Today we’d like to introduce you to Charles Fathy.
Charles, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started as a French actor in Los Angeles. Being an actor, dubbing was an “add-on” to my on-screen career, and I quickly discovered it was a very interesting part of the business. As I was dubbing more and more movies from English to French, I was asked by the studios to adapt the script, and even to direct the other actors during the recording sessions. It wasn’t long before I knew the dubbing process from start to finish, so I decided to build my own company.
This was my way of giving back to the community, particularly to the foreigners pursuing an acting career in LA since, at the time, I only did French projects. Since I knew from personal experience how challenging it could be to make a good living out of acting, in part because there are tons and tons of skilled people in this town, I was happy to help other talented young actors learn and perfect a new trade and expand their horizons by doing so.
I was quickly able to establish my company as a leader in the French dubbing industry and was known as the only dubbing studio with over 200 native talents in my database. I was soon offered French-Canadian projects, which was a great new market for me to discover. Then Italian projects came in, followed by German ones, Castilian Spanish ones… and, at last, American English!
I thought I was starting a French dubbing company, but here I am, ten years later, delivering projects in all major European languages as well as in American English.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The biggest struggle was the lack of real dubbing tools. When I started, everything was done by hand, and the process was highly time-consuming for everyone involved. Thanks to a close collaboration with VoiceQ, a rythmo-band inspired by the European way, we have been able to take this audio replacement technology to the next level and thus deliver a final product of unparalleled precision.
VoiceQ, a dubbing and audio dialogue software, patented as a unique innovation and limitedly available at only a select few dubbing studios in the United States, has rapidly disrupted the dubbing and audio dialogue replacement industry, revolutionizing possible workflow, time efficiency, and the perfection level of each finished product in areas like spotting and labials.
Finally, the dubbing road is really a smooth one.
Please tell us about Encore Voices.
Encore Voices offers English and European language services. We are a one-stop shop; from translation to post-production. We specialize in Live Action English Dubbing, French, French-Canadian, Italian, German, and Castilian Spanish.
We have a great portfolio of projects we have worked on, from popular series such as The Looming Tower to animated ones like Splash & Bubbles, we know the value in staying ahead of the curve, and we take great pride in sharing that value with our clients.
In recent years, we have also set ourselves apart by becoming a reference when it comes to Audio Description. Audio Description is a specialized modality, wherein trained writers and voice over professionals collaborate in-studio, to create and record a narrative audio track for a film that announces to visually impaired audiences, what’s happening onscreen, when there is no dialogue taking place.
These narrative tracks are indispensable to would-be movie viewers who are visually impaired, and who would otherwise miss out entirely on the film going experience. Since we believe that movies are for everyone, we are proud to make it possible for visually impaired movie lovers to enjoy a great story without missing out.
Something else that is important to me personally, and to my company, is to give access to the dubbing world to actors who have little to no experience in dubbing. Again, this is possible thanks to our workflow which doesn’t have the technical requirements that it had in the past.
With the new karaoke-like rythmo-band (VoiceQ), our actors can truly focus on acting and thus deliver much stronger performance. We aim to make the audience believe that what they see was originally shot in the language they are hearing. With our top of the line workflow and our great team spirit, it’s now possible to achieve that goal.
Most importantly, we are proud of our work values and fairness. We truly believe in teamwork, giving people a chance, and treating everyone with respect.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I could have surrounded myself with people specialized in business development earlier to accelerate the growth of the company, but at the same time, I am happy with the way my company naturally evolved.
My priority was to solidify my team, and that turned out to be the perfect decision in the long run.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.encorevoices.com
- Phone: (424) 341-3330
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/encorevoices/ - Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/Encorevoices/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/
encorevoices - Other: https://www.linkedin.
com/company/encore-voices/
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