Services:
Voice-over and Subtitling

Languages:
Italian, Turkish and 5 other languages

We were delighted to work on an inventive short film entitled “Two Sides” for immersive arts agency A Taste of Space. Since its release, the online video has received worldwide acclaim, and has been viewed over 85 million times.

The video, produced in partnership with MoFilm, for the ice-cream brand Cornetto, tells the story of a high school romance from two different perspectives. Entitled “Two Sides”, the ten-minute drama conveys a familiar story of teenage love, miscommunication and drama.

What makes the video unique is the use of binaural sound technology, which combined with natural, point-of-view camera work, provides an added immersion into the narrative by allowing viewers to switch perspectives throughout the film, and listen to the thoughts of the main characters independently. Combined with wonderful casting and a great soundtrack, it is easy to see why the film has been such a hit with audiences worldwide.

Voice-over was chosen as the preferred method of localisation for seven languages, whilst a further five languages were to be subtitled. Regardless of the localisation method, the translation had to faithfully capture the casual tone and emotional drive of the storyline, with the personal narratives of the video so central to its success that a few lines of badly translated dialogue could ruin the film entirely.

The entire film was shot from the characters’ point of view, which meant that their mouths were never shown to be moving. This enabled their voices to be dubbed in a more convincing manner, the result offering a seamless and realistic style of narration, cementing the film’s global success.

Five different voices were required per language. All the recordings had to take place within a two-day window, therefore a tight schedule needed to be maintained and suitable voice artists booked well in advance to ensure their availability. With such a character-driven story, the voice artists had to be perfectly cast for each role in order to deliver a professional and flawless performance, whilst working to the tight schedule.

To fulfil casting requirements, the voice-over team sourced the majority of the voices from VSI’s own database. However, owing to the large number of actors required and the tight period in which all recordings needed to be completed, the team also consulted VSI’s in-house vendor manager, who sourced further talent based on the brief.

Thanks to careful consideration and forward planning, in addition to the professionalism of the chosen actors, all the recordings ran on schedule and were completed within the agreed time period. 

The subtitling process, in comparison, was more straightforward, but there were still challenges to overcome. Ensuring that the subtitles were accurately timed, had a suitable reading speed and were in accordance with VSI’s house style was paramount. The correct terminology also had to be adopted throughout, to reflect the content and style of the film. 

The hardwork by everyone at VSI paid off and we received great feedback from the client.