Local dubbing agencies find talk in English is not cheap

By Yogita Tahil Ramani

JAKARTA (JP): In a dingy box of a dubbing studio, a young woman drums her fingers on a tattered seat.

With headphones over ears and a bad translation of a Hindi movie script in hand, Siska gives voice in Indonesian-accented, jabbering English to the Indian siren on screen.

The dubbed version of the movie, with its compulsory Indonesian subtitles, is to be "understood and hopefully enjoyed" said the freelance dubber.

Still, shedding old dubbing procedures in line with the newly enacted Broadcast Law -- all non-English programs, with the exception of children's shows, must be dubbed in English -- are making TV stations "jittery", according to RCTI programming operations manager, Muljati Abdullah.

The private TV station, which airs 31 hours of non-English programs a week, has recently added Arabic-language features to its lineup of Thai, Mandarin, Japanese and Indian shows.

Muljati said that although programs dubbed in English was not unknown territory for local TV stations, the reliance on local dubbing agencies was, a consequence of the tight monetary situation.

"Local dubbing agencies are still new to the concept of dubbing programs in English. All this time, the dubbing of foreign programs in English was done abroad, or TV stations imported dubbed versions of the programs.

"Few TV stations can afford to spend thousands of dollars for every hour of dubbing."

Despite the inevitable teething troubles, the capital has its share of noteworthy dubbing agencies.

Head of RCTI's translating board, Ito Nurarito, confirmed that there were "about 15 that can be counted upon to do a good job".

PT Eltra Griya Box Imaji is among the five top-ranked dubbing firms by earnings. The three-year-old company made an annual profit of Rp 3 billion (US$370,370) in 1996 and Rp 1.5 billion last year, dubbing non-English programs in Indonesian.

But the number of new projects has dropped by 20 percent to 40 percent since mid-October, according to audio producer Thelda Afrilda.

Thelda said the Eltra management had been forced to fork out "three times more" in expenses to hire new staff.

"Aside from recruiting English-speaking dubbers, we have had to take in dubbing experts (also known as dubbing directors), dialog coordinators, more translators and mixing operators."

She explained that an Indian film needed an average of 16 dubbers. One episode of a non-English drama serial requires 10.

"For a 30-minute episode of a drama serial, it takes two days for the dubbing alone. A 60-minute one takes three days while the most expensive -- the Indian movie -- ranging from 150 minutes to 180 minutes in length, takes four days to complete."

Thelda said the budget for dubbers' wages reached Rp 1.7 million for one Indian film when dubbing was done in Indonesian.

"In 1997 (prior to the ruling on Oct. 31), Eltra dubbed an average of 10 Indian films and 16 episodes of a drama serial or a cartoon a month."

She said the budget for dubbers' wages now ranged from "Rp 30 million to 50 million a month".

The dubbing process begins with the written translation. Maria Oentoe, head of the oldest and the most well-known dubbing agency, PT Idola Citra Utama, said this quality could be erratic.

"English is a second language. So, we have to be really careful with the words used.

"It takes a translator one week to translate and another for an editor to edit the translations. When it (dubbing) was done in Indonesian, we edited the works ourselves."

She admitted to occasional snafus involving both editors and translators.

"Translators work depending on their moods. Sometimes, translations are readable and at other times they are not. Editors, too, can be very problematic. After one week, all they have done is a bit of scribbling and deletions. Sometimes, the unexpected happens.

"One guy visiting Bandung said he left a copy of his translation in the train compartment. Editors lose the edited copies and have to redo their work from the start, but time does not permit this.

"Then dubbers have to make do with unedited translations."

Maria added that payments of salaries to dubbers and mixers depended on punctuality of reimbursement by TV stations.

"Some payments by stations can be made as late as a year after. TPI, by far, is the most punctual," Maria said.

With average English-language skills, an insider said it was often a difficult task for dubbers to convey foreign expressions with only passable pronunciation.

Eltra dubbing director Chris Kemp said the agency had implemented quality control measures.

"Dialog coordinators watch for pronunciations," the Australian said. For a two-second shot, coordinators see to it that retakes are done until the pronunciation is perfect, he added.

"With expatriates, there is the problem that despite the fluency of the language, they might not get into the character of the role."

Kemp explained there were two voice tracks used in the studio, one for recording and control of the dialog, and the other for the insertion and control of crowd or background noises.

Andree Polli, a senior mixing operator at Eltra, said that it was easier to mix sounds, both background and fusion, in programs originally dubbed in English than mixing those in redubbed versions.

"Programs dubbed in Indonesian by other agencies are sent to us to be dubbed in English. Original voices and sounds have already been altered to suit the styles of the former dubbing agency. We have to rework and fit in our tones and styles."

The panel in the mixing studio has four voice tracks.

"One is used for the input of the original sounds and voices of the program. There are two used to control and mix sounds to be inserted in the dubbed scenes... scenes with the dubbed dialogs," Andree said.

"The fourth track is for the storing of sounds. We select from this track, sounds or music to be fused with or inserted into scenes requiring music."

With continuous clicks of the mouse, background sounds from dubbed scenes are erased and replaced with a variety of sounds. These are usually recorded from special sound effects' CDs, sounds recorded from movies or those made within the studio itself.

Andree, who was at work mixing sounds for an Indian movie, said that mixing needed particular care.

"There is so much of copying over, altering and erasing to each second... even to a turn of a character's head," Andree said.

In the fourth track alone, there were three kinds of fire sounds, four wind noises, two "airport-field" sounds and two rings of a telephone.

Thelda said professionals could take five hours to work on 40 minutes of a program. Some freelancers, on the other hand, working shifts of seven hours each, would sometimes need 12 hours to complete the same job.

Both Maria and Thelda agreed all involved were doing their best to conform to the challenge of the new requirements.