Spanish version options

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Chris,
The main problem for the dubbing is when there are few people talking at the same time.
You will need to let the original english quite faded.
I think could be easier if the original was Spanish and you would dub it to English. Normally the English takes less time to say things than in Spanish. You could start with the voice in Spanish and fade to let the English translation. Thats always makes the sound more pleasant.
In this case what you probably will need is that the translator try to get the text as precise and short as possible.
Cheers,
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Tom Matthies]

Hi Chris.
We so training videos for a large company. Each video need to have two versions of the entire video-English and Spanish. For finished products we deliver a full stereo English and Spanish version with closed captioning. We also deliver an English & Spanish version with split tracks-VO and on camera on channel one and all music/NAT/effects on channel two. Although we master to Digital Betacam with 4 channels available, this particular client asks for only two tracks of audio. We do post audio production on each video. After getting approval on the English version and the picture and audio are “locked” we do a transcription of the finished video with a timecode window burn DVD for reference. These materials go off ti the person that does the Spanish translation. He delivers .wav files of each section of the script. These are then edited into a duplicate of the main sequence in the audio studio using Pro Tools. The stereo/split track mixes are then layed back to the video which is then used to master the DVD’s.
As the videos are produced, attention is given to the fact that two versions of each video will be required (4 actually-stereo & split). Two versions of all graphics are produced and proofed. One thing to keep in mind when producing a Spanish language version of a video is the fact that it usually takes more time to say something in Spanish that it does in English. In other words, the Spanish translations will usually be longer than the English version. It takes a skilled translator to voice the videos in the same amount of time as the English version without sounding to rushed. Our guy does a pretty decent job of this.
The split track versions are used to produce the video in another language if necessary. They are our “backups” for additional versions down the road when the original editing elements have been purged from the computer. These are fairly involved projects with at least 5 different sections of video-usually about an hour of total program. It’s easier to use the split track tapes for additional versions than it is to reload all of the original elements used for the edit.
Also, if it’s for a government agency, don’t forget about Closed Captioning!
Tom

[Mark Suszko]

I’ve done this several ways. I think the very best way is to use bilingual talent and shoot independent English and Spanish versions.
Of course, if this has already been handed to you as a done deal, with no budget for reshoots, you may not have the option. But you can start suggesting to the bosses they plan all future programs that way, and save future headaches. Something else to think about in the planning stage is to build in longer, slower-paced shots that leave room for longer Spanish tracks, as well as to always archive versions of the audio mix that keep the music and nat sounds and vocals separate. But those are probably pretty obvious to most people.

The timing of how the lines are delivered is always going to take longer for everything in Spanish. To get someone to dub over English into Spanish, but yet retain the English version’s shot timing, the Spanish voiceover artist will have to speak mucho rapidamente… and their delivery sometimes becomes an unlistenable blur.

Sometimes, they just can’t compress it any further, and what then happens is they re-translate and edit the words to fit the time slot. A possible side effect of this is, the edit makes an error in content because the translator on the spot making these judgement calls is not the content author. Later, you’ll get yelled at for unauthorized changes that altered the meaning in some significant way.

As far as characters, I tend to have men do the mens’ voices and women do the women and children, with a separate man’s voice for a narrator. I’ve done versions where one voice did everyone; it can sound like a book on tape where the speaker plays many parts but unless the translator is pretty talented, it becomes hard to follow dialog.

You can use some editing tricks here and there to help add the padding so the translator doesn’t sound like an auctioneer, and the copy stays lined up with the shots more or less. Some of the editing tricks are more subtle than others. Slo mo and freeze-frames can help, so can looping a shot,or playing it backwards, but you then are forced to use the gimmicks consistently everywhere in the show or they stand out too much. You could also add padding thru more title cards. Find new b-roll that fits and use that for padding. Do picture-in-picture corner pins, anything that gives you a visual pad.

As for this specific job, the translator should probably just stick to what the people say and not try to talk over the title cards as well. If I had the raw footage of the 7 speakers, I’d re-make the titles and bullets in Spanish, nothing else would look as good. If I didn’t have the clean plate of the speakers, I might do a 2-box shot, kind of like the look of an isight mac webcam 2-shot, and put the English version video on one side, the Spanish text, only, in the other box. This perhaps will not work if the text in the English version is too small when reduced into the smaller box, but since this version is for Spanish speakers, and the Spanish version’s graphics will be larger and legible, maybe you can get away with this, and it would still allow for a Spanish sound track along with text points.

At some point, you get into diminishing returns, and you’ll see that it costs more in time, effort, and cash to fix the problem material than to just re-shoot it right from scratch. My late friend Louie Rosenblate used to have a saying about this when he saw wasteful practices on sets: “Stepping over dollars to pick up dimes”. So beware of false economies and that slightly consescending and dismissive attitude that re-purposed English material is “good enough” for a “secondary audience”. If you look at current census data and trends, there’s nothing “secondary” about a Spanish speaking audience anymore. I think an audience that sees you went to the extra trouble to give them equal quality respects you and the message way more than a half-hearted effort at adapting existing material.

Before you go much further on this job, meet with the proper people once more and discuss the pros and cons one more time. Do your Spanish-speaking audiences not deserve as good a program as the English speakers? What will their opinion of your organization be, if they see all they get is a version with less production value than the orignal? Will this project reflect well on the AG if it looks like a crazy quilt? Is there a cheaper way to re-do the show in Spanish? Can you just find seven or so Spanish speakers and spend a day re-shooting those parts? Or collapsing seven narrators into one or two? Could you pause the program and cut-away to a studio shot of a Spanish person every so often, going over the main points up to that mark? You’ve got options, but you obviously need to choose which will fit the time-cost-quality triangle best for YOU.

Laurel and Hardy sometimes shot their movies twice; once in English, then with phonetic Spanish cue cards for an export version (They did not want any other actor’s voices depicting them). Bela Lugosi shot vampire movies in Spanish as well: at night, a complete second cast and crew would come in and use the same standing sets to shoot Spanish versions of the movie, then Bela would find some time to shoot his inserts and cut-aways with Spanish cue cards as well.