• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  editing foreign language interview (using translated subtitles)

  Posted by Trevor Ward on February 27, 2009 at 2:47 pm

  Looking for advice on the workflow for editing interviews in a foreign language. I already have the English translations.

  I’m working on a documentary with several hours of recorded interviews and scenes in a foreign language. I typically don’t edit with a script. I typically edit by listening and keeping what I like. But I can’t do that in this case. I have a word document with the translated dialogue and time code. I figure I have two choices:

  1. Make my edit based on the dialogue available in the word document. So I edit the script, then I go to the source footage and select clips based on time codes of the edited script.

  2. Attach subtitles to my clips and make edits the way I normally do. I’d prefer this method but there are some challenges.

  I’ve heard of a plugin called Andy’s Text that allows you to attach text to each clip in your timeline. It does this through a plugin, rather than a separate clip title generator. With this method, I think I can break up the interviews into sentences. Using the plugin, I can “attach” the translated text to the clip. Then I edit the way I want. When the scene is done, I can remove or turn off the plugin.

  I thought of another way, but wasn’t sure if I was completely mad. It goes like this.

  A. Create a sequence timeline. Change the start time code of the sequence to match the time code of the master clip of the interview. So if the master clip starts at 00:00:05:12, then my timeline will start at 00:00:05:12.

  B. Drop the master clip into this sequence.

  C. Add my english subtitles using whatever means I think best.

  D. Export the sequence and give it a name like filename_trans.mov. Now I’ve got a clip just like the original, but with the translation “burned in” on the video.

  E. Import this file into my project. This file will have the same time code as the master clip.

  F. Edit the interview the way I want.

  now comes the tricky part. Is this possible?

  G. When the edit is finished and ready to be finalized, can I do some sort of “replace?” Maybe I can make the translated file go Offline. Then I can Reconnect Media to the original master clip and FCP will never know the difference.

  Any thoughts?

  -trevor ward
  Red Eye Film Co.
  http://www.redeyefilmco.com
  orlando, fl

  Trevor Ward replied 17 years, 6 months ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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