Giovanni Casano: Here we are with the great Alessio Pelicella: I call him the big boss, Studio Emme's technical chief. Can you describe us your work?
Alessio Pelicella: Well, what i really try to do is coordinate...
Giovanni: ... and you really do a good job...
Alessio: ...coordinate all the people - and they're al lot of people - and all their efforts, to work on a movie, a toon, a series such as Farscape, and make them the best possible. This means from the original script to the translation, from its translation to its adaptation: the script is then divided in several parts, analyzed section by section to find problems and resolve them; I also help in finding all the right voices, trying to mediate between the Studio and the customers.
Giovanni: Our listeners don't know much about dubbing. Actors usually meet together to play every part or...
Alessio: It depends.
Giovanni: ...they do it sequentially...
Alessio: It depends from many reasons, first of all the time to deliver the work. If we are short in time, putting together all the actors or making them turnover is very difficult, because everyone have different availabilities, and sometime it's not possible to postpone things. So every characters having a great amount of lines are separated and put in "separated columns": this means they are alone dubbing their lines. Fabrizio Pucci, who dubbed John Robert Crichton, worked on the column practically alone, in these "separated columns". Other characters did not, specially Pierluigi Astore (Ka D'Argo) or Chiana, because they don't speak for enough time to group them together in a single turnover. On the other side it should be necessary to amass several "separated columns" of four or five episodes to dub Chiana. Sometime is better to have all the actors in Studio working together; but this is often impossible due to everyone's availability; sometimes is useful to dub the scenes having actors one in front of another, because many scenes are emotionally involving and is required a direct reciprocity between them to help them fully interpret their roles.
Giovanni: Yesterday you told me that the greatest difficulties in sci-fi series are names and techno babble...
Alessio: It's extremely difficult!
Giovanni: ...places, weapons... What's the most difficult thing you found, really...
Alessio: Farscape! Farscape is the most difficult thing I made. Absolutely. And i don't mean Studio Emme has few works to do, not at all. Sometime we dub ten, twelve series all together, three of four movies, and Farscape - and now Babylon 5 too - needs a lot of attention. Each series - Farscape or Babylon 5 - needs the same time required by three or four other series. Difficulties are huge.
Giovanni: Fans are very hard to please...
Alessio: Yes, they are... someone...
Giovanni: We Know it by sure!
Alessio: Yes, I do know someone... They are really exigent, and they're right. Terminology is vast, and it's complicated to respect it. the FarScape Italian Club really helped us a lot with it. We did not want to repeat the mistakes made with the old Babylon 5 edition.
Giovanni: It's been a pleasure!
Alessio: This work involves lot of persons, and we need all of them, because we need to keep an high profile. The biggest problems with Farscape, aside from terminology, is the famous frell... or... Yes: yotz! ... right, yotz, or even hezmana; it's not very intuitive in Italian. After you make 88 episodes we all know you have to say frèll, but hezmàna could be hezmanaà or something else... It's difficult, there are many terms like those, and not only Rygel XVI or Ka D'Argo use them. Farscape is somehow easier then Babylon 5 because there are less characters involved. Sometimes there are some guest stars, but they last just for an episode. In Babylon 5 instead there are many recurring roles, appearing in several episodes. I have grown as a sci-fi fan watching Farscape, and I never thought I could be a sci-fi fan...
Giovanni: I'm very happy to hear it!
Alessio: ... so sometime I found it difficult to speak well of other things... just because Farscape is very ironic and has rich characters, something hard to find in other products that we dub.
Giovanni: Which are production times for a series? I.E. Farscape, four seasons. How long did it take to complete it?
Alessio: Four seasons, 88 episodes, 50 minutes per episode... It's a very big work, and a Dubbing Studio usually complete it in eight-nine months.
Giovanni: And how many persons work in it, aside from actors in dubbing?
Alessio: Aside from dubbers,.. because the work starts long before dubbing, and aside the technical part... ... you mean the sound engineers... yes, i mean a great part of the staff...the technical team, working on the original script and adapting it for dubbing... ...readapt it... let's say we start in 4-5 persons, and we then pass our results to the dubbers' Director, and to the Dubbing assistant; even the actors can contribute to adaptation, it's a team work! Everyone can have a word, and we all do it. We always help each other. So in the end I can say there's been a lot of people who worked in this project. Obviously we only can see the result of your work, and we do not know what's behind it. And after the dub we give the magnetic tape to the synchronizer, which is the next ring of the chain: he fits audio traces in synch.
Giovanni: Sure.
Alessio: And then there is the mixer, then several other controls. Five or six other passages. You say, well, it's over, and instead it's not over! And sometimes, like in Farscape, there's also the making of DVDs..
Giovanni: Yes.
Alessio: ...so you have to add graphic designers... I know something about them! ...the assembler, the DVD's authoring... and that's all.
Giovanni: Dear Alessio, I thank you for this...
Alessio: Thanks to you!
Giovanni: ... complex answer you gave us...
Alessio: Thanks to you!
Giovanni: Thanks.