Melatie: Dubbing and Mixing

”Melatie” or “Mejselvägen” in Swedish, is the Finnish localized version of Norwegian satirical animated series “Hellerudsvingen”. The comedy follows three teenagers, as they navigate challenges related money, sex, racism or sexism, among other things. Localization in this context means more than just dubbing — some characters, dialogue, and settings were adapted to be more recognizable and relatable for a Finnish audience.

Role of VILD

The original norwegian dialogue of Melatie had to be replaced with Finnish and Swedish versions. VILD was responsible for recording the dialogue in collaboration with talented voice actors and directors Milla Tuokkola (Finnish version) and Märta Westerlund (Swedish version).

Recording for an animated series involves a lot more than simply pressing Record and Stop. The sound engineer’s responsibilities also include directing, adapting dialogue, keeping the spirits high, and managing schedules.

Mutual understanding and collaboration between the sound engineer and director are vital during recording sessions. Naturally, the main responsibility of directing the performances lies with the director. The sound engineer’s role is to read the situation and offer technical or creative input when it is called for. How much input is expected depends greatly on the preferences, personality and experience of the director. In case of Melatie, the collaboration with both directors felt very natural. They both had a clear vision, but were also open to suggestions and willing to try alternative approaches.

Most importantly, the recording sessions were a lot of fun. Since the material was at times quite extreme, the actors really got to throw themselves into it. There were many “What on earth did we just record?”-moments in the studio.

Cinematic Mixing

The original sound design for Melatie was done in Norway. It was our task to blend the Finnish and Swedish dialogue versions seamlessly with the original sound effects and music. Despite somewhat stiff animation style, the original version sounds very detailed and cinematic. We wanted to maintain the same standard in our localized versions, so we focused on creating depth and perspective in the dialogue mixing.

Dialogue for animated content is typically recorded in acoustically dry studio, so it’s the mixer’s job to make the voice sound natural within the visual environments shown on screen.

In my opinion, in a production like Melatie well-crafted sound mix elevates the entire show and simply makes the content funnier. The viewer may not consciously notice this, but I believe the emotional impact is considerable.