Introducing “Easydub”, the seamless, idiot-proof solution for your dubbing headaches. Less human interference! Fewer problematic questions! No one has a bad day! Real-time localization at the touch of a button.
Ignoring the fact for the moment that the internet in Germany is a disgrace (she says as the dial on her Speedtest oscillates wildly between 200 and 10 Mbps …), and assuming that the server is always functioning and that if not, there is someone there 24/7 to help me get back online, working in the cloud is fine, no? I assume that as long as I keep my deadlines, there’s no need to track when and where I work, right? And of course my work is not used to train an AI that will turn around, take my job, and make dubbing scriptwriting look like a joke, and that my copyright is in safe hands, true? My client will certainly give me legally sound assurances.
Everything is fine. Except that working with cloud-based platforms means doing even one more thing that has nothing to do with thinking, creating, reflecting. Another template. Another window on my screen in addition to the video, my text, the continuity script, the translation, and the various research sources that are already cluttering my thinking space.
But I’ll offer you a deal. Do you know what would really make my life a little easier? I’ll call it CADD. Computer-assisted dubbing dialogue. A script tool that integrates all the iterations of the text, from the translation to the various stages of writing from preliminary to pseudo-final, to the changes made in the studio during recording, and including the subtitle versions (which I usually don’t do, but am very interested in, for reasons of tonality, consistency, and such), flagging all inconsistencies in terminology or formality.
Because I can assure you, when I work, I don’t sit there twiddling my thumbs. What I do spend excess time on is
- Waiting for material
- Dealing with preliminary versions and change lists
- Waiting for my internet
- Correcting mistakes in the continuity script
- Looking for things that should be in a well-maintained, constantly updated glossary or formality table in previous episodes of a series that I might not have written and for which no as-rec scripts exist
Leave the creative side to the creatives. Let them work when and how they want, write by hand, dictate, use a green crayon or a designer stylus, have the material looped or not before writing, have everything distributed among three screens or just a laptop, and relieve them of some major time-consuming headaches. They have the ideas, you do the formatting.
If that’s not possible (security, workflow, I get it), let them at least profit from working on a cloud-based platform. Give writers time instead for pre-recording script meetings and and visits to the studio, to learn for their next project. Give them time to teach newcomers. Give them time to think.
Anyone interested in developing a tool that would be of real practical help?
