Dubbing in Italy has always been a identity element very strong, able to distinguish us in the rest of the world. This is not only due to the history of this profession and the added quality it has given over the decades to cinematographic and audiovisual works in general, but also and above all due to a accessibility factor: following the speech in the original language and the subtitles together can make viewing difficult, while a localization of the voices makes the use much more accessible even for those who do not have knowledge of other languages, from English to Korean.
Despite this identity feature, however, voice actresses and voice actors are invisible figures, whose voices we only know and who we don’t associate with faces if not to those of the great Hollywood actors. The ways in which this work is carried out are also little known and sometimes they hide conditions that affect the quality of the work, and in a localization of voices and texts in Italian, the errors are there for all to see and hear.
Given the strike, now suspended, called by the unions Slc CGIL, Fistel CISL And Uilcom UIL for the entire dubbing sector, we contacted ten voice actresses and voice actors to tell us more about the conditions in which they work on a daily basis. In these interviews, the lowest common denominator emerged question of tempo and rhythms of work, also speeded up by the advent of streaming platforms. But there is not only time at the heart of their claims: working conditions as far as it is concerned materials useful for the dubbing process, which is often not enough to understand contexts and create a quality product. In the end, the advent of generative AI it exposes the voices of the voice actresses and voice actors to no longer having possession of their sensitive data.
Anti-piracy measures
To dub a film it is logical to think that the dubbers see the scene on the big screen and that, subsequently, they play their part having a clear visual reference. For several products, however, this does not correspond to reality and the voice actors are handed the anti-piracy copies that make it difficult to understand expressions and contexts of the scene
also affecting the quality of what is dubbed.“The working copies that are sent to us are not only of very low quality, but are often disfigured by writing and numerical counters that cross the length and breadth of the images and are so unclear as to sometimes prevent the vision of an element which is on video and which is perhaps crucial for understanding a scene. Not to mention some films, on which there is a blanket of mystery, for which the copies reserved for dubbing are nothing more than black images on which, depending on who is speaking, small portholes open around the mouths” He tells us Monica Patrizidirector of dubbing and adviser of ANAD (National Association of Actors and Dubbers). In several cases, it was confirmed to us by the interviewees, there are not even visual references, but only sound waves.
It is therefore about “grotesque” security measures imposed by the majors, as he told us Edward Stoppacciarovoice actor best known for his role as Darth Maul in the animated series of Clone Wars and by Rob Stark ne Game of thrones. “The majors themselves know perfectly well that piracy does not start from dubbing, but from much earlier. And we have to adapt to dubbing our actors and actresses without knowing if they are talking sitting at a table or while walking in a windy meadow, or aboard a ship under the cannon fire of enemies” concludes Stopper.
Streaming changed everything
If in the past the airing took place with more extended times for cinema and television, streaming platforms have instead changed the rules of the game a bitplacing a huge amount of films, shows and television series on the market, which require dubbing and localization to allow easy use.
“More production obviously means more products to dub and in ever shorter times. Very often we find ourselves struggling to try to satisfy increasingly numerous and pressing requests. Especially then for serial products with episodes that come out simultaneously all over the world” he claims Federica De Bortolivoice actress and recurring voice of Natalie Portman and Anne Hathaway.
In his words, De Bortoli also talks about television series translated “simultaneously”: an uncomfortable normality in the world of dubbing and which forces the insiders, more often than not, to an exhausting tour de force. Work “simultaneously” means that the adaptation of the episode, the dubbing, the mixing and then the delivery, take place within a week.
A recent case, which has risen to the headlines precisely because of the voice actors’ strike, is the dubbing of the television series The Last of Us. The last three episodes of the famous series inspired by the Naughty Dog video game have missed the airing in Italian, and were added shortly after the strike returned. At the beginning of March, on the NOW TV platform it was indicated by means of a special banner that those episodes were not currently available in Italian due to the voice actors’ strike. In our interview with Stephen Santerinithe HBO series dubbing director pointed out how the the role of dubbing is no longer part of the post-production phase, but of production. Often, in fact, in the dubbing room we work with approximate audio and with scripts which are then subject to modifications.
