{"id":19180,"date":"2024-01-23T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.act-translations.com\/on-the-silver-screen-how-movies-are-dubbed\/"},"modified":"2024-07-30T10:22:49","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T08:22:49","slug":"on-the-silver-screen-how-movies-are-dubbed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.act-translations.com\/en-us\/on-the-silver-screen-how-movies-are-dubbed\/","title":{"rendered":"On the silver screen: how movies are dubbed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Some movie buffs turn up their noses at the mere suggestion of dubbed movies. But with the right translation, a dubbed movie can easily be as good as the original. We admit it\u2019s a controversial statement. But it\u2019s one we\u2019re happy to stand by. Read on to discover how dubbing works and what to look out for if you want to dub<\/a> your movie successfully in another language.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\u201cIch seh\u2018 dir in die Augen, Kleines.\u201d (I’m looking you in the eye, little one.) Casablanca is a movie classic that is all about romance. In English, however, the phrase sounded a little different: \u201cHere\u2019s looking at you, kid.\u201d Since this is a toast in the original language, it certainly wasn\u2019t easy to find a literal translation in German. A simple \u201cProst\u201d (Cheers) would have been wide of the mark. However, audiences seem to have been satisfied with the eventual solution. Not only the original English quote but also the German version went down in movie history.<\/p>\n\n

When dubbing spoils the movie<\/h2>\n\n

The quality of the dialog determines the quality of a movie. The right joke, the right emotion, the punchline and the timbre of the voice\u2014all of this will hopefully trigger the right response from the audience. However, it all risks being lost to audiences in other countries if translators and dubbing actors don\u2019t do their job properly. Or to quote the movie title: \u201cLost in Translation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Especially in German-speaking countries, it is not a good idea to do without dubbing altogether. After all, dubbing is more widely used there than anywhere else in the world. Foreign-language movies are dubbed into the target language and, ideally, lip-synchronized. In German-speaking countries, almost every movie and series is dubbed. Cinemas mainly show dubbed versions of movies. This differs significantly from other countries such as Poland or Scandinavia, where dubbed versions are practically unheard of. In Poland, for example, a single speaker translates all the dialog directly and the translator\u2019s voice is superimposed over the original soundtrack. Whether this conveys the right emotions other than an inclination to take a nap is not for us to say.<\/p>\n\n

In any case, viewers are used to the convenience of watching a movie and following the dialog in their native language. This development dates back to the post-war period. <\/p>\n\n

First step: translation\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n

As with movies with subtitles, dubbing also begins with the translation of the text. However, this variant is a little more complex. After all, it\u2019s not just the content of the texts that must be right. The duration of what is said must also match the pictures. The ultimate success or failure of the dubbing is therefore dependent on this first step.<\/p>\n\n

Even the best dubbing actors are fighting a losing battle if the translation is poor or simply wrong. Some English jokes simply don\u2019t make sense if they are translated word-for-word into German. One example can be found in Quentin Tarantino\u2019s \u201cPulp Fiction,\u201d during which the similar-sounding words \u201cketchup\u201d and \u201ccatch up\u201d are used. This has precious little to do with German tomato sauce.<\/p>\n\n

Other translations into the target language can falter at much simpler hurdles. For instance, when the hero of the Hollywood blockbuster \u201cBlade Runner\u201d demands a \u201chard copy\u201d in the original English version of the movie. In the German cinema release, this is translated literally as a \u201charte Kopie\u201d rather than a printout on paper. It sounds more like the output from a bad translation app on a smartphone, doesn\u2019t it? Professional translators should offer you different choices. That\u2019s because finding the right words does not mean that you have found the perfect words.<\/p>\n\n

Thinking beyond languages<\/h2>\n\n

Localization has also been a recurring theme throughout movie history. A particular expression or certain types of content may be interpreted completely differently in another country. This is about more than language, and translators need to understand this. For example, the villain in Hitchcock\u2019s movie \u201cNotorious,\u201d which was released shortly after the Second World War, was portrayed in the German version as a drug dealer instead of a Nazi. In the action movie \u201cDie Hard,\u201d the villain, originally named Hans Gruber, was renamed Jack.<\/p>\n\n

Once the translation is complete, the project moves to the recording studio with professional dubbing actors<\/a>. Ideally, this is where the translated text is transformed into clearly spoken words and sentences that convey the right emotions. The final step involves adding the dialog in the new language to what is called the international soundtrack. On this soundtrack, the sounds and music used in the movie are stored separately from the spoken word.<\/p>\n\n

Perfect all the way to the lips<\/h2>\n\n

Sound engineers must now match up all the components to each other. They focus on lip synchronization among other things. This ensures that the dialog sounds match the timing and visual movements of the actors\u2019 lips.<\/p>\n\n

Artificial intelligence is now used to help adapt the movements of the lips to suit the target language. In addition to bad translations, poor lip synchronization is usually the first thing viewers associate with a badly dubbed movie. Don\u2019t underestimate this aspect and be sure to allow sufficient time for quality control.<\/p>\n\n

Movie dubbing as a matter of conviction<\/span><\/h2>\n\n

A fundamental debate has broken out among movie buffs as to whether it is better to watch the original or the dubbed version of a movie. Advocates of the original version warn that wordplay and, in the worst cases, even key messages are often lost. Of course, many of us could watch an English movie even without dubbing. But how good is your French or Italian, Portuguese or Chinese? Subtitles can distract from the images and details in the movie.<\/p>\n\n

However, a good translation ensures that dubbing doesn\u2019t take away from your movie. Whether it\u2019s English, Spanish, or Flemish, with the right translation service providers and sound engineers, you can leave your dictionary for your translations and your glasses for illegible subtitles at home. You\u2019re much better off concentrating on Humphrey and Ingrid\u2014and looking into their eyes rather than at the subtitles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some movie buffs turn up their noses at the mere suggestion of dubbed movies. But with the right translation, a dubbed movie can easily be as good as the original. We admit it\u2019s a controversial statement. But it\u2019s one we\u2019re happy to stand by. Read on to discover how dubbing works and what to look\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[870,823],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dubbing-voiceovers","category-translation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.act-translations.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.act-translations.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.act-translations.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.act-translations.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.act-translations.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19180"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.act-translations.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23815,"href":"https:\/\/www.act-translations.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19180\/revisions\/23815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.act-translations.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.act-translations.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.act-translations.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.act-translations.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}