Latest news with #WatchTheSkies
Forbes
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
This Indian GenAI Startup Is Reshaping Dubbing and Lip Sync
Co-founders of NeuralGarage after their SXSW win in March 2025. Ever watched a film that felt odd because you watched the dubbed version? The visuals of lip-syncing often do not match what you hear, right? The Indian startup Neural Garage offers a solution that is an AI-powered one and addressees the long-standing problem of "visual discord" in dubbing. In an exclusive interview, Mandar Natekar, Co-founder and CEO, NeuralGarage shares details on the technology - Visual Dub - which fixes lip-sync, and facial expressions for dubbed content. It even works with changes in script. In this exclusive interview, Natekar explains how the technology works by perfectly synchronizing actors' lip movements and facial expressions with the dubbed audio. The attempt creates an authentic and immersive viewing experience, eliminating the visual awkwardness often found in traditional dubbing. Earlier this year, the world's first movie with AI-powered visual dubbing - Swedish sci-fi adventure film Watch the Skies - released in theatres. The Los Angeles-based movie-making AI firm Flawless worked on the visual dub for the English-dubbed version. NeuralGarage's Visual Dub also works on facial expressions and lip movements for dubbed versions without any fresh shoots. Asked about the ways his innovative technology helps enhance the experience of watching dubbed versions of world cinema, Natekar says, 'We've also developed our own voice cloning technology. Let us say, there's a Tom Cruise film that has been dubbed in Hindi. Obviously, Tom Cruise lines will get dubbed by a Hindi dubbing artist - but he does not sound like Tom Cruise. Apart from ensuring that the lip-sync matches the Hindi version, we can even make the Hindi dubbing artist sound like Tom Cruise.' 'With our lip-sync technology and our voice cloning technology, we can actually now make the dubbed content look and sound absolutely natural as if it has been shot and filmed in the language of the audio itself.' SXSW win In March 2025, NeuralGarage created history when they won the SXSW Pitch Competition becoming the first Indian startup to bag the award. NeuralGarage's Visual Dub technology won in "Entertainment, Media, Sports & Content" category. Recalling the moment, Mandar Natekar says, 'SXSW is one of the most prestigious platforms when it comes to entertainment worldwide. This is a platform where people in the business join talent from across the world, including Hollywood. You get to meet people from Paramount, Universal, Warner Brothers, business executives and actors, directors…..all of them come to the festival. This competition highlights some of the best startups in the world that could contribute to the entertainment industry. Winning meant we were judged by a jury that consisted of people in the business and people in the investor ecosystem - very big VCs were presented and that is the kind of intense validation for the technology we built, both in terms of the potential use cases and also in terms of the potential business valuation.' 'Winning the award gives us a lot of credibility. Being in the US makes us more easily marketable - the entire entertainment industry is kind of located here. Now SXSW award gives us instant credibility. We've been getting queries from some of the largest studios in the world and broadcast operations on how we can work together, ever since the awards." Challenges of building NeuralGarage Recalling his early career days, Natekar says, 'As a co-founder of the company - and I have three other co-founders - there are challenges. I spent more than 22 years in the entertainment business in India before co-founding my own. The startup world is totally different from the corporate life. The startup world is completely DIY - you have to do everything yourself. It has been a very interesting adventure - unlike the corporate life where you work to fulfill somebody else's dream, here you have the chance to turn your own dreams into reality and create your own legacy. There are ups and downs, but they are part and parcel of life. Some days you wake up thinking you'll win the world. Some day you go to bed thinking 'Man, is it all worth it?' But then you wake up in the morning and again restart." 'It is all very interesting. It's been four years now since we started up. And in the last one year since we've put our technology out, we've seen massive success and validation. We got selected by AWS and Google in their global accelerators. We got selected by TechCrunch to participate in TechCrunch Battlefield in SF last October. We also won the L'Oreal Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Competition, then this win at SXSW recently. Our ambition is to build software in India that can actually create a global brand. And we are on our way there.' A few years ago, right in the middle of raising funds for his startup, Mandar Natekar faces major medical and personal hurdles. He refuses to revisit the time and delve on the hardships, but agrees to share what he learnt from the period of struggle. "I'll tell you my biggest learning - in your life, there are three very strong pillars of any successful person. The first one is obviously your own determination and thought process while the second one is family. The third pillar is health. You have to ensure that all of these pillars are on very, very strong foundation. You have to nurture all of these pillars. If anything goes wrong in any one of these three, it can cause massive upheaval in your life. Suggestions for aspiring tech startups founders 'I tell people to always chase dreams. If you think that you have a compelling idea that can change the world, work on it. And there is no better time to start on anything you want to do than now. Generally, people procrastinate - 'I'll build this after five years' but these plans don't work. If you are passionate about something and have a compelling idea that you want to bring to the world, do it now. There is no better time than this moment. If you base your decision-making on goalposts, you will always be calculating,' Natekar signs off with his bits of suggestions for aspiring founders of tech startups all across. (This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.)
