Zombie with no lips, to speak or not to speak??

Hey guys Im currently working on a Zombie head replacement..for my fanfilm. And Ive hit this sort of snag in the lip sync.

The Zombie has no lips, and he needs to talk....bascially half his face is missing and you can see into his mouth, so you can see his tongue forming words.
people are saying I need something in there, one guy said to deform the bone to form words....but I dont think that'll work.

I was thinking, Captn Barbosa didnt have lips when he was in dead mode, but when he moves his jaw up and down and words come out, we beleive it.



What do you guys think??

 

I think that zombies are awesome.

In any case, have the voice actor speak the lines with some gauze on his upper and lower lips. It'll make his speech sound awkward and he won't have any plosives, like somebody with no lips.

 

no can do...hes already done the lines, it was originally not going to be a VFX shot, but now it is.

 

A
D
R

_Max

EDIT

Unless you mean he can't re-record because he's unavailable or something. Still, even if he can't, I'd recommend someone else do it.

 

no, there will be no ADR, I'm going to make this work with what I have...nevermind I answered my own question.

funny this wasnt an audio question at all...

 

It wasn't, no, but it's good to make your video fit your audio.

 

.

 

I'm going to throw in my love for zombies as well. I love zombie flicks ever so much.

 

In my personal experiance, the zombie can usually talk as long as at least half the upper lip is still intact, anything less, and they're going to have a slight lisp

 

unless he was a ventriloquist in life........................

 

Anyone else consider the fact that a zombie is a super natural creature and there for not bound by the restrictions of the mundane world? I have no issues with a zombie reciting shakespear in a perfect british accent (though it would be comedic) since they shouldnt be able to move in the first place

 

This is one of those things that has always irked me. Speech is developed by a number of things, the least of which is the need of lips. There's lungs and diaphram to power the air through the vocal chords, which must vibrate, there is the shape of the nasal cavity, tounge and shape of mouth to consider... That's just the basics...
But, in the movies, all of that is simply pushed aside. Zombies and other creatures of that same sort speak just fine.

I would have to agree with the previous poster as say that, the fact that the zombie is up and walking is enough to justify it being able to speak perfectly. This is true even if the physics of it make no sense.

 

Ya Id like to think, he could have been a vanriliquist in his life time

I tottally agree with the whole, he doesnt need lips to talk, maybe if it was a movie about someone in a tragic lip losing accident, then the whole no lips thing would come into play.

The thing that gets me, is no one has a hard time beleiving in the actual zombie...theres a person, on screen...that came back to life! walking around...and the hard thing to beleive is..he wouldnt be able to to say the letter P?

The same thing applys to lightsabers...they dont exsit, but our beleif is suspended when they ignite, and that sound and light comes out. Sure we know its not real, but we accept it.

 

How having a zombie not talk at all, i cant think of many horror movies where the zombies do anything but moan and make noises or say mmmm brains. only movies i seen where zombies talk was like in my boyfriends back, or Hocus Pocus

 

You, obviously, have not seen the Return of the Living Dead movies.

"Send more...paramedics..."

 

Not to mention Pirates of the Carribean...

They were some of the most talkative zombies ever...

 

they weren't zombies. zombies are permanently stuck that way. they were just cursed.

 

With being zombies.

 

And the point is, that in zombie form, they really WERE hollow shells of humans. Thusly how one guy got a bomb stuck inside him that couldn't be removed once his regular human form was restored. Then he blowed up.

In zombie form, they didn't just look thay way. They WERE that way.

 

To be a producer for a moment, and ask the art-defying questions, if you really are concerned about it:

Does the zombie HAVE to speak?

And if the answer is yes:

Does the zombie HAVE to have a hole in his mouth, or missing lips?

If the answer to the second question is also yes, then don't worry about it anyway. As long as what's left moves realistically, people won't think twice about it.

People accept the Muppets talking and they just flap their mouths open and shut. Same principle. As long as it essentially matches the audio, people are unlikely to really think about it.

M. Scott

 

Although, to play devil's advocate here, suspending disbelief for a puppet is FAR easier than doing so for something that is supposedly real world. I know it's stretch to devide the two since they are both essentially props. But, the zombie is supposed to be real. The puppet is supposed to be a representation. The difference is large enough that the two really don't compare.

 

All joking aside, as a die hard zombie movie fan, it's been my experience that lipless zombies have often been able to enunciate flawlessly. As mentioned earlier, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD not only had zombies requesting more paramedics and police, but TWO DIFFERENT lipless zombies that were able to speak. The infamous Tarbaby (who freaked me out when I was little) "BRAINS! MORE BRAINS!" and the talking female zombie torso who was able to explain to the main characters why the zombies craved brains... And that's just in one movie. It's just accepted horror film law that supernatural creatures don't require lips to speak.

EDIT: And one more thing. Even DARKMAN was able to speak without the aid of lips. Sam Raimi has spoken, therefore so can your zombie

 

Ya Im going for it, full on dialogue, with no lips...although you can see through his cheek, into his mouth and see his tongue helping form words, so that'll help sell it.

thanks for the input everyone, and the discussion.