Deeny Kaplan, Executive Vice President at The Kitchen
Next month, on May 5th, The Kitchen will be celebrating its 20th anniversary. To portray the dubbing studio's history, its most recent international expansions, and how the company has coped with its client management amid the pandemic, Señal News spoke with Deeny Kaplan, Executive Vice President at The Kitchen.
Regarding the rise in language and capacity requests, the localization studio has now evolved into a global dubbing facility with The Kitchen EMEA, with a presence in 14 countries worldwide, offering 16 various languages, including Brazilian Portuguese and Parisian French.
Moreover, the idea for creating the studio in Argentina came from the growing demand for Spanish dubbing. "It's fascinating because we have the capacity that clients are looking for to do neutral Spanish," Kaplan said. "It is the most in-demand language. The first one for any of our clients are going into is neutral Spanish because we have such a large distribution core in South America," she added. Kaplan credits much of its success to its ability to understand the local audiences and its demands, considering the most appropriate dubbing language and tone based on the content's genre and the region where viewers are. "You need to know your market, you need to know your audience, you need to be able to educate clients if they're giving you the wrong information," Kaplan said.
The headquarters in Miami recently returned to work at the studio after months of working from home during the pandemic. The sales, marketing, and accounting teams and select executives continue to work from home. "It's been a really busy year in terms of what we've been able to accomplish even though we've had this horrible pandemic," Kaplan said.
In terms of managing clients in a virtual setting without physical trade shows, Kaplan admits that though the company misses the physical aspect of these events and anticipates an immediate in-person opening, technology has provided the ability to resume work in a comfortable setting. "The Zoom meetings are even more successful because you're not interrupted, it's one-on-one, you're sitting relaxed, and you have more time on these zoom calls than you were if you're sitting at a cafe and people kept coming up and saying hello," Kaplan said.
NEW GOALS
There is a rise in demand for catalog content such as TV series that primarily serve Latin audiences, kid's programming, never-before-seen new shows, among other projects. Another goal of The Kitchen is to grow its presence within the Hollywood market, anime, soap operas, and historical titles. The Subtitles slot demand has also spiked. The Kitchen's German office continues to receive the most significant chunk of this business's work, together with the facilities in Spain, Russia, Turkey, and France. The company is currently seeking additional prospect companies who may be interested in initiating a partnership.
The Kitchen is also looking forward to expanding throughout European countries such as Poland, then Africa, and eventually into Asia. It is also prioritizing technological innovations by recently hiring a tech team to develop related strategies, such as the most recent Dolby Atmos suite in its Spain studio. "The expansion is not just the physical expansion as much as it is our ability to hire the right people to take us to the next level," Kaplan said.
By Karla Florez