Film dubbing. Phonetic, semiotic, esthetic and psychological aspects

Fodor defines “dubbing” or “synchronization” as a “new sound recording of the text of a film translated into the language of the country in which it is to be shown”. However the words “dubbing”, as well as “synchronization” or “postsynchronization”, are also sometimes used in the sense of providing a soundtrack (of both text and sound effects) to the original version of a film or TV production shot with no sound. In effect, most films nowadays are postsynchronized after the shooting, and the voices are recorded separately in a studio, allowing for more control over the sound quality and the surrounding noises. Generally speaking, the same actors record their own voices, but not always, as in the case of productions with an international cast. Hence, even in so called ‘original’ versions, the voices may sometimes appear to be out of sync, if the recording was done imperfectly. But this book deals specifically with the replacement of the original text by a translated text.

The requirements for a “satisfactory synchronization” are “a faithful and artistic rendering of the original dialogue, an approximately perfect unification of the replacing sounds with the visible lip movements, and bringing the style of delivery on the new version into optimal artistic harmony with the style of acting”. He calls these three requirements “phonetic synchrony”, “character synchrony” and “content synchrony".