Audiovisual translation is a process that involves the translation of video files from one language to another. You might wonder why anyone would want to translate videos, instead of creating new videos from scratch for the other language. First, it is not as easy as it sounds. There are two dominant types of audio-visual translation and that is Dubbing and Subtitling.
Dubbing is the form of audio-visual translation that involves, translating the audio of a video from one language into another while Subtitling is an audio-visual form that involves translating the audio of a video into a text format. Both processes involve audio and translation. Therefore, we call them audiovisual translation methods.
A lot of content creators are now jumping on the wave of audio-visual translations and below we will glance at the two major benefits of audio-visual translation.
- Global reach – With the world being a global village because of the internet, everybody has access to content that they wouldn’t have access to earlier on. A lot of businesses, content creators, and production companies have taken this and turned it into a benefit by creating inclusivity for their content. By translating their videos, they can reach different markets and get a profit from these foreign markets. They have to consider the cultural, linguistic, and technical aspects of their intended language but with this being taken care of, there is nothing stopping these content creators from experiencing global reach.
- Passive Income – Everyone is trying to make an extra coin at every turn. Show me someone who isn’t trying to and I will believe that the world is changing. Audio-visual translation is not a simple process and best believe that if anyone takes it up for their business, then they have an endgame. Most businesses are trying to make more money and get profits out of their businesses. Translating their content to reach a wider audience, guarantees them exactly that. If they can get passive income even better. It is all about numbers for these businesses and that is why they take audio-visual translation as important as they do.
Audio-visual translation is not a 123 kind of process, there are very many challenges that are faced and that is why we will look at some challenges of audio-visual translation for both dubbing and subtitling. These are challenges that you should consider before you shoot a film for translation.
1: Text expansion and Contraction
- Subtitling: Text expansion and contraction are very vital for subtitling. As we mentioned above, subtitling is a process that involves translating an audio file into a text format that appears at the bottom of a screen. There are standard rules and guidelines that will guide you in creating subtitles. It is very important to expand your translated text in a scenario where it is too short compared to the original audio and contract it when it is longer compared to the original audio. This will allow you to create subtitles easy to read and the kinds that don’t go against the number of characters and lines that are needed for a single subtitle.
- Dubbing: When it comes to dubbing, expansion, and contraction of translated texts is very important. You can get away with a short text for subtitling but you can’t do the same for dubbing. The essence of dubbing is to create translations that perfectly synch with the original audio and failure to this, your dubbed film will be a total fail. You cannot have a translated text that needs a long time saying it out loud, compared to the original audio. In such a scenario, you must contract the translated text to make it fit the intended time when being read out loud. The vice versa also applies in a scenario where the translated text is shorter than the original audio.
2: Consider the target audience.
- Subtitling: During subtitling, there are specific steps you must take to ensure that your audience is considered and that however, the translated audiovisual comes out, the audience will enjoy and appreciate it fully. The reason there are contraction and expansion of subtitle texts is for the mere reason of considering how fast and how slow some of your audience would be in following the subtitles. In a scenario where the text is too long, the audience will have a hard time keeping up with them. Be sure to also use easily understandable vocabulary for your audience. If it’s a children’s film, use child-friendly vocabulary. Anything you will consider your audience.
- Dubbing: When doing audio-visual translation for dubbing, consider your audience. How do you do this? We are all aware that different languages have different statements that mean something different. In some languages, certain statements might be offensive and vice versa. Therefore, it is important to consider the cultural, linguistic, and technical aspects of a language when translating. You do not want to offend your audience by using statements that would rather offend than educate them. Work with translators who are Native speakers to avoid this from happening. Always consider how your audience will receive your project.
3: Dialogue clashes can kill translation
- Subtitling: Have you ever seen films where you have characters speaking over each other? Well, my answer is yes, and I have seen them one too many times. The challenge comes first when you are creating timestamps for the different scenes, for easier translation. You try as much as possible to fit the clashing dialogues but it ends up making your time stamps hard to work with. When translating such dialogues, you really need to be keen and find out, which character said what and vice versa. When creating a film scripts, it is very important to script it in a way that there will be no dialogue clashes because I will tell you this for free during translation for subtitling, this will be a big challenge.
- Dubbing: The same thing applies to dubbing. When trying to create a dubbing script for an audiovisual that has clashing dialogues, you will need to be very keen and specific. After you have your timestamps, trying to tell which character said what and when is another challenge you have to face. Now imagine trying to voice for a clashing dialogue, if the timestamps are not done correctly then it will be hard to create perfect synching for such scenes. It is important for scriptwriters to try as much as possible to avoid, creating scenes where dialogues have to clash when creating films that they will further translate.
4: Video translation can be distracting
- Subtitling: The main reason films are subtitled, is so that the target audience can watch it and enjoy it. It is important to note that not all films can be subtitled. There are some films that can lose their intended meaning and context when subtitled and thus not being able to be perceived in the originally intended way. This usually happens if you don’t get the right translators for your subtitling processes. Not all translators are excellent translators and that is why strive to get professional translators for your films. Choosing the right form of audio-visual translation for a specific film also comes in handy. The whole translation process can distract the audience and that is why settle on the best one.
- Dubbing: When dubbing a film, there are a lot of things you have to consider before the entire process becomes a success. It is very important to know the nitty-gritty that goes into ensuring this. Depending on your intentions for dubbing the film, then you will conclude whether dubbing is the right form of audio-visual translation you want to use or not. You need to decide whether a dubbed film is more appealing to your audience or not, whether they will enjoy it or not and so many other questions. The sole reason you are translating your films is so it can appeal to your audience and at all times you should make sure that it will not distract your audience from the message you intend to pass to them.
