Why Men Always Tell You to See Movies

What gender is the voice of God? The question has been pondered by 1)mystics through the ages, but in the 2)sanctuary of cinema the voice of a 3)sonorous, 4)authoritative, fear-inspiring yet sometimes 5)relatable presence is, invariably, that of a man. Consider the 6)trailer and the 7)omniscient, 8 )disembodied voice that introduces 9)moviegoers to a 10)fictional world.

“Most movie trailers are loud and strong, and film studios want that male impact, 11)vocally and 12)thematically,” said Jeff Danis, an agent who represents 13)voice-over artists. “Even if it’s a romantic comedy or nonaction movie, they still want that certain power and drama that men’s voices tend to convey on a grander scale.”

Even now, movie trailers and 14)promos largely 15)hew to a 16)template created 40 years ago by 17)Don LaFontaine, Hollywood’s most 18)prolific voice-over artist. Possessor of a 19)resonant 20)baritone that could cut through tight sequences of music and 21)sound bites―and the 22)coiner of familiar phrases like “In a world...” and “One man, one destiny”―LaFontaine, who died in 2008, 23)voiced more than 5,000 trailers and thousands upon thousands of commercials and television promos.

In the past few years, as audiences have grown more sophisticated, the independent production companies that make trailers for Hollywood studios have begun moving away from voice-overs, favoring 24)graphic devices like 25)title cards to serve as narration. People are trying to let the movie speak for itself as much as possible.

Still, plenty of voice-over jobs remain, especially in television, though women are seldom 26)cast. “There are some very talented, very gifted women in this business that can satisfy any request for a 27)narrator, but the opportunities aren’t given to them,” said Mike Soliday, a talent agent who represents prominent male voice artists.

As Mr. Danis put it, “Trailers are really the last frontier for women.” John Long, who was responsible for campaigns for Kung Fu Panda 2, noted that his company had worked on dozens of campaigns a year. “And as much as everyone talks about wanting to be innovative and do unexpected things, the idea of a female voice doesn’t come up that often,” he said. “It’s really not part of the formula. Maybe that’s our own 28)shortsightedness.”

Asked to name a 29)theatrical campaign that featured a female voice, trailer makers interviewed for this article could easily recall just one: 30)Gone in 60 Seconds, the 2000 action thriller that starred Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie. “It was filled with really sexy and fast and fantastic-looking cars, and shot with a ton of energy,” recalled Skip Chaisson, who produced the trailer. “What else did it need? I thought it would be cool if we had a really sexy female voice. In a way we were doing a car commercial, so why not go as far with it as we can?”

Melissa Disney, who did the voice-over for Gone in 60 Seconds and works frequently on television promos, commercials and 31)animated series, argued that “men are very attracted to women’s voices, especially when they are sexy and 32)sultry.” She continued: “Women have such a large range. We have so much more to pull from than your typical male action voice.”

One challenge women face is the perception in the industry that it’s difficult for their voices to be heard over a trailer’s 33)cacophony, an attitude some voice-over artists dispute. “To say that a woman’s voice won’t cut through a trailer just isn’t true,”said Joan Baker, the author of Secrets of VoiceOver Success and a friend of LaFontaine’s. “What women’s voices have is 34)emotionality and color and a certain kind of rhythm. Don would even say,‘My voice isn’t right for everything.’ ” She felt it was ridiculous that women were not used in movie trailers. But no one wants to change what isn’t broken.

Do moviegoers want to hear female voices? Research indicates that our brains are 35)wired to prefer theirs to male ones; that’s the reason robotic voices, like those in 36)GPS devices, tend to be female. When it comes to 37)credibility, however, research into the perceived credibility of a voice―an important quality for the omniscient narrator of a trailer, as well as the spokesman or -woman for any product, which is the function a trailer serves―tells a different story.

“On average both males and females trust male voices more,” said Clifford Nass, a professor of communications at Stanford, noting some gender 38)disparity exists in that women don’t distrust female voices as much as men distrust them. In one study conducted at Stanford, two versions of the same video of a woman were presented to subjects: one had the low frequencies of the woman’s voice increased and the high frequencies reduced, the other 39)vice versa. Consistently, subjects perceived the deep voice to be smarter, more authoritative, and more40)trustworthy.

In television, many cable channels regularly aim programming at women, and there has been more 41)latitude in the use of female voices. “We’re all trying to make shows that cut through the 42)clutter and stick out,” said Tim Nolan, senior vice president for marketing at 43)Lifetime Networks. “But for me it’s less about being authoritative and more about being relatable. It’s a big 44)turnoff for TV consumers if they think they’re being sold. Whether the show’s about fashion or drama or reality, it’s about which voice is telling those stories better.”

In testing One Born Every Minute, a Lifetime series set in an Ohio 45)maternity ward, the channel found that audiences responded most favorably to a voiceover by Jamie Lee Curtis, even before they recognized her. Mr. Nolan added:“One woman said that the voice understood who she was.”

