Arab dubbing

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm? method=home.regcon&contentID=2009100150373
MBC starts dubbing trials this week Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH In the light of the considerable success of Turkish soap operas dubbed into Arabic dialects, satellite channel MBC is to begin broadcasting on Thursday a select number of films dubbed into Arabic. Foreign movies, predominantly in English, have until now been shown with subtitles, but now the great cinema hits such as Braveheart, The Godfather, Lord of the Rings and Alexander set to be the first dubbed film to be shown this week will be made more comprehensible for audiences who feel that subtitled translations are difficult to follow or do not do justice to the original screenwriters dialogue. According to Al-Watan Arabic daily, the reaction from television audiences is expected to be positive, following on from the popularity of Mexican and Argentinean soap operas which were the first television programs to be dubbed into Arabic 15 years ago. I think its a great idea. Other films dubbed into Arabic have had great success, said 35-year-old Abdullah Al-Husseini, citing the 1981 film Omar Mukhtar, the Anthony Quinn and Oliver Reed classic titled in the original The Lion of the Desert, which told the story of the Libyan leader who fought against Italian occupation in North Africa. That and MBC1s success in dubbing Mexican soap operas has led to other channels dubbing more programs. Hassan Al-Shami, 23, however, feels that films may lose some of their authenticity with the loss of the original actors voices. Dubbing takes away a lot of the impact of the original, like when we see Mel Gibson in Braveheart, for example, its difficult to imagine him speaking in a language other than the original, and its also difficult to imagine an actors voice replacing his, so I dont think its a great idea, Al-Shami said. Apart from the fact that many a native English speaker may find it equally difficult to find credence in Mel Gibsons attempts at a Scottish accent, the extra willing suspension of disbelief required of viewers for dubbed films may be a step too far for some. I dont know if it will be a success or not, Mohammed Al-Nufeii told Al-Watan. But Im not sure its the best way, as there are plenty of German and French films that are not dubbed into English, for example, but instead they use subtitles. I think MBC will see if the move works or not before dubbing any more films than they plan to at the moment. Journalist and cinema critic Abdul Mohsen Al-Muteiri sees in the move two main advantages. It will encourage a large section of the public to watch foreign movies, given that a lot of people dont watch films in general and dont like films being in English, Al-Muteiri said. Secondly, the films the channel has chosen for dubbing may all be considered classics that inspire the audience. Al-Muteiri is, however, unsupportive of dubbing in general. If you look at the dubbing failure of the Nicholas Cage film The Rock, which was dubbed into Egyptian, it was odd and not very believable to see Nicholas Cage bursting into anger in a fit of rather blunt Al-Saeed dialect, Al-Muteiri said. Despite the incongruity of seeing an American actor express himself in the speech of a section of the Egyptian community often used as the butt of national jokes, Al-Muteri believes that dubbing into Egyptian dialect may have benefits for childrens cartoons. Standard fusha Arabic may be somewhat tough for children, he said. Movie dubbing has, however, had rotund success in countries such as Spain, where dubbing actors are often equally as famous as the actors for whom they habitually voice double. In Spain the dubbing actors are extremely professional and the whole operation of voice-overs is done with great attention to detail, film fan Arantxa Urquijo told Saudi Gazette. And even if it werent done well, non-native speakers of the films original language would probably gain just as much as they lose but without having to take their focus away from the film itself to read the words at the bottom of the screen. In Spain they dub everything, even comedy series and chat shows, and they do it very well. MBC has named Thursdays as the day for the moment on which at least one dubbed movie will be broadcast, and the channels website has opened up a forum for audiences to proffer their views on the

project as it progresses. __

http://arabcontent.net/NewsDetail.php? ID=4555&Directory=&Langue=eng

A Saudi writer calls for dubbing of "El Qaqaa" TV serial to foreign languages

The Saudi writer Hassan Al-Amer called for dubbing El Qaqaa TV series to English, French, and Russian, to let the foreign viewer watch the TV series by his own language. The Saudi writer Hassan Al-Amer called for dubbing El Qaqaa TV series to English, French, and Russian, to let the foreign viewer watch the TV series by his own language. Hassan Al-Amer called for the need to implement this proposal and he asked the countries and the Arab channels to fund this idea in its beginning. The author said that the most important step is to produce translated copies of historical works into other languages like English, French, and Russian, and to market it on television networks worldwide, even if we had to pay for them to be displayed. He wondered when the American, European, Japanese and Russian would watch our TV series as it was produced and presented to us, as we see their work, which we don't dare to delete a lot of their racy scenes. He says that he wishes that the Arab channels take advantage of their good relation with their counterparts in America and the West in marketing of TV series as "Qaqaa" which is displaying now' to be dubbed and displayed in those channels, at least as a principle of the common interests.

http://www.deafcatstudios.com/dubbing-video-games-into-spokenarabic/

Dubbing Video Games into Spoken Arabic

1. A Brief Overview of Dubbing in the Middle East
The Arabic language ranks in the top 5 spoken languages of the world. There are more than 350 million people that have the Arabic language as their mother tongue and they spread from the Arabian

Peninsula across the Fertile Crescent and on to the Atlantic Ocean. Over 17 countries adopt Arabic as their official language: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.

