Ken escapes and the power of language

KEN ESCAPES TO NEW ORLEANS
Before I left for Miami and Haiti in September, I made arrangements with my wife, Sally, to meet in New Orleans over the Halloween weekend. We can only be apart for so long before I start to turn to jelly. She is my life force and I could not go one more day without laying my eyes on her lovely visage.

Unfortunately it was during crunch time on the SKIN DEEP dub, but Sacha assured me he could handle it on his own until I returned. As you can see by my last post, he did an admirable job.

New Orleans is one of my favorite cities in the US. It kicks San Francisco's ass, and I've never had less than a wonderful time there. We were staying at the Maison Dupuy in the French Quarter, a few blocks from Bourbon Street. Halloween is one of the busiest times in New Orleans, so hotel rates were way up and Rue Bourbon was jammed with drunk, overweight white people--a far cry from what I have been seeing in Haiti. The most alarming thing, other than being in the presence of hundreds of people inebriated beyond the ability to remain upright, was the fact that many of the most overweight people were in their 20's. I am not talking about having a beer belly here. A panel of impartial judges would agree unanimously that 97% of the people we encountered that evening were larger than the good Lord meant for them to be. I am not particularly lean myself (a beer belly would be an adequate description), but this Halloween eve I felt positively svelte amongst the young revelers.

The weather in New Orleans was beautiful; never getting too warm or humid. The mood was, as always, festive and friendly. The food was good, the music terrific, and we got to meet a real blues musician: E.L. of EL and the Electrified Experience. Between Jimi Hendrix covers he sang some kick ass blues on stage at the Funky Pirate. He also showed clearly that one does not need a full complement of teeth to sing the blues. In fact, many excellent blues singers have obvious missing teeth. Maybe it's a requirement. His bass player is Chile Cline. Since our monikers are the same (see my e-mail address) we bought one of his CD's.

Ken's being pretty catty on this post: overweight white people and blues singers with no teeth! I promise to elevate the level of discourse from henceforth.

For those out there looking for travel info about New Orleans, please let me know via e-mail as we have managed to find some of the best food and music spots in our visits there.

It was great to see my lovely wife, even if it was just for a few days. I cried when she boarded her plane in New Orleans headed for home. I cried again later that evening when I went to my hotel in Miami and watched the election returns. It was a different sort of cry then, but my mood returning to Haiti was decidedly sad.

THE POWER OF LANGUAGE
I used to be down on dubbing movies into other languages. I always felt that it destroyed the actor's original performance, and it was pandering to the audience (so they wouldn't have to read subtitles). This experience in Haiti taught me that such notions are misguided and just plain dumb. I personally prefer subtitles, but I am a graduate of the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics Institute. My eyes can grab the subtitle in one gulp and still have plenty of time to soak up the visuals. This is not the case for the vast majority of movie audience members. In fact, here in Haiti a good number can't read, so subtitles are completely useless. Even those who speak English are missing something because it is not their native language.

However, when we dubbed SKIN DEEP into Kreyol, it opened up the movie to a whole new audience. Care was taken to translate the actor's lines such that it sounded like words actual Haitians would say to each other. We even incorporated numerous local-only expressions to make the language in the film feel even more comfortable to our Haitian audience. The final, and perhaps most important, aspect of the dubbing was the fact that Sacha was actually directing the voice actors. They had to mimic the performances on screen to a degree, but the vocal performances had to have their own life. It could not sound like the actors were merely reading the lines in sync. Sacha was able to match the voice actor's attitudes and mindsets with those of the original actors. This, I feel, is the most successful aspect of SKIN DEEP v. Haïtienne. It feels as if the voice actors and the on screen actors are one in the same.

Language is probably the single most potent force in unifying a culture and its people. If one wants to communicate effectively with any given culture, effective use of language is paramount. But is goes beyond just the words; i's the arrangement of those words, the specific accents and vocal expressions of each syllable, and the use of words that allow the listener to feel comfortable. These all contribute to "successful" communication. The people you are trying to reach may or may not like your message, but at least they can judge your work from their own perspective.

Sacha and I are currently fixing a few problems with SKIN DEEP, version Haïtienne that will improve the overall sound mix, correct 2 lines that use improper French grammar, and delete one shot from the opening sex scene that Edner feels will make the film more appropriate for a broader audience. We should have it ready by this weekend.

NEXT TIME: The power of white guilt, and "Will Ken be all by himself in Haiti for 2 weeks?"