Geek Girl Authority
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
Movie Review: WATCH THE SKIES
by Ray Schillaci The Movie Guys Swedish writer/director Victor Danell and co-writer Jimmy Nivrén Olsson deliver an extraterrestrial event with Watch The Skies, reminiscent of the nostalgic magic of a young Spielberg crossed with a light touch of Stranger Things. The most remarkable part about this movie is that it's a foreign film that, with the help of a company called Flawless, has made it accessible to the U.S. market by seamlessly dubbing and A.I.-generating the mouth and some facial movements of the actors, delivering an American shift that has become easily translatable and slightly different than the original film, entitled UFO Sweden. Other than the locations and the accents, audiences here at home will not be able to tell the difference, thus making Watch The Skies all the more accessible to America's viewers. Aside from that, the filmmakers have brought to our shores a film that is best seen on the big screen. I'm not talking about the 75' in your living room. This film benefits from a communal experience accompanied by the recent theatrical visuals and sound that have been provided by high-tech theater chains. RELATED: Movie Review: The Phoenician Scheme Here is a family film that has not been dumbed down. The filmmakers place us in the throes of characters with so much heart we cannot help but cheer them on as they venture towards a perilous journey led by one determined young girl whose father may or may not have been abducted (by either extraterrestrials or the government…for nefarious reasons). The mystery races through with excitement, good humor and spectacle. As a young child, Denise tagged along with her father on the elusive hunt for proof of the existence of UFOs, along with a small oddball team of enthusiasts that have formed a club. At one point, her father decides to go it alone in a certain region of the forest for the safety of his daughter. From there, he goes missing and we fast forward to many years later as Denise is now a troubled teenager. She has mapped out her goal of finding her father for years. Finally, achieving a breakthrough, she seeks the help of her father's former UFO club. My, have they aged and gotten even quirkier. Some may compare them to a grown-up version of Spielberg/Donner's Goonies. At first, they are leery of Denise since they felt abandoned by her father, who they felt went far too much on the fringe side of things. This is coming from a small group of eccentric conspiracy theorists who dabbled in federal crimes to chase their pursuit of the unknown. RELATED: Movie Review: From the World of John Wick: Ballerina Eventually, she is able to win some of them over to join her and they embark on an adventure that captures the attention of a covert government operation. Writer/director Danell and his writing partner, Olsson, present an exciting and unique experience that may have hints of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jordan Peele's Nope, but their film takes an unexpected approach that has us thinking about the story long after it is over. Their film feels refreshingly different and will have hearts racing as Denise's passion leads everyone through a harrowing conclusion. Danell and Olsson's combined effort has turned this into an event film in more ways than one, not only for its excellent storytelling, but for the advancement in technology that so many have questioned in the industry. A.I. has been the big bugaboo buzzword to many creative artists in the film community, but Flawless, the company that has made this movie more accessible than ever, believes it can be a tool that widens the audience for many films. Their goal is not to replace actors or take jobs away in the motion picture and television business, but to enhance the film's viewing capability. RELATED: Bring Her Back Spoiler Review Either way, Watch The Skies is a historical film for the ages with its technology that takes a foreign film and nearly seamlessly translates it to English (or Swenglish as the Swedes like to say). General audiences will be unable to tell that the film is dubbed. This is great for those who dismiss films with subtitles. Although there is the question if they would do this with older foreign films. It's doubtful since the process takes time and money. Besides, what truly enhances this technology is the original actors themselves who were used to dub their own voices. All the more reason to witness this enjoyable experience that delivers a punch not just by technology alone, but by wonderful storytelling, craftsmanlike production and engaging actors that capture our hearts. Visit Ray's blog at Directed by: Victor Danell Release Date: May 9, 2025 (original Swedish release date – December 25, 2022) Run Time: 115 Minutes Rated: PG-13 Country: Sweden Distributor: XYZ Films
The Age
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Read my lips: AI-dubbed films are debuting in cinemas
