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Broadcasting
DUBBING AND SUBTITLING
A number of different actors will be auditioned to find the right voice.
Photo: Iyuno Media Group
Language lessons The processes involved in dubbing and subtitling have changed enormously in recent years. Technology has enabled faster and better workflow, but the demands of the market have become more complex too, as Allan Dembry CTO, Iyuno Media Group, explains, in the first of two interviews on the subject.
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YUNO MEDIA Group is known as a market leader in the localisation industry, but this is a position that it has gained, and kept, through a focus not just on high-quality work but on the opportunities that technology offers for improving and enhancing workflow. In a recent interview with Communications Africa, Iyuno CTO Allan Dembry explained what dubbing and subtitling involves and the impact of technology on the process in recent years. Communications Africa: What is the process involved in dubbing and subtitling – from the arrival of the show or shows to the actual delivery of the subbed or subtitled version? Allan Dembry chief technology officer, Iyuno Media Group: The full end-to-end process is a complex one, and it’s made more challenging by the fact that changes can be made to the materials during the time it’s being localised. We start, of course, with receipt of the materials. At that point quality control is very important, especially for dubbing projects, to ensure that the materials are at the required quality standard. Depending on how many languages we’re localising the materials into (and we currently work in over 80 languages), this will determine which localisation teams the work is allocated to. We’ve got offices around the world in 30 countries, with a large team of both in-house and freelance talent to support the scale at which we operate. For subtitling the work moves quickly to the linguists who are responsible for the translation and localisation of the dialogue. This means it’s not a straight literal translation but takes into account local phrases, culture, idioms and the like to ensure that the translated dialogue is natural to the local languages and both linguistically and culturally relevant. The local subtitling teams then pick up the translated subtitles and create and conform them. This means that the subtitles have to be timed perfectly to the dialogue on the screen and fit on the screen. They also have to transition correctly between scenes. The dubbing process is more involved because of the production work required to record and create the localised audio with voice actors,
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as well as potentially augmenting the audio with foley sound effects. The dubbing process starts with casting the right voice actors who will provide their voices for the dialogue. Normally a number of different voice actors will be auditioned for each character to cast the right voice to match the character on screen. Once casting is complete the recording can start in one of our 105 studios spread around the world. These studios are designed and built to very high acoustic treatment standards to ensure the recorded audio is of the highest quality possible and, through our mixing equipment, our engineers are then able to mix and lay back the audio in a number of configurations – from basic stereo through to Dolby 5.1 and right the way up to full Dolby Atmos. Whether it’s subtitled or dubbed, the finished materials go through strict quality control to ensure that the finished product meets both our high standards and the expectations of our clients, the content owners and producers. And all the way through this process our dedicated project managers are running the show, from initial engagement with our
The time saved in some areas is often effectively transferred to other parts of the workflow where video and audio processing takes longer to complete. clients, right the way through to delivery of the finished localised assets. And if there are any changes to the deliverables or the requirements during this process they are the ones who coordinate with the internal teams to ensure that we still deliver on time and at high quality. Communications Africa: How has technology speeded up the process of dubbing and subtitling? How much has the equipment used today advanced compared to, say, 10 years ago? Allan Dembry: Technology has undoubtedly allowed the process to speed up in key areas of the workflow and has also allowed companies Communications Africa Issue 1 2021
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