What is film translation?

by Target Language Translation Services

- January 11 2022

Films are widely watched all over the world. If a message has to be spread to the crowd in a very natural way then films is the answer. Film translation plays a major role to access all types of films, local and international.

There are various categories when doing translations for films. First, there’s the translation of all written materials, including scripts and articles that are needed for the film production. Then there is also dubbing and the creation of subtitles, which could be in several languages if the film is distributed for international release. And finally, the marketing materials, reviews and synopses that need translation work as well.

The Uses of Film Translation Services

Film translation services are provided when the film simply involves a text version of the translation to be shown on the computer, TV or screen space. Subtitles were created to help you grasp the spoken language better. Film translation service is mostly provided by film production houses, where the dubbing or subtitling of films from different languages are done. The following are covered under film translation services:

Movie Translation Services

Documentary Translation Services

Short Film Translation Services

TV Show Translation Services

Web Series Translation Services

YouTube Translation Services

Amazon Videos Translation Services

Film Script Translation Services

Live show Translation Services

Drama or Plays Translation Services

And many more...

Challenges of Film Translation

There’s no doubt that film translation can be a harsh and challenging job. When done well, film translation has the potential to attract the attention of critics and film technicians all over the world; but when poorly executed, film translation can make a comedy out of a serious drama.

And though film translation has all the typical challenges faced by translators, there are other aspects of this type of work that make it even harder. Most translators will be familiar with these problems and will have faced some of them.

Space and Time

Translating for films is difficult. Even simple conversations must satisfy the target language’s colloquialisms and terms that are standard in the industry.

Subtitles have to conform to limitations of space and time. There is a limit to the number of characters that could be displayed to give viewers the time to read them. At the same time the subtitles must likewise be in synch with sound and picture seen on screen. On the other hand, the texts to be utilized when dubbing must be of the same length as the original.

Subtitles appear onscreen for only a few seconds therefore the viewer must understand what’s been said in those precious seconds, hence the brevity. If there is hesitation in the dialogue, the subtitles might be left on the screen for longer but this does not happen often. Another difficulty faced when doing subtitles is setting the time-codes, which requires double the hours spent on the subtitles.

Timing is likewise very significant in dubbing. The translated texts must approximate the length of the original. Dubbing does not have to contend with restrictions on screen space, though. Moreover, dubbing gives the translator some edge in the translation, since the movie viewers are not able to hear the original dialogue.

Slang

The use of slang is possibly the most difficult aspect of translating films. In the best of circumstances, cultural insinuations can be tough to describe – even in the same language – but these difficulties increase exponentially when translating into a different language.

It would probably be easier to translate slang from Dutch to English than to translate from Russian to English; the reason being that the Dutch and English languages are both part of the West Germanic family of languages. Besides, these two cultures have developed in parallel due to their geographic proximity. Therefore, it can be easier to convert Dutch slang into the English equivalent; but not always, because there are expressions that simply won’t make any sense at all if translated literally into English.

Let’s take the the Dutch saying: “Da’s kloten van de bok.” as an example. It’s typically translated to be “that’s very bad” or “that’s rotten”, but the literal translation is actually “that’s testicles of the goat”, which, when taken out of context, makes absolutely no sense at all in English.

So, it’s because of these cultural differences that translators often take liberties when interpreting the meanings of certain phrases and words. Obviously, a translator’s ultimate goal is to convey the same idea, so, depending on the context in question, a number of phrases could be utilized to convey the same meaning.

Nicknames

Film translators often find nicknames to be a tough aspect of translation because of the behavioral and cultural connotations involved. When we have a character known as “sticky fingers” we would automatically assume it means that person is a kleptomaniac, while the Dutch version of “plakkerige vingers” could fall very flat indeed. Some translators in cases like this simply utilize the original in the translated version, and while this is an easy solution, it’s not necessarily more effective than a literal translation.

Film translators’ real challenge arises when it comes to nicknames in movies about organized crime or gangs, where almost every movie character has a name that’s been carefully crafted to describe their passion, predilection, or propensity.

Perhaps the safest approach here is to take the use-it-as-it-is approach, which means that the translator maintains the integrity of the character’s name.

This article is reprinted from Day Translations, BLEND and QuickTranscriptionService.

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