JEAN ROUCH SOUND DUBBING CENTRE

The Jean Rouch Centre which is the Regional Centre for Sound Dubbing in Africa is a section of the Sound Department of the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI).

The Centre is collaboration between NAFTI and Cifap in France for the purpose of Dubbing Films from their original language into another language, hence encouraging African Film Producers to widen the distribution network for their films.

That is, if a film is produced in French it can be dubbed into English for distribution in the English speaking countries and vice versa. The centre is equipped with the state of the art equipment for sound dubbing. It has two main workstations.

Syncode – Rythmo Workstation: - This setup is used for the Detection and the Adaptation stages of the Dubbing Process.
Protools Audio Workstation: - This is a multi-track audio recorder used for the Recording and the Mixing stages of the dubbing process.

Since its establishment on the 9th of March 2004, the centre has successfully dubbed four (4) productions from French into English. These are an episode each form the following four (4) Francophone TV Serials,
Taxi Brousse – A Burkina Faso / Benin Co- production.
WAMBI, BOBODIOUF and LILI & MADOU - All produced in Burkina Faso and SOFIA - a short feature length film also produced in Burkina Faso.
“The Trees of Spirit”– An Animation of about 44 minutes duration from Concordia University, Canada. Betting on Love (2003) - a short feature length film from Cote d’Ivoire.

A POTENTIAL CLIENT FOR SOUND DUBBING SHOULD PRESENT THE FOLLOWING:
ORIGINAL SCRIPT preferably the TRANSCRIBED SCRIPT from the film. This is because it is common knowledge that not all the dialogue written in the original script ends up on the screen. The exact words the characters deliver on screen is what matters in sound dubbing.
TRANSLATED VERSION OF THE SCRIPT – literal transposition from the original language of the original script into the new language.
Copy of the Movie with Original Version (OV) and International Version (IV) Original Version (OV) – This consists of the background noises, original sound effects and voices of the movie soundtrack. But the complete mixed soundtrack of the movie is also acceptable.
International Version (IV)– This consists of the MUSIC and EFFECTS (background noise, original sound effects and special sound effects). That is, all the sounds of the movie soundtrack except the voices. This track is commonly referred to as the ‘M & E track’ (music and effects).

The movie should be recorded on a DVCAM tape format and PAL system. The translated version of the script must be word-processed text on either a CD or other soft copy.
The original script or transcribed script should be a printed hard copy.
Translation and the building of the international track can be done at the dubbing centre but at an extra cost.
In the circumstances where the international track will have to be done at the centre all the pieces of music used for the film should be sent on an audio CD.