by Mara Campbell and Sebastián Arias Audiovisual translation is full of challenges. Conveying meaning, nuance, intention, and things unsaid is not just “replacing words in the source language with their equivalent in the target”. But some projects stand out. Case in point: The History of Swear Words, a series that premiered on Netflix in January […]
We Kicked off 2021 with 2 More Instagram Lives
by Daniela Costa January: Dubbing with Elodie Powers We started 2021 by interviewing Elodie Powers, Director of Global Streaming and Broadcast at Keywords Studios. She shared with us how COVID-19 affected their dubbing and postproduction process and how her team dealt with new circumstances. The company has teams in China and Italy, so they had […]
Behind-the- Scenes Hero: The Cinematic Universe of Quico Rovira-Beleta – Interview
by Lucía Hernández When I meet Quico Rovira-Beleta for a chat in December, he begins by telling me that like many audiovisual translators of his generation, he didn’t go to school for audiovisual translation. “At the time, audiovisual translation programs didn’t exist,” he recounts. “I studied biology. Arachnology, actually. The study of spiders. Can you […]
Arabic Audio Description: Challenges and Possibilities
by Heba Safwat Alattar A Brief History of Arabic Audiovisual Translation Arabic audiovisual translation (AVT) appeared with the emergence of cinema in Egypt back in 1896. Early movies were accompanied by the voice of elmefahematy who would simultaneously interpret the intertitles of silent foreign movies and, later, foreign dialogues. The practice evolved to presenting the […]
ATA 61 Recap: Translation Adaptation for Dubbing
by Gabriela Lemoine How do you translate a script that is going to be used for dubbing? What is adaptation for synchronization? In this overview of my presentation at ATA61, I will summarize answers to these questions, drawing on examples from many real movies and TV shows dubbed in Spanish. These clips were generously provided […]
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 […]
A Whole Different Level of Localization
by Mara Campbell You probably heard of or watched the Norwegian show Norsemen (Vikingane) or the Welsh show Hinterland (Y Gwyll). One a comedy and the other a noir police procedural, they do not seem to have much in common, except for the cold, humid weather they depict. Apart from the English versions available on […]
Forced Narratives? Forced Audiences!
By Mara Campbell and Sebastián Arias Sometimes it takes us ages to realize that we have been doing something inefficiently for a long time and nobody said a thing (probably because they didn’t notice). Generally, we can’t even establish the exact moment it started happening or who began doing it differently. My colleague and co-author […]
ATA 60 Recap: Deadpool 2: translating an Rrated film from English into Castilian Spanish
By Pablo Fernández Moriano When translating a film like Deadpool 2, several issues come into play that are determined both by the nature of the dubbing process and the very nature of the film. The dubbing process Spain is traditionally a dubbing country. Although subtitles are growing in popularity, the main localization process for distributing […]
On the Audiovisual Radar: ATA 60
AVD-Related Presentations and Workshops on ATA60 October 24, 2019 Are you a CAD (Certified Audio Describer)? Joel Snyder This session offered an overview of the fundamentals of audio description and how interested individuals can become professional audio describers. Subtitle Editing: Walking the Fine Line Between Red-Pen Pedantry and Facilitating Audience Immersion Vanessa Wells This […]
New Technologies in AVT and Why Translators Need to Adapt to Survive
by Mara Campbell Not so many years ago, we were able to successfully manage life and work with only landlines, snail mail, and fax machines. But today, our world is dominated by a myriad of accessible and affordable technologies, and we can all agree there are benefits. Technology in everyday life helps us save time, […]
Professional Development Program: Preview and Trailers
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 […]
Read my lips: Dubbing in the 1980s—A Lost Art?
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 […]