TABLE OF CONTENT
Guidelines and Recommendations per Vertical/Type of Content
Introduction
Netflix views dubbing not as merely a language asset but as a production. In order to achieve the highest level of creative excellence, we encourage going beyond common practice of what is possible in a dub. The goal is to build trust with our content creators by closely aligning the global versions with their original vision and with our audience by giving them a seamless experience which will maintain the “suspension of linguistic disbelief.”
This highest level of creative excellence in Netflix dubbing is achieved through:
- Contextual understanding of the creative intent of the original content
- Appropriate representation in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of our workflow
- Natural phrasing in adapted dialogue to conform to target languages
- Highly accurate lip sync
- Authentic voice acting
- Immersive mixing of dialogue with the original soundtrack
Key Moments
For our audience to enjoy your dub, they have to stay around. Especially during the first 15 minutes of the content, it's crucial to engage our audience through excellent dub quality. To guide your quality efforts in the right direction we will provide you with ‘Key Moments’: parts of the show where less than excellent dub quality will impact the viewing experience negatively.
While accurate lip sync continues to matter throughout the runtime of the dub, we expect you to take specialized care and prioritize lip sync through adaptation, performance, editing, and mixing during the sequences identified as Key Moments, by ensuring the dub follows these fundamental criteria:
Fundamental criteria for successful lip sync in Key Moments:
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Do not use OV waveforms as a strict measure of what is possible in the dubbed dialogue. The video should be the main point of reference for lip sync consideration.
- Please reword lines to improve sync, choosing alternate colloquial expressions, especially if this is consistent with basic meaning and intent.
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Mouth movement (flaps):
- Make sure to account for every flap, especially during longer lines.
- Lines should always start and end with accurate mouth shapes.
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Labials (i.e., in English, “m,” “b,” “p,” and “w”):
- Do not ignore labials at any point in the line.
- “W” is a unique shape and should be the exception rather than the rule for a labial.
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Semi-labials / (i.e., in English, “v” and “f”) typically are NOT full mouth closures.
- Do not exchange labials for semi-labials at any point in the line, unless the mouth is obscured.
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Open-mouth shapes (i.e. in English, “a, e, i, o, u” or sounds formed by two vowels together) are varied and unique.
- Word choice in the adaptation should reflect these shapes as accurately as possible.
Although the Key Moments are not limited to the first 15 minutes of the content, most of them will appear in the first part of the show.
These ‘Key Moments’ will be called out in the (PL)DL and Show Guide, starting H2 2024. The Language Production Manager or Dubbing Manager in your region will follow up with you on this topic.
Dub Director
Guiding principle:
The dub or artistic director is the ship’s captain and is responsible for the project’s overall success. Along with the editor and mixer, they hear every word recorded, and their goal is to build a dub that sounds unified, authentic, and clear. Through adaptation review, casting, performance notes, pick-ups, and mix review, the dub director’s north star is the delivery of a dub that is as congruent as possible with the original content creator’s artistic intentions, and that lands in the most authentic way possible for the local audiences.
Additional Recommendations
- The director develops and oversees the execution of the creative vision of the project in that particular language.
- The director should create a positive collaborative environment, in which every team member feels empowered to do their best work for the good of the project.
- The director and project manager should maintain an awareness of the project’s timeline and budget, including note keeping of loops/words per hour, casting and scheduling of incidentals, and reviewing requested pick-ups.
- In cooperation with the studio, the director should keep an accurate accounting of any dialogue which is rewritten, for post-project review and analysis.
- On highly complex projects the director and language project manager should do a script review to make sure that it's aligned with the original intent and any potential pressure points have been addressed. This should also be considered for song heavy productions.
- During the recording timeline, the director and project manager should provide feedback to the translator, as new scripts are being written.
- After early scenes or first episodes are recorded, the director should review those performances and consider revisiting / re-recording them, as characters and overall tone has become more established.
- The director should always give a final creative sign off on every title before delivery, to ensure that the original intent is upheld and the dubbing director's creative approach has been carried all the way through.
Adaptation
Guiding principle:
The rigorous practice of adaptation is equal in importance to the dub or artistic director, because without a great adaptation, additional time will be spent correcting problems during expensive studio hours and we risk the chance of cultural misrepresentation which will lead to viewer complaints and negative media attention.
The adapter is responsible for creating dialogue which:
- Honors the creative intent of the original
- Honors and appropriately adapts (if needed) important cultural references
- Achieves as close to “perfect” sync as possible (except for VO dubs)
- Sounds natural in the target language, both in its wording and phrasing
Casting
Guiding Principle:
Exact voice matching of on screen talent is not always the primary goal of great casting, since vocal volume, pitch, articulation, and attack may vary widely from language to language.
This means a voice match cannot be prioritized above performance, unless a certain vocal quality is specific to a character trait, or part of the original audio is being used. In any other case we prioritize capturing the best performance in order to create an authentic representation of the original version, and hence, the most credible experience for the audience.
Since this is a subjective process, casting decisions should be made solely by the dub director, or in case of high profile titles, under the guidance of the original creative team and/or in collaboration with the Netflix language production manager. Attention should be paid to authentic representation of identity. In the case of younger characters, Netflix prefers age appropriate voice talent, especially for live action content to capture the authenticity of these characters, unless this strategy inevitably comprises the end result of the dub.
Voice Acting
Guiding principle:
Great voice acting in dubbing involves a unique skill set, as it never calls attention to itself, but rather seamlessly fits into the onscreen performance. To this end, the work of the dubbing actor is a balancing act between authentically embodying the onscreen character from within (through an empathetic understanding of the character’s motivations and backstory) and rigorously observing the onscreen physical behavior of the character from without, including but not limited to lip sync.
Exceptional lip-sync involves not only accurately matching mouth movements but also embodying the energy, dynamics, volume, and voice projection of the original performance, with close attention to breaths and efforts.
We should strive for exceptional lip-sync throughout, and lip-sync should specifically be prioritized during ‘Key Moments’ (see: Key Moments).
Additional Recommendations:
- After signing an NDA, the dubbing actor can be given restricted and secure access to the adapted script, video, and audio through Netflix-approved tools. This access should be managed with security best practices in mind and is intended to be reserved for highly complex roles or songs where sufficient preparation leads to higher quality and time efficiency during the actual recording session. For High Security Projects, additional approval from the Dubbing Title Manager is required.
- For live action lip-sync dubbing we encourage the dubbing actors to be able to physically move in the booth, in accordance with the onscreen performance (as long as this does not compromise recording quality).
- For a series, a pre-mix of Ep 1 should be reviewed by the director if possible, to help set the tone for subsequent episodes.
Mixing
Guiding principle:
The goal of a great mix is to make dubbed dialogue sound as close to production sound as possible. Since dubbed dialogue is recorded very differently than production dialogue (with the exception of ADR), care must be taken to blend dialogue into the physical and aesthetic environment of the content so that it doesn’t sound “on top” or “up front” of the original mix.. As the final stage of the workflow, a bad mix can diminish the impact of every step of this creative process.
Guidelines and Recommendations per Vertical/Type of Content
Resources
- The Netflix Dubbing Story (link to come)
- History of Dubbing UCAN Edition
- Netflix Dialect Strategy
- Live Action Recording Recommendations
- Mixing Recommendations
- 5.1 Mix Room Guidelines