Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546135
C I N E M A A U D I O S O C I E T Y. O R G 53 vetted by DCVI—Disney Character Voices International— in terms of the quality, the characters, the casting, and then it goes to the mix stages. Some languages might get dubbed here at Disney in Burbank, CA. For instance, the Latin American Spanish or Brazilian Portuguese may be dubbed here. And so I'll connect in remotely, listen, and give notes. We also do some language versioning at Dubbing Brothers in Paris, where they'll do multiple languages there—usually including French, French- Canadian, Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish," recalls David. "It's not my job to worry about the translations, but I can pick up on things that might be low or missing or incorrect, and so I'm there to protect the story. "We finish the domestic mix, and we do our theatrical Atmos, 7.1, 5.1, IMAX 12 and 5, if required—then home Atmos, 5.1, and stereo. All handmade. Nothing's just an automatic downmix. As soon as we're done with the mix, literally, I get on a plane that night to England to supervise the foreign-language versions. If we finish the stereo at four in the afternoon, I'm on the plane at 8 p.m., going overseas, because it's day-and-date release, and time is of the essence. "As soon as we finish a reel, we send it to their editorial, they QC everything on the spot (This is after the mix is done). They're using rooms all over Pinewood and Shepperton to be editing, bringing in the dialogue. Mixers usually get three or four days to pre-dub dialogue (and/or vocals) for each language. If it's a musical, potentially more, depending on the number of songs, and then we do a printmaster. The printmaster involves the head of the territory, me, the mixer, and usually one or two of the managers at Shepperton Studios. We will divide to be able to supervise all 47 languages. I focus on territories like China, Italy, Germany, the Spanish versions, the bigger territories that are going to have more theaters. "I get there just having finished the domestic mix. I know it well, and I've seen it probably 80 times. We have a screening of the film in Atmos with all the editors and mixers, and then we do a Q&A session with the whole team so that I can assist with the creative intent of the mix and pass it along to the mixers and editors on all territories. "I also create a creative letter that talks about the different spaces and why we're doing things a certain way, and all of it is documented. If something is a rendered treatment, I have a document that describes it, like the formula for this pitching or this speedup or specific processing—and it all goes into the template. "They really appreciate my notes. Before this workflow was implemented, they'd have to go through and manually identify panning and processing. Now we have all the automation, everything is virtual in Pro Tools. But even before that, it was all by hand. Extremely tedious. And so, I was given the opportunity, starting then, to work on a workflow that would coordinate with Shepperton," shares David. Templates and Track Order When asked about the template and session management he uses across formats for the Disney Animation features, David explained that he has developed a system that is well documented even down on spreadsheets to allocate tracks and clips, as well as responsibilities and notes. Then for the dubbing process, they create a template that creates all the theatrical and home versions in it, including home entertainment, except IMAX. "You need a separate Atmos printmaster, all the object automation—it's a very sophisticated mix template, and they get all my automation of the domestic version and all the treatments. Everything I'm doing is virtual—all the reverbs. 90% of the work, all the panning. I'm working in native Atmos, and I make a 7.1 session when I'm done, and then a 5.1 session. The vocals get handled the same way as the dialogue does, David Fluhr CAS