By Rome Jorge, They are heard round the world. They are the voices of the biggest kung fu stars of Hong Kong and the most memorable anime characters from Japan. Audiences in America, Europe, Asia and Africa know their lines by heart. And they aren’t even in the credits. Filipinos have been dubbing films into English for decades. Now, one company reveals the workings of this lucrative business.
Jeremy Domingo and Henry Strzalkowski reveal one it takes to be the voice of the stars.
Generations of Filipinos have grown up with fond memories of their work, most especially for animation. “I started in 1979 with Questor. In Voltes V, I was Dr. Armstrong. I was the voice of Rick and Professor Yurgen in Daimos,” Strzalkowski recalls his work for seminal anime television series.
For his part, Domingo has helped introduce today to the latest cartoon characters. “I was Piccolo on Dragon Ball for about a season or two. And there was another animation called Raijin Oh, a couple of series was lasted only for about a season or two,” he reveals.
Domingo and Strzalkowski are among the many Filipinos responsible for the great improvement in the dubbing of Hong Kong films—once the fodder of jokes. Their involvement coincided with the renaissance of Chinese movies. Strzalkowski contributed his talents to such critically acclaimed movies as Infernal Affairs (2002), later remade by Hollywood as Martin Scorsese’s The Departed (2006). Domingo recalls working for Hong Kong blockbusters starring Jet Li and Sammo Hung. Today, there is still much dubbing work for the catalog of film companies, be they grind house flicks or cinema classics.
But most of this work goes on unsung. “It was kind of funny that how it comes back without knowledge that it was a Pinoy product,” says Domingo.
Voice acting
Like most dubbers, Domingo and Strzalkowski are theater actors who can take on various accents that their roles require. More than just reading lines and adopting voices, they are acting out part.
“I’ve been a professional theater actor since 1990, as part of Repertory Philippines. We did a lot of American and British comedies. When you do a Neil Saimon comedy—the dynamics of the language, the humor, the timing—it has to be original. I also did a lot of stiff upper lip British roles,” Domingo recalls.
Strzalkowski notes, “There was a time when it came as a second nature to us, especially the American accents.
It also helps having been exposed to various cultures.
Domingo reveals, “Apart from a childhood’s spent watching too much TV and movies [it’s also because] I’m a diplomatic brat. I lived in Hawaii, California, Germany, where I really had a lot of exposure two different accents growing up and doing the material that we did.”
Strzalkowski, the son of a Polish expatriate and Filipina, notes that he studied in local international schools where picked up on a lot of accents.
More than just reading lines
Dubbing means more than just reading off a literal translation. It means reworking the script to capture nuances and humor as well as syncing the syllabication to the film actor’s mouth. Being a dubber necessitates becoming a scriptwriter as well.
“You do get a rough translation. But you have to the translate the lines to make sense. I think preparing a script is one of the most time-consuming tasks,” confesses Domingo.
“One of the demands and challenges is keeping the scripts of today because you are, that’s one of the components that you need. One of the major components in dubbing is having a workable script. If your dubbing for about 4-5 episodes, you have 7-8 dubbers doing that, then your script writers have to keep up with that demand. And that’s actually one of the most challenging things to do. Getting the scripts done,” he explains.
“A script for a full featured takes about five days or a week,” adds Strzalkowski.
Curiously, these Filipino voice actors admit that the hardest language to dub is Tagalog.
“Tagalog into English is peculiarly tough. Chinese and Spanish, and maybe Japanese are the bulk of material that dubbers do. If the character says ‘hindi,’ the English translation is ‘no.’ That’s two syllables versus one,” Domingo explains.
Speaking business
Besides being an acclaimed theater actor, Domingo is president and artistic director of Word of Mouth Productions, which is involved in theater productions as well as dubbing.
He notes that the market is ripe: “It has expanded with DVDs. With a direct video market, you have different buyer. Just like the American film making industry for instance, not everything is going be for mainstream cinema. There are different target audiences. There are a lot of people who were shooting a wide variety of material because of the Indies exposure too. Anyone with the digital camera can become a filmmaker now.”
He adds, “Actually, apart from movies, there are a lot of TV series that are dubbed. The nation’s soap operas, there are telenovelas, chinovelas, koreanovelas, etc.”
Jeremy Domingo reveals how he plans to stay on top despite the global recession that has affected the movie industry: “I think it’s really just a matter of rolling with the punches. We’re grateful for the experiences we had. Gaining the experience, growing up in the industry and it’s time to put something together. I mean the market place is always evolving. When compared for 15 years ago, the dubbing industry is now pretty big. There are lots of people who we know that do it full time. The market changes here and abroad.”
Word of Mouth Theater is located at 6678 Taylo Street, Barangay Pio Del Pilar, Makati City. For details, call +63917-8963080, +63908-6214855, +632-4894819 or email jeremy_domingo@yahoo.com and wordofmouththeater.philippines@gmail.com.
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A civilized nod in my direction confirmed my existence to her. Once in awhile there was a glimpse of a smile when our eyes crossed, well, I was a lot younger than George Hamilton, :D.