旁白背后的性别战争

上帝之音”到底是男声还是女声？多年来，这个问题一直困扰着神秘主义者，然而，在电影院这圣殿内，那种洪亮、权威并且让人生畏的声音――有时是以亲切的旁白身份出现――无一例外地都是男声。想想电影预告片以及那无处不在、却又不见人影的声音，就是它把观众带进虚幻的世界。

“大部分电影预告片的声效制作得洪亮有力，而且电影公司想要一种雄性冲击力，无论是从声线抑或从主题方面考量，”杰夫・丹尼斯说道，他是电影旁白艺人的经纪人。“就算是一部浪漫喜剧或是非动作片，电影公司仍旧喜欢男声所表现出的力量感以及戏剧张力。”

时至今日，电影预告片以及宣传还是很大程度上遵循四十年前唐・拉方丹所打造的模式――拉方丹是好莱坞资历最丰富的电影旁白艺人。拉方丹的男中音浑厚有力，不会淹没于紧凑的音乐和原声片段中，你肯定不会对“在这个世界……”还有“人各有命”这样的语句感到陌生，这些均是拉方丹的经典演绎。他于2008年辞世，曾在5000多部电影预告片、成千上万的广告以及电视宣传短片里担任旁白。

在过去几年里，观众的口味日趋多元化、复杂化，为好莱坞电影公司制作预告片的独立制作公司已经开始摒弃画外音这种模式，转而倾向于采用字幕视觉手段来叙述故事。行家们在尝试尽可能地让影片“无声胜有声”。

尽管如此，旁白市场的需求仍在，特别是在电视业界――尽管女声仍很少被采用。“行业内有一些才华出众、天赋过人的女声，能满足各种需要进行旁白陈述，但是她们没有得到展现的机会，”麦克・索拉代说，他旗下的旁白艺人都是出名的男声艺人。

正如丹尼斯先生所说的那样，“预告片真可谓是未被女性开发的‘处女地’。”负责《功夫熊猫2》宣传项目的约翰・郎先生提 到，他的公司每年都参与数十个宣传项目。“尽管每个人都说他们想要创新，不走寻常路，但是女声旁白却不常在他们的考虑范围之内，”他说，“采用女声真的超出常规。可能那就是我们目光短浅的表现吧。”

被问及哪个电影宣传短片是采用女声旁白时，被采访的预告片制作人能轻松记起的仅有一套：《极速60秒》，那是2000年由尼古拉斯・凯奇和安吉丽娜・朱莉主演的一部动作惊悚片。“电影里面都是造型性感、外观奇特 而且速度惊人的汽车，拍摄手法极具爆炸力，”司盖普・查尔森回忆道，他负责制作该电影预告片。“这个预告片还差点什么呢？当时我觉得如果采用一种非常性感的女声做旁白就棒极了。从某个程度上来说，我们做的预告片就是一个汽车广告，那么为什么不尽可能地跳出框框，出奇制胜呢？”

玛丽莎・迪士尼是一位女声旁白艺人，为《极速60秒》作旁白，并经常在各类电视宣传片、广告以及动画片中配音，她认为“男性观众很喜欢女声，特别是那些性感又的。”她还说：“女性发挥的空间很大。比起典型的男声，我们的能耐大得多。”

女性面临的挑战是行内的固定思维：女性的声音很难在预告片的震撼配乐中“突围而出”。这是一些旁白艺人有所质疑的观点。“在预告片中女声没有辨识度这个说法是不对的，”琼・贝克说，她是《画外音的成功秘密》一书的作者，同时也是拉方丹的朋友。“女声有它的情感、韵味以及节奏。唐甚至也说过：‘我的声音并非适合所有影片的旁白。’”她认为预告片弃用女声这种行为很荒谬。但没有人愿意打破常规。

电影发烧友希望听到女声旁白吗？调查显示，比起男声，我们的大脑更倾向于喜欢女声――这也是为什么机器人的声音（如GPS设备）更愿意使用女声。但说到“可信度”，对于预告片中如“上帝之音”那样重要的旁白，以及其他任何作品的旁白的相关调查显示，人们有着另一番看法。

“通常情况下，男女观众都更信任男声，”斯坦福大学通讯系教授克里福德・纳斯说，他还指出，这种偏信的程度也存在着性别差异，对女声 的不信任，男士听众尤甚于女士听众。在一项斯坦福大学主导的实验中，实验对象会听到同一个女声的两个不同音频：其中一个将低音调高、高音降低，而另一个则为相反的设置。结果发现，实验对象一致认为，低沉的声音给人感觉更聪明，更具权威性也更值得信任。

在电视行业，许多有线电视台一般以女性为目标观众推出节目，而在使用女声这一问题上更灵活。“我们全都在尝试让节目条理清晰，醒目突出，”Lifetime电视频道高级副总裁蒂姆・诺兰说，“但对我来说，‘权威’没有‘亲切’来得重要。如果观众感觉节目一个劲儿地在向自己施压宣讲，她们肯定会感到很反感。无论电视节目是时尚剧、正剧还是真人秀，哪一种声音把这些故事陈述得更好才是我们的关注点。”

《忙碌的产房》是Lifetime推出的一部以俄亥俄州妇科产房为背景的电视剧。在其试映期间，电视台发现观众很喜欢片子的旁白，尽管之前大家都没听出那是杰米・李・柯蒂斯的声音。诺兰先生回忆此事时补充道：“一位女士说那样的声音贴近她的心灵。”