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Hours after flying back from Hollywood where she accepted an award created especially for her voice dubbing software, film producer Rhonda Kite recalls where it all began - Morocco. During her OE in the 1970s, Kite saw an episode of The Flintstones which had been dubbed into Arabic
and wondered if the same could be done with Maori. It could, and it was, 20 years later when she was looking for ways to expand her post-production business, Kiwa Media Group, now the largest post-production company in the South Pacific.
Maori Television has been broadcasting dubbed shows using Kite's product since it launched three years ago and Kiwa has done post-production for films such as The Bourne Supremacy, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and bro'Town, as well as films and documentaries produced by Kite herself.
The software, VoiceQ, streamlines the translation and dubbing of films and TV programmes. Judges at the Hollywood Post Alliance Engineering Excellence Awards, which acknowledge creative and technical excellence in the art, science and craft of post-production, were so impressed with the technology that they created a special award for it after it was nominated by a top Fox Studios engineer.
Kite targets film production companies in Hollywood and hopes to close two "quite sizeable" contracts there in the next six months.
By scrolling text of the script over a video of the film, VoiceQ provides frame-accurate cueing for recording dialogue and sound effects.
Kite's own experiences gave her insight into what was most important in post-production: speed and accuracy. Using VoiceQ cuts down on dubbing time, she says, an attractive selling point with film studios because the dialogue in many films is often re-recorded after filming.
It also synchronises translations into 25 languages and can work with projects in multiple languages at the same time.
To make it easier for the translators, Kite's brother David helped develop an online translation management system.
The company targeted Europe first and sold about 100 copies there, but language was often a barrier, as was the distance from New Zealand. The product was still at the development stage - the right time to start marketing it, according to venture capitalists, but Kite realised she just didn't have the money.
"I saw that [the Europeans] needed to be influenced by the major film studios in the US which make more films and so have huge requirements for multi-language translations."
There are other services on the market that do post-production sound, but not one packaged product that works in a digital environment, Kite says. Small to medium-sized companies can't afford the competing US$50,000 ($64,000) to US$100,000 services and VoiceQ is too niche to be on the major studios' radars.
It may be a niche product now but Kite reckons the market will grow and VoiceQ will become the industry standard.
"With TV, computer and mobiles there's only going to be more content, which makes it imperative for distributors to get their products out there as fast as possible."
Because VoiceQ is a "disruptive" technology - one which replaces existing products - sales success also depends partly on weaning the older actors off traditional cueing methods, although Kite's product has included some of those to make it easier to sell.
Attracting investment has been "almost impossible". Kiwa Media Group has been almost totally funded by friends and family, as well as the odd subsidy from the Poutama Trust and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise when the company was a start-up.
While Kite believes New Zealand shines in helping start-ups, it fails in helping those that have fallen into what venture capitalists call "the chasm" - post start-up. "There are good start-up schemes in this country, but when you hit the chasm you're left on your own until you claw your way out of it.
"It makes me wonder how entrepreneurial we really are in New Zealand because I don't believe we take as many risks as we say we do. This product is the future, digital content is happening now, it's glaringly obvious."
However Kite is used to doing for herself. After being made redundant from an accounting job, she borrowed money to invest in the music-focused Eden Post Productions, buying out her partner after three years.
She renamed the company Kiwa Media and concentrated on film, television and advertising work instead. Auckland-based Kiwa now has 11 full-time staff and a turnover averaging around $1.5 million a year.
The 53-year-old Kite is a member of the New Zealand On Air board and is developing two feature films, and co-writing the script for one of them.
It's clear she loves her work, but says it's not just a matter of making money.
"For most of my life, I was frustrated in the jobs that I was doing. Now I'm doing something that makes my heart sing."
