What

This is the Big Day once all the drafts have been finalized-- actually it is sometimes several days. When drafting, most of the revisions are recorded in snippets and edited back into the draft video. For publishing purposes, the team records clean takes of the finalized signing. Usually, one take will be one entire chapter or one “section” that matches passage divisions in the print Bible.

How

For Final Recording, the team sets up studio lights and a green screen for filming. The signer who will appear in the final video gets hair and makeup treatment, and is dressed in clothing that will show the skin tone of the hands clearly (in Japan this means dark, solid colours). 

Final recording sessions are gruelling for the whole team-- for the technical people managing lighting and cameras, for the checkers who have their eyes glued to the screens making sure everything is signed exactly the way the approved drafts have it, for team members who are assisting with wardrobe and recording the number of takes, and most of all for the signer who has to stand for hours and sign long passages without any hiccups.

Why

A clean final recording is fundamental to producing a high-quality translation. It has to be done all in one go because just like in filmmaking, there cannot be any major inconsistencies in appearance from one passage to another.