Hello Everyone,

It’s Josh here from Loveridge Digital, this week on “Getting into it with Loveridge Digital” we are going to cover what ADR is and when you may need it for your productions!

Firstly it’s important to understand what is ADR? Well ADR stands for (Automatic Dialogue Replacement) which is more commonly known as Dubbing, This technique involves the re-recording of dialogue by the actors after filming as a way to improve audio fidelity or reflect dialogue changes., Typically this is most commonly used to translate a video to a different language without the need and costs of reshooting the video for that region, It does see some use in film especially when shooting a scene in a very noisy environment.

ADR takes place in the post-production stage and is very commonly used in films especially those coming out of the Asian markets, but over recent years we have seen a surge of companies now dubbing and localizing their videos to the various regions they are selling in. This process has a wide variety of pros and cons which I will run through with you today.
one of the biggest benefits of ADR is that you do not need blocky captions on the screen to translate what is being said in the video, It can be very frustrating when watching a video if you misread the captions or need to pause the video as they are going too fast, It breaks the immersion and makes for quite a frustrating watching experience, Removing this frustration from the watching experience does wonders and can really make a video successful in a region that uses a different language.
The major downside to ADR is that it will not look as natural no matter how hard you try, Humans are amazing at noticing subtle differences in lip movement to what they are hearing and a dead giveaway for ADR is when the actor’s lips stop moving but the voice continues, This effect can even be suitable but does break the immersion for the viewer, An dubbed piece will never be as good as an original piece that was recorded on set.

So should you use ADR for your videos?
The answer really depends on your situation, If you have the budget to shoot the video in the native tongue of the region you will be porting to then I would recommend doing that but if you don’t then ADR is much better than nothing! Always remember you want your viewer to have the best viewing experience possible and ADR just might get you there!

Thank you very much for taking the time to watch the video, I hope you found it informative and engaging, until next time.