ZOO Digital recently finished a project with Lionsgate, working on the Latin American Spanish dub of Lars Von Trier’s art-house drama Dogville. The dub was recorded entirely using  “cloud dubbing,” with voice artists working on the project from all around Latin America, connected by cloud technology, led by ex-Disney creative director Raúl Aldana.

Raul Aldana manages dubbing in the cloud

It’s a new way of working, but the fundamentals stay the same – lines of audio are captured using a pre-calibrated microphone and recording set-up. But instead of travelling to a centralized studio, voice artists are asked to jump online. 

During the Dogville dub, voice artists embraced the platform and workflow – built from the ground-up to work as an online dubbing studio and transition smoothly from traditional voice recording. Cancún-based voice artist, Alma Wilheleme has worked as an actor and director in theatre and film for over 28 years. After utilizing the platform’s on-screen features such as a rythmo-band for self-direction and real-time collaborative script reviews, the artist said, “It’s spectacular, I love it! I’ve been waiting for years for the technology to give us the opportunity to work online.

After finding out about the project, Puebla-based voice artist, Graciela Gamez said, “With so much advancing technology in every work environment, we can’t fall behind in dubbing. For me, recording from home is very practical. I think most dubbing actors will love this way of working.”

Cloud dubbing offers TV and movie content owners more choice and capacity, greater visibility and control, but it is also bringing more opportunity to a whole world of voice talent. Said Raúl Aldana said, “I can work with the best actors and directors regardless of their location and give the chance to new talents that – due to their location – could not be part of the dubbing industry in the traditional way. What we have done in Dogville is the real regionalization of dubbing at the highest quality.”