The SuperSport of Dubbing Remotely

Since March 2020 when California Governor Gavin Newsom called for a state-wide shutdown, audio post studios have embraced the limitations of the stay-at-home quarantine and established new routines and workflows to serve their clients and maintain high levels of professional excellence. Sometimes it doesn’t take a global pandemic to keep clients off the stage; sometimes, it’s just a drive across LA traffic that forces your hand to solve problems creatively.

On first encounter, you could be forgiven for not recognizing the high-speed motorcycle racer as a  French-American actor and reputable dubbing exponent from Los Angeles. We caught up with Charles Fathy CEO of Encore Voices, Creative Director at Roundabout Entertainment and motorsport enthusiast to get his insights on navigating COVID-19; the importance of team, technology, and what the sector can learn from super motorcycle racing.

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What is formula racing and what can the localization sector learn from it?

“Formula racing is another category of motorcycle road racing that employs modified production motorcycles. To be eligible for Formula Twin racing, for example, a motorcycle must have a four-stroke two-cylinder engine up to 700cc in most championships.  The ultimate goal is to provide motorcycle enthusiasts a safe, friendly, and controlled environment to push their skills and bikes to the limit. In order to achieve this, there is no better place than a race track. I’ve been involved as an enthusiast for more than 25 years.

I've been riding motorcycles since I was 16 years old, and racing, as an adult, is what gives me the opportunity to experiment full self-acceptance, by being completely focused, relaxed and absorbed, by taking care of myself and others, by making the right decision at the right moment in a split second, letting my survival instinct, passion and aggressivity fully express themselves in a safe way, yet taking a calculated risk. It is a reminder of what my life should be... on the edge!

The new age of English Dubbing has a lot of parallels to supersport racing in the sense that it requires teamwork to prepare the machinery and rider, in the same way, we prepare software, hardware, engineers, directors adaptors, and voice talent.

Racing requires skill at high speed with very little margin for error, just like when you are working on SVOD and OTT projects, the workflow requires very high levels of efficiency and accuracy to meet the deadlines and quality control standards.  Competition on the track is intense and requires careful monitoring of the machinery and the driver to ensure they remain safe and finish. This is the same for technology and teams involved in tier one film or episodic projects.  The difference now is that ‘our track’ has moved beyond the visible confines of studio-scape to less visible remote workscape.”

What are the new audio post-production challenges in a COVID-19 environment?

“Prior to COVID 19 were often running up to 6 sessions concurrently in large studios. The immediate challenge when lockdown occurred was to create a way for the entire team to work remotely. With team members geographically spread and isolated we had to create a new remote workflow that ‘mimicked the studio environment’ while delivering the same level of unparalleled quality.

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We took a 3 step approach starting with support for our voice talent and implementing the correct home studio environments. The second step was to train the sound engineers as they took on more responsibilities and are the ultimate guardians of quality recording. The final step was to train our creative directors, which was relatively easy as their tasks and behaviours remained similar to the studio environment.”

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What are the key workflow challenges to solve in a COVID-19 environment?

“The consistency between voice talent home studios is of utmost importance. We had to make sure they all sounded like they were in the same studio. Once we were able to achieve consistent studio sound we iterated our workflow specifically aimed at supporting remote work.  Our focus on quality is heavily influenced by content owner quality assessment upon completion. As the streaming market has grown consumers have become ‘connoisseurs of content’ and less brand loyal.  The knock-on effect means quality control has become more stringent as a competitive advantage and a requirement to ensure successful project bids.”    

What were the key staff challenges to solve in a COVID-19 environment?

“One of the key challenges we faced initially was team communication and the negative effects of social distancing, for example, loneliness, anxiety, and depression. Since we were no longer in the same physical location, we had to find the right tools to communicate in real-time. Another challenge that came up was the need for actors to be guided when it came to technical aspects of recording from home.  All challenges were surmountable thanks to great teamwork, technology, and 24/7 support.”