Tag Archive for: voiceover

The Basics of Dubbing Services: What You Need to Know

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Have you ever wondered how people from other countries watch foreign shows, movies and documentaries and how you can enjoy what they view? The answer to that question is dubbing, the means of artfully translating languages from another country as they are portrayed in the video to suit the intended audience’s local languages. 

Preferably, the new or dubbed version should also match the lip movements and mannerisms of the on-screen characters as if it was locally produced. It’s one of the main reasons why the entertainment and video production industry is booming nowadays. For instance, more Americans can now enjoy Japanese animation or anime because of dubbed episodes from Japanese to English. To ensure you have a better understanding of the process that goes into this, feel free to use this article as your guide. 

What Are Dubbing Services? 

Dubbing services include the team of experts you want to approach when you want foreign media content localized for a wider audience. It takes many people to execute because you have to match the exact lip motions, expressions, and even body language of the original characters. Dubbing intersects filmmaking, sound mixing, talent acquisition, and scriptwriting, making it a highly sought-after, professional career option and service among many in the entertainment industry. 

How Is Dubbing Different from Voiceover? 

You can easily confuse voiceover for dubbing because they both replace original spoken dialogue with new ones. However, they are very different.

Voiceover is frequently used for on-screen characters, and the role of the voice actor is to breathe life into the narrative by putting their own spin on the tone, delivery, and diction, making the character almost like an extension or reinvention of their personality. Voiceover is less restrictive than dubbing, and creative professionals can always adjust or review in post. 

Dubbing can also incorporate the same techniques used by a voiceover artist for a conventional voiceover project, but their task is to make the foreign character not only understandable but also as charismatic to the audience as the original. It can be more technical because there’s a focus on matching the lip motions of the foreign characters. 

What Are Some Things Dubbing Service Providers May Have to Watch Out for? 

1. Initiating script creation 

The scriptwriters and translators often start by going through the video together and developing a script that the voiceover artist will be using. The goal is to tailor the narrative to a target audience, preferably a niche from the local or foreign market. They often have to research local culture, language cues, and related fields to make the translation seamless and appropriate for the client’s wants and needs. 

2. Scouting for voiceover talent

The voiceover artist often has to match the foreign actor or actress’s voice to keep the video essence and its creative direction. Dubbing professionals pay extra attention to make sure that the localized version doesn’t seem too far removed from the original. Thus, casting the ideal voice artist is a must, and the client is often involved in the screening process for further scrutiny. 

Conclusion 

Professional dubbing companies provide a fundamental service to the filmmaking industry and are gaining more attention as the world becomes more inclusive and audiences more culturally and linguistically diverse. It’s worth investing in the localization of your media content to cater to different markets worldwide. Consider looking for the best voice talent and the best dubbing service today and be more engaging for your niche market’s benefit. 

Are you looking for a professional dubbing company to handle your next localization project? Consult with us at All Voices International. We are your trusted partner for all things voiceover, dubbing, audio, and video localization. With over 50 languages mastered, you can easily meet your target audiences’ needs. Get in touch with us to dub your content effortlessly! 

Voiceover or dubbing?

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Producing international audiovisual content has become a must for companies and organizations that want to export their products, services and ideas to markets and audiences around the world.

The growing consumption of video has increased the demand for video localization and, in particular, for voiceover and dubbing services for marketing presentations, corporate videos, product presentations, e-learning courses, as well as documentaries and movies.

What are voiceover and dubbing?

Voiceover and dubbing are two distinct production techniques used in video localization to make video content accessible to viewers in other languages. In the translated video, the new voice track is recorded by a professional voice actor in a recording studio and can either overlap or replace the original voice.

Clients often ask me to describe the differences between voiceover and dubbing and to recommend the best solution for their audiovisual content based on purpose, target audience, timeline and budget.

What’s the difference?

Voiceover is a type of narration used to translate on-camera commentaries or interviews in a language different from the one spoken by the target audience. Instead of replacing the voice of the on-screen character, the translation is recorded and mixed over the original voice track.  The viewer hears the original voice in the background and the voiceover in the foreground. This technique is also referred to as UN-style voiceover.

Dubbing is more common in movies, where the original language of the on-screen characters is replaced with the target language. This method requires some acting skills, as the voice talent has to mirror the tone and emotions of the original actors. In lip-sync dubbing, the foreign language audio is  timed to match the on-screen actor’s lip movements as closely as possible. Word choice is crucial for good dubbing results, and the translated script should be carefully adapted before the recording to facilitate the synchronization process.

The best solution for your video.

The main objective of voiceover is to communicate the overall message rather than to create an illusion that the speaker is actually saying the dubbed words. Therefore, it is mostly used in shorter, more straightforward content, such as corporate or product presentations, documentaries, reportages, training and e-learning courses, which require limited emphasis on the nuances of tone and emotions.

Dubbing is recommended when the video is sharing impactful information and the content must be perceived as “native” to the audience. It’s widely used by the entertainment industry for movies, films and performance videos, as well as long training material. It combines tone, emotions, nuances and accents to capture the intent of the original content as well as the speaker’s personality.

In either scenarios, making  your content available in other languages through video localization will expand your audience and get your message out to different people and markets.

It’s important that the video localization process is managed by experts that will make sure the voiceover or dubbing sessions are recorded in professional studios using professional voice talent.

If you want to learn more about voiceover and dubbing, drop us a line. We’d love to answer your questions and help you localize your next project.

Tag Archive for: voiceover