1.1 Dubbing TV Soaps in the Middle East

The business of dubbing in the Middle East flourished in the 90s when FILMALI Productions, the first dubbing company in the Middle East introduced a series of dubbed South American soap operas that became instantaneous hits amongst Lebanese families. Soon after, satellite broadcasting allowed for dubbed soap operas to access the Arab world reaching up to 300 million viewers. Dubbing Soaps was considered a very lucrative business, but since the hype in the 90s it has regressed and the demand shrunk considerably. A new trend is picking up and that is the dubbing of video games into spoken Arabic. And DeafCat Studios are pioneers in this domain.

1.2 Dubbing Standards

FILMALI Productions always delivered high quality dubbing services. The company was determined to provide a high quality product which in turn led them to form a staff of translators, actors, lipsynch and mixing engineers, and of course studios equipped with the latest recording techniques that delivered astounding results. The focus on quality, led FILMALI Productions to land big contracts with international companies such as Disney, ART and MBC, and following the tradition DeafCat Studios are determined to provide professional quality dubbing in an affordable price.

2. Video Game Industry in the Middle East

The Middle East is a part of the world that is experiencing a tremendous social and economical growth due mainly to the amount of wealth the petro dollar brings to this region. One can safely say that countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are experiencing exponential growth in all sectors, and are expected to flourish even more since the demand for oil is ever increasing. An article published in the MENA Report stated that: The Middle East has been identified as a major contributor in the fast growing electronic gaming industry which is predicted to grow from USD 11.1Billion to USD 15.4 Billion by 2011 in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) according to a report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP and Wilkofsky Gruen Associates. The petro dollar has ensured stability and wealth to a number of families in the GCC countries and opened the opportunity for work to a lot of companies in the Middle East. At the same time, the major investment in the gulf has attracted a number of expats coming from all around the world transforming the region into a multicultural booming society. The wealth and development in the region has provided average families with a substantial purchasing power with a large percentage of it spent on technology and entertainment. In addition to a young technology hungry population, the region has also experienced a recent implementation of fast broadband connection that enables video game players to take advantage of the new generation of multiplayers games: Sales of games and game systems also spike sharply during the summer, as players look to keep entertained during the hot summer months, creating an important revenue stream for retailers during a traditionally slow season. Source: The MENA Report Concerns about piracy have never been more tangible in the GCC countries. Since Dubai is planning to transform itself into a leading global commercial hub, an incentive to fight piracy and enforce copyright laws has been implemented. According to an article published on the internet business law services website, Israel and the UAE possess the lowest software piracy rate in the Middle East.

3. Internet Marketing in the Middle East

The Middle East has the leading user growth since 2000 which is mainly due to the increasing investment in Internet infrastructure by rich countries like KSA and UAE. There is a global awareness about the importance of the Internet and the market opportunities that it has created. DeafCat Studios are devoted to provide their clients with the most efficient tools that will guarantee maximal user reach to video game products dubbed into spoken Arabic. Since the broadband infrastructure has hit the Middle East a couple of years ago, a regional awareness about the potential and affordability of internet marketing pushed companies to include online advertisement in their global marketing strategy. All the signs show that the online advertising

expenses are expected to grow in the next couple of years: Online advertisement spending in the Arab region is expected to grow in the next 5 years that would bring the total online ad value to about $142.08 million by end of 2011 a new study by Madar Research reported.

Source: internet worldstats 2008 The MENA countries, according to Internet World Stats, have a collective online population of approximately 18.3 million, which represents an average of 22% penetration into the market and a 1,044% growth over the past seven years. Within this online population, Egypt and Saudi Arabia command 80% of the internet users, although the majority of the money is with the countries that make up the rest of the 20%. However, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are high-potential countries, and should propel the online growth of the region in the near future. This dichotomy creates within the MENA countries both an established and wealthy section as well as a large growth-oriented sector, which is optimum for conducting e-commerce or e-marketing campaigns in the region. Source: Ezine Articles Opportunities for international businesses to expand in the Middle East are at their best. The MENA region is the fastest growing single-language region in the world. Therefore, businesses worldwide are considering to find and invest in emerging businesses in the region. Our competitive edge at DeafCat Studios is our collaboration with Eastline Marketing an established Arab-speaking company with genuine international expertise that understands regional clients and can provide them with the latest online marketing services that will target mainly Arab customers. We have built an extensive database of websites that allows us to geo-target a maximum number of Arab users according to their Age demographics, psychographics and online behavior.

Source: Eastline Marketing Data - 2008 49% of the online users in the MENA region are under twenty five years of age. 33% of the online users in the MENA region are between 26 and 35 years of age. The rest of the online users (18%) in the MENA region are over 35 years of age. It is important to note that the purchasing power is divided between these three groups.

4. Final Thoughts
We are confident that dubbing bestselling video games into the Arabic spoken language and marketing it to Arab video game savvies is becoming the trend in the region and drive investors to sign up on a successful business plan. The fact that there is still few companies that have taken such an approach to video game so far should put DeafCat Studios ahead of the competition and allow us to hit the Arab market with consistent and fresh products. With an appropriate online marketing campaign, the final product ought to be picked up in all retail stores across the region and available to be purchased online.

About
DeafCat Studios are designed to produce professional quality projects and still fit modest budgets. Located in Mar-Takla Hazmieh, Lebanon, the studios are equipped with the newest virtual sound instruments and libraries.

