Dear AVD Members, As we close the fifth calendar year since we founded the division, in the last December I will be writing in Deep Focus as your Administrator, I want to ask you to join me in celebrating the accomplishments of the teams that have made everything possible: past and present Leadership Council volunteers […]
Debbie’s YBR
by Deborah Wexler As an audiovisual translator, the second most frequently asked question I get after, “Wow, do you really translate movies and series?” is “How did you get into that?” I started at a state channel in Mexico called Imevisión that later became Televisión Azteca. A woman I knew worked there and one day […]
Deep Focus Issue 13: Letter from the Administrator
Dear readers, In this special edition, I want to send a special message to the wonderful people that volunteer their valuable time to our Audiovisual Division: The Leadership Council. My deepest gratitude goes out to the AVD leaders that work so hard to bring us a website, a forum, social media posts, Instagram Live interviews, […]
Deep Focus Issue 11: Letter from the Administrator
For this issue, I spent several weeks researching to write about how to catch misgendering mistakes when reviewing a translation of material with nonbinary or gender nonconforming persons. I found several very interesting articles about the translation step of this content, but none about the QC step specifically. It is different, you see, because when […]
Deep Focus 12 – Letter from the Administrator
Dear Audiovisual Translators, I wrote such a lengthy piece for you for this issue that Lucía, our newsletter proofreader, suggested adding it as an article instead of a letter. Therefore, you will find my take on subtitle timing principles in the body of Deep Focus. Instead, I will use this space to exhort all senior […]
Deep Focus 10: Letter from the Administrator
Are interpreters or subtitlers better at respeaking? I was asked this question at ATA’s 60th Annual Conference in Palm Springs by our Distinguished Speaker that year, Pablo Romero Fresco. My answer, “Interpreters for sure.” Less than a year later, I got certified by the Universidade de Vigo as an interlingual respeaker (live subtitler). If you […]
Deep Focus 9: Letter from the Administrator
What Does “Plot-pertinent” Mean in Audiovisual Translation? To close this year, I wanted to examine a term that aims to be specific but often ends up being ambiguous. This term is thrown around in our industry when dealing with several things, like sound effects, songs, and on-screen text. I want to talk about the latter. […]
Deep Focus 8: Letter from the Administrator
Taming your Response to Feedback Do you like negative feedback? Do you wait for it with excitement like you wait for that special package you ordered to arrive at your door? If not, you’re not alone. Nobody likes feedback. It’s daunting and weighs heavily on our shoulders. It stirs our emotions. It makes our heart […]
Deep Focus 7: Letter from our Administrator
Dear readers, It has been a very sad few weeks. We have seen the power of the freedom of expression and protest in action, and in the middle of a pandemic no less. But we have also seen abuse by the authorities. Instead of sharing some personal thoughts like I normally do, I want to […]
Deep Focus 6: Letter from our Administrator
by Deborah Wexler Dear readers, In these unthinkable times, we are being reminded of the fragility of life. As we try to absorb the news, the uncertainty affects our day cycles, sleep cycles, mental health, income and, in some cases, causes severe hardship. Some of us are lucky to be at home with our families. […]
Deep Focus 5: Letter from our Administrator
Learning and Breaking the Rules By Deborah Wexler After the ATA Conference this year, I stayed in beautiful Palm Springs for a couple of days to see the sights. I wasn’t disappointed with the three fantastic places I visited: the Indian Canyons, the Palm Springs Art Museum, and its Architecture and Design Center. In the […]
Deep Focus 4: Letter from our Administrator
Quality’s Enemy in Subtitling: Peripheral Errors by Deborah Wexler When audiovisual translators receive suggestions from the reviewer, files with track-changes, template changes, etc., they need to review the subtitle in context before making or accepting changes. If they don’t, the odds of introducing mistakes into the files grow dramatically. An example from a Tagalog to […]
Deep Focus 1: Letter from the Administrator
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 […]
Deep Focus 2: Letter from the Administrator
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 […]