Reykjavík Grapevine - jun. 2023, Side 18

The Reykjavík Grapevine 6 / 23 18Culture
WORDS Iryna Zubenko
IMAGE Art Bicnick
In a quest to better
understand how movies are dubbed
in Iceland, we find ourselves in front
of an unremarkable building in the
industrial block of Hafnarfjörður.
Contrary to its unassuming exterior,
Myndform holds a delightful sur-
prise within its rugged exterior: an
in-house cinema and walls adorned
with beloved cartoon characters.
Eager to show us around is studio
manager Bjarki Gunnarsson. As the
first door opens, I catch a glimpse of
a new episode of Moominvalley on
the screen – this is a movie geek’s
version of Disneyland.
Myndform is one of two
com panies in Iceland that pro vide
dubbing services for movies.
Dubbing? In Iceland? You’re right to
be slightly surprised it’s a practice
here – films are typically screened
with their original audio accompa-
nied by Icelandic subtitles. However,
there is an exception when it comes
to children’s movies and car toons.
Since its founding in 1984, Myndform
has expanded from four to about
30 employees, establishing a fancy
recording studio and amassing a
portfolio of big-name projects along
the way.
Bjarki has been with the company
for almost 25 years. He admits it was
only meant to be an in-between job,
but once he got to know the com-
pany, he was hooked. “I started as
a driver, then I was working on repli-
cation of VHS cassettes. Since then
I have been just going from this to
that. Now I manage the production
department, which includes dubbing,
subtitling, graphic design and much
more,” he says.
The dubbing market in Iceland is
really small, hence, the price for
recording, syncing and dubbing can
amount to about 6–7 million ISK per
project. This excludes the price for
mixing, which is usually handled by
film production companies abroad.
Costs aside, how do the movies in
Icelandic come to life? What does
it feel like to see a highly anticipated
movie before anyone else? And do
you need to be a native Icelandic
speaker to do the job? Bjarki has all
the answers.
BEHIND THE MIC
“The process starts quite early. It can
start one year before the release,” he
shares. “Usually, we get key names
and phrases we have to translate.”
Film productions often release toys
to promote the movie, Bjarki ex-
plains, “That’s the time when they
start planning everything.” Then,
the company runs some voice tests
and does voice recordings. For each
actor, Myndform has to suggest three
voices before sending it to the film
production for a review.
“The final decision is not with us,”
Bjarki admits, but adds that usually,
film productions are very responsive
to comments from the Icelandic side.
Even for small characters in dubbed
movies, precision in voice match-
ing is crucial. “Even if the character
is small, it could be big in the next
movie,” Bjarki explains, highlighting
the importance of thinking ahead for
this industry.
The next stage of the process is
dubbing the trailers, followed by the
movie translation and recordings.
“When we start recordings, we have
to send selected scenes to them
[Universal Pictures or other film pro-
duction company]. They listen to the
scenes, check the quality, and if the
actor is matching what they want,
they send us a review,” Bjarki shares.
“There’s a lot of pressure to keep
the quality high.”
It can take multiple takes for a voice
actor to achieve a perfect lip sync.
“They have to listen, watch, read,
and act at the same time,” Bjarki
laughs. “That’s why I’m not doing it.”
GIVING VOICE TO ICONIC
CHARACTERS
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the
latest and – judging by local box
office numbers – one of the most
successful projects Myndform has
ever worked on. A big Mario fan
myself, I’m curious how the project
panned out?
“The challenge was that Nintendo
was very picky. There was lots of
uncertainty in the beginning,” Bjarki
admits. “I grew up with Mario, so
that was special for me. For most of
the cast it was nostalgia. Otherwise,
I think it was quite basic, just like
any other movie. Except that every-
one said ‘all eyes are on this one,’”
he says.
“My kids waited way too long for the
Mario movie,” says Bjarki, prompting
me – momentarily pretending NDAs
don’t exist – to ask if he couldn’t
have just screened it for them.
“No, I would like them to see it in
the movie theatre in the best quality
and completely ready,” Bjarki says.
“Sometimes we get the film when
it’s not ready,” he turns on his com-
puter and shows us a short clip with
the type of half-made animations
that Myndform usually receives to
start working on the lip sync. “It’s
not so much fun to watch.”
FROM LEÐURBLÖKUMAÐUR
TO BATMAN
In an effort to preserve and popular-
ise the Icelandic language, Iceland
has a long history of linguistic and
cultural adaptation in translation.
It wasn’t that long ago that popular
super heroes like Batman or Spider-
man were known as Leðurblöku-
maðurinn and Köngulóar maðurinn,
respectively. These days, things have
changed – Batman is just Batman,
and, much to my disappoint ment,
Super Mario is just Super Mario.
Bjarki explains that due to toy sales
and other marketing tools, it is more
common that film productions veto
the translation of proper names.
“Myndform started with dubbing in
2011, and since we got started, it has
been like this. I think they sell more
toys than they sell movie tickets,” he
smiles, adding: “In Iceland, at least.”
“We try to dub everything that we
can,” says Bjarki. “If we are allowed
to do the names, we do the names.
If we’re allowed to do the songs, we
do the songs. We try to make it as
Icelandic as possible.”
ONE ACTOR, MANY VOICES
Bjarki boasts that the quality of
dubbing in Iceland is very high.
“The film productions often give us
comments that Iceland has one of
the best dubs in the world,” he says
proudly.
The community of dubbing actors in
Iceland may be small, but it is very
professional. “We are lucky that we
can use the best actors in Iceland,”
says Bjarki as he highlights the
involvement of actor and writer
Gói (Guðjón Davíð Karlsson) as the
voice of Mario. “ There are also
many very good musicians that tend
to be very good dubbing actors,”
Bjarki says, mentioning popular
singer Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson’s
foray into the world of dubbing.
“He was doing Gru for Despicable
Me. There were brothers, Gru and
Dru, and he did both brothers. It was
quite good!”
According to Bjarki, fluency in Ice-
landic is a must for quality dubbing.
He shares a case where the original
voice actor was Asian and the film
production insisted on having an
Asian voice actor for the Icelandic
dub. “We were like ‘Hey, we don’t
know anyone who’s Asian and who
can do dubbing in Icelandic,’” Bjarki
shrugs, adding that he doesn’t recall
any foreigner throughout his career
who would be able to work with
dubbing in Icelandic.
MANY MORE DUBS
TO COME
Bjarki doesn’t hesitate for a second
when asked about his biggest
dubbing projects. “Minions,” he
responds immediately. “And Super
Mario,” he adds. “Trolls was also
complicated because there was
singing. The singing projects are
usually the hardest.”
In addition to dubbing in Icelandic,
Myndform has also dubbed over
the Icelandic for two Netflix series
– Katla and Ófærð (Trapped). On re-
quest of director Baltasar Kormákur,
they were dubbed in English by the
original Icelandic cast.
After wrapping up The Super Mario
Bros. Movie, the company has
already started working on its next
big projects – Trolls 3, Migration and
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken.
“This is an interesting job. You
meet lots of creative people. This
industry is very fun to work with. It
keeps changing a lot,” Bjarki smiles.
“There’s always something new and
new movies all the time. That’s why
I’ve been here so long.”
Film Feature Voices In Sync
A glimpse into the world of dubbing at Myndform
If we are allowed to do
the names, we do the names.
If we’re allowed to do the
songs, we do the songs.
We try to make it as Icelandic
as possible.