We are determined to provide our clients with the necessary tools and expertise that will allow them to reach their goals. Our recording booth has been constructed with utmost delicacy and tuned specifically to minimize sound suffocation and harsh reflections. Our chill zone is large and sound proof and equipped with a complete DJ Set and a production corner where artists from different backgrounds can gather around, brain storm and create. The rest of the studios are equipped with professional pro-tools systems and could be adapted to take on full recording, dubbing, voice over and mixing & mastering projects.

Services
Dubbing:
DeafCat Studios are part of Filmali International, a renowned dubbing agency present in the Middle East since 1974. Our studios are equipped to handle complex dubbing project with utmost expertise. Our network regroups artists and actors that are able to dub into Arabic the most challenging characters.

From cartoons to documentaries and soap operas even film, we are able to take on a dubbing project from A to Z. We have a dedicated team that can translate from English, French, Spanish into Arabic. Our crew also consists of talented and experienced sound engineers that can adapt and change complex sentence structure in order to lip-sync correctly with the image.

Voice Over:
DeafCat Studios are targeting local, regional and international advertising agencies that are looking for affordable recording studios that can provide them with professional quality voice overs. In order to offer our clients with fast results, we have invested in a local IP server where we can host our projects and have them available for download immediately. Now companies in the GCC (Dubai, Abu-Dhabi, Kuwait) the Middle East (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan) North Africa (Morocco, Tunis, Algeria) and Europe (France, England, Spain) can upload their projects to our server and we can finalize them.

Music Production:

DeafCat Studios are more than just studios where artists can find recording solutions for their albums. We believe that in order for the artists to perform at their best, they should be present in a creative and relaxed atmosphere that allows them to find their muse. In response, we have decided to provide our artists with the chill zone where they could get inspired, rehearse and compose their music. Our chill zone consists of a production corner, a full DJ set, computers+private Internet connection, couches, a small kitchenette, TV+DVD+Cable and a futon/sofa to lie down on after a long night of creativity.

Music For Film:

The Film industry in the Middle-East and specially in Lebanon is starting to pick up and Lebanese filmmakers are getting international exposure and awards. Furthermore, the soundtrack creators for

those films are getting the same amount of exposure and awards. As a result, DeafCat Studios are open to all composers that need to create soundtrack for film. We can provide composers with the technical expertise that will allow them to compose both in stereo and surround format. Furthermore, our background in eclectroacoustics are of great importance for those composers that are looking for electronic music creation and sound effects to spice up there music pieces.

Music For Video Game:

We are excited to open up on an industry that is still at its primary stages in the Middle-East. DeafCat Studios specialize in creating music scores, sound effects and dubbing for video game companies that are interested in targeting the Arab market. We are proud to contribute in the creation of Arab speaking interactive games both for consoles and web based. Whether it is entertaining, educational or corporate, at DeafCat Studios we are glad to be of assistance to you in your video game production needs.

DJ Solutions:
Djs and Producer are welcome to join us in our chill zone where they can practice and record their sets and upload them directly to their itunes, myspace and facebook page. Furthermore, our production corner is available for them to produce original tracks or remix others. Our engineers can assist in all the necessary steps that will allow DJs to produce, record and post their tracks online.

Band Solutions:
Bands are always on the look for a relatively large and accoustically treated room where they can gather around and practice. DeafCats chill zone is large enough to host most bands and in addition to practicing, the chill zone is equipped with all what they need to record their live sessions and use them as demo. Furthermore, the studio is large enough and can handle a filming crew if the band wishes to produce a video clip.

Mixing & Mastering:

Our experience in music production and recording has led us to the conclusion that the secret for a professional sounding result relies in the mixing & mastering techniques. Basically, our engineers have acute hearing and are highly skilled in sound discrimination which gives them priceless golden ears.

Rates
Dubbing: One dubbing hour costs between 500$ and 1500$ depending on the complexity of the project. Voice Over: One hour of studio time costs between 40$ and 100$ depending on the complexity of the project. Music Production: Renting the chill zone costs 2000$ per month. Music For Film: Please contact us for more details. Music For Video Game: Please contact us for more details. DJ Solution: Recording and uploading a DJ set costs 75$. Band Solutions: one practice day costs 40$. Mixing & Mastering: mixing & mastering for one music track cost 150$. These prices do no include 10% TVA. All prices are subject to change without prior notice. Please feel free to contact us for a detailed proposal.

DeafCat Studios:
- Phone: +961 3 129 619 - Owner: Wissam Badine - Address: Mar-Takla, Hazmieh, Heya TV Building, Beirut, Lebanon. - P.O. Box: Lebanon, 45-399

http://gulfbusiness.tradeholding.com/default.cgi/action/viewcompani es/searchterm/subtitling+dubbing/searchtermcondition/1/

