Voiceover scripts need a skilled audiovisual translator
You are a producer asked to deliver a video in two or more languages – let’s say English and French (as is common here in Canada). You’ve finished the English version; now, on to the French. Recording the voiceover, that’s down the road. First you need a translation.
There are three common ways the translation is produced:
The client supplies a translation done in-house or by their usual translation vendor.
The producer sends the script to a traditional translator, who is accustomed to working on text documents.
The script is translated and adapted by a qualified audiovisual translator, who specializes in voiceover scripts and spoken dialogue.
Options 1 and 2 may seem cheaper in the short run, but are likely to cost you time and money down the road, and you may still end up with an inferior product. Why? Because script translation is a different process from regular document translation.
Good voiceover is conversational
Professional translators are trained to stick closely to the original, and to write for the page. But good voiceover should be conversational. It has to be written for the ear – easy to say and easy to hear. A voiceover translation should sound natural in the target language, and that requires some adaptation of style and idiom.
Other languages use more words
Most of the time, French takes 20-30% longer to say the same thing as English. (This also applies to Spanish, German, Italian and many other languages.) If your script is translated without adaptation, either you have to read it 20% faster, or you end up with a longer VO.
A while back, a video producer asked me to direct the VO recording for the French version of a two-minute animated promo. The translation had been supplied by his corporate client. Not surprisingly the French recording ended up longer than the English – by a full 40 seconds. That meant the animation would have to be stretched by more than 30%, and the two-minute promo would be closer to three minutes in French, stretching the attention span of the target audience. (“Couldn’t you have just asked the narrator to read it faster?” you might ask. Well, no. Not if the audience was going to have any chance of taking in the information.)
Adaptation, not just translation
Experienced audio-visual translators bring two important qualities to your script:
They use a conversational style, and appropriate, familiar idioms in the target language.
They condense and adapt the script to fit the time available.
The adaptation doesn’t alter the meaning, but finds more culturally appropriate and efficient ways to say the same thing. It makes it easier for your narrator to deliver a natural, persuasive performance – no tongue-twisters, and no speed-talking required. And more importantly, it makes the script much easier for the audience to absorb.
Want to know more about script adaptation, or talk about your video translation project? Drop us a line.
Eric Geringas
April 26, 2020 | Eric Geringas
Video Translation at Power of Babel
Translation, dubbing and voiceover production services: experience counts
Translating and dubbing your video content will be “seamless, painless, and worry-free” – that’s the bold promise we make on our home page.
What does that mean, exactly? How does Power of Babel deliver better results?
We get the right people for the job. There are lots of great translators out there. You may have one in house, or work with a translation agency that does great work on text documents. But a script requires different skills and a different approach. A script has to be easy to speak, and more importantly, easy on the ears. It has to sound natural, like human speech. We hire translators who are either trained in audiovisual translation, or professional broadcasters, filmmakers, playwrights, etc. – people who know how to write for the ear.
We are language geeks, and we recruit other language geeks to work with us. Our approach from the start has been to build a team of trusted consultants and language supervisors who know their stuff in their own language. We check and double-check. And we don’t leave accurate translations and recordings to chance.
We are constantly on the lookout for new voice talent, both locally and around the world. Our French roster in Toronto is good enough that we can dub documentaries and children’s series for broadcast in Quebec and Europe – something that’s not often done in Ontario. And for hard-to-find languages, we have contacts all around the world.
Our sound engineer is accustomed to recording and mixing even the toughest languages for a native English-speaker to hear and understand. Here, as in everything else, experience counts.
Most importantly, we take great care to understand your project and your needs, and to deliver exactly what you ask for. Between these two points, our goal is never to let you see how hard we actually work.
Eric Geringas
April 12, 2020 | Eric Geringas
Create subtitles the right way: adapt and condense
We did some subtitling work recently for PhillyCAM, a public-access network in Philadelphia, PA.
This got me thinking about the right way and the wrong way to create subtitles.
