Introducing: New Credit Categories and Professions

Thanks for raising this. We're working on changing it, and expect to launch the fix in the coming days.

@dylan​ months later Voice Actors - Dubbing is still in the "Filmography (non acting)" section.

As much as they try to replace dubs with AI slop,

REAL actors are still here and busy. This needs to be fixed immediately.

Hi - Croatian dubbing credits are not yet supported on IMDb. We do intend to add more dubbing languages in future, and we have noted this as a request to add Croatian.

To put my issues into context, for instance for the French game China: The Forbidden City (1998), in spite of the character credits listed on IMDb, just the US voice actors' names are listed in the end credits of the game, no roles. In the same format, I have actor credits from files on the official releases, localized for French, German, Italian, Spanish (also Dutch and Swedish, currently not allowed by IMDb). See below.

Quite easy to add to IMDb, even some credits for casting and dialogue direction, but again, hadn't it been for the fact that no roles have been specified. To me, it would be a pity to have to leave this out.

Samples:

French

#Studio d'enregistrement

Studio 1

#Casting et Direction de plateau

Jean François Vlérick

#Comédiens (actors)

John Arnold

Pierre Baton

Luc de Goustine

Scali Delpeyrat

Eric Etcheverry

Xavier Guitey

Charlotte Lévy

Christophe Kourotchine

Mado Maurin

Léon Napias

Dominique Rozet

Marie Viart

Jean François Vlérick   

German

#Ton

Creative Studios GmbH, Hamburg;

Hermann Prinz, Stefan Wabnik, Anja Zurawski

#Dialogregie

Antje Roosch

#Sprecher (speakers):

Ingo Abel, Monty Arnold, Volker Bogdan, Jan Fischer, Lothar Grützner

Konrad Halver, Michael Harck, Katrin Jeakel, Frank Jordan, Wolfgang Jürgen

Gerda-Maria Jürgens, Micaele Kreißler, Ela Nitsche, Wolf Rahtjen, Reent Reins

etc.

Hi and thanks for raising these questions.

The "original language version" of a title is generally the language that it was first released with. For most live action (non-animation) titles, this will be the language that the cast members on-screen are speaking in. For most animation titles, this will be the language of the dialog that was originally recorded in the studio, before the on-screen animation was created to fit with it. Other languages are usually "dubbed" after this original dialog is recorded.

In the case of "Japanese anime movies", the original language is most often Japanese, as you note. The "International English release" is likely to be a dubbing that was recorded after the original Japanese dubbing was recorded. If so, then the version of the movie with the original Japanese dialog is deemed as the original release, and the English dubbing version is not.The same applies to French animated features like 'Les Triplets de Belleville' (2003) and 'Persepolis' (2007) - the French dialog is deemed as the original version of these titles, and the English dubs are not.

The same rule applies in cases where the same actor performs both the English and French - the person should have a "Cast" credit for their performance of the title's original language, and the same person should also have Voice Actor - Dubbing credits for any performances in non-original languages on the title.

Regarding "international co-productions": If more than one language is used throughout a significant proportion of a title's original dialog, then all of those languages are deemed as its "original", and credits for all those languages should be listed under the "Cast" category.

If an actor's name is listed in the on-screen credits without a character name next to it, then it will usually be listed under a heading like "Additional Voices" or something to that effect. In this case, "Additional Voices" or whatever the heading says should be entered in the character box. If there is no heading, but you happen to know the character names, then you can enter those, with a / separating each one.

Yes, reliable magazine articles, press releases, interviews, and reliable websites are all generally accepted as evidence.

And yes - IMDb staff will migrate existing applicable Cast credits to the Voice Actor - Dubbing category in due course. Please see our guideline about this here: https://help.imdb.com/article/contribution/filmography-credits/cast-acting-credits-guidelines/GH3JZC74FVYKKFMD?ref_=helpsrall#voice): "There are many English language voice credits still in the Cast category following the addition of the new Voice Actor - Dubbing category. These credits will be migrated to the correct category by IMDb staff, and should not be removed from the Cast category. Any of these credits found to be in the Cast category should be left for migration, or deleted and then re-added to the Voice Actor - Dubbing category. For guidance on how to correct a credit's category, please refer to this Filmography FAQ."

Video games are currently a slightly special case: We consider any actor listed in the end credits of the original release as being the original cast - regardless of the game's country of origin. This is because video games are so frequently localized prior to release and those localized names are often credited on screen. So The Witcher - whilst developed by CD Projekt in Poland, did contain a full English voice cast upon release. Likewise, the original version of 'The Witcher' (2007) is indeed the one with the original Polish dialog.

there are a few anime series where the Japanese voice actors speak English too.

@dylan​ Thank you very much indeed for such an extensive, detailed explanation!

And for acknowledging that in quite a number of cases, like for Japanese anime productions, the original voices are not the English ones. Not only in the US, but also more and more in European countries and probably elsewhere, it is often taken for granted that the international, English titled and English spoken (or even re-edited/trimmed/re-scored for the US market) releases are the 'standard' ones. A notion which, as a European, I frequently beg to differ with ;-).

