Local dubbing agencies find talk in English is not cheap

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.