Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1538091
18 FA L L 2 0 2 5 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y Paul Zahnley CAS on ADR Perspective for Language Localization Paul Zahnley is an extremely talented re-recording mixer who has worked in English dubbing over the last 3½ years. Some of his projects include Bullet Train Explosion, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gamera: Rebirth, Sailor Moon Cosmos, Secrets We Keep, and Caught, among many others. Paul, when mixing dubbed content, how closely are you honoring the original mix when it comes to levels, perspective, or processing? I would say we are honoring their mix almost 90% of the time. Sometimes we will improve on it. Some of the shows have quite a bit of noise or overly aggressive noise reduction applied on a track. Obviously, I'm not going to emulate that, and you're not trying to one up. You really just want it to feel like the story and everything in it, such as character, scene, tone, timbre, whatever is believable. That's really the key. If there's a really special scene with a lot of fun stuff happening, you can improve it a bit, sure, but, you know, I give credit to the editors and mixers of the original language. They do an amazing job, and I feel like we're just adding our own little listening opportunity. But a lot of people do listen to [language] dubs and it's important that we make them as believable as possible. What are some interesting ways to use and mix perspective specifically with dubs that may not normally work in original language content? There are so many plugins out there, but we're trying new techniques with adding space to characters in a scene. It is very important to get perspective correct in localization. There might be a show from some countries that has dialogue that's just up front all the time and very present in the lower mid- frequency register. It's just how they mix and how their shows sound. It's not one particular region of the world, but a number of regions do have that kind of thing where, even if you have two medium close-ups of two people talking and then it cuts to them at the table 10 or 12 feet back, it's just the same level no matter what. That's actually kind of true in a lot of television as well. Even in first-run stuff, you'll hear that kind of thing where it's just a lav and it's just playing. Paul Zahnley CAS