World-leading production house Kiwa Digital first created software called Voice Q in 2003, designed to automatically dub foreign language dialogue in television and film production.
Now, for the first time the film Prey, which is part of the action & horror saga Predator, has also been dubbed in Comanche, a Native American language, using the Māori-developed technology.
The film itself is set in 1719 in the Northern Great Plains in America and tells the story of a Comanche warrior taking on awarrior from outer space.
It’s a dream come true for the Māori digital company whose aim is to help retain and revitalise indigenous languages of the world.
Managing director Steven Renata (Ngāpuhi) says Kiwa Digital was contacted through partner Pixelogic Media’s dubbing director Charles Fathie to make it all happen.
The process of making it happen is a similar process to doing the reo Māori dubbed version of Disney's Moana, Renata says.
“What happens is they translate the script from English to Comanche. From that, they adapt the translated script to ensure the lip movements fit perfectly so that when you look at it, it looks as if it was filmed in that particular language.
“It’s Voice Q, our technology that has a unique user interface that makes it easy for the adaptors to make those changes on the script.”
A challenge for the film was finding native speakers of Comanche.
“For some of those native Comanche voice actors, it was a learning experience for them to be able to see their language in a karaoke format and be able to deliver it authentically.
“With a bit of repetition, it was amazing how well they delivered their lines.”
With Prey one of the few films getting the indigenous language dub treatment, much like Disney's animated films Frozen and The Lion King being dubbed into te reo Māori, it has "catapulted indigenous dubbing to a new level".
Renata says all of the mahi that goes into dubbing a film in an indigenous language hopes viewers can take in the film as if they were native speakers of the language themselves.
Prey can be watched in the Comanche language on Disney+ now.
