Tips On Multimedia Translation & Localization

Made-to-Measure Language Solutions

© 2016 MTM LinguaSoft., Inc. All rights reserved.

Digital video for business and education is an efficient, impactful, and cost-effective

communication tool. If you want to connect with multilingual audiences at home or overseas,

translating and localizing your digital assets is a must. This guide explains the different elements

of video localization to familiarize you with the choices you’ll need to make in order to adapt your

materials for foreign audiences.

An important truth about multilingual video localization is that every project is different. We

work with a wide range of clients with different needs and deliverables. Some of our clients have

an in-house recording studio and video production team – for these clients we would provide

a translated script and a native-language voice artist booking, and they would do their own

recording and editing. Other clients might require a finished, edited voice file for their production

team to sync with the visuals. Still other clients need us to arrange all the production variables for

them – their deliverable would be a finished video. In other words, you may order the ingredients

to assemble your own meal, or you could order a full meal prepared and delivered and ready

to eat. For this reason, no reputable, trustworthy language service partner would provide a

standardized price list – they’ll need to ask a lot of questions. The following pages will discuss the

types of choices you’ll need to make about the following elements of A/V Localization.

1) Pre-translation Assessment

2) Script translation

3) Subtitles

4) Multilingual voiceovers

5) Editing and review

An important truth

about multilingual video

localization is that every

project is different.

© 2016 MTM LinguaSoft., Inc. All rights reserved.

Part I: Basic Visual Assessment and Script Translation

If you have already created a video for a domestic audience and want to localize it for overseas,

it is important to make sure that it can be localized. If the video has been carefully targeted to

a particular domestic audience, it is probably distinctly “Americanized.” Marketing and training

videos can fall into this category: the images, situations, and idioms might not suit other cultures.

For example, a video may include an image of a man sitting casually with his legs crossed.

However, in Arab cultures is it offensive to display the soles of your shoes.

Gestures might be misinterpreted as well. For example, a Brazilian audience would be taken

aback by what we consider A-OK.

If you want to adapt your video for overseas audiences, pre-translation cultural assessment may

be required. This could be as detailed or as simple as you like – typically, our in-country cultural

consultants do a critical, systematic review of the visuals to flag images or concepts that are

jarring or inappropriate.

Other types of videos, like industrial product demonstrations, might be easy to localize without

significant changes. We would advise you on these matters before sending a proposal and quote.

If an LSP provides a quote without having first seen the video, this is an indication that they may

not know what they are doing.

As always, the best approach is to consult your LSP before beginning production on a video you

intend to adapt for foreign audiences, so you can take steps to develop a source video that can

be easily localized.

Not OK in Brazil

© 2016 MTM LinguaSoft., Inc. All rights reserved.

Script

Script translation is the backbone of the project, whether you plan to use subtitles, voiceovers,

dubbing, or a combination of the three. If you have a script already, this can be directly

translated. If you do not have a script, for example if you are using “talking heads” or interview

subjects speaking to the camera, we can transcribe the script first. A time-stamped transcription

will be a useful guide for the video editor later when adding either the foreign-language voice

track or the translated subtitles to the video.

In script translation, there are two important things to keep in mind:

1) Translation or Transcreation? Translation is appropriate for technical demonstrations, but

any video that aims to persuade, surprise, impress, or otherwise appeal to the emotions

requires transcreation by a translator who is specialized in copywriting and scriptwriting.

Alternatively, the process can take two steps – first a literal translation is made, then the

translation can be edited and adapted by a monolingual native-language copywriter. A

creative brief, or explanation of the strategy and goals of the video, will help the linguists

capture the right tone.

2) Text expansion. Some languages use more words than others to say the same thing. For

example, a one-minute voiceover in English may end up being 30% longer in Spanish.

If your video must meet a strict time constraint (for example, a 60-second spot for

broadcast) you might consider editing the English script to shorten it so you can be sure

that nothing you consider essential is left out. Script translators are good at editing and

paraphrasing, but your guidance will be needed to make sure the essentials remain intact.

?

© 2016 MTM LinguaSoft., Inc. All rights reserved.

Part II: Choosing between subtitles and voice-overs

Subtitles are a lot less expensive than recorded voice-overs of any variety, and many clients will

choose these for budgetary reasons. However, cost cannot be the only consideration. There are

three instances in which voice-overs are the best option:

1) You need to reach the audience’s emotions. This applies to any kind of creative

advertising, whether for a consumer or a business market. It also matters for some types

of e-learning. Hearing touches the emotions more directly than reading.

2) You need the audience to be paying close attention to the images on the screen. For

demonstrations / video manuals, you don’t want the subtitles competing for the attention

of the viewer – it can be hard to catch a lot of visual details at once, particularly if the

images on-screen are complex.

3) You want the video to look and feel as though it were made specifically for this audience.

Subtitles make it obvious that a video was not made “for” your foreign market, and can

be a distancing mechanism if you are trying to build loyalty.

