As a bilingual producer, I’ve come to understand the importance of not getting delayed in post-production, due to key messages being lost in translation.
When developing workflows for Voiceover.Cafe, we wanted to create a multilingual translation and voiceover service that would be seamless and secure for our clients, producers and video editors.
Our top priority was to ensure our clients’ brands, content and key messages were translated accurately, respecting cultural nuances and ensuring a positive reaction by all stakeholders.
We have all seen some horrible brand-blunders over the years. These are mistakes made in translation that have been published and have become public ridicule on Twitter.
There is growing pressure now on global clients making sure that these embarrassing mistakes do not happen.
The majority of our video translation services are viewed in the public domain, delivered online or aired via TV and we have put quality control procedures in place to ensure that they do not happen on our projects.
To get our workflow right, we utilise a 4 step process for the translation & voiceover recording service:
Step 1.
- Outsourcing of scripts to Audio-Visual Trained (AVT) and qualified translators.
- Reconciliation process with independent AVT qualified proof readers.
Step 2.
- QA of translated scripts. with our clients team for sign-off.
- Agreed check list for voice descriptors and pronunciation instructions.
- Scripts marked with timecodes if ‘timed to picture’ or sync is required.
Step 3.
- Recording voiceovers with experienced broadcast artists and VO Directors.
- Recording audio files at minimum 16 BIT 48KHz WAV files.
Step 4.
- QA of voiceover recording.
- In-context review of final video master by our AVT translators if required.
- Free voiceover pick-ups within 3-5 days as a final client review cycle.
The in-context review service can be an invaluable final QA for the video editor and producer, especially for Arabic, Chinese and picture language projects where timing is critical!
The free voiceover pickups are part of the QA process and subject to no script changes by client.
What’s your view?
Do you have any experiences of translations going pear shape in post-production? I’d love to hear from you.
Dorian