http://xrdarabia.org/2011/07/10/saudi-tv-hitting-syrias-pocketbook/
Saudi TV Hitting Syrias Pocketbook While Saudi Arabia has not made many public statements about the situation in Syria, Chinese new agency Xinhua report, it is making its displeasure felt in other ways. Saudi satellite TV channels, all with connections to the Saudi government, are boycotting Syrian soap operas! Syrian musalsalat or series, have overtaken Egyptian ones in both number and quality and Egypt is having its own political problems in even making the series. Unrest across Syria casts shadow on soap operas Hummam Sheikh Ali DAMASCUS, July 9 (Xinhua) It appears that Syrias once- flourishing soap opera industry is losing its glory and sliding into a recession after Arab television networks and satellite channels declined to buy Syrian soaps in retaliation for Syrian actors positions towards the countrys current political crisis. Since the eruption of protests in Syria in mid March, Syrian actors and actresses have shown conflicting attitudes towards the events, with some of them supporting the protests while others openly backing the Syrian government and attacking the protests as aiming to undermine the country. Syrian actors complain that they have been boycotted by Arab TV satellite channels owned by wealthy Saudis and Qataris, whose governments are now maintaining cool relations with Syria. The reason, they said, is their overt backing of the Syrian government and the reforms announced by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Abdul-Rahaman Abu alQassem, a prominent Syrian actor, confirmed to Xinhua that the Syrian drama industry has been greatly influenced by what is happening in Syria, noting that most producers depend on the Gulf funds in this respect. Syrian soap operas are also a topic at the Economist newspaper. It reports on the rise in popularity of the Syrian dialect of Arabic. Not only is the dialect used in the soaps, but it is increasingly being preferred in dubbing foreign TV shows from Turkey and Europe. The article notes

that there are regional differences at play, though. Many TV shows, primarily out of India and Pakistan, are being dubbed in Gulf dialect for Gulf audiences. The article notes that Iran, as a means of extending its political reach, is promoting the use of Syrian dubbing as Syria is its sole ally in the Arab world. So, the boycott of Syrian soaps may be hitting two birds with one stone. Dubstars EVERY Arabic-speaking country has its own lively dialect, each one a world away from the classical Arabic of the Koran and the modern, sterile-sounding version used by pan-Arab channels such as Al-Jazeera. Some have much in common; the Levantine tongues of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine, for example. Those of Morocco and the rest of the Maghreb are gobbledygook to many Arabs. Fast-paced Egyptian, with its abundance of jokes and puns, is the cockney of the Arab world. Egypt has long dominated the Arab film industry and with it, the world of dubbing. But thanks to the increasing popularity of Syrian musalsalaat, or soap operas, filmed on location rather than in studios, the Syrian vernacular with its soft lilting tones is on the up. It is used in everything from Bab al-Hara, a saga about a Damascene neighbourhood under the French mandate to programmes dealing with Islamic extremism and adultery. Even Turkish soap operas such as GmsNour in Arabichave been been dubbed into Syrian. The Syrians have been faster on their feet commercially when it comes to dubbing, and have offered cheaper rates than the Egyptians, where much television output is still in the hands of lumbering state broadcasters. Many also think that Syrian Arabic is closer in sound to classical Arabic, so more appropriate to a pan-Arab audience. Read more about Saudi TV Hitting Syrias Pocketbook | Crossroads Arabia on: http://xrdarabia.org/2011/07/10/saudi-tv-hitting-syrias-pocketbook/? utm_source=INK&utm_medium=copy&utm_campaign=share&

http://www.jbistudios.com/arabic-dubbing.html

Arabic Dubbing Services

Arabic voice over guide by JBI Studios, Arabic is a Central Semitic language, spoken by more than 280 million people, most of whom live in the Middle East and North Africa. It is the official language of 22 countries and it is the liturgical language of Islam. Arabic has many different, geographically distributed spoken varieties. Arabic Voice Over Talent Dialects Egyptian Arabic, spoken

by around 80 million in Egypt. It is one of the most understood varieties of Arabic, due in large part to the widespread distribution of Egyptian films and television shows. Maghrebi Arabic includes Moroccan Arabic, Algerian Arabic, Algerian Saharan Arabic, Tunisian Arabic, and Libyan Arabic, and is spoken by around 75 million. Gulf Arabic, spoken by around 34 million people in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Sultanate of Oman, Yemen, Qatar, Bahrain,Kuwait, Iran. Iraqi Arabic, spoken by about 29 million people. Levantine Arabic, spoken by almost 35 million people in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, The Palestinian territories, Israel, Cyprus, and Turkey. Yemeni Arabic, spoken in Yemen, southern Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, and Somalia. Sudanese Arabic (19 million speakers), spoken in Sudan.

For Arabic dubbing, lip synch & language services - JBI Studios, with 30 years of experience is the best and smartest choice! Based in Los Angeles, with a wide roster of Arabic voice talent, we have experience in dubbing post production process of recording foreign voices and replacing them in hundreds of movies, marketing videos, elearning, mobile, and training videos.

Professional Arabic Dubbing Company

JBI Studios facility features professional dubbing booths, sound stage with complete audio production for recording, editing, mixing, mastering dialog. Our native Arabic voice talents with dubbing experience are adept at recreating your project's original performance as closely as possible. Arabic dubbing supervisors guide voice actor performance, re-takes or looping with an experienced sound engineer. Experienced audio/video translation time codes quality assurance make JBI Studios foreign language dubbing projects efficient and mistake free.

