Who's dubbing my shows, anyways?
Who's dubbing my shows, anyways?
In conversation with Garance Merley, a French dubbing author.
When Squid Game seemed to be the only thing anyone could talk or meme about, the familiar dubbed vs subtitled argument rose to the surface of the discourse once again. It’s a continuous battle: Are TV watchers missing out on a show’s nuance by watching a dubbed version as opposed to translated subtitles, or is a dub actually exposing the show to a wider audience who otherwise may not have accessed it? Are we even able to pay attention to high-octane action television like Money Heist or Squid Game when we’re busy reading subtitles?
I’ve always wanted to peel back the curtain to know more about the process, so I was thrilled to connect with Garance Merley on Instagram. Garance is a Paris-based freelance autrice de doublage, or dubbing author, responsible for translating episodes of television from English to French, which becomes the script for the dubbing voice actors.
The process, which has to match the actor’s lips as closely as possible, can take up to two weeks for a single episode of a show like The Rings of Power, and requires significant research and contextual background work to properly convey a scene. Below, Garance and I discuss the shows she’s worked on, how she got started in this profession, and what the actual dubbing process is like.
What are the biggest shows that you’ve worked on?
Rings of Power I think is the biggest show in terms of people watching. In France, all my friends are watching it, my family, even my neighbours who I don’t really know. A lot of people are watching it dubbed too, so we had a lot of pressure for this project. Big Little Lies as well, which is one of my favourite shows ever. I loved working on it, I’ve even rewatched the show twice since then. I know you love Sharp Objects, I would’ve loved to work on that one.
Sharp Objects is iconic! How did you start working in this field?
I did a master’s degree in English and American history & literature. In my final year I specialized in audio and visual translation so I learned dubbing and subtitling. At the end of the year I had two internships, and then I had to start working.
Doing the internships were really important because I wouldn’t have found work as easily otherwise. One of my internship bosses liked me so she ended up giving me work. In the beginning it was just dubbing little cartoons because I had no experience, and then it was Hallmark Christmas movies, stuff like that. And then eventually bigger projects for different companies.
I work for dubbing companies, and they are the ones who work with the clients (like Amazon, Netflix, or French clients like Canal+, TF1). I wrote to some of these companies and asked if I could work for them. The more experience I had, the bigger projects I was given.
Can you tell me what the difference is between dubbing and subtitles?
It’s a different job actually, done by different people. I’ve learned subtitling too but I don’t really like it because it’s not the same job. When you dub something, you have to be very careful about the lip-sync. When you’re doing subtitles, there are different, precise rules—you have a certain amount of words per second, it has to be easy to read. In contrast, for dubbing you usually have to stretch out the wording for it to fit with the mouth’s movements.
What does the actual dubbing process look like?
I work with dubbing software, I have the video on top and a space to write below. With dubbing I have to translate closely to the lip-sync, so I have to see the video as I’m writing. The video is in low quality with a huge logo usually, and for confidentiality on shows like His Dark Materials it’s in black and white.
For Rings of Power, it was a bit particular because of how classified it was, so we had to work on-site in a room with no internet—I usually work from home. The video itself was completely dark except for the heads. It’s really important in a fantasy show to see the full video to understand context, but we just had the heads so it was pretty difficult on top of the pressure for it to be good. For some movies, they’ll even only give you the lips.
Is there a verification process to make sure you’re subtitling correctly?
First, my colleague reads my translation—we read each other’s work. And then we work with an artistic director, we sometimes will have a verification with that person when the translation is recalled. Sometimes we deal directly with someone from Netflix or Amazon. When they recall it, they do a double check on their end too to make sure it’s right.
How long does it take to dub one episode of a show like Rings of Power?
Dubbing is a very long process with the lip-sync. For Rings of Power it was about two weeks for an episode. But sometimes shorter, depending on if they talk a lot. I can do an episode of His Dark Materials in one week.
The Deuce was particularly difficult, the setting was in the 1970s so you had to search all the vocabulary from that era and do a lot of research on the mafia, the drug dealers, and how people were speaking in New York at that time. For The Deuce it was also about two weeks per episode. It was the same for The Plot Against America. Usually David Simon’s TV shows are really difficult to translate because of his precision. There are a lot of cultural references and you have to understand them all, and the characters talk a lot.
Does your work take the fun away from watching these shows?
Sometimes? But it’s a different kind of fun. I love my job, it’s my passion, so it’s fun for me. When I knew there was a show coming out with Sarah Paulson for Netflix, Ratched, I really wanted to translate it and asked a lot of dubbing companies but I didn’t get it. I was really sad about that initially but then I watched it with my girlfriend and had so much fun that I felt I actually preferred not translating it.
I was also expecting A League of Their Own but I actually avoided translating it because I knew the baseball vocabulary was going to take a lot of research. I ended up preferring to watch it as a viewer. For His Dark Materials, I was a huge fan of the books as a teenager, it was a dream come true to work on the project fifteen years later.
I’m obsessed with actresses, in general. I’m not happy when I’m translating a movie or show and there are only male actors. I want actresses!
Do you sometimes rewatch a show after you’ve worked on it?
Not every time. When you worked really hard on a show, you have to let it go a bit because it took a lot of your energy and it can be stressful to watch it after having just worked on it.
Finally, what are you watching lately that you’re enjoying?
I love Bad Sisters! I also just started The Midnight Club, so far it’s pretty good. A League of their Own, of course—I thought it was so queer and lesbian. I wanted that, and I got it. I’m hoping for a second season. They’re cancelling shows a lot these days—I was really disappointed about Gentleman Jack—so fingers crossed. I love Grey’s Anatomy too, that’s my guilty pleasure.