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HELP! Replacing English narration with Spanish narration!
Hello,
We have recently made a training video for our client with English narration and until earlier this week there was no mention of laying down a Spanish version.
I just recorded the audio today and now I am trying to replace the English with the Spanish narration.
The problem lies in that the English language can be read quicker then the Spanish…even when our Spanish speaking narrator was reading fast he was several seconds over what the English speaking narrator had spoke. So now I have to add extra video and possible still frames to fill the time gaps. Which will be trouble because with a training video you can’t add too much extra video or else the video can contradict the audio.
Basically here is my question:
Is there a simple way to add these (100 or more) pieces of audio to my timeline quickly? (each piece of audio is broken up by frames in the script)
If I use the overwrite function, I then have to move everything after the edit to the right. This will take forever that way!
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2 Replies
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Have you tried the AudioSuite plug-in to speed up audio but keep pitch the same? This way you can match audio to the duration needed to match picture.
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I’ve done a number of them, and unless the production is planned in advance for accomodating a non-English track, it is never easy or fun. For an after-the-fact Spanish track, I’ve usually (after copying the original sequence) laid out the Spanish narration on a new track, keeping the English around for reference and pacing. Once the Spanish track is laid out, I’ve hacked away at the timeline, moving video and English, as you note, to the right. Usually end up with a timeline that’s about 50 to 60 percent longer, now filled with long black holes. Having even some small amount of Spanish language knowledge helps a lot, as it’s much easier to line up the video and English narration pieces to proper starts and stops in the Spanish. Yes, you’ll have to go back to original scenes to grab more video, maybe more b-roll, maybe freeze frames to fill out the time. Yes, it will take forever.
On some jobs. we had a really good Spanish speaking V/O talent who helped out tremendously, both in speeding up his already fast reads, but also, knowing our situation, offered paraphrased, simpler expressions for many things. Often an idiomatic spoken expression works a lot better and is shorter than a direct translation or transliteration from a written English script. Our producer, on subsequent projects for same client (HR Dept training), made sure to shoot added scenes and longer alternates for use in Spanish versions.—
Chuck Reti
VIdeo Editor
Detroit MI
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