Forum: Subtitling
Topic: Subtitling project seems like a translation
Poster: José Henrique Lamensdorf
Post title: Video is a specialty area
[quote]
I would agree with you wholeheartedly, only thing is, this person is from a well established company on proz.com with tens of positive reviews. So it would appear they know what they are doing? [/quote]
That conversation was actually longer, because it was mediated by a PM working at a good, solid, and well-established translation agency here in Brazil.
Years of experience working with direct video clients (producers, distributors) and their specialty vendors (e.g. dubbing & subtitling studios) taught me exactly how everything is done, i.e. how our translation is used in the process. No point in bragging about details of what I've done with video so far.
The point is that it can't be learned overnight. Translation agency PMs don't know each and every language they hire translation services from/into. However that's usually text-in & text-out, even if the character set used by either language is inextricable for them. There isn't much difference in the process, apart from the possible use of CAT tools, either for some specific purpose, or for no purpose at all, just because the boss said so.
I do video work for several translation agencies, and I know very few people in all of them who know what they are talking about when the project involves video. Most have learned to trust my judgment on what should be done, and how, since there are many options.
Sometimes an agency PM thinks s/he has heard/seen enough in a couple of projects done with a video expert, so they think that's the right way to do it. It might have been for THAT specific project, and yet they might have incomplete information. But it's never the only way.
The fact that a PM is not a video expert is not at all derogatory to a translation agency. I try to teach the PMs I work with as much as I can in our joint decision-making process, however I don't have a complete, organized training program for them on this subject. I'm sure the good ones wouldn't have the time to take it.
Topic: Subtitling project seems like a translation
Poster: José Henrique Lamensdorf
Post title: Video is a specialty area
[quote]
I would agree with you wholeheartedly, only thing is, this person is from a well established company on proz.com with tens of positive reviews. So it would appear they know what they are doing? [/quote]
That conversation was actually longer, because it was mediated by a PM working at a good, solid, and well-established translation agency here in Brazil.
Years of experience working with direct video clients (producers, distributors) and their specialty vendors (e.g. dubbing & subtitling studios) taught me exactly how everything is done, i.e. how our translation is used in the process. No point in bragging about details of what I've done with video so far.
The point is that it can't be learned overnight. Translation agency PMs don't know each and every language they hire translation services from/into. However that's usually text-in & text-out, even if the character set used by either language is inextricable for them. There isn't much difference in the process, apart from the possible use of CAT tools, either for some specific purpose, or for no purpose at all, just because the boss said so.
I do video work for several translation agencies, and I know very few people in all of them who know what they are talking about when the project involves video. Most have learned to trust my judgment on what should be done, and how, since there are many options.
Sometimes an agency PM thinks s/he has heard/seen enough in a couple of projects done with a video expert, so they think that's the right way to do it. It might have been for THAT specific project, and yet they might have incomplete information. But it's never the only way.
The fact that a PM is not a video expert is not at all derogatory to a translation agency. I try to teach the PMs I work with as much as I can in our joint decision-making process, however I don't have a complete, organized training program for them on this subject. I'm sure the good ones wouldn't have the time to take it.