Voice over sync workflow - Any VO-artists here?

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donjohannes

Member
Hi everyone,

here is the thing...

WHAT I HAVE:
I have a (huge) animation project (70 episodes = 4 hours total) and 3 months left on it (then I leave for a 14 month vacation, yey).
I have the script in 7 languages. The animation is made and cut to correspond to the original language.
The other 6 languages need to be recorded by voice talents and synchronized to correspond to what is happening in the animation. There is no lip synching. It is an educational project where elements may also be static for 20 secs or so. But still the voice needs to correspond to what is on screen (especially when it cuts to a new scene). Given the perceived speed of Spanish speakers for example there is no way a mere reading of the script would make the languages line up in the end. There is only so much you can do by inserting pauses - so I need the speaker to take the right speed into account while he reads.

WHAT I NEED IN THE END
For me the best thing naturally would be getting 70 ready and cut sound files I can simply add as audio tracks to the project

HOW DO I GET THERE?
So...What would be the general production workflow here. What do producers provide their voice talents with so that they can do their magic and sync the audio as they record their voice. Obviously they need the video, but:

a) - would they use a "naked video" (just the video really) keeping the video in the corner of their eyes as they read from a script (a possible indication that voice talents have super powers).

b) would they need the video with timed subtitles - karaoke style. (man, to generate 4 hours of subs (6 times) would kill my schedule).

c) would they read from the script but get flashy cue signals like a number blinking on the video - corresponding to the paragraph number they should be on in the text

d) would they just go back and forth in a scene trying to match their voice to the things in the video and only move on to the next scene when they have nailed it. (later editing the audio - earning every penny I shell out)

e) the unthinkable...

If any of you have worked on either end of such a project, any info on how this is commonly and successfully done is very much appreciated.
If there is more than one way that is acceptable, I'm looking not for the cheapest but for the one that conserves the most of my(!) time - i.e. I'm willing to pay more to voice talents or third parties even, if it leaves me with more time to devote to other aspects of the project. For my vacation is non-negotiable :-)

Greetings,
Johannes
 
Breakdown and time each segment within each episode when you submit your translation scripts so the translator can make adjustments to the script to fit your timing marks before you get to the studio VO stage of the project. Nothing worse than paying for studio time while the VO talent sits on their butt while the copy is being cut to fit timing marks.

Good luck with your project!

Dave
 
When I did this (back in the 1970s at a university) we had plenty of native speakers of practically any language we needed. We gave the original (English) script to the people who would do the other languages and they did the translations. I recorded all of them "wild" since the project wasn't "sync". During recording, I timed each segment and discovered that in almost all cases, the German was longer than the rest. I actually used a box of fan-fold computer paper to map out the track at 1 inch per second which corresponded more or less to the pasted-down lines of typescript. I did tape-to-tape "crash editing" of the 8-track job on a 4-track machine(!)

By contrast, this seems pretty simple to do in the modern, digital era. I would consider hiring an editing assistant/trainee to break all the tracks down into scenes so that you can just drop them into the timeline and then cut the video to whatever turns out to be the longest language.
 
Hi David,

The translations are actually already almost done. To get the timing down, the translators are working on a two column layout having the task to match the original source in length (one very short paragraph at a time). So they should come out in pretty similar length - or so I hope. It's the speed of the speaker, I worry, that will make the bigger difference.

As for the breaking down and timing:
So, you are saying, when I pass the translations on to the VO talents I basically add: scene 1 = 23 secs; scene 2 = 16 secs; scene 3 = 45 secs to the script? And they will try to say what they have to say within those seconds? It that how it works?

Note:
As for studio costs, I will be contracting VO talents that have their own studio, so that they can work at their own pace without accumulating costs and I would like them to be able to edit the scenes together so they can deliver finished audio tracks (Of course butt-sitting will have to be avoided here too). It will cost me more, but as I said that is ok. It not only saves time, but makes sure things match up. For while I speak German, English, Italian, French and understand Spanish, I'm less sure when it comes to Portuguese and definitely lost with Polish. So I can only employ VO talents that also have the technical skills beyond the actual recording.
 
donjohannes said:
Hi David,

As for the breaking down and timing:
So, you are saying, when I pass the translations on to the VO talents I basically add: scene 1 = 23 secs; scene 2 = 16 secs; scene 3 = 45 secs to the script? And they will try to say what they have to say within those seconds? It that how it works?

Note:
As for studio costs, I will be contracting VO talents that have their own studio, so that they can work at their own pace without accumulating costs and I would like them to be able to edit the scenes together so they can deliver finished audio tracks.
Click to expand...

Yes timing notes will help keep the VO talent in time.

I have my own studio as well, but charge a talent fee for the narration or VO, and charge for the studio time as well. It just wouldn't make good business sense for me to give away for example 6 hours of recording time and 16 hours of edit/mix time for a project when I could be earning income in that time space.
 
Being located closer to Asia, years ago we started doing all their versions of Aust and NZ english tracks and by word of mouth it built a separate business over 30years.

Our biggest contract was when Australia changed over to decimal currency, on the 14th of Feb 1966. Every single language had to have translations of the Aust Govt info videos both commercial and public.

The English script was sent to a translator, they finished and returned it. It was then sent to someone else to check it. Then the session was recorded by an ethnic narrator to picture, with the checker in attendance.

Then a copy of that video was sent to the Aust Embassy in the relavent country. After they held a reception party with the local govt reps, and approved it, we supplied the video copies to be distributed in that country.

The contract had built in clauses for additional times for personnel illness, late deliveries, civil disturances, strikes and acts of god, weather etc. I had a giant wall production chart with a prod meeting twice a week, it all took about 2years. We paid all the talent and were paid in stages by our Govt. agency.

There are good and not so good translators. eg: 3 different translators can provide 3 different timed versions. If they have a lot of work or do it at night after their day job, watch out they won't tell you and mistakes will appear, some simple ones that can get a laugh or make it sound stupid. That's why we have a second script check before the recording. Some egotisic, aggressive ethnic narrators will want to say it their way, you need a script checker in the recording booth. Narrators were paid by the script, not by the hour. We owned the company so swallowed overruns, and we got a few.

I listed all that to say imo yours is also a big job, I'd put your vacation on hold till you see the end of the job in sight or you can trust someone to cover it.

Rushing to finish any stage will be fraught with disaster and you will need that holiday just to recover. Good luck.

Cheers.
 
>>>>So, you are saying, when I pass the translations on to the VO talents I basically add: scene 1 = 23 secs; scene 2 = 16 secs; scene 3 = 45 secs to the script? And they will try to say what they have to say within those seconds? It that how it works?<<<<

That is the best way, if you can't physically attend and monitor/produce each session. As many cues and accurate notes as possible will be the way to go.

And, if you need help with voice-over, I humbly submit my contact info: Gregg Juke, RhythmGJ@Yahoo.com, (716) 696-6758. I'd love to know more details of the project and if I could help with the workload.

GJ
 
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