Translation of Video- and Audiofiles
Translation of movies, programmes, commercials, etc. is a very interesting and fascinating creative process which needs to be approahced with care and carry out a task accurately and carefully.
The main difficulties of translating videofiles are as follows:
- Time. If it is a matter of translation of audio-conference and the customer requires only a text, the time span here does not play any role. But if it is a matter of translation of movie or commercial, programme, etc., the translated lines of heroes should correspond on duration to the ones in the original
- Worldplay (pun) and slang expressions. Usually for idioms, sayings, proverbs, etc. in one language there always is an equivalent in the other. Difficulties arise when the subsequent dialogue associated with wordplay is constructed on this idiom. In this case a translator rewrites all dialogue anew.
- Realias which do not exist in the target language country. In this case the original name of realia is used and its explanation is inserted in further dialogue as far as possible.
When translating video one mainly uses translation for the purpose of dubbing and subtitling. Work of translator on videofile which needs to be translated, is divided into three stages: temporary marking of translation, crude transfer and adaptation. The temporary marking is a marking of the beginning and the end of a phrase. Crude transfer is simply the translation from source language into the target language, without adaptation of the text to the movement of lips of heroes and duration of phrase sounding. At the last stage of adaptation the translated phrase is edited so that on sounding duration it coincides with the phrase of the original and does not interrupt the dialogue of heroes.
During sound recording session the target text can be changed so that to be suitable for those people who are involved in sound recording.
When translating subtitles one should consider the length of sentences/phrases and translation should house the required fragment, but not on time, rather by quantity of characters. As a rule, the customer does not provide the software in which subtitles are created. Therefore, the translator should adjust Word so that there is a restriction on characters and should always keep in mind that one and a half seconds of conversational speech is about fifteen characters in writing.
Besides each translator should have thorough understanding of all nuances of source language, as well as good writing skills in the target language against the detailed knowledge of culture of the country/countries the languages of which participate in translation of the movie.
All these factors are considered during videofiles translating. The proofreader always reads ready translations to provide the highest translation quality.