Software to assure that voice translations fit the timing and sync of your video

Script adaptation

If you have worked with translations in the past, you have probably seen that a translated script will often be 15% or even 20% longer than the original script. Many is the time that a director arrived in studio to record a 30 second Spanish spot only to find that the script has 40 seconds worth of translated text. This is because the languages themselves are longer and require more words to say the same thing. Additionally, most translators are "written word" translators, not "spoken word" translators, and their text tends to be longer still.

Adapting a script properly before going to studio saves studio time, talent time, and often editing time by the media professional.

The software Translate Your Video has a feature to help assure proper Script Adaptation to length. This feature is a red flag to the translator that their translation for a particular sentence or paragraph cannot be spoken properly within the time allotted by the original guidetrack (voicetrack). This warning continues to appear until the translator adapts the wording of the sentence to fit within the timing.

Basic adaptation types

Once the length is approximately correct, the next adaptation stage occurs. There are three major types of adaptation:

(1) Adaptation for timing such as for narration over b-roll, with timing coordinated to actions or occurrences on the screen

(2) Adaptation for "documentary style" mix in which the original voice will be retained softly in the background, like a newscast or interview

(3) Lip sync (dialog replacement), in which there are on camera speakers, conversations or vignettes where the original voices will be removed and replaced by the new language. In this case, the adaptation needs to match the lip movements of the on-camera speakers.

Because the software Translate Your Video displays the script text directly over the video image, the adaptor or translator can read the text aloud to verify that the translation coordinates with the actions on screen. If the voice says "click here", but the translation says "click here" 2 seconds later, there is a disconnect, and the translation needs to be reworded to fall at the same time as the guidetrack. This on-screen text display can be quite useful to assure coordinated timing.

The same on-screen text display is a convenient support for adaptors skilled in lip sync adaptation. The adaptor must modify the translation not only for length but also to pass with the lip movements on-screen. If the on-camera actor says "hello", this cannot be replaced with "hi" - because one has closed mouth and the other has open mouth.

Adaptation for the spoken word

Media professionals write excellent spoken word scripts, particularly on difficult subjects. Who else but a media pro could write a script about turbines and make it sound perfectly normal, even sexy?

What is the "written word"? An example of written word: "I would have been able". If you try to speak these words 4 times in a row, your tongue will cleave to the roof of your mouth. The spoken word version for this expression would be "I would have" or even more colloquially, "I would've" or "I could've". Speaking these words feels natural.

When good scripts are passed to translators, 97% of the time they become written word text during the process of translation. Then, often these translations are passed to corporate managers or personnel who spend all day writing emails and reports in written business-speak, and the scripts become even more written word. Last but not least, the same script may go to the legal department, the greatest written word composers on the planet, and any spoken word from the media pro's original script has been completely erased. Moreover, when company editors become involved, a script that was the correct in length may suddenly now be too long again, even have brand new paragraphs inserted or sentences added that were not in the original video.

But it is good to have the client involved in projects. Absolutely! That is how they assure that their in-house terms are used and that their internal people are happy. If the client understands the phenomena of spoken word loss and the potential that their own staff increase the length, the script - at the end of its approval journey - can be adapted once more, this time for the spoken word and at the same time retest the timing to see if the client's editors changed the length. This entire process can be accomplished without losing message or technical accuracy.