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How Anime Dubs Were Made During COVID




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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
Posts: 4633
Location: New York
PostPosted: Sun Aug 29, 2021 9:42 am Reply with quote
Work from home is a reality a lot of people were thrown into without any warning or planning, and it's a difficult adjustment. Especially in settings where communal work is preferred. There are a lot of cases of voice work done without much interaction with others, but it's hardly an ideal environment to act in.

But the advantages that a lot of people have said elsewhere about WFH makes you feel like it's not all bad. In the future, hybrid work environments will probably become more common for that reason.
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Silver Kirin



Joined: 09 Aug 2018
Posts: 1254
PostPosted: Sun Aug 29, 2021 12:26 pm Reply with quote
The Covid pandemic has affected Spanish dubs as well, many recording studios had to be closed, some dubs for anime like the 4º season The Seven Deadly Sins premiered on Netflix without a Spanish dub which was later added 6 months later, also Disney+ had to realese their movies and shows sub-only which is very rare for them.
Some actors were able to adapt easily to home recording, since some of them already had recording equipment at their homes and were working with companies like Zoo Digital which were experimenting with "Cloud Dubbing" which allowed home recording even between multiple countries, some other studios like SDI Media had to wait the approval from their clients to approve home recording. The situation in regards to dubbing has improved but still many actors work remotely.
There were some curious situtations caused by the pandemic, for example the Mexican dub for the latest Simpsons season had to be put on hold due to the pandemic, its voice actors were recording their dialogues from home in 2020 but on 2021 Fox reached an agreement with many of the original voice actors from the show (The Simpsons had a massive voice recast from season 15º onwards) and the original voice actors for Homer, Lisa, Mr. Burns and many others got back their roles after 15 years. The thing is that accoring to some actors, the original recording for season 32 was almost done.
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KitKat1721



Joined: 03 Feb 2015
Posts: 976
PostPosted: Sun Aug 29, 2021 1:10 pm Reply with quote
I have really appreciated how much more interesting casting seems as a whole with remote recording, although its definitely more prevalent with certain studios than others. I love that we've gotten more LA (and elsewhere) talent in Funimation dubs, and I hope we start seeing more of that vise-versa. I also agree that an ideal future would be a mix of the two, but its really going to be up to the studios themselves whether they see the value in more mixed casting once things are safe enough that they could record fully in the studio. And unfortunately, I don't expect every studio to continue pushing for more open casting when the alternative is easier.

I would also encourage people to watch the embedded video rather than just read the article if you have the time since that seems to be the format the script was originally written for and comes off more organized and less "let's throw out examples while following a train of thought" (which is just common when reading video essay scripts on paper).
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4671
PostPosted: Mon Aug 30, 2021 12:17 pm Reply with quote
It's certainly been interesting to see this play out. Getting to hear LA actors that wouldn't otherwise be in a Funimation dub has been a plus. There have been other instances where I would have guessed that a certain Dallas actor would be cast, but they moved, only for them to still be cast because now moving away wasn't a major hindrance. Heck, I got a little bit excited just seeing a dub out of New Generation again.

I'll be curious to see where things end up eventually. I imagine that convenience and productivity will mean that in-studio recording is still the preference, and I'm sure that outsourcing was something that happened just because Funimation couldn't keep up on its own right now. So, some of that will go back to normal. I would at least expect that reprisals will be easier going forward, and the days of recasting because an actor moved might be mostly behind us. It'd be cool if we could continue to see things like LA and Dallas actors showing up in things outside their normal area, but I have my doubts it will happen. My guess is that is something that came about because the usual constraints weren't there and will be more of a novelty of the circumstances allowing it.
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PurpleWarrior13



Joined: 05 Sep 2009
Posts: 2035
PostPosted: Mon Aug 30, 2021 7:29 pm Reply with quote
I know the Evangelion Rebuild redubs on Amazon Prime wouldn’t have been possible without some remote recording. According to Tiffany Grant, while most of the cast recorded at Dubbing Brothers in Los Angeles, she recorded from a professional studio in Atlanta, John Swasey and Allison Keith recorded from a pro studio in Houston, Spike Spencer recorded from a pro studio in Gold Coast, Australia (he lives in Queensland), and some actors like Brett Weaver (who lives in Austin) and Deneen Melody recorded from their home studios (recording began in Dec 2020). There’s always been some of this going on (even the original End of Eva dub was recorded in both LA and Houston), and I think using different pro studios is a nice compromise to accommodate different actors in normal circumstances. Personally, I think home studio recording should be reserved for unique situations only (like a pandemic) because of the weird technical challenges. As an aspiring VA myself, I would certainly be okay with recording at home and maintaining a good home studio, but would feel most comfortable at a pro studio where I don’t have to worry as much about the technical side of things. I’d want to focus first and foremost on giving the director the performance they want.

I still can’t get a feel for how things are now. I know some remote recording is still happening, but are things mostly back at the studio?
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