Dubbing is the process of re-recording the dialogue of a film or a TV program in a different language than the original. Historically, the divide between dubbing and subtitling countries has been linked to economic, ideological, and political factors [1][2][3]. As these factors change over time, trends tend to shift from one method to the other, indicating that there is a need to document and to develop effective audio-visual translation techniques to help instruction in geographic areas that have had little or no prior exposure to dubbing [4][5][6].
Increasingly, particularly with motion pictures, the dubbing industry faces new challenges as dubbing studios are required to work at the pace of the original production and follow any and all modifications, leading ultimately to a global release of a film everywhere simultaneously, an economic model that has been gathering momentum in recent years [7].
Dubbing services are also needed in the interactive media and gaming industries. As gameplay becomes increasingly cinematic and the sophistication of the animation rivals that of major motion pictures, localisation becomes a must for immersive narratives.
In traditional dubbing, each character is re-enacted by a professional actor under the guidance of an artistic director. The script is carefully translated and adapted to maintain as much synchronisation as possible, and a final audio mix of the newly recorded dialogue, along with the original music and sound effects, is produced.
When time and budget are limited, there are variations to this process. In very small productions for instance, the original audio remains audible underneath the dubbed voice-over. In such projects synchronisation is never critical, and often many of the characters in a program are assigned to a single actor. Conversely, a production can be completely re-shot in another language, as demonstrated by Hollywood remakes of successful foreign films.
We will consider the traditional process of dubbing, and briefly note how it relates to other types of post-production work. We will discuss the recording process and introduce a few techniques that will save a dialogue mixer1 valuable time and unnecessary stress during a session. At the end we will look at some experimental alternatives that are currently being researched and developed, a topic likely to generate more interest with time.