How to select the best dubbing studio or multilingual agency?
How to select the best dubbing studio or multilingual agency?
Hiring a dubbing studio can be an anxiety-inducing task because of how much is at stake for your company. You aren’t doing anything new, just outsourcing a job, where in addition to guaranteeing quality you’re trying to cut costs and resolve issues that the company cannot or will not tackle directly. However, you must know how to choose if you don’t want to fall into a situation that can spoil the launch and sales of your products.
Keep in mind that subcontractors not only adapt the products to the languages requested, but also execute internal processes for the company that has hired them. They become a part of your production process.
In fashion, it’s all about the latest, and in dubbing ... it’s all about quality, knowledge and efficiency.
Companies are like fingerprints, each one is unique, leaving its own imprint of efficiency and quality. And for that reason, every time you decide to look for a studio to add sound to your products, you must take into account several factors that can make the difference between success and failure.
Years of Experience in the Market
It's easy to open a studio. Just purchase equipment, soundproof rooms, and if you’ve worked for another company as a technician, you can call it a dubbing studio. Really? And where does that leave the artistic aspect, the project managers who know how to adapt the product to the needs of the clients, the experienced directors (a bad director can destroy the work of a good production team), the engineers who know how to work with sound for a film and how it’s different from a video game?
The criteria to pass this first filter is years of experience in the market.
Specialization
Every businessman wants to optimize his company and open new niches in the market, but in the dubbing and localization industry, there’s always someone that “knows it all.”
A music studio is not the same as a dubbing studio for TV and film, because they don’t work the same way, especially for dubbing. Everything is different! From the size of the studios, to the type of microphones needed, to the electronic and digital requirements, to the software, to the plug-ins, etc… Avoid studios that tell you they do everything UNLESS they have different spaces for each one of the working environments and can prove it.
Directors or Project Managers
Surely we all have suffered the consequences of working with a person in charge of a studio who says “yes” to everything and then doesn’t deliver. A Project Manager must work with a trained partner who speaks his or her same professional language (I'm not talking about the language to communicate ... although that too). There are so many obstacles that we have to face, that we need a reliable and knowledgeable adviser, and not an assistant who only answers the phone (some not even that), agreeing with you on everything but without offering real solutions.
Do not hesitate: At the slightest setback, seek another studio. You will gain peace of mind.
Professional Actors
Many dubbing companies offer you a low price based on the use of apprentices and untrained actors on the premise that they have a beautiful voice or great talent. Make sure that in casting the main and secondary roles, you only use experienced actors. Usually, you cannot differentiate the nuances of a good performance. That's where the criticism of customers and the press begins.
Specialized Directors
There is a big difference between directing a movie or a TV series and a video game. Beware of the “smarty pants” who claims that a dubbing director can direct a video game, or vice versa. In the past, there were studios that did everything, with actors who also did everything and directors who knew everything. Think a little bit. It’s not the same directing a scene from a movie -- where there is dramatic continuity and you see the actor on the screen (dubbing) -- to giving life to a video game character. In videos, you usually don’t know what the character looks like and you’re not sure what is happening dramatically, no matter how much is written in the Excel spreadsheet. The way a director prepares a scene and how he works with an actor is as different as riding a bike to flying a spaceship. It has to do with craftsmanship and ability. Find out who the director is and his previous experience. (Let them prove it).
The list is long and we don’t want to extend ourselves, so let’s conclude with this reflection:
Turkish, Chinese, French, Arabic, Latin or Martian. Between all and each of these languages and cultures that the market demands, you need an increasingly specialized and exclusive adaptation for each one, which will determine the success, or not, of the product in the target market. The companies entrusted with this work, must be analyzed meticulously, and once their potential is assessed, they have to be trained to work with the protocols required.
To summarize: Whether it’s an agency that subcontracts new languages, or a company that directly manages its adaptations, it’s necessary to generate controls based on work protocols; and choose companies similar to yours in work ethic and trained personnel. If you add to this a proof of quality by looking at past experience, you will save yourself a big headache.
Ana Soler & Laurentino Martín
In the next article, we will talk about: "Protocols that will prevent the lack of control over a product, by working with a dubbing company in a language you do not master”.
