Currently in most Latin American countries there is a company dedicated entirely to the difficult task of translating, adapting and creating the perfect voices that let us enjoy films, short films, telenovelas and documentaries made in other languages.
The dubbing work is a meticulous work where every second is measured and as in any good production the sum of a good positive balance in each of the stages, determines the final product.
The process
It all starts with the arrival of a master's degree that is copied with a time code , then a translation is made based on the original script or translated directly from the video. The next step is the adaptation that involves finding the pauses and words most in line with the movement of the lips, seeking to communicate the same idea. At this moment all the material is divided into the loops (time limit – averages between three and thirty seconds – in which the actor must speak). After a casting work by the dubbing director continues with the lipsinc, donde each actor begins to mold his character and with the help of a projected image records second by second the new voice that will reach millions of viewers. This stage implies a great mastery because the actors only have their voice to communicate the intention that another has created, even if the original performances are supported or surpassed to the point that harmony and strength predominate in the new version that will certainly be very successful.
The last phase is editing, also very interesting and full of possibilities. It is in charge of a sound engineer who studies all the recorded material and gives it the nuances similar to the original version, then makes a final mix with the voices and the soundtrack.
The people of the doblaje
Gustavo Nieto Roa is one of the pioneers of the medium and father of the Centaurs of the world: Centauro Comunicaciones, dubbing, English-Spanish-English; Centauro Films, with ten films produced; Centauro TV Colombia; Centauro Audiovisual; Centauro Ecuador, with eight telenovelas and miniseries; Centauro Brasil, dubbing into Portuguese as well as distribution and Centauro Portugal, created by special invitation of the Portuguese radio and television for dubbing in that language.
Gustavo Nieto Roa is a very positive man who wants to "give people the opportunity to realize themselves" so that his companies are energy channels for his collaborators. Nieto Roa sees the future of communications as a very interesting opportunity for the good development of the human being.
Centauro Comunicaciones is linked to the ISDN Communication system that immediately links, for example, an actor in Portugal with a recording studio in Los Angeles. In this way, the talent and the maximum technology of the world are brought together to obtain optimal and immediate results, because "the key to a good dubbing is to create the illusion that the film that is being seen was originally made in the language with which it was dubbed".
TV & VIDEO Latin America also interviewed in the city of Miami two dubbing directors with experience of more than a decade; Jenny Navia of Centauro Comunicaciones and Verónica Rivas of ADR International (Automatic Dialog Replacement). Each of them agreed that even if there are many technological advances, the machine can never displace the cadence, emotion and communication of a true voice.
For Jenny "dubbing is not starting on time and finishing on time, it is keeping pace with the lips when speaking". In the case of Veronica who works for clients as important as Show-Time, which awards fifteen to twenty films per month, Travel Channel and MTV, among others, the key to a good dubbing is "an efficient work team where each part of the process achieves excellent quality. In addition, as dubbing is the most difficult means of artistic expression, as it is limited to the voice, it constitutes an exciting and full of magic world in which it navigates many times up to ten hours in a row.
Mario Robles is the president and manager of Etcetera C.A. a Venezuelan company that stands out in the world of dubbing for its quality and technological advances. It has forty-five dubbing and post-production rooms and two hundred and thirty-four actors and technicians who have done the dubbing for one thousand two hundred and thirty-four films and fourteen thousand three hundred and fifty-two hours of television; all this within a facility of 18,000 square meters where talent and technology have come together to offer the world a high quality product.
Etcetera was present at NATPE 96 with samples of English dubbing mixed with a music band and effects totally produced by the company, with the modern technology of Dolby Sorround multidirectional sound, resulting in a show that still arouses comments today.
This is how Etcetera faces the complex and increasingly important dubbing production and the increasing challenge-commitment of making great actors speak in another language, harmoniously mixed with that deep and disturbing jungle of sound of today.
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