Video script translation quality

Q:  Our client wants to translate.  Is this the best approach?

It’s a tough call.  The person whom the client uses as translator makes a big difference.  Let’s see if I can explain the various possibilities, because the video producer/director is the one who must deal with the effects when they occur. The best scenario (and the most rare) is that the client’s translation is perfect, and that it fits the timing of the video perfectly.  This “best scenario” happens about 3% of the time.  So, let’s consider the more probable.  About 30% of the time, the client’s translation is fine.  Ask your client nicely how much translation their translators do for their company, and for what purpose.  For example, is this the first or second time they use these people, and what have they done in the past - the corporate website and brochure, or just an employee procedures manual?    Basically, gently discover if the client’s translators have been translating high-profile image pieces for the company, or just an occasional letter or document.  If the translators have been doing high-profile work and if their work has already been accepted by the client’s target market, then you’re on a roll, and the only thing that could go wrong would be that their tranlsation is a bit too heavy, being the “written word” not the “spoken word” as required for media scripts, and it may be a bit too long and require shortening in order for the foreign voice talent’s recording to fit in the timing of the original language.  So now, to the “not so good” results…  57% of the the time when the translation provided by the client it has problems, possibly serious problems.  And these problems will upchuck all over the producer/director unless that producer/director is ready for this scenario.  Forewarned is forearmed.  Of the 57% of scripts that have translation trouble, over half of these will have grammar, stylistic and word-choice problems - including mis-translations and outright errors.  But the script is savable, and needs to be saved.  So,  the producer/director must inform the client that the script needs help (requiring tact - a director’s specialty!) but the producer/director is thereafter often held responsible for providing the grammar corrections and fixing  faulty translations in languages the producer/director does not speak.  Certain companies  can really help here, such as @International Services  (http://www.internationalservices.com).  Such a company can review and repair the script quite quickly. ——-  And now we come to 25% of the cases - the directors nightmare…   Unacceptable, possibly horrifyingly bad translations.  1 out of ever 4 scripts is a disaster.  And the producer/director almost never has any idea of this until the voice talent begins to complain - loudly.  By then, it is the recording session, and the time to peacefully broach the subject of a lousy translation to the client has long past,  the deadline is  down to  the wire, and scrambling begins.  The good news is that if a director/producers simply understands the above scenarios, and sets the stage with the client, so that the client’s script will be “grammar checked” significantly before recording (perhaps by @International Services), then problems can be discovered long in advance of the recording session, and quietly faced together, without the hair-raising rush of “What do we do now?”

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