Arabic Translation Audio Dubbing

Script Adapting (& Translation) Arabic Dubbing Actors Casting Language Director Recording Studio Automated Dialog Replacement (ADR) Mixing Arabic Post Production

Our Arabic dubbing studios in Los Angeles also provide: Arabic voice over, Arabic subtitling, and Arabic translation of audio/video multimedia.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2011/07/arabicvoiceovers?fsrc=scn%252Ftw%252Fte%252Fbl%252Fdubstars

Arabic voiceovers
Dubstars
Jul 4th 2011, 17:17 by The Economist online | DAMASCUS EVERY Arabic-speaking country has its own lively dialect, each one a world away from the classical Arabic of the Koran and the modern, sterile-sounding version used by pan-Arab channels such as AlJazeera. Some have much in common; the Levantine tongues of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine, for example. Those of Morocco and the rest of the Maghreb are gobbledygook to many Arabs. Fastpaced Egyptian, with its abundance of jokes and puns, is the cockney of the Arab world. Egypt has long dominated the Arab film industry and with it, the world of dubbing. But thanks to the increasing popularity of Syrian musalsalaat, or soap operas, filmed on location rather than in studios, the Syrian vernacular with its soft lilting tones is on the up. It is used in everything from "Bab al-Hara", a saga about a Damascene neighbourhood under the French mandate to programmes dealing with Islamic extremism and adultery. Even Turkish soap operas such as GmsNour in Arabic have been been dubbed into Syrian. The Syrians have been faster on their feet commercially when it comes to dubbing, and have offered cheaper rates than the Egyptians, where much television output is still in the hands of lumbering state broadcasters. Many also think that Syrian Arabic is closer in sound

to classical Arabic, so more appropriate to a pan-Arab audience. By contrast, the voiceovers in dramas from India and its neighbours tend to use gruff Gulf Arabic, most often heard on the music channels playing monotonously in up-market cafs all over the region. "The choice of dialect in dubbing is based on various factors, including the closeness of traditionsSyrians have much in common with the Turks and Kuwaitis rub shoulders with the Indiansand how widely understood the language is," says Ramez Maluf, a media professor at the Lebanese American University in Beirut. Politics plays its part, too. Iran operates an Arabic satellite channel and makes use of its allies, Syria and Hizbullah, to do much of the translation. This is another way for Iran to subsidise them. Arabic students are usually interested in the region's politics and Syria's regional clout has led to a rise in demand for lessons in Levantine Arabic, says a language tutor in Damascus's Old City. More likely, however, language students like Damascus because it is cheap and easier to manage than Cairo (the Old City of Damascus has turned into a virtual campus for language students, full of bars and cheap eats). But most important, in Damascus, unlike in Beirut, Cairo or Tunis, you really do need to speak Arabic to get by. As the Arab spring rumbles on, with two dictators toppled, another on his death bed in Saudi Arabia, and more under threat, the popularity of the different dialects may shift again. Post-revolutionary Cairo may flourish as the cultural and intellectual hub it once was and with it colloquial Egyptian. Particularly since Damascus, Sana'a and Tripoli look less appealing to students at the moment.

http://www.voiceartistes.com/article3.html

http://www.soulit-games.info/node/5

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2006/nov/03/3

'To dub you have to be as good an actor. Or better'

Kirsten Dunst earns millions for a film. But what about the actor who dubs her into Spanish? The world's top voice artists tell all - in their own words o o Share o reddit this The Guardian, Friday 3 November 2006 Article history

My alter egos... Ren Wei (far right) has voiced (from left) Hugh Jackman in Kate and Leopold, Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible III, and Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge
Mexico's Kirsten Dunst: Claudia Motta I began dreaming of acting as a little girl, watching Japanese cartoons. I fell in love with the voices. Later I got into radio and then into dubbing - and I love it. After I spoke Kirsten Dunst's lines in Spider-Man, they asked me to do Mona Lisa Smile, Wimbledon, and others. She's a favourite in my stable of characters now, and I'm so pleased things are going well for her in Hollywood. I don't imitate the actor, I get into the personality of the role. I focus on the gestures and reflect that in my voice, even if there was no sound in the original. I add to the drama because to dub well you have to be as good an actor, or better. They paid me 10,000 pesos (500) for Mary Jane in Spider-Man. The problem is that distributors don't put us in the credits. Suppose Kirsten Dunst thought, "Gosh, how nice I sound in Spanish." She wouldn't have known who the voice belonged to. Much of my work is for television. I'm best known for playing Bart Simpson for 10 years. When different actors were brought in because of a contract dispute, the public demanded we be brought back. Mexican dubbers mostly use a kind of neutral Spanish without accents or regional expressions so all Latin America can understand. We have the best dubbing industry, and the competition in Argentina and Venezuela just doesn't have our finesse or tradition. Top Cat in Spanish has a personality and feeling that is missing in English - and I take my hat off to the woman who voiced the witch in Snow White. France's Angelina Jolie: Franoise Cadol Sometimes my home phone will ring and when I say "hello" there will be a sharp intake of breath at the other end. I know immediately it's a dubbing fan who has got hold of my number. Once a woman rang me and started gasping. Then after a silence, she said: "Sorry, I'm just so emotional at hearing you, I can't speak, I'll have to call back." There are people in Paris who keep scrapbooks on dubbing, who collect signed photos, who know what you've dubbed despite your name rarely appearing on the credits. I respect people's reasons for wanting to contact me, but I don't send out photos. People feel they know the voice and they want to know you. A voice is a very moving thing. Dubbing is taken seriously in France, and people get very upset if an actor who has dubbed a star for a long time suddenly changes. Audiences want continuity. I get invited on to TV shows to discuss dubbing - people are interested in the process. I have been Angelina Jolie since Tomb Raider because I was the voice of Lara Croft in the video games. I thought Jolie was very good in Mr and Mrs Smith - you could tell she and Brad Pitt were having a good time making that film. I don't seek out information on her in the celebrity mags, or follow her life at all, but I get on very well with the French actor who dubs Brad Pitt - a well-known actor in his own right. I'm also Gong Li, Sandra Bullock, Patricia Arquette and the voice of Mary Alice in Desperate Housewives. I dub films because I enjoy it, it's artistic - and it is a skill that teaches you a lot about acting. I'm currently writing my fourth play for my theatre company and dubbing allows me to keep on doing the work for theatre. I've acted in theatres all over Paris, I've been on the TV, but the greatest irony is that I've never actually appeared on the cinema screen.