Subtitles

If you’ve taken these issues into account, and decide that subtitles are the way to go, your project

has been simplified. Whether or not it is time-stamped, our team will translate the script line by

line, using the video as reference. A native-language video editor can then synchronize the text

with the visuals. We will provide a final review to make sure the subtitles are properly timed. You

will want to decide whether the subtitles will be “soft” (provided as a separate file – typically in

.srt format - so that they can be turned on or off) or “hard” (encoded to play every time the video

plays). The latter is usually the most reliable option.

Subtitles make it

obvious that a video

was not made “for”

your foreign market.

© 2016 MTM LinguaSoft., Inc. All rights reserved.

Voiceovers

There are several issues to consider if you’ve chosen to do a voiceover instead of subtitles.

The first has to do with the casting of the voice-over talent, and the second has to do with the

mechanics of the voiceover and how it will meld with the visual content.

Casting: Voiceover talents have widely different prices. They also specialize in a variety of styles,

for example, clear and plain for product demonstrations or highly dramatic for video games or

broadcast advertising. Higher-level acting generally commands higher prices. It’s a good idea to ask

us to narrow the voice talents down to a couple of choices that suit your project and your budget.

Mechanics – what “kind” of voiceover? The kind of voiceover you need depends on whether

you need to match the translated voiceover to images of people actually speaking on the screen.

If your video does not depict individuals speaking to the viewer or to each other on the screen,

you will need voice tracks that synchronize with the visuals and impart information. You will

choose between “cold” or “warm” voiceovers.

A cold recording is made without time constraints. This is appropriate if the client intends

to adjust the visuals to follow the voice tempo. Because of the “text expansion” issue, some

clients would rather slow down the visuals or add additional visual content so that the voice

track can proceed at a leisurely pace, and not sound like the narrator is “speed-reading.”

A warm recording needs to fit within a particular time frame. For example, if the visuals are

such that they cannot be manipulated (slowed down) without sacrificing quality, or if the

video has to fit a specified time frame, then the voice talent may need to adjust their pace.

The sound engineer can also tweak the timing when editing the voice track. A time-stamped

script helps the voice artist and sound engineer produce a properly paced sound track.

© 2016 MTM LinguaSoft., Inc. All rights reserved.

Subtitles are preferable

to dubbing in many but

not all instances.

Voiceovers (cont.)

If your video depicts people speaking, to each other or to the viewer, you have three choices:

Lip-synchronization – the translated audio is synchronized to match the lip movement of

on-screen characters to make it look the most natural. This requires highly skilled voice

actors and editors. Lip-sync is the most difficult and expensive, and is generally used only by

entertainment studios.

Dubbing – the audio is synchronized with the characters’ mouths, but not perfectly. This can

look awkward; subtitles are preferable to dubbing in many but not all instances.

UN-style – the original audio plays at a lower volume, while the translated audio is

simultaneously played at a higher volume. This is a typical strategy in news and documentary

films, because the low-volume original voice lends a feeling of authenticity by capturing

the speakers’ tone of voice and style of delivery, while the translated voiceover imparts the

meaning.

A video could use more than one style of voiceover – for example, you might need a warm

recording for the introductory voiceover or ongoing narration, and dubbing for dramatic

vignettes.

© 2016 MTM LinguaSoft., Inc. All rights reserved.

Part III: Pricing Strategies

When you ask for a quote, the quote will generally include all of these elements.

For subtitles:

If a script is not available, transcription of source video is priced per minute of audio.

Translation of the transcription or the script will be priced per word, and cost will depend

on the amount of shortening, editing, or adapting needed. If the transcription hasn’t been

done yet, and there’s no script, your language service partner will quote by estimating typical

words-per-minute for that language. If the video has lots of silent portions, this will be taken

into account.

Creation of subtitle files (.srts) is priced per minute of video. Encoding hard subs will be an

additional charge, usually charged at an hourly rate.

For voiceovers:

Voice talent and studio time – this is the most expensive part of the project, and will depend

on what type of video it is, how many different voice talents are needed, and how much

acting is involved. In addition, warm recordings may cost more than cold recordings, because

warm recordings generally require more prep and studio time.

Editing/cleaning of voice track to take out breath sounds and make sure it is properly

synchronized with the video will be billed on an hourly basis. If the voiceover needs to be

closely lip-synched, editing will cost more.

© 2016 MTM LinguaSoft., Inc. All rights reserved.

In conclusion:

Whether you’re looking to localize a video you’ve already produced, or you are planning to

create a video intended to reach multilingual markets, a knowledgeable language service partner

can make sure your localized content connects and delivers the intended impact. A multimedia

localization project has many moving parts, and a good language service partner will keep the

project on track.

Further Reading

“Social and live video are increasingly on the radars of marketers, agencies.” E-marketers, Sept

27, 2016.

Nick Barber, “Short form product video can be the key to converting customers.” Forrester

Research, August 5, 2016.

Sahil Patel, “85 percent of Facebook video is watched without sound.” Digiday, May 17, 2016.

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www.mtmlinguasoft.com