Therefore, I hope that the "(voice)" attribute for actors on IMDb will not be taken as a default designation for "(voice: English version)", but explicitly specified in full when in doubt, to avoid confusion.

As indeed voice actors are often merely listed without specific roles, I really welcome the idea to allow an Additional Voices credit, or hopefully reliable outside dubbing sources , like the ones that IMDb editor Katherine R. very helpfully recommended as reliable sources in a mail to me:

International:

• www.behindthevoiceactors.com, also: Dubdb, International Dubbing Wiki, Fandub

Specific languages:

• French Canadian: Doublage Quebec
• European French: AlloDoublage, RS-Doublage
• Hindi: Hindi Dubbing Fandom 
• Brazilian Portuguese: Dublapedia 
• Spanish LatinAmerican: Dublaje 
• Spanish European: Eldoblaje

• One Spanish I (Richard_J) would also recommend: www.doblajevideojuegos.es (games dubbed into Spanish)
• Italian: www.vixvocal.it (Italian dubbing encyclopedia) and https://www.antoniogenna.net/doppiaggio/ (The World of Italian Dubbing).
• German: www.synchronkartei.de (German dubbing index)
  • e.g. https://www.synchronkartei.de/film/1054 (Finding Nemo (2003): Alexander Gould (Nemo) - Domenic Redl (German voice)
• German: synchrondatenbank.de (list of dubbed international films before 1977)
  • e.g. https://synchrondatenbank.de/movie.php?id=16592 (Sleeping Beauty (1958) (aka Dornroeschen und der Prinz): Mary Costa (Aurora) -  Maria Milde (German voice)

Although some discretion and restraint should definitely be exercised so as not to make this welcome change turn out for the worse, 

Nevertheless, this guideline will still present quite a challenge to editors and contributors alike in a lot of cases.

It's not completely clear to me what to make of your advice for video games. You consider a game like The Witcher (2007) as originally in Polish, but still all localized versions as equals? 

Would this mean that e.g. for this entry, the regular (main) cast will still be listed  like this indiscriminately:

• Doug Cockle - Geralt of Rivia (voice: English version)
• Jacek Rozenek - Geralt of Rivia (voice: Polish version)

• Jules de Jongh - Triss Merigold/Old Women (voice: English version)

• Agnieszka Kunikowska - Triss Merigold (voice: Polish version)

etc.?

I think it should be taken into account in this respect, that video games (and probably also animated features, TV series, documentaries, streams etc.) will often be released a few months later in other territories, giving them extra time to dub, adapt, arrange for localized promotion, and so on, and I've also come across labels for video games like "V.O." in French, which as "version originale" clearly indicates the original language track recorded.

With very best regards,

Richard

@dylan​ 

Another issue: how to deal with established translated character names? True of almost every traditional fairy tale (Cinderella/Cendrillon/Cenerentola/Asschenputtel/Assepoester), but also of modern book/movie franchise series like Pippi Långstrump/Longstocking/Fifi Brindacier in French. The Norwegian children's 'Karsten og Petra'-series is internationally known as 'Casper and Emma'. And of course generic character names like 'Captain', 'The Witch', 'The Huntsman'. Any rule of thumb?!

When in Rome, do as the Romans do?!

Any method in this 'madness'? ;-)

Regards,

Richard

From the first page of this thread:

dubbing voice performances are the only credits on dubbed versions of a title that are now eligible for listing on IMDb. As before, roles such as: ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement), loop group, audio description, dubbing script translator; that are not for the title’s original language version, are still ineligible for listing on IMDb.

Hello there, is there an update to this issue? Over 50 credits as a medical advisor have been moved to the Health & Safety category, however I've never been on a H&S team. Is there a way to revert it back to the original?

Credits are moved between other credit categories in the same way, so the Self section is not the only one.

I don't think acting roles are "invariably" moved to Self, but some are. I see that "Reporter" credits are moved and anything with "Hostess" even though there are quite a lot of fictional roles with such character names. Perhaps you can share other examples.

@Peter_pbn​ Yes, I am currently drafting a contribution that has a credit for "Hostess Lisa" and "Announcer" and both were auto-moved to Self.  "Cop" and its variations like "Uniformed Cop", "Officer" or other titles like "Fire Fighter", "Mayor", or "President" - really, any role that are job titles - trip the auto move.  Yet, as you noted, there are many cast roles that are credited as such.  The trigger words are far too broad.

@peter_5759167​ 

I can't replicate that for Cop, Officer, Fire Fighter, Mayor or President. I wonder what you are doing differently.

@Peter_pbn​ You are right, this was my error.  I overlooked that I tried those other roles after I had been moved to the Self section.  I clicked the "Cancel this new credit" box thinking that would clear the initial entry and return me to the Cast section but actually, I remained in Self so all the new roles I tested were also being entered as Self entries, I just didn't realize it.  My claim that any job role triggered the auto move to Self was wrong.

What title?