Patria: English dubbing through the ages
The project
Services:
Dubbing and Forced Narratives
Languages:
US English
Based on the novel Patria by Fernando Aramburu, the historical, web TV drama tells the tale of two women, living in the Basque Country, whose friendship and families are torn apart as a result of the armed and political conflict between Spain and ETA, the separatist organisation. The story spans three decades and tackles the sensitive subject with profound sincerity and subtlety, across eight, fifty-minute episodes.
HBO approached us to localise this Spanish series into US English. Having made a name for itself as a pioneer in the field of US English dubbing, our studio in Los Angeles was well placed to help and the team was excited to get started.
Our approach
To kick off the project, we worked with HBO to customise our dubbing workflow, ensuring a seamless approach, whilst meeting the requirements of the project and discussing the various steps involved in bringing an English dub to life. We also provided insight into what should go into the dub and forced narrative files, respectively.
While the majority of the show’s original audio was in Castilian Spanish, there were also large sections of Basque, French and German that required translating. Our dubbing team was in close communication with Steve Matthews, the Executive Producer of Patria to decide which dialogue should be dubbed and subtitled in the forced narrative files, in order to help viewers follow the transition between languages and understand the dialogue.
Although VSI Los Angeles maintained a standard dubbing practice throughout the production, Covid-19 presented a unique challenge. The team faced a government-mandated studio lockdown and, as a result, had to quickly adapt the workflow to incorporate remote recordings. Since we already had the infrastructure and technology in place for remote dubbing, this didn’t compromise the quality or our ability to deliver on time.
Once the localisation had been completed, our team in LA shared select scenes with HBO for feedback on performance, sync, editing and mixing. This was met with a positive reaction.
