Dub update and "Can I borrow the car?"

MORE DUBBING EPIPHANIES
We are about to complete our second week of dubbing. We thought we could complete the entire process in this amount of time, but several epiphanies (see below and in a past post) have enlightened us to the fact that the length of time it takes depends on how picky you are about the finished product. If most kung fu movies look fine to you, the process will go much more quickly. After all, the actors on the screen and the dubbing voices are speaking a completely different language. All films of the French New Wave and the Italian Neo-realist periods were post dubbed, and they have stood the test of time. Even the spaghetti westerns were dubbed because director Sergio Leone had each actor speak in his/her native tongue. Clint Eastwood was one of the few who actually spoke English, and he didn't say much.

Anyway, Sacha is an extremely picky person about his film work. He is on a mission to make our little film look just like a Hollywood-dubbed product. I am willingly following him into the abyss on this one, and it seems as if the process will never end. Enter our Haitian distributor, Edner Jean. Edner selected a release date for SKIN DEEP (Version Haitien) without actually consulting with us about how long the process wound take. He has us booked in theaters on November 5. We won't even be finished recording all the dialog (not counting retakes) by November 1. For those who work in Silicon Valley, you know how much trouble you're in when the marketing department starts calling all the shots. Most of you who worked for companies like that are either unemployed or working elsewhere.

Our most recent epiphanies: sometimes actors move their mouth even when no sound comes out. One of our SKIN DEEP actors does this constantly. Most of the time I'm glad he didn't emit audible sound during those moments in the movie, but now we must have our dubbing actors say something, otherwise it looks like a bad dub job. We're exhausting the entire French and Kreyol languages for miscellaneous transitional phrases and what I call "heefin' & eefin". H & E are those sounds that just sort of come out of your vocal system when you have nothing else to say. Imagine most of what Marlon Brando said in his films and you have some idea.

The other major enlightenment came when we were dealing with a line of dialog that is a play on words, or an idiomatic expression that has no translation outside of the native language. Try translating expressions like, "Fuck you and the house you rode in on!" into any other language.

French is constructed much more specifically than English as far as grammar and the use of articles, pronouns, etc. I'm sure the French did this just to piss us off, but their food sure is terrific. One particular trompe de mot in SKIN DEEP was an exchange where one person was describing an incident wherein another character comes to a bad end. Exactly how this happened is one of SKIN DEEP's central enigmas. The person remarks that whomever called the police didn't see how our character was killed. In response the dead character's husband, one of the prime suspects, yells defensively that she died, implying that the exact nature of her death has yet to be determined. In French, this play on words doesn't work because the usage and grammar is more pointed. It would never be a slip of the tongue. We had to change the original line to say that whomever called the police didn't see what happened (not how she was killed). Then, we could keep the husband's response the same and still gently imply that she may have been killed, and maybe her overly sensitive husband is showing his guilt.

Anyway, this is an arduous process if one wants to get it right. Our deadline remains November 5 so stay tuned to see if we make it.

DAD, CAN I BORROW THE CAR?
I wrote this topic heading using teenager-speak (note the incorrect use of the word "can") because I recently had a flashback to my youth.

The other morning we had some time to ourselves (for a change). We had a meeting at Noon, so I wanted to get out on my own and get to know our town a bit better. Until now I've been constantly with at least one other person, and I've seldom been outside of the car, the house or the office. We live about a mile or so from the main retail establishments in our ville so I asked Sacha if I could borrow the car.

Papa Sacha said that he felt responsible for me, and what would I do if something untoward happened and people started running up to me and speaking in a language I could not understand? Despite feeling that I could comprehend "GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" in most any language, I can see where he's coming from. Not only are random violence and crime a problem, but I am literally a walking around with a sign that says, "foreigner." (All the white Haitians could probably fit in the same bar or restaurant.) Until things settle down here it is not a good idea for me to go roaming around by myself.

"But I just want to drive around Pétion-ville, check out some stores, go buy some coffee or something," I pleaded. "Besides," I added pointedly, " when is Haiti ever going to be safe in our lifetime" Like most parents, Sacha had no answers, but he felt that now was not the time for me to spread my wings. Needless to say, I am way pissed off and I feel strongly that Papa Sacha doesn't really understand me. Maybe I'll sneak off one day when he's at work, or late at night when he's asleep.... I am plotting my escape as you read this, so stay tuned kiddies.

MOUSE UPDATE
I arrived at the studio the other day to find our mouse friend lying still on the floor next to our surge protectors. It appeared that he/she died a peaceful death, one unsullied by pain and suffering. He/she was laid to rest in the dumpster next door, and a brief prayer was said on his/her behalf.

Apparently our dearly departed rodent did not live alone. Suddenly, there seemed to be another, LARGER mouse scurrying around the cabinet with urgency and panic. Please keep in mind that this cabinet is about 3 inches behind me, and when the door starts to rattle because the bereaved mouse is playing out his/her grief, it does not make for a comfortable work situation. It's not that I am afraid of mice, mind you. But try not freaking out while random noises are being made behind your work station by an animal with sharp teeth.

NEXT TIME: Ken escapes to New Orleans, and can the SKIN DEEP boyz meet the Haitian deadline???