by Nora Díaz I haven’t typed my full name or email address in years. Instead, I type abbreviations that get expanded after I type a punctuation mark or press a trigger key, such as the spacebar or Enter key. I also use text expansion for standard email replies, such as my reply when I receive […]
Ten Things Language Professionals Can Do to Look After Their Mental Health During the Pandemic
by Flor Montero Interpreters and translators are no strangers to stress. Whether dealing with a fast-paced speaker or juggling multiple deadlines, we are well acquainted with the physical symptoms–and consequences–of stress. However, the current worldwide pandemic is a new type of challenge not only for our guild, but also for the whole planet. Our lives […]
Three Elements that Affect Subtitling Productivity
by Catalina Espinoza Almost every audiovisual translator has been asked their daily productivity. In an effort to win clients, sometimes we rush to respond: “x” minutes a day. But it’s difficult to predict the complexity of a project knowing only how long the file is. The purpose of this article is to make it clear […]
Translating Accessibility and Sensitive Content
by Daniela Costa A few months ago, I was assigned the subtitle translation of a documentary. So far, nothing new to me. Before starting a project, I usually do some research about the director, characters, and theme. In this case, it was a documentary about a camp for teenagers, and how it changed their lives. […]
COVID-19 Impact Testimonials
1. Aída COVID-19 has brought many challenges to my life as a translator. I was used to working alone and now I’m sharing my “sacred and quiet” space with my husband and my two kids all day long. Homeschooling made it more difficult to maintain a routine and keep my standard productivity. Some days are […]
AVD’s First Virtual Meetup
In COVID-19 times, the whole world must adapt and improvise And so the AVD did! In an attempt to bring our audiovisual translators together and help break the forced social isolation we have been living in, the AVD organized a virtual meetup on May 30, 2020. Translators from all over the world got together in […]
On the Audiovisual Radar
Audiovisual Translation-Related International Events COURSE Curso de Subtitulado y Doblaje dirigido a traductores, profesores, intérpretes y estudiantes (Subtitling and Dubbing Course for Translators, Teachers, Interpreters, and Students) When: Oct 2 – 16, 2020 Where: 100% Online Description: Subtitling script composition, dubbing script composition, Neutral Spanish practice, translation with and without script, software, job opportunities, final […]
Deep Focus 7: Letter from the Editor
Dear Audiovisual Division Members, Far from simply welcoming the arrival of a more relaxed summer, when we are finally getting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, the current state of things must be acknowledged as, in addition to the hundreds of thousands of lives this pandemic has now claimed, innocent lives […]
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 […]
Software Series 4: Amara Review
by Ana Lis Salotti This is the fourth instalment of the AVD technology column. This time I’ll review the cloud-based subtitle editor Amara (https://amara.org/en/). Developed by the non-profit Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF) in 2011, Amara offers two subtitling products: a free platform, and an enterprise platform with three pricing tiers. The free platform is actually […]
3 Tools for Increased Efficiency and Productivity in Audiovisual Translation
by Nora Díaz With ever-increasing pressures to produce high-quality work under tighter deadlines, tools that help translators work faster and more efficiently are a welcome addition to our toolbox. This article will provide an overview of three such tools: one for speech recognition, one for CATtool integration and one for custom shortcuts and macros. Dragon […]
Audiovisual Translation Practice: A Movie Trailer Genre Analysis
by Ana G. González Meade Why movie trailers? A growing number of people all over the world are making use of an assortment of audiovisual products, particularly subtitled media, which raises doubts about the limited research in the field. Therefore, it seems imperative to subject a medium with such wide-ranging ramifications to much more detailed […]
The Road To The Olympics: How and Why We Took On Live Audio Description
by Diane Johnson If you were blind how would you be able to keep up on a trending topic like the Olympics? At Descriptive Video Works (DVW), we have been making recorded television programming accessible to people who are vision impaired and blind for 16 years. We started in Canada 2003 and then opened up […]
Pivot Languages in Subtitling
by Dietlinde DuPlessis If you translate subtitles for streaming services into languages other than English, you most likely have received pivot-language assignments. If you are a native English speaker, you might have been asked to produce templates for pivot translations. If you are not familiar with the term pivot language, here is a short definition: […]
Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone: Translating Subtitles from Foreign Audio and an English Template
by Daniela Costa The growth of streaming isn’t surprising. From music and audiovisual content to podcasts, technology has helped these new platforms showcase original works. In recent years, there has been a surge in Netflix’s non-English materials. 50% of subscribers watch foreign-language shows when only 30% of viewers did so a couple of years ago¹. […]