Translating Movies/Videos – The Art of Synchronization

We all watch movies and in our complete ‘movie-watching’ lifetime we usually come across a lot of them with unfamiliar languages. Then either we have to go for the subtitled version or watch a dubbed one in which the lip – movement is completely out of sync. However, watching movies with subtitling and dubbing may seem a bit awkward, but if something is worth watching then this awkwardness is compromise-able.

It may seem easy but making an interaction of text (verbal or written) with sound and image is far more complex then translating let’s say a legal document. And most popularly there are two ways to do so: subtitling or dubbing. Now both of them have certain advantages and disadvantages depending on the translator and more specifically on the target audience.

Let us start off with subtitles – because I personally like subtitled movies – Translators working on them have to keep track of the ongoing video because it is necessary to translate the dialogues in a few words and a limited time. After all who would like to pause the movie again and again just to read the captions? In addition to this, sometimes we find our attention divided between watching the movie and reading the appearing text below. However, I personally believe that it is neglected by the passage of time.

Dubbing on the other hand lacks the coordination between the translated language and the movement of the actors’ lips. And most of the time the real essence of the scene and dialogue delivery is blanketed by the translated language. However, it doesn’t require the viewer to divide attention between watching the movie and reading captions.

As a viewer what type of movie translation would you prefer? Have you ever dealt in the translation of an audiovisual material, how do you ensure the proximity between the original and the translated material? Please share your views and ideas.

you can also comment at: blog.moraviaworldwide.com/translation-videos/

I will actually be doing subtitles for my friend who only speaks Spanish and English (for 6 months, but she's fantastic), so we'll see how hard it is. I kind of thought subconsciously about when you said about dialogue matching video rate, so at least my head's on the right track.

I'd say it depends on the movie. For phlegmatic, action-orientated flicks some form of sweated-over/accurate dub would be the best, in an ideal world, for its lack of distraction. The only film I can think of that came close to that was Hero tho (and even then I've no idea if the translation was accurate). For more lyrical arty flicks with intense close-up dialogue and the like you'd think subtitles are something of a must.

It is funny to see the compromises made in dubbing/subbing (as a once semi-fluent Spanish speaker it still amuses me to see how Spanish gets wilfully dubbed on UK/US tv, often missing out huge swathes of what's been said).

My only experience of this kind of stuff is trying to overdub old film footage with new words (for fun). It's a more fluent discipline in terms of the content - but lord knows even getting the vaguest level of non-distracting lip-synch is near impossible. (You can see one of my fairly atrocious efforts - including an annoying gap where I had to take some text out but couldn't redub due to my new mike, and lack of a cold, meaning I couldn't reproduce the same accent! PS apologies for poor accent imitation )

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This topic is very "off the beaten path" and I appreciate that. I personally have a "system" for watching foreign movies that works quite well for me. The first and possibly several consecutive viewings of a foreign film I tend to watch dubbed. In this way I can get a sort of visual memory of what happens when, character reactions, etc. Then I watch the movie with subtitles. Incidentally, I have found that the subtitled versions tend to be more complete. This may have to do with the differences in the speeds in which different languages are spoken (english being relatively slow). At any rate I have found that the dubbed versions leave out critical information that unless the subtitled version is seen, the viewer really misses out. I also enjoy watching my favorite movies in english (my native language) with english subtitles. I have discovered many hidden explainations that I previosly missed due to background noise, bad audio, etc. Hopefully this is all relevant :P