Foreign language cinephiles can be split into two distinct categories – subtitle-lovers and those who swear by the dubbed version. Dubbing critics have long grumbled about the pitfalls of mismatched audio and awkward lip-syncing, but new technology is quietly changing the face (and mouths) of international cinema. Last week, Swedish sci-fi film Watch The Skies opened in US theatres – marketed as the world's first full-length theatrical feature to use AI for an immersive dubbing – a process that makes the characters look as though they are speaking English. XYZ Films partnered with AI start-up Flawless, which uses TrueSync, a visual tool which alters the character's mouth movements and speech to appear perfectly synced for an English-speaking audience. 'For the movie industry, this is a game changer,' producer Albin Pettersson declared in a behind-the-scenes trailer for the film. 'The Swedish language is a barrier when you want to reach out around the world.' It's important to note the AI tool has not replaced the actors – the original cast of Watch The Skies, having shot the film in Swedish, then recorded their English lines in a studio. This kept them compliant with SAG-AFTRA guidelines. 'I think a lot of filmmakers and a lot of actors will be afraid of this new technology at first,' added writer and director Victor Danell. 'But we have creative control and to act out the film in English was a real exciting experience.' Watch The Skies is the start of a long list of AI-dubbed international film collaborations between XYZ Films and Flawless set to be released in the US. They include French film The Book of Solutions, Korean flick Smugglers, Persian-language film Tatami, and German film The Light.
Sydney Morning Herald
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Read my lips: AI-dubbed films are debuting in cinemas
Foreign language cinephiles can be split into two distinct categories – subtitle-lovers and those who swear by the dubbed version. Dubbing critics have long grumbled about the pitfalls of mismatched audio and awkward lip-syncing, but new technology is quietly changing the face (and mouths) of international cinema. Last week, Swedish sci-fi film Watch The Skies opened in US theatres – marketed as the world's first full-length theatrical feature to use AI for an immersive dubbing – a process that makes the characters look as though they are speaking English. XYZ Films partnered with AI start-up Flawless, which uses TrueSync, a visual tool which alters the character's mouth movements and speech to appear perfectly synced for an English-speaking audience. 'For the movie industry, this is a game changer,' producer Albin Pettersson declared in a behind-the-scenes trailer for the film. 'The Swedish language is a barrier when you want to reach out around the world.' It's important to note the AI tool has not replaced the actors – the original cast of Watch The Skies, having shot the film in Swedish, then recorded their English lines in a studio. This kept them compliant with SAG-AFTRA guidelines. 'I think a lot of filmmakers and a lot of actors will be afraid of this new technology at first,' added writer and director Victor Danell. 'But we have creative control and to act out the film in English was a real exciting experience.' Watch The Skies is the start of a long list of AI-dubbed international film collaborations between XYZ Films and Flawless set to be released in the US. They include French film The Book of Solutions, Korean flick Smugglers, Persian-language film Tatami, and German film The Light.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Teenage drama is interrupted by extraterrestrial phenomena in this exclusive clip for 'Watch the Skies' (video)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Flying saucer enthusiasts and curious Ufologists will be craning their necks toward the heavens after checking out our exclusive clip for "Watch the Skies," a refreshing Swedish sci-fi movie being released on May 9, 2025, from XYZ Films ("Ash"). Titled "UFO Freak," the uncanny 2-minute sneak peek reveals strange phenomena erupting around a group of teens hanging out at a late-night gathering in an abandoned building, causing them to scatter. This charming, nostalgic film is also being billed as the world's first "AI-dubbed" international flick using a procedure developed by Flawless to match up the lip movements of the characters from Swedish to English, and the results are pretty impressive. The process required the original foreign actors to record their dialogue in English prior to applying the pioneering TrueSynch technology. Directed by Swedish filmmaker Victor Danell, "Watch the Skies" involves a spunky teenager named Denise whose father has vanished and was possibly abducted by extraterrestrials seen in the nearby forests. She hooks up with a local investigative association called UFO Sweden and its misfit band of colorful characters who help her discover the truth of this UFO mystery. "Watch the Skies" arrives in U.S. theaters on May 9 with an ensemble cast that includes Inez Dahl Torhaug (Denise), with Eva Melander, Jesper Barkselius, Sara Shirpey, Håkan Ehn, Isabelle Kyed, Niklas Kvarnbo Jönsson, and Mathias Lithner.