“Here is that by multiplying this process by dozens of others that have the same work process and the same needs, it is easy to understand that at the frenetic pace with which we work, this cannot fail to have consequences on the final result” he claims Santerini in the interview. Now the strike has ended, the state of unrest remains, and the voice actors and voice actresses are still in the negotiation phase with the National Association of Audiovisual and Digital Film Industries (ANICA).
The shifts and the rows
Charles Vallivoice actor best known for voicing Rex in Toy Story and to Dr. Walter Bishop in the television series Fringeduring the award ceremony for dubbing The Golden Muse, he had explained how there is a substantial difference between film dubbing and serial dubbing. On that occasion, you told the audience about the dubbing work, divided into shifts of a maximum of three hours each. There are three shifts a day, but in the case of emergency work, the fourth shift is also done in the evening.
In rounds, the voice actors and voice actresses recite a number of lines established by the national collective agreement drawn up in 2008. The lines are, as explained in article 5, “the portion of the script made up of a maximum of 50 typed lines (excluding the character’s name) and including spaces, punctuation and only technical and didactic indications”. Each page of the script, according to the contract, contains 18 to 20 lines.
Valleys he told how in film production, the number of lines is lower than in serial production. We talk about 140 lines average compared to 190 of TV shows. However, the shifts, continues the voice actor, are always three hours long. “In series, the actors and directors have to be better right away, because there’s no time to dwell on scenes and jokes.”
You “must” slow down
During the awards ceremony The Golden Musethe president of the ANAD Daniele Giuliani denounced the worrying increase in productivity in their work. “Unfortunately there is no more time to make mistakes”says Giuliani. “It is a sector that, in this historical period, is under very strong pressure”.
Since the pace of work is faster and more exhausting, with even 9-hour shifts, the question that arises spontaneously, and which we have chosen to ask the voice actors who have agreed to speak with us, is: can you slow down? “You can’t: you must” he answered us firmly Edward Stoppacciaro. “If we don’t demand more time again, we will continue more and more often to be simple word-spews who know how to speak in diction and go in sync while waiting for the next turn. Not only that: the frenzied rhythms at which we work also make it impossible for those who are now approaching our profession to learn. And if no new voices learn, we’re not just humiliating this art’s great past; we are not only debasing its present, but we are eliminating its future”.
“More peaceful, more human times would allow all the professional figures who deal with dubbing in theaters (directors, dubbers, assistants and sound engineers) to work more calmly and package a more refined and, qualitatively speaking, better product”
concludes Federica De Bortoli.AI, a matter of privacy
Our survey revealed that the dubbing sector is also prey to the shock generated by generative artificial intelligences. But, for them, in addition to being one ethical questionit is first of all a matter of privacy. “Let’s talk about voice. We are talking about a sensitive data” he claims Edward Stoppacciaro. “And we’re talking about technologies that can unexpectedly pick up a voice, intervene on a couple of frequencies so that the rightful owner can’t claim it, and then, very simply, sell that voice, and use it to say whatever the buyer wants”.
Generative AIs are currently at the center of a heated debate, which sees several groups of creative workers screaming for regulation of how these AIs work, with the initiative EGAIR (European Guild for Artificial Intelligence Regulation) promoted by the artist Lorenzo Ceccotti and from MeFu – Professions of Comics. That of illustrators and illustrators, who have found themselves with their own works stolen as in an art theft to be able to train the reference artificial intelligence, has certainly been among the most visible protests in recent months on social networks.
As it turns out, though, it’s not just the illustrations that are vulnerable. “It has happened that the voices of some colleagues have been stolen and literally fed to machines that feed themselves in order to improve and increase their knowledge and reproductive capacity of voices (a process called machine learning) and which generate, by modifying them, voices of which you no longer have ownership, items whose original donor cannot be attributed and whose use proceeds go exclusively to whoever generated them” complaint Monica Patrizi.
“AIs scare us only if we continue to be forced to work in mediocrity” says Stoppacciaro. “Because no machine, not even the most advanced, will ever be able to simulate an excellent performance”.
Picture of Jacek Dylag on Unsplash