Title
(Main)streaming English dubs. Trailblazing, trends, and training new talent
Conference name
Media for All 10 Conference
City
Country
Belgium
Modalities
Date
06/07/2023-07/07/2023
Abstract
English dubbing has been proliferating on streaming platforms since late 2016. Soon thereafter, Chaume (2018: 87) remarked upon the emerging trend on Netflix to dub non-English-language content into English, which has been considered a marketing strategy to attract viewership of ‘foreign’ content and termed ‘the dubbing revolution’ (Moore 2018 in Ranzato and Zanotti 2019: 3). ‘Revolution’ is a notably apt term used to describe English dubbing, given its disruptive as well as cyclical meaning. That is to say that the novelty of dubbing as a mode of localisation for the into-English directionality is in fact illusory. What is actually in question is the resurgence and revamping of a practice. Whereas subtitling has long been the norm for localising live-action fiction into English, dubbing was prevalent from the 1930s through the 1970s, when it was used for European cinema, Kung Fu films, and Spaghetti Westerns (Hayes 2021). Meanwhile, dubbing has remained to be the preferred mode of localisation for specialised products, which are often animated, such as cartoons and videogames.
Despite these past and present realities, Anglophone viewers tend to be less familiar with the dubbing mode or, at least, are unaware of their exposure to it, as dubbing is camouflaged in animation and live-action dubs are generally far removed in time and not revisited. Many viewers are therefore watching English dubs on streaming platforms, aka subscription video-on-demand services (SVoDs), for the very first time. This pseudo novelty has created a space for experimentation and different accent strategies availing of native as well as non-native accents are emerging as a unique characteristic of English dubbing (Hayes and Bolaños-García-Escribano 2022).
In this presentation, I will give an overview of the English-language dubbing industry, addressing its historical evolution and delving into its current state of affairs. I will discuss the dubbing practices that studios working for Netflix, and other streamers, have developed over the past five years. I will discuss trends in the English dubs of Castilian-Spanish, Scandinavian, and German originals. Then, I will explain how the lack of convention in the English-dubbing industry and the novelty of this mode of AVT for the majority of viewers have facilitated an acceptance of dubbing among native Anglophones and how, on the other hand, viewer agency has determined the use of some accent strategies and not others. Drawing on questionnaire findings (Hayes 2022), I will argue how the reality of English being de facto lingua franca has given rise to foreign varieties of the language, whose usage in some English dubs may render it less psychologically demanding for viewers of dubs to suspend their ‘linguistic disbelief’ (Romero-Fresco 2009: 49). Furthermore, I will consider Romero-Fresco’s (2020) dubbing-effect observation, on the whereabouts and distribution of viewers' visual attention, querying the potentially unique case of ‘foreignisation’ strategies in English dubs. Lastly, I will explain how accent strategies in English dubbing have influenced my training courses on script translation and adaptation for English dubbing, imparted to master’s students at the University of Bristol and freelancers at ZOO Digital.
Despite these past and present realities, Anglophone viewers tend to be less familiar with the dubbing mode or, at least, are unaware of their exposure to it, as dubbing is camouflaged in animation and live-action dubs are generally far removed in time and not revisited. Many viewers are therefore watching English dubs on streaming platforms, aka subscription video-on-demand services (SVoDs), for the very first time. This pseudo novelty has created a space for experimentation and different accent strategies availing of native as well as non-native accents are emerging as a unique characteristic of English dubbing (Hayes and Bolaños-García-Escribano 2022).
In this presentation, I will give an overview of the English-language dubbing industry, addressing its historical evolution and delving into its current state of affairs. I will discuss the dubbing practices that studios working for Netflix, and other streamers, have developed over the past five years. I will discuss trends in the English dubs of Castilian-Spanish, Scandinavian, and German originals. Then, I will explain how the lack of convention in the English-dubbing industry and the novelty of this mode of AVT for the majority of viewers have facilitated an acceptance of dubbing among native Anglophones and how, on the other hand, viewer agency has determined the use of some accent strategies and not others. Drawing on questionnaire findings (Hayes 2022), I will argue how the reality of English being de facto lingua franca has given rise to foreign varieties of the language, whose usage in some English dubs may render it less psychologically demanding for viewers of dubs to suspend their ‘linguistic disbelief’ (Romero-Fresco 2009: 49). Furthermore, I will consider Romero-Fresco’s (2020) dubbing-effect observation, on the whereabouts and distribution of viewers' visual attention, querying the potentially unique case of ‘foreignisation’ strategies in English dubs. Lastly, I will explain how accent strategies in English dubbing have influenced my training courses on script translation and adaptation for English dubbing, imparted to master’s students at the University of Bristol and freelancers at ZOO Digital.