Mike \ (chiefdork@animejump.com)
Sun, 21 Feb 1999 14:19:36 +0000
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 (Macintosh; I; PPC) Message-ID: <36D015EC.C07592F2@animejump.com> Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1999 14:19:36 +0000 From: "Mike \"Mr. Groovy\" Toole" <chiefdork@animejump.com> Subject: Sakura Wars dub
> cost less to produce than a dubbed version (timing the subtitles
instead
> of creating a music, voice, and sound effect track).
Actually, 99% of the time, the licensor will have access to the original
audio elements like sounds and music. But they sometimes won't-- that's
why there's no dub of Gunbuster, because the original audio elements
were lost, and reconstructing them would be too expensive. Still, a
single thirty-minute dubbed episode DOES cost tens of thousands of
dollars to produce, after being translated, rewritten, cast, recorded,
and mixed.
> Even a basic,
> cheap program like Premiere can do that, or at least a cheaper
> production program like Media 100 which can produce excellent video
> copies.
Most anime companies use Captions, Inc. which have their own high-toned
specialized subtitling software.
> But then again, the company might be thinking in terms of how
> many copies are sold of this copy versus a dubbed one.
That's just it. Subtitled videos may be cheaper to produce, but they
sell far fewer copies. Matt Greenfield at ADV said that their dubbed
tapes outsell subbed tapes in ratios that range from 3 to 1 to 7 to 1,
generally. It's a question of supply and demand. Video companies also
mark subtitles as more expensive because this is a specialty market, and
they know that fans will pay the extra money to get what they want.
It's easy to grumble about how these videos are "too expensive!", but
that just isn't the case. Anime is a luxury item, and as such, the
market dictates the price. If anime were really "too expensive", it
wouldn't sell well, and companies would be forced to fold or drop their
prices.
> Sorry to get all preachy. I took a course in college about marketing
> products and my art professor made a movie and talked about all the
> sacrifices that have to be made, whether they are good intentions or
> not.
Higher-priced subtitled tapes are a pain in the ass, but it's good
business sense. And the fact is, if you shop intelligently, you can
still get subtitled tapes at a good price. Buyvideos.com has Sakura
Taisen vol. 1 subtitled for pre-order for eighteen bucks. That's not a
bad deal.
And don't forget DVD. If it comes into prominence as the medium of
choice (and it's beginning to look that way bigtime-- 1.5 million home
DVD players, and almost 6 million DVD-ROM drives have now been sold)
then fans will no longer even need to worry about dubbed or subtitled
versions-- they'll be able to have both.
Incidentally, I've recorded some clips from the Sakura Wars dub, and
will be putting them up on my site as MP3 files sometime tonight. I
know most of you will hate them, but I thought I'd throw them up to
satisfy your curiousity. :-) Watch the list to get the link for them.
--Mike