Many corporate and educational videos are subtitled or captioned – it’s the least expensive way to create multilingual content. But it’s often done carelessly: a transcript is sent to a translation agency, which simply translates it word for word, as it would any text, and then the new language is copy-and-pasted into the video as subtitles, roughly timed to the original dialogue.
There’s one big problem with that: reading takes more time than hearing. Viewers can’t absorb as much from subtitles as they can by simply listening to the original language. In addition, many languages – for example French, Spanish and German – take up to 25% more words than English to say the same thing. So if your subtitles are just a translated transcript, the screen ends up full of words that a) obscure the picture, and b) don’t actually get absorbed by the viewer.
The right way to create subtitles, whether for a feature film or for a training video, is to adapt and condense. Working in professional subtitling software (such as EZTitles, SubtitleNEXT or Annotation Edit), the subtitler finds a way to capture the essence of the dialogue while following widely accepted international subtitling standards:
A maximum of 43 characters per line and two lines per subtitle (that maximum is 42 characters for Netflix, and fewer for theatrical feature films
A reading speed (measured in characters per second) that gives the reader enough time to read the text while also taking in the picture.
Logical segmentation – breaking up the text into lines in a way that allows the viewer to absorb the subtitles quickly and accurately.
The result is a more accessible, easily understood video. Your audience will thank you.
To talk to us about subtitling your video, drop us a line.
Eric Geringas
May 20, 2018 | Eric Geringas
French Dubbing and the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit
Dubbing locally means higher tax credits
You’re an Ontario producer working on a documentary, factual series or children’s show. You’ve pre-sold it in Quebec, and have to deliver in French. How do you make that happen? And how do you maximize your Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit?
Dubbed audiovisual content is the most effective way to communicate across cultures.
For everything from Hollywood movies to the humble training video, shooting in one language and delivering in many is a necessity.
But how do you make sure you get it right?
Step #1: Decide which type of dubbing is right for your project and your budget. There are three types of dubbing, and each has its appropriate uses.
UN Style, AKA Voiceover Dubbing
With UN-style dubbing, you hear a second or two of the original speaker, then the volume drops and the dubbed voice comes in over top. You’re always aware that another language is being spoken, but at the same time you get a sense of the original speaker’s voice and tone. UN-style dubbing is used most often for documentaries, factual/non-scripted TV shows, and interview-based videos.
UN-style dubbing is not so good for dramatized scenes, where you need to believe the actors are actually speaking their lines. It can be distracting and confusing, especially when the lines of dialogue are short.
Timed Sync, AKA Dialogue Replacement
Timed-sync dubbing matches the rhythm of the original. The dubbed voice precisely follows the original speaker, speaking when she speaks, pausing when she pauses. It looks more natural, and it’s less noticeable that the video has been dubbed, but you lose any sense of the original voice. That’s why it’s particularly effective for dramatized dialogue, as in training videos, and also for discussions with rapid-fire conversation.
For timed sync, the adaptation process is highly specialized and precise. You can’t just count on your voice performer to adjust their speed. In order to match the translation to the original perfectly, you have to count every syllable, and think of myriad alternative ways of saying something in the new language. It also takes twice as much time in the studio to make sure the voices match up. But for many videos, it’s essential.
Lip-Sync Dubbing
Lip-sync dubbing is the gold standard for everything from feature films to TV commercials. It’s the most precise type of dubbing of all: the translated script matches not only the rhythm and number of syllables in the original, but the mouth movements as well. In other words, the translation tries to match the occurrence of sounds such as M/B/P, N/D/T, O, A, etc. Actors skilled in this type of dubbing can have long and lucrative careers as, for example, the German voice of Bruce Willis.
At Power of Babel, we use VoiceQ digital voice synchronization software for lip-sync dubbing, which helps our voice actors deliver their best performance in the shortest time possible.
Depending on the type of video you’re dubbing, your target audience and your budget, there is a method that’s right for you. Give us a shout, and let’s discuss.
