From acting to dubbing, there is only one step. Especially in Los Angeles. Like many, Charles Fathy left his country of origin (France in this case in 1996), to develop his acting career. Fascinated by westerns, he then chooses the Mecca of cinema, Hollywood. “But quite quickly, I saw the difficulty in finding work in this field, and I was led to do dubbing. Almost exclusively for airlines, at first. ”
It operates in this environment, which was very closed in France, even inaccessible for training players. Until 2008 when he decided to found Encore Voices, his dubbing company. “There were more and more requests for dubbing in French, whether for airplanes or the DVD market”, he recalls. For him, it’s a way of “return the favour” for actors who have recently arrived from France, and who find themselves empty-handed, lost between auditions and casting failures.
It starts with around fifteen French actors, reaching today around a hundred; and surrounds himself with translators-adapters, casting directors and set directors. And when we ask him about French Canadian, he enlarges his team and opens up to this market. The requests are increasing for Italian, German, Spanish … “And for the past three years, there has been a huge demand for English dubbing of foreign films from streaming platforms”, rejoices the one who has added a string to his bow.
“Dubbing in English was previously very badly perceived, and associated with Kung-fu films. There was a lot of outcry, we had to show that we could do it well. ” Because, as Charles Fathy reminds us, the art of dubbing was born in France at the same time as talking cinema, in the 1930s. The country in particular invented the demanding technique of the “rythmo band” – horizontal band scrolling at the bottom. of the screen and including the text to be pronounced by the actors making the voices of the characters as well as the sounds they must reproduce – which requires a good memory. Charles Fathy then wanted to simplify this technique and adapt it digitally, developing with the company VoiceQ a software that he calls “karaoke for actors”. A method that has particularly attracted Americans wanting to dub with Encore Voices, which uses studios in Santa Monica and Burbank.
Thus, the company has become “The biggest dubbing box in English”, performing 8,300 minutes of dubbing in different languages each year. The company works with independent producers as well as streaming platforms. She thus participated in the dubbing, in collaboration with the Roundabout studios, of films and series such as “I Lost My Body”, “La Vie Scolaire” and “Plan Coeur”, but also documentaries on flamenco, salsa and music. tango for Redbull, as well as ads for Gillette or the audio description of the last “Terminator”. But Charles Fathy admits it: “Over the past two years, 90% of our production is in English.”
A “hybrid” company since the epidemic
With the health crisis and the containment measures, the film industry has suffered. Less that of dubbing. Charles Fathy thus decided to find an alternative from a distance, by offering dubbing at home. This is especially what he did for the Italian series “Curon”, where actors and actresses recorded from home. “Technically, they only need a computer, a microphone and a place without noise pollution (background noise or echoes). In particular, we suggested small home studios to absorb noise ”, he adds. “I wanted to find more than a fallback solution, a lasting solution.”
Because today, Encore Voices is defined as “A hybrid company”, which offers home and studio dubbing. “We are preparing for a reconfinement for non-essential businesses like ours. It gives us virtual studios. ”
Having flown over the crisis, he nevertheless fears the result. “A prolonged film industry shutdown hasn’t affected us directly, but it could affect us in several months.”
Dedicated to dubbing and his business, the French actor pursues comedy when he can, having notably played in the play “A Picasso” in France and abroad. “One of my projects remains to produce the English version of a famous French play.”