Italy's Rene Zellweger: Giuppy Izzo I was born into the business. My teacher was my father. He had four daughters and most evenings at dinner he would try to teach us something about intonation. He had a saying: "Your voice is the soundtrack of your life." One of my sisters also entered the business and is now a dubbing director as well as a dubbing artist. It was a bit like growing up as a circus child, really. My first job was as the 10-year-old daughter in The Goodbye Girl. I've no idea how many other films I've dubbed since then. I've voiced Rene Zellweger in both her Bridget Jones movies and several others. I've studied her diction, her movements and her breathing so much that I feel I know her. We've not met, though - the only actor I've both dubbed and met is Ellen Pompeo, the star of Grey's Anatomy. She came up and hugged me at a conference in Milan in the summer. The key to this profession is obsession with detail. To get the same effects as in the original, I try, as far as I can, to imitate the actor's movements as I say her lines. Anyone who saw me working would think I was nuts. I lay down on the floor for the bedroom scenes in the Bridget Jones films. At the end of one of them, there's a scene in which Bridget is badly out of breath. I ran twice around the block before we recorded it. China's Tom Cruise: Ren Wei Tom Cruise was my latest voice acting role, but I have played hundreds of parts since I joined the Shanghai Film Dubbing Studio in 1986. I was Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge, John Travolta in Broken Arrow, Joseph Fiennes in Enemy at the Gates, Hugh Jackman in Kate and Leopold and Vincent Perez in Fanfan la Tulipe. But my real dream is to become a tenor. Luciano Pavarotti is my idol and I haven't given up trying to get a role in a musical. I have a good voice, dancing skills, and acting experience. I just need a chance. I guess I was chosen to voice the Tom Cruise role in Mission: Impossible III because my age and physique are similar to his. Some people say I even look like him from a certain angle. It was a tough job. While Atang [the Cantonese nickname for Tom Cruise] had months to make the film, I had to do the whole thing - from learning the script to dubbing all the lines - in four days. We always have to rush because of the piracy problem in China. If we don't get the translation and dubbing done quickly, an unauthorised version will be out on the streets before ours. Every day I worked for at least 12 hours. I studied Atang's voice and tried to imitate his style of talking. It was an action movie, so there was lots of running about and shouting, which was hard to emulate in a studio. It was very intense and I had to cover a big range of emotions. In the fighting scenes, it was all "Get down, get down! Go, go!" Then there were romantic moments when his voice breaks up as he tells his wife how much he loves her. I had to watch the original English version time and time again to get the feeling right. When it was all over I was so hoarse that the director told me to go home and take a rest. The crew cracked jokes: "Tom Cruise runs so fast he breaks his legs, Ren Wei shouts so loud he breaks his voice." I have never used the fact that I am Atang's voice actor to chat up women, but I have received letters from fans who say they really like my delivery. But that is not what is most important. My main aim is to satisfy the original actor as much as the audience. Germany's Julia Roberts: Daniella Hoffmann It all started out with the casting for Pretty Woman back in 1990. Back then I didn't expect it to be a big deal - more like a B-movie. I was among the finalists and I think it was my laugh that clinched it. I can do a good, really filthy laugh just like Julia Roberts -I love it when she laughs. Since Pretty Woman I've played her in every film. My vocal range is very like hers, so it all comes pretty naturally. With Ally McBeal, whom I also dub, I put on a very different voice, much higher. I don't often get recognised as being the voice of Julia Roberts. I think women's voices are much harder to identify than men's. But being Julia has definitely brought work my way. Some adverts want the sound of "Julia Roberts" and I have also done Charlotte's Web because it was originally Julia who did the voiceover. When I come in to record I generally haven't seen the film I'm going to dub. It used to be different: we used to get the videos to take home beforehand. But these days they are amazingly strict about new releases. When I did a voice for Star Wars, I wasn't even told in advance what film we were doing just to turn up. But when I play Julia Roberts I don't need to prepare or anything. I follow her lead. I mean, the woman is a great actress, an Oscar-winning actress - why should I change anything about her work? India's Arnold : Schwarzenegger: Pawan Kalra

I've done most of the big names: I was Arnold in The Terminator and True Lies; I voiced Owen Wilson in Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights; and Hugh Jackman in Van Helsing. A number of people say I look like Bruce Willis and I did Bruce as the cop in Sin City. I think Brad Pitt is one of the finest. I have just done him in Spy Games - a great film. Pitt is a very fine actor who can both overplay and underplay a role. You really have to watch how he speaks, it is fantastic. Dubbing is an art requiring a voice of many textures and tones. Not everybody can do it just because they have a good voice. Voiceover artists are cast and we have writers who make the scripts fit the lip movements of the actors on screen so that it runs as smoothly as possible. There are sometimes arguments over how to translate a single phrase. It is hardest with black actors like Eddie Murphy and Will Smith. They are not only very funny but they speak very, very fast. Trying to street talk quickly in Hindi is extremely tough. After two days your mouth gets really tired. My brother was in the film business. I was running my father's transport company in Bihar, out there in the sticks. But I had done some performances, so my brother said: come out and try. So I did. And here I am, eight years later. A film for TV takes two days. I will make 20,000 rupees (250). For theatre release it is more like 50,000 rupees (625). It's really exploding. I do films, commercials and TV shows now. There are a lot more people saying "I heard you on television" these days. But it's a really competitive industry. When I started there were just a few people - now everybody thinks they can voice movies. Interviews by Jo Tuckman, Angelique Chrisafis, John Hooper, Jonathan Watts, Jess Smee and Randeep Ramesh

