If you don’t notice it, it’s good: synchronization is a complex craft. First the script is translated from the source language, nowadays that can also be Brazilian Portuguese or Hebrew. A dialogue book will be produced later. This is divided into “takes” for recording, about twelve word long sentences. This is also the unit according to which the speakers are booked and paid. The whole thing has to be “lip-synchronized”, the mouth movement has to be right. According to Herbing, if you want to do it well, you have to be flexible: it may be that you talk to a murderer in the morning and an educator in the afternoon.
“I’ve been shot before,” says actress Ulrike Johansson. She is just waiting in front of a studio to be used. There is a Corona ventilation break inside. Today she speaks to a pathologist on a US series, a “wonderful person”. In the studio she stands in front of a monitor on which her text is written. The director sits behind a window, the editor near Johansson.
An excerpt from the series is shown on the wall, in which a group of people is sitting at the dining table. “If this relationship is important to you, you may have to take the first step,” says Johansson in her role. She patiently repeats this over and over, with alternating emphasis, until it sits. A “Well” at the beginning of the sentence is replaced by a “Well”. That fits better. It is true what studio boss Herbing says: good acting is part of it. And as a speaker you shouldn’t get frustrated easily.
The fact that so much is synchronized in Germany also has to do with history, as Herbing explains. After the Second World War, the cultural scene was on the ground, the Americans wanted to bring liberal content to Germany. The US films were dubbed – that has lasted to this day.
At Netflix it is said: “The dubbed version is extremely important for the local success of a production.” The streaming provider synchronizes in up to 27 languages; the process usually takes between 10 and 20 weeks. “Germany has historically been a dubbing market. The local audience is mostly used to hearing their favorite actors with their well-known German voices, so there is traditionally a preference for dubbed versions.”
The craft is a niche: In Germany there are fewer than 20,000 actors and actresses, there are perhaps 500 full-time dubbing subjects, as the expert Till Völger from the Federal Drama Association estimates. The boom in TV productions is putting pressure on time. “It always has to be faster and, ideally, cheaper too.” When it comes to quality, there are “gigantic margins”, according to Völger.
Bad synchronization? Sounds wooden, the connections don’t fit, there is too much pressure on the voice. Or: “If it’s not done well, everyone swears the same way.” Völger thinks the German version of “Game of Thrones” is very good – although it has dropouts that do not match the rest. He praises the work on the “Stranger Things” series, which is well done. “Hats off!”
Society is reflected in the dubbing industry: The debate about a lack of diversity among speakers, gender, stereotypes and racism is still quite young in Germany. Studio boss Herbing says the industry takes the issue very seriously. “We want more diversity.” A casting call for “People of Color” is supposed to help – this means people who are not perceived as white. The German version of “Kevin Alone at Home” was remade because of racist expressions, as Herbing says.
Like many in the film industry, dubbing people are also affected by the pandemic. In 2020, operations stood still for a month, then the studios were converted. Instead of paper dialogue books, Arena Synchron works with monitors. The biggest change: The speakers have to be almost alone in the studio because of the risk of infection. A group of seven reporters is spoken to by seven speakers, after which it is mixed. So they are lone fighters instead of a team. Studio boss Herbing hopes that this will be over after the end of the pandemic. “It would be nice if that changed again.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210404-99-80150 / 3
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