The master's thesis titled Speech Designer as a Permanent Collaborator in the Creation of Slovenian Film addresses the issue of Slovenian spoken language in films, which is often recognized as one of the weaker aspects of domestic film production. As Slovenian cinema relied heavily on theatre in its early development, the research is based on a comparison between the position of the speech designer in contemporary drama theatre, where the role is already established, and that of a speech professional in Slovenian film production. The profession of the so-called film proofreader initially developed from that of the theatre proofreader, but the working method did not adapt to the specific characteristics of the film medium, and the role was therefore not retained within the film crew. Nevertheless, production processes have changed over time. In contemporary Slovenian film, various speech experts, speech consultants and dialect instructors are once again appearing and participating in different stages of the creative process. One of the frequently proposed solutions for improving spoken language in films is to make the speech designer a permanent member of the film crew.
Using relevant scholarly literature on speech formation in theatre and film, an initial model of the work of a speech designer was developed. This model served as the basis for further research in the form of interviews with two film directors who had explored speech in their films in detail and collaborated with various experts in the field of language and speech. The analysis of their answers made it possible to combine theoretical findings with creative practice and to expand the initial model into an extended model of film speech design with the help of a speech designer. The model encompasses the design of film speech throughout the entire process of film creation, with the speech designer playing a key role. The model constitutes the main original contribution of the master's thesis and systematically defines the possibilities for involving the speech designer in the filmmaking process. In the future, it could serve as a framework for a more thoughtful and consistent treatment of spoken language in films and contribute to a higher quality speech presence in Slovenian films.
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