“2020 hasn’t been all bad,” explained Ken Lorber, president, and CEO of The Kitchen International, one of the industry’s leading language localization studios.
“Oddly enough, even though many of our team around the world have been working from home since March, we’ve continued to remain extremely productive. The business has increased; we’ve added new global studio locations; have had new, experienced industry pros join our teams; broadened our technology reach; grown our remote recording capabilities, and have enhanced all of our safety and security measures at all of our studios. Not so bad for an off-year!” he added.
At home, viewing hours have increased by one billion hours, according to reports. With more people watching television than ever before, for longer hours daily, the need for more program content, is exploding. And since few new productions have actually made it to the small, or large screen, during COVID, The Kitchen is being contracted to localize existing programming from Turkey; Africa; France; China; Russia; Korea; India; Israel; Brazil, and on and on, to all languages on a daily basis.
“We are opening up many new opportunities. Since remote recording, with approved home studios, is so prevalent in today’s world, this has given Broadway and Hollywood talent an opportunity to continue to work. Introducing these talented actors to the world of dubbing has certainly created a new outlet for them to use their voices and we are thrilled to have them,” Lorber explained.
In addition to a few new series and films, The Kitchen is seeing a lot of catalog work, with productions that may have aired a year earlier, a decade ago, or earlier, all being looked at as new releases, in new languages.
This is true of talk shows, novellas, anime, cartoons, novellas, features, documentaries, reality shows, and live-action programs.
“The COVID-era can also be credited for giving us time, and personnel, to enhance our technical efforts, security procedures for content and more”, Lorber said.