Episode I goes French

As they had done for every version of the movie, the sound mixers of Skywalker Sound used their expertise to ensure that French fans would enjoy the best aural experience possible. Dubbing Supervisor Fred Taïeb, who spends his time flying between his own studio in Paris and American studios across the Atlantic, worked closely with Post-Production Supervisor Jamie Forester to oversee the dubbing of Episode I in French, in addition to a few other languages. "We have to be extremely careful during the mixing of the voices for a movie like The Phantom Menace," says Taïeb. "Because there are so many different sounds and noises, we need to make sure that all the characters are heard clearly, but without overdoing it." After almost twenty years in the field and with a mile-long resume that includes movies that range from A Bug's Life to Armageddon, Taïeb knows all about the pitfalls of dubbing, and how to avoid them.

"Mixing is the last stage of a process that started two months earlier in France," explains Taïeb in the darkened and muffled ambiance of the mixing room. "The whole thing begins when we receive the original film, audio tracks, and script. A person called the 'detector' sits down in front of the screen and writes, on a narrow white tape that runs in synchronization with the movie, phonetic codes and signs that indicate what mouth movements are being articulated on screen, and exactly when these movements take place. When this meticulous job is done, we move on to phase two. Using the phonetic indications written on the tape supplied by the detector, our author translates every line of dialog, carefully choosing words that match the mouth movements made by the actors when they performed in English, and sentences whose length is the same as the original sentences, or as close as possible." So between two French terms that would be an appropriate translation of an English word, the author will select the one that 'looks' the most like its English counterpart.

This literary juggling sometimes involves modifications to the original text, when the meaning of a particular word is less important than the way it looks on the screen. Let's pretend that an American dubbing studio needs to translate a French sentence containing the word "fraise", which means strawberry. If the context of the movie allows it, it would make more sense to replace "fraise" with "fruit", because "strawberry" looks completely different when pronounced, and is also longer than the original word.

"Our author then takes out a second narrow white tape, which is synchronized with the tape prepared by the detector," continues Taïeb. "On this second tape, the author writes - by hand - the new, French dialog, perfectly timed with the detector's phonetic indications. This new tape is called the 'synchro-tape', and is the one actually used during the recording of the new dialog."

While this is going on, the casting director finds the voice talent needed for the recording, trying as precisely as possible to match each French voice with that of the American performer. "Although my studio didn't dub the original Star Wars Trilogy," points out Taïeb, "we tried to get the original actors whenever possible. So we have the same man doing C-3PO, but because the actor who gave Yoda his French voice is now retired, we had to use somebody else."

Back to the studio, the voice actors stand in front of the movie, which is played scene by scene. At the bottom of the screen is projected the synchro-tape, scrolling from right to left in perfect synchronization with the film. A vertical black bar lies across the synchro-tape on the left-hand half of the screen, indicating when each word should be said. When a word crosses the black bar, the actor speaking that line pronounces the word. The way in which the author wrote on the synchro-tape also gives instructions as to how fast each word must be said: the more tightly the word was written, the quicker it will get across the black bar, and each word must be spoken as fast - or as slowly - as they penetrate the vertical, black divider. "The synchro-tape is wide enough for three lines of dialog to be written one on top of another in order to reproduce dialog overlap," says Taïeb. "That's enough, because you very rarely have more than three people talking at the same time. You will have scenes with more than three persons involved in a discussion, but they don't all pronounce words at the same time." Taïeb points out that this is the procedure used for movies that are dubbed in French (including Canadian French). In the case of every other language, the tradition is not to use a synchro-tape, but rather to record the new dialog in very short sequences, where the actors learn the lines by heart and follow the actual movie as a guide. "Both techniques have their advantages and their drawbacks," says Taïeb. "Some people think that French dubs are more precise because of the synchro-tape, while some consider the other dubs to be more fresh and spontaneous because the actors are not reading their lines.I personally think that the two work equally well; it's just a difference in the technique." After all the recording work is done, the material is sent to the mixing studio - in this case, Skywalker Sound.

A new chapter in an already existing (and already dubbed) story, Episode I presents novel challenges to Taïeb. "We try to respect continuity as much as we can," the dubbing supervisor says. "We hired the same actor who voiced the French C-3PO for the classic Trilogy, and so on. But continuity is not an unbreakable law: we'll step in and correct mistakes when it's necessary. Names that might not have been pronounced correctly -- in French -- in the first three Star Wars movies are one example." Taïeb insists that the French fans won't be disappointed with the dub of the new movie, and guarantees a familiar vocal environment.

The Star Wars saga enjoys a universal appeal, and dubbing is one of the tools that, when wielded properly, allow the Star Wars story to reach the minds and hearts of fans all over the globe.

Et voilà!