TELENOVELA BLOCK.pages 24 - 30: - Discop

programming tools
LOCALIZATION OF FILMS FOR DVDs
By Svetlana Djuricin
Translated and culturally adapted
DVD films content aided by innovations
in subtitling technology reaches
world-wide audience, enhancing the
understanding between cultures.
Film subtitling is a cinematogra -
phic service reaching audiences
throughout the world via readily available
and affordable media such as
DVDs.
Many film localization companies
headquartered in Los Angeles and
London work through a network of linguistic
and technical associates.
Under fierce competition, their aim is
to release films on DVDs for the global
market in as short time as possible
and without compromising translation
quality. This is achieved through
upgrades in subtitling technology and
the use of freelance translators’ services
in lower cost countries.
The fast cycle of film localization
and marketing requires an increased
effort on the part of the translator and
his mastering the new localization
software without compromising the
quality of the final product. The film
translator’s primary task is to produce
the most concise and correct translation
as possible, i.e. cultural adaptation
of the original text.
The task is complex and requires
not only mastery of the target language
but also skills such as creativity,
the ability to recognize the gist of a dialogue,
visualization and cultural adaptation
skills.
The procedure for film translation
for DVD release is simple and driven
by technological innovations and market
demands. Often, the translator
receives via e-mail, the master file with
the source language dialogue list and
the precisely set titles’ in and out
times. Along with the text file, either a
VHS tape quality film is sent, or the
film is copied by the translator onto his
hard disc from the designated file.
A complete synchronization of the
original text, audio-visual material and
the translation is an innovation
enabling the translator to match his
subtitles with the original text and the
picture. The translator is able to
return to subtitles he wishes to check
as many times as necessary until an
optimal translation solution is found.
With the original dialogue divided
into subtitle boxes with clearly marked
times and potentially unknown concepts
thoroughly researched, problems
with incomprehensible/barely
audible material are eliminated, especially
in bonus materials that are
included with a film on DVD such are
director’s commentaries, trailers, featurettes
and making ofs.
The translator of films for DVDs
has to observe some technical
requirements of the work procedure
i.e. to translate everything avoiding literal
translation, to translate the
accompanying text - such are road
signs, names of restaurants and
newspapers, enable smooth flow of
the dialogue, use various language
registers – from highly specialized to
slang, maintain consistency and
observe subtitle box line division rules
and time limits.
The process of film translation
also involves observing the grammatical
rules with idiomatic and cultural
nuances to produce really high quality
work serving as a model for literacy.
Therefore, to achieve this, it is important
to avoid literal translation and to
correctly render all text, finding the
equivalent expressions for puns and
proverbs.
In addition, the translator has to
observe some subtitling industry-specific
technical requirements which,
first of all, call for the translation of the
entire text. If this is impossible due to
time limitations (i.e, in- and out- times
of subtitles), film dialogues are to be
truncated in such a way as to preserve
their natural coherency and the
smooth flow.
Text accompanying the dialogues
is also translated, e.g. street signs,
notices and names of restaurants and
newspapers. Names and common
phrases which are repeated in subsequent
boxes and are obvious to the
reader need not always be subtitled.
When transcribing character
names, addresses, book and film
titles, abbreviations, numbers and
measurements etc. full consistency
has to be retained. Of equal importance
is the observance by the translator
of the subtitle box line division
rules.”
Generally, technical requirements
involving translation consistency and
quality assurance are more easily
upheld across the translation fields by
an increased deployment of a number
of computer-aided translation tools
(CAT) that have sprung up in recent
years, such as Trados, DejaVu,
MetaTexis, SDLX and Wordfast. The
use of these tools involves saving the
translation units in a database called
“translation memory” (TM) enabling
their later re-usage in the same or any
other text.
Global content is further supported
by the wealth of resources for
translators found on the Internet such
are dictionaries and glossaries, of not
only major languages, but also of the
ones of lesser diffusion. We should
say thad the impact of globalization on
the letter could be manifested in their
gaining higher visibility via multilingualism
as expressed through DVD technology,
among other things.
Further developments in the localization
industry-specific CAT and quality
control tools, and their integration
into the specific work flow processes,
as well as automatic voice and cut
recognition are set to further streamline
the localization process, reduce
international marketing cost and
enable simultaneous shipment to multiple
markets.
Likewise, the continuous improvement
of localization practices for films
on DVDs, standardization of language
and translation rules and the content
that is adapted locally can lead to an
increase in the consistency and accuracy
in this form of global communication.
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