Here at BigFish Media, we often get localisation recording
jobs. That is, those scripts that have been originally written in English and
have accompanied a video which it fits perfectly time wise.
Now, when it comes to recording say, the German VO for that
same video, we often find that the German translation is too long for the
video, due to ‘text expansion’ as its know in the translation world.
Basically, in some languages, more words are needed to say the same thing as in another language. In the case of German translated from English it can be up to 35 per cent longer.
What usually happens is that the client only realises this
when it comes to recording and we end up wasting expensive in-session time
re-writing the script on the fly in an attempt to make it fit. This is less
than ideal as the proper time and consideration can’t be given to script
changes during a session.
It would be better if these things were sorted out before
the session. But whose job is that?
A client will usually use a translation company, who do a
literal translation. We called a company who told us they cannot translate to
picture, i.e. they cannot make sure the translated script fits the video as
this would be "copywriting".
This is understandable as it would require changing the
script from the written English. This isn’t something you would do without
consulting the client. As many translators are freelancers working from home
doing a literal translation of a document they have been sent, it’s unlikely
they will even have the details of the client.
So what is the answer to this problem?
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