Dubbing in Television Shows and Movies

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In this post will take a closer lookat the issue of dubbing in movies and TV shows.

Let’s FirstDiscuss What Dubbing Actually Is

With movies and television shows,dubbing refers to the translation of foreign language films into the audience’s language. Whena foreign language movie or television show is dubbed, the translation of theoriginal dialogue is very carefully matched to the lip movements of the actors.Perhaps another definition might be ‘replacing the original dialogue with thespoken translation in a different language’.

How Is Dubbingof a Movie or Television Series Achieved?

When dubbing a movie or televisionseries it’s necessary to undertake a process that, while being fun, can also bequite arduous at the same time.

• To start with, the script is     directed to a translator for translation;
  
• Next, the manager will add     annotations for sound, music, and other special effects that will support     and complement the actors’ voices;
  
• Generally, the voice actors     will rehearse three or four times prior to recording the new script;     listening through headphones to the original voice in order to accurately     replicate expressions and intonation;
  
• The translation will often require correction in order to choose     synonyms that are pronounced similarly to words in the original audio.
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DubbingsDetractors

It’s true that dubbing has manydetractors, particularly in countries where it’s not common practice. Theargument is that dubbing devalues television programs and films. Certaincomedians, such as Ben Stiller and Steve Martin, lose a degree of their humorwhen their voices are dubbed into another language, because we know that alarge amount of their humor arises from intonation, and how they express theirwords.

In addition, dubbing is considered abarrier to multilingualism in many cities of Europe. In countries wheresubtitles are preferred, the understanding and basic knowledge of English hasshown to be much higher than in countries where dubbing is used. Proponentswill argue that subtitles obstruct the image and interfere with vision; whilesome people believe that having to read subtitles is a distraction: it seemsthat people concentrate on reading the subtitles while missing out on a lot ofwhat’s happening on the screen.