ANIMAFEST SCANNER X | SYMPOSIUM FOR CONTEMPORARY ANIMATION STUDIES | PANEL 2 – DIGITAL TECHONOLOGIES AND ORIGINALITY

GHOSTS IN THE CELLULOID: AI VIDEO DUBBING AND TRUESYNC Christopher Holliday (Lecturer in Liberal Arts and Visual Cultures Education, King’s College London Faversham, United Kingdom)

PANEL 2: DIGITAL TECHONOLOGIES AND ORIGINALITY      
TEATAR &TD
06/06 TUE 14:15-14:45

This paper examines the stakes of AI originality and discourses of authenticity in relation to the artificial intelligence engine TrueSync, which uses machine learning and persuasive computer animation processing to create sophisticated lip-synced visual translations. Developed by the Neural Network Lab Flawless and approximating the effects of deepfakes technology (Contreras 2022), the TrueSync software has primarily been used when adapting films for foreign release, whereby the original mouth movements of screen performers are digitally retouched to match new national language dubs. Such video dubbing (‘vubbing’) processes swerve the clumsy synchrony of prior dubbing practices, while their visual accuracy for linguistic translations has since been applied to remove verbal expletives from footage without the need for expensive reshoots (Spangler 2022). This paper suggests that the facemapping AI techniques involved in the TrueSync tool recall prior histories of the multiple-language version (MLV) initially developed within early sound cinema. As a counterpoint to
intertitles that otherwise afforded readily flexible language transfer across nations, MLV production involved the shooting of feature films in several languages concurrently, typically reusing sets and costumes, sharing technical equipment between production units, and in some instances casting the same stars across transnational features (Vincendeau 1988). Reflecting on the new creative possibilities of the TruSync video dubbing software and how generative AI is being used to ‘reshoot’ filmed dialogue to fit new vocalizations in post-production, this paper identifies how AI ‘vubbing’ technologies are offering filmmakers new opportunities for multilingual film production that emphasize national specificity and accessibility via the animated construction of newly digitized characters.

Christopher Holliday is Lecturer in Liberal Arts and Visual Cultures Education at King’s College London, specializing in Hollywood cinema, animation history, and contemporary digital media. He is the author of The Computer-Animated Film: Industry, Style and Genre (EUP, 2018), and co-editor of the anthologies
Fantasy/Animation: Connections Between Media, Mediums and Genres (Routledge, 2018) and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: New Perspectives on Production, Reception, Legacy (Bloomsbury, 2021). Christopher is currently researching the relationship between identity politics and digital technologies in popular cinema, and can be found as the curator of the website/blog/podcast www.fantasy-animation.org.