E-ging Solutions is a world-leading Shanghai translation company with specialties in Video translation.

Film is an inherently visual medium, and as such, many wonderful movies enjoy an easy transition between languages with the use of subtitles.

The History of Translation in Film: Early Beginnings

During the era of the silent film, translation was exceedingly easy to do: silent films used “intertitles” which interrupted the storyline every few minutes with written text that expressed bits of necessary dialogue.

When such a film required translation, the intertitles could simply be replaced with those for a new language, and the movie could go on to be enjoyed as intended.

Of course, the 1920s brought with it the invention of the “talkies” — films that could be recorded with sound.  Movies were much shorter back then, so the solution that American production companies came up with to solve the problem of translation was to simply shoot the same film in a number of languages, using the same set, costumes, props, but different actors.

As is to be expected, this proved to be very expensive, and it was difficult for studios to turn a profit.  So they needed a new idea.

This heralded the invention of the “dubbed” film, movies where a new soundtrack was recorded for an original film.  If a movie was produced in English, the French version, then, would have new actors perform only the lines of the script, and the words would be played over the reel.  But this approach was problematic for the greater movie-going world outside of America.

Hollywood has always been the largest moving part in the cinematic machine, and many filmmakers abroad asserted that dubbed movies enabled Hollywood to continue its dominance of the international film market.  International audiences were always well aware of where and in what language the original film was shot, despite the dubbing.

Video translation: The Modern Era

American dominance in the world of cinema remained strong through the end of World War II, but during the peace that followed, European economies began to recover. And in that recovery the larger countries — France, Italy, Germany, and Spain — began to take direct action to lessen the influence of American films.  Some countries levied taxes against imported films while financially incentivizing the home production of films in the country’s native language.

Today, subtitling is the favored method of translating a film, not only because it is the least invasive, but also because it carries with it a foreign flair.  Reading subtitles is now, for a modern audience, as much a part of the foreign film experience as any other part of watching a film from abroad.

Are There Video translation Best Practices?

Transcribe: To successfully subtitle a video — whether for artistic, informative, or business purposes — the first step is to have an accurate transcription of the video.  The transcription is a word-for-word record of what is said in a video.

Translate: After a transcription has been done, the transcription can be translated into any number of languages.  It is best to work with qualified translators who specialize in the subject matter and who can offer a certification of their work.

Timestamp: Once the transcription has been translated, a video editing specialist will perform a timestamp analysis to ensure that the subtitles that appear on the screen will match the actions taking place on screen at any given time.

There are a few common issues that arise during the timestamp step.  The first is text expansion or contraction.  If a phrase becomes much longer, or shorter, during translation, the timestamp analysis will need to determine which words to omit.

Similarly, a conversation that involves a lot of back-and-forth dialogue may be able to be succinctly summarized in a much shorter fashion.  By limiting the amount of text that appears in the subtitles, savvy video editors minimize the amount of attention the audience needs to devote to reading the subtitles, and allows them to focus on the acting.

Video Editing: After all of the materials are translated and timestamped, a professional video editor will implement the subtitles at their respective times and review the final product to ensure that it is ready for audiences.

Whether you are looking to have a video translated for personal or commercial purposes, be sure to work with qualified professionals.