equip your sales team to sell complex audiovisual translation · audiovisual productions and games....

Equip Your Sales Team to Sell Complex Audiovisual Translation

Alexey Kozulyaev, RuFilms/Moscow School of Audiovisual Translation

[email protected]

The story is based on real events

No customers were harmed during the making of this procedure

No customers were harmed during the making of this procedure

A lot of added value for language service providers

resulted from its practical application

A short prequel

RuFilms

Translation for lip-sync dubbing

and subtitling

Game localization

Corporate and ad copyrighting

A short prequel

Industry problems with audiovisual and game

translation and enormous misconceptions about it

Lack of adequate translation talent

Lack of sources of talent for audiovisual/game/copyrighting

translation

Lack of understanding of what is translated

Misconceptions

Translation of audiovisual materials is

•something like fiction translation.

•something like oral translation

•something like synchronous translation

•very simple, my daughter watched 10 movies this

weekend and had no problems understanding them

all

Misconceptions

• Game translation can be done by game

developers and programmers. Google has it all.

• The customer cares more about events and

meanings and less about the emotional impact

of his movie, documentary, ad spot that he

invested million into.

Misconceptions

• There is no need to teach how to translate

audiovisual productions and games. Most

educational institutions offer such courses.

• There is no need to teach how to sell complex

audiovisual translation. A 5-page price list will

do.

ExodusDesperate customers for audiovisual translation services en

masse migrate to other types of vendors

•Recording and video production studios

•Collectives of actors

•Game developers

•Global audiovisual localization service integrators who

mostly act as mediators.

Language service providers aren’t getting their due share of

the pie. Why? What’s wrong?

The clashFilm is a combination of many signifying codes, broadly

classified as visual or acoustic. Although the specificity of

film lies in the interaction of these multiple codes, some of

them are, in practice, more equal than others.

Film scholars have traditionally privileged the visual over the

acoustic. They based their assumption on the priority of the

visual message over the purely textual one.

By contrast, scholars of translation are most interested in

film dialogue, and so modes of audiovisual translation tend

to be defined in terms of how they treat dialogue.

Breaking BadWhat percentage of AV translators translates movies without watching them?

We had to rely on our practical experience and anecdotal evidence from other vendors and customers, but more than 50 per cent of translators (especially under tight deadlines) do not watch the visuals while translating AV content.

This practice is the motherlode of all legendary AV translation bloopers in all languages.

The big thresholdFrom the point of view of scientific and educational traditions (language teaching) we can say that there are three distinct groups of linguistic communities and countries.

Audiovisual translation traditions

text-centeredDiscourse-centered

Mixed bag

The big threshold

The approach to the translation of AV texts influences the

approaches to and workflow perception framework of

• Corporate customers

• Language service providers

It is actually the backbone of the system of personnel

training and workflow management for this type of

translation and localization.

The big threshold

Corporate customers want their discourses to be translated.Language service providers offer text translation services.It looks more like a collision course than a path to cooperation.Language service providers understand that the translation of AV discourses is highly profitable, but most of them can’t cross the line or in other words – they don’t know how to sell it.The key issue –WHAT IS AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION? WHAT DO WE SELL?

Audiovisual translation revisitedWhat we start with is the key attribute of audiovisual

translation. Let’s recall Eugene Nida’s theory of formal and

dynamic equivalencies in translation.

Types of translation

equivalence

Formal Dynamic

Audiovