right, truly magical!