AVD

Audiovisual Division Part of the American Translators Association

A Division of the American Translators' Association

Deep Focus 1: Letter from the Administrator

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by Deborah Wexler During the 59th ATA Conference in New Orleans, a colleague asked me, “What was the motivation that drove a group of translators to create an audiovisual division in the ATA?” I sat for a minute, pondering. “Many different factors motivated each of us,” I said. He then asked, “Well, what do you […]

ATA Audiovisual Division’s new Mentoring Program

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By Britta Noack Welcome to the new AVD Mentoring Program, a program we are establishing for translators in good standing with ATA to learn more about audiovisual translation. Have you always wondered what it would be like to subtitle a movie, or are you already working in the field of audiovisual media and would like […]

Teaching an Online Language-Neutral AVT Course: Mission Impossible?

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By Ana Lis Salotti Photo: Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license. I have been teaching translation courses in American universities for the last four years, both online and in person. During my teaching career, I have learned a great deal, possibly more than my students. One such instance of remarkable learning for me was when […]

How Hybrid Technologies Will Make Media Translation Professionals More Competitive in the Era of Media Globalization

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By Ivanka Vassileva The era of media globalization has brought about a strain on the content delivery supply chain. On one hand, filmmakers and media content creators are faced with a challenge. They have to quickly make their content available globally, translated in many different languages at the same time, in a fast, accurate, and […]

Automatic Speech Recognition Softwares: Will they replace audiovisual translators in the near future? (Part 1)

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By Mara Campbell Let me start with a straight answer to the titular question so that you can continue reading with a light heart: No! Now that we can all breathe easily, I will elaborate. You might be familiar with the concept of Speech Recognition Software (SRS) if you use Siri, Alexa, or Google Now. […]

The Skinny on Payment for Audiovisual Translation

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By Alexander C. Totz All things payment are such an essential part of audiovisual translation as I have come to learn in my decade plus of experience. It’s quite easy to rattle off all of this in hindsight. Even within our field, I’m convinced the business of this specialization is a rather unique animal indeed. […]

Events in 2019 for Audiovisual Translators

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By Sophie Céneray We are welcoming 2019 with great anticipation at the Audiovisual Division! Translators and interpreters have many ways of finding resources to develop their business and professional skills. It can be through reading newsletters and communications from associations they belong to or follow online, social media, colleagues, workshops, conferences, and much more. Audiovisual […]

Deep Focus 2: Editorial

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By Ana Gabriela González Mead March 1st, 2019. Welcoming 2019 in style here at the AVD! With the launch of our very own Deep Focus newsletter’s second edition packed with engaging informative and educational articles as well as reviews on conferences and technologies. Contributions from experienced fellow translators provide a fresh outlook of the trade […]

Deep Focus 2: Letter from the Administrator

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by Deborah Wexler In conversations about audiovisual translation, I often hear statements such as, “Clients don’t care about quality,” “Agencies don’t care about quality,” “Translators don’t care about quality,” and so on. This begs the question, who wants quality? And ultimately, who is responsible for it? First, let’s take a look at the audiovisual content […]

Professional Development Program: Preview and Trailers

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by Fernanda Brandao-Galea The Professional Development Program of the Audiovisual Division is a career-building opportunity for translators who want to know more about this branch of translation. If you want to build the skills required to enter the audiovisual field, this program might be for you. We plan to help audiovisual translators broaden their knowledge […]

Software Series 2: OOONA Toolkit Review

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by Ana Salotti This is the second installment of AVD technology column. You will notice a different format, a review instead of an interview. We think this makes for an easier, more thorough read. For this issue, I’ll review Ooona Toolkit, by Ooona Tools (https://ooona.ooonatools.tv). Ooona Toolkit is an easy-to-use, web-based software for the creation, […]

Automatic Speech Recognition Softwares: Will they replace audiovisual translators in the near future? (Part 2)

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by Mara Campbell Since writing the first part of my article, I have been busy testing new automatic speech recognition (ASR) tools and comparing results. I have to admit that some softwares are quite impressive and could be considered a very helpful tool for subtitlers and captioners. Again, my test clip was from the comedy […]

Pivot Language Templates in Audiovisual Translation: Friends or Foes?

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by Vanesa Álvarez Ortiz In these globalized and competitive times, some big players in the AVT industry rely heavily upon pivot language templates to make English the source language of all translation, eliminating less common combinations. The use of these timed master subtitles has as many advantages as disadvantages both for subtitle vendors and translators. […]

Read my lips: Dubbing in the 1980s—A Lost Art?

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by Corinne Simon-Duneau Have you ever seen one of those cheap Kung Fu movies dubbed in English where the actor has closed his mouth and the dialogue continues or his lips are still moving and you hear nothing? During all the years I was working at what they grandly but justifiably called “dialogue adaptation,” we […]