5A Studios: 'Reversioning' For The Future...

As an independent audio post house, which, over the last decade, outgrew the quiet West London mews address that gave us our name, we knew that moving to a new space in Soho would allow us to take on even more ambitious projects, writes Stanley McHale, Creative Director, 5A Studios.

However, we also wanted to attempt something different – something that our years of ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement) and mixing Dolby 5.1, 7.1 – and soon Dolby Atmos for the Home – would automatically lend itself to.

Earlier this year we were delighted when Nick Roberts agreed to join us. Nick is a BAFTA-nominated engineer whose work with the likes of Tom Hooper, Ron Howard, Aardman's Peter Lord and Woody Allen singled him out as our number one target.

Nick can record a butterfly thinking or Brian Blessed standing on a plug, and it was his approach to ADR that gave us the platform to think afresh.

"ADR is one of the hardest things an actor will be asked to do," says Nick. "Come to a dark room in Soho and recapture a character months, sometimes years after the shoot, with no other actors to play the scene with, most likely do it in fragments – read the script – listen to the guide – follow the wipe – all simultaneously."

With Nick on board, we felt there was an opportunity to catch a fresh wave. VoD providers are constantly looking for quality content at the best price, and so 5A have launched a service we like to call 'Reversioning' – taking foreign language titles then using immense attention to detail to re-record and re-mix the soundtrack into English.

Once reversioned, producers have a significantly greater opportunity to distribute new productions to VoD, traditional broadcasters, and airlines, as well as taking older or classic titles and giving them a new lease of life.

Approaching individual producers, as well as distributors, it seems clear that regions with a strong, proud film industry – like Scandinavia, for example – are already exploring the opportunities that English language versions of their productions will generate.

With as much attention paid to the script as the recording, this is something of a brave new world for ADR. It presents challenges that Nick is passionate about working around.

"The key to this is the translation. With this right, the session can run smoothly, otherwise hours can be lost meddling with the lines. The advantages from a sound point of view are that you can decide, to an extent, on the overall approach to the dialogue recording, offering clean consistent sound throughout the film. Acoustics is such an inexact science, but physicality and movement is never more important than in language dubbing."

With Nick at the desk, this English-language Reversioning service is one that 5A are keen to heavily emphasise over the next few months. Add to that a burgeoning relationship with Dolby Europe – especially regards producing content for their aforementioned Dolby Atmos for the Home technology – we are now welcoming enquiries from around the world as to how foreign language titles can be given the ultimate distribution overhaul.

The article is also available to read in BFV online.

(IT/JP)