V I D E O • A G E MA Y 2 0 1 1 28 (Continued from Cover) Dubbing Telenovelas language but with different accents and different choices of words. In those cases the voices need to be “translated” into the local idioms. Therefore, in international program sales, distributors have to offer the choices of telenovelas dubbed, with voice-over and subtitles. Dubbing has many intricacies, including the ability to facilitate international sales. Often, Latin American TV buyers don’t want to pay for dubbing, leaving the distributors scrambling to assemble several buyers in order to justify the dubbing costs. Even when the distributor is willing to pay for dubbing, the buyer might ask for a sample to see if they’re happy with the accents. When the buyer is willing to dub, most likely the distributor is not able to reacquire the dubbed version because many stations tend to brand it. Argentina’s Telefe, Mexico’s Televisa, Venezuela’s Venevision and Colombia’s Caracol sharedwithVideoAgetheir thoughts on how they handle these services for Latin America and other international markets. Telefe International, for example, offers different options depending on the customer. For those who prefer to do their own voice-over, dubbing or subtitling, they provide the scripts in English and Spanish. In addition, the audio, music and sound effects are placed on separate tracks of the material. “Israel uses subtitles, Poland prefers voice-over and Hungary chooses dubbing,” saidMichelleWasserman, head of International Business, Programming, Formats and Production Services at Buenos Aires-based Telefe. She explained, “There are different ways of doing voiceover: with only one voice, as in Poland; with one voice for all men and another one for all women, as in Russia; or with multiple voices for characters. It’s interesting, but it feels somewhat strange for those who are not used to it, because [the voice-over] is spoken over the original voices, and when viewing the contents, you hear both.” Telefe works on dubbing with specialized companies when telenovelas are sold to territories with languages like English or French, as these dubbed versions can be appreciated in various countries in Africa, Europe and North America. “This is valid for English and French-speaking countries in Africa. However, countries like France require more sophisticated dubbing than French-speaking countries in Africa. We also utilize the same standard with the Spanish dubbing of products whose original languagewasEnglish, suchasWatchOverMe (adaptation of the Argentinean telenovela Resistiré, made for Fox in the U.S. and acquired for Argentina),” said Wasserman. Finally, for other clients such as airlines, Telefe makes subtitles either in-house or through specialized companies. “Whendubbing a telenovela into Spanish, as was done with Watch Over Me, neutral Spanish is a requirement. In Spain, they often require dubbing into Castilian, even if the original production is in Spanish,” said Wasserman. “The productions broadcast in Castilian Spanish have better results in Spain than those broadcast in the original Spanish from other countries.” Telefe uses different dubbing houses for each language, and at present is looking for dubbing companies that would like to work as partners. Ownership of the dubbed track depends on the negotiation, Wasserman added. “We often determine the ownership of the dubbed track or the access to it at the beginning of the negotiation. When it is not pre-agreed, the new track belongs to those who pay for the dubbing. However, the track cannot be used if the buyer doesn’t have the content license any longer. When the content rights expire, licenses return automatically to the licensor.” Televisa International gives its clients the audio materials in their original Mexican Spanish and, depending on the client’s preference, it is then dubbed or subtitled. “In some cases we sell material already dubbed into other languages, like English, French or Portuguese. The dubbing is done by companies exclusively for Televisa,” said Carlos Castro, General Sales director of Miami, Florida-based Televisa International. These dubbing companies are selected based on the best price/quality offering, and Televisa retains the ownership of the new tracks. Castro added that they don’t dub telenovelas into Spanish versions that are different from their own becauseMexican Spanish is easily understood by viewers in all Spanish-speaking markets. “The Mexican Spanish of Televisa’s novelas [remains] the same for international sales,” he emphasized. Colombia’s Caracol International sells dubbed programs for African countries and subtitled programs for the U.S. cable channels. “For non-Spanishspeaking territories, we make special international sound tracks, so that clients can make a perfect dub that includes voice, music and effects,” said Angélica Guerra, International VP at Bogotábased Caracol Television. When Caracol is paying for dubbing, it controls the new soundtrack. According to Guerra, the Spanish spoken in Colombia is widely accepted in other Latin American countries: “The Latin American TV viewing public is quite well accustomed to the Colombian accent,” said Guerra. On the other hand, she pointed out that Colombians often have trouble understanding the Spanish spoken in other countries, especially when “thick accents are used, or when people speak too fast.” According to Wasserman, “Although Argentinean Spanish is now accepted throughout LatinAmerica, there is still some prejudice with regards to the Argentinean accent. The language is understandable, but the accents of Argentina and Chile tend to be different from the rest,” so, it is sometimes necessary to make adjustments to the original Argentinean Spanish spoken in a telenovela. Wasserman then added, “The main channels in Mexico have a few foreign telenovelas, and they are mostly from Colombia with some from Venezuela. In Colombia, most telenovelas are from Venezuela with some from Mexico. Those accents are more similar than Argentinean or Chilean Spanish are to other Spanish forms.” From Miami, Florida-based Venevision International, Sales VP César Díaz said that their customers are usually responsible for their own dubbing, subtitling and voice-over, depending on the needs of the market. Venevision provides themwith the tracks — music, effects and dialogue — in separate channels to facilitate the dubbing. However, Venevision made an exception with some African countries: “For strategic reasons, we have chosen to dub telenovelas into English for Africa and today we have over 1,500 hours in English.” With regards to the Venezuelan Spanish spoken in Venevision’s telenovelas (which are produced in the United States) up to now the company has had no requests for dubbed programs from Spanish-speaking buyers. Early on, Televisa’s Castro pointed out that, “Generally speaking, the Venezuelan accent is accepted throughout Latin America, but perhaps it has less acceptance in Argentina.” Venevisionworks with one dubbing studio in Miami, where the company operates. Similarly, Caracol currently works with only one company for dubbing into English. Caracol TV Internacional’s Angélica Guerra Telefe International’s Michelle Wasserman Televisa Internacional’s Carlos Castro Venevision International’s César Díaz The Kitchen, one of Latin America’s top dubbing companies, with offices in Miami, Florida, Los Angeles and Caracas, Venezuela, dubs some 1,200 programs per year into Spanish. Pictured above is The Kitchen’s Deeny Kaplan, right, during a dubbing session in Miami.
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