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jul/14/studio-ghibli-arriettyheroines

Studio Ghibli: Leave the boys behind

You have to go a long way to see animations in which a girl takes the lead to Japan, in fact. Steve Rose looks at Studio Ghibli's alternative to Hollywood's love of heroes o o Share189

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Steve Rose guardian.co.uk, Thursday 14 July 2011 22.00 BST Article history

Breaking the mould ... Arrietty.

Think of the last Hollywood family animation you saw that had a female character in the lead role. Now try to think of one that wasn't about a Disney princess. See the problem? We're supposed to have just lived through a new golden age of animation, but clearly it has been one where boys are better than girls. You can't chuck a pair of 3D glasses across a multiplex without hitting a male hero: Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Rango, Ice Age, Despicable Me, the list goes on. Even with Pixar, the undisputed kings of computer animation, it's pretty much a guy's world: Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, A Bug's Life, Up, Ratatouille, Wall-E if anything, Pixar's product is even more male-dominated than its competitors. At best, Pixar's females are second billing (Finding Nemo's Dory, Mrs Incredible, Toy Story's Jessie); at worst they're token love-interests, stay-at-home mums and other stereotypes bent on spoiling the boys' party. Which brings us to Cars 2, its latest release and most brazenly boytastic movie. This merchandise-shifting adventure will also go down as the worst-received movie Pixar has ever made, and there's barely a female speaking part in it.

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Arrietty Production year: 2010 Country: Rest of the world Runtime: 94 mins Directors: Hiromasa Yonebayashi More on this film

Since the very first feature animation, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney has somehow cornered the girls' market virtually unchallenged, but with few exceptions its heroines have fitted the corporate mould like a dainty foot in a glass slipper. This year's Tangled brought in "Disney Princess" No 10, Rapunzel, but despite a bit of pop-culture attitude, her ultimate fate is to be ladylike, marry a prince and live happily ever after in her newfound patriarchal milieu, just like her predecessors. Girls with aspirations beyond being the next Kate Middleton or the next Jordan (whose daughter's name is Princess, by the way), will have to look far beyond the pink palace of Disney to find a decent role-model. In fact, they'll have to look all the way to Japan. As well as Cars 2, this week also sees the release of Arrietty, the latest product of Studio Ghibli, Japan's leading animation studio. Best known for 2001's Oscar-winning Spirited Away, Ghibli is often lazily dubbed Japan's answer to Disney, but the comparison only holds true in terms of box-office sales (Spirited Away is still Japan's all-time top-grossing film three other Ghibli films are in the top 10) and sales of cuddly toys. In terms of content, Studio Ghibli is a world apart. Since 1984, under the

auspices of its founder and chief auteur, Hayao Miyazaki, the studio has rolled out a succession of dense, ambitious fantasy adventures, almost all of them led by strong, intelligent, independent-minded girls. Miyazaki's movies are exciting and fantastical, often involving flying machines, ecological disasters, clashing civilisations and precarious spiritual values all rendered in clean, colourful, handdrawn animation. His heroines also tend towards a certain type. They are adventurous and active, but also compassionate, communicative, pacifist and virtuous. Their "female" qualities and childish innocence are often what resolve the crisis at hand and bridge conflicting worlds. Miyazaki does princesses, too, but the first time we see his eponymous Princess Mononoke, she's sucking the gunshot wound of a giant wolf and spitting blood into a river. As Miyazaki once explained: "If it's a story like, 'Everything will be fine once we defeat him,' it's better to have a male as a lead. But, if we try to make an adventure story with a male lead, we have no choice other than doing Indiana Jones. With a Nazi, or someone else who is a villain in anyone's eyes." "He thought heroism was much more complicated than that black hat/white hat stuff," explains Helen McCarthy, a British author who has written extensively on Miyazaki and Japanese animation. "By making the hero a girl, he took all that macho stuff out of the equation and that gave him the freedom to examine heroism. His career has been a very beautiful building of an idea that the feminine doesn't preclude the heroic." Arrietty fits right into this mould. It was adapted by Miyazaki from Mary Norton's Borrowers stories and directed by his protege, Hiromasa Yonebayashi. Arrietty herself is a miniature 14-year-old girl, who lives with her parents in secrecy under the floorboards of a rural Japanese home, "borrowing" their possessions a pin becomes her sword, for example. Like any little girl growing up, she's independentminded and eager to explore the outside world. Just as Spirited Away's heroine bridged the world between the spirits and the living, so Arrietty bridges that between her little people and the full-sized humans, but she is also driven by her curiosity about boys. Against a vibrant springtime backdrop and hints about "the nesting season", Arrietty's relationship with a sickly human boy unfolds like a courtship. In one particularly charged scene, when she finally allows the boy to see her for the first time, Arrietty's tiny figure is framed against feverishly blooming giant poppies in the garden. There are similarly subtle erotic and sexual subtexts throughout Ghibli's films. Kiki's Delivery Service, for example, centres on a 13-year-old witch who, like Arrietty, is just approaching adolescence. In her travels, Kiki encounters all ages of womanhood, each of whose sexualities is hinted at through metaphors involving fire and flames. Children and sexuality are well off-limits in western culture as a whole, but in these films, it's a fact of life, with no associated perversity. "It is really difficult for any of us in a western tradition to acknowledge how powerful the sexual feelings of children are," McCarthy says. "One of the wonderful things Studio Ghibli do is they recognise and accept that children are adults in miniature. That children have all these feelings encapsulated in themselves; it's just a case of them learning to organise and articulate them." Death and violence, too, are never far away in Miyazaki's films. Even in his most innocent work, My Neighbour Totoro, a film in which there are no evil characters and no apparent conflict, the threat of a sick mother's death hangs over the bucolic idyll of its two young sisters. In Ghibli films, limbs get hacked off, mortal peril is never far away. It makes Bambi's mother dying look like a walk in the park. With its open acknowledgment of sex and violence, you could say Studio Ghibli's work is closer to the fairy tales of European literature, which can be seen as similarly coded children's primers for the adult world that awaits them. Victorian society defanged fairy tales, then Disney finished the job, but in their original versions, they're full of horror. In early versions of Snow White, for example, the queen eats what she presumes to be her stepdaughter's heart, lungs and liver, tries to asphyxiate Snow White with corset laces, and is punished by being forced to wear red-hot iron shoes. In Disney's hands, it became a story about a nice girl who likes singing and housework. None of this is to say that Studio Ghibli's films are entirely exemplary. Even Arrietty, despite her courage and self- determination, ends up with a partner much more appropriate to her standing literally and metaphorically than a boy 100 times her size. Beyond their "perfect" heroines, Ghibli's work has recurring female archetypes, possibly stereotypes: the wise old grandmother, the idealised home-making mother in her apron. "I do think there are some very strong reactionary elements to Miyazaki's work," McCarthy says. "Not anti-feminist but not in line with feminist thinking. In a lot of his work, he's saying that men and women have established functions in the social order. While you're a child, anything is possible but when grown-up women step outside their roles, they tend to have a tough time in his movies."

Nevertheless, it all makes Cars 2 look like very primitive fare. Hollywood has rarely matched Studio Ghibli's output in storytelling sophistication, but it is making progress on gender issues, at least. Last year's How to Train Your Dragon, for example, bravely centred on a wimpy geek a feminised hero who relied on brain rather than brawn, thus winning the affections of a physically superior female. And for all its flaws, Rio centred on a neurotic male parrot who couldn't fly, shackled to a more competent female. Even Pixar is finally seeing the light. The studio's next big animation project, Brave, due for release in a year's time, has a mythological Scottish highland setting and the company's first female lead character, voiced by Kelly Macdonald. The bad news is, she's a princess.

http://www.gadling.com/2007/12/03/speaking-intongues-dubbing-the-simpsons-around-the-globe/

Speaking in tongues; dubbing the Simpsons around the globe

by Neil Woodburn (RSS feed) on Dec 3rd 2007 at 8:00AM

One of the more enjoyable aspects of travel is coming across a version of the Simpsons dubbed in the local language. Most of you reading this website are probably accustomed to the original American English voices of Homer, Bart, and the rest of the crew. Others around the world, however, have grown up hearing an entirely different voice when Chief Wiggums says something stupid or Homer screws up, doh! The strange experience of hearing the Homer you know so well speak with a different voice in a different language is one of the many wonderful disconnects that make travel so rich and rewarding. Below is a collection of various languages in which America's greatest export can be heard around the globe. I just hope I got them all right, doh! http://www.graffittistudio.com/en/arabic-dubbing.html

Arabic dubbing
ARABIC ranks sixth in the world's league table of languages, with an estimated 186 million native speakers. As the language of the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, it is also widely used throughout the Muslim world. It belongs to the Semitic group of languages which also includes Hebrew and Amharic, the main language of Ethiopia.There are many Arabic dialects. Classical Arabic the language of the Qur'an was originally the dialect of Mecca in what is now Saudi Arabia. An adapted form of this, known as Modern

Standard Arabic, is used in books, newspapers, on television and radio, in the mosques, and in conversation between educated Arabs from different countries (for example at international conferences). Local dialects vary, and a Moroccan might have difficulty understanding an Iraqi, even though they speak the same language. Graffitti Studio provides both Broadcasted and Non-Broadcasted native speaking voice talents with huge experience in TV and Theatrical dubbing, e-learning dubbing projects, on hold and navigation dubbing, film and movie trailer dubbing, TV commercial dubbing, radio commercial dubbing, corporate and training video dubbing, cartoon and animation dubbing, narration and documentary dubbing, lip synchronization dubbing, video game dubbing. We have ISDN connection which enables you to monitor the entire recording and production process and to talk directly to the talents and sound engineer.

SONIC FUSION Studios [map] [edit] We offer music compositions and scoring for feature films, TV Commercials, corporate videos, all the way to music for artists and performers; from Ethnic/oriental music to blues & jazz to hip hop and modern electronic sounds. www.sonic-fusion.net *Saudi Airlines (CO); *Discovery 51G -The Story- (DO); *Doritos (MU); orgs: SACEM | SDE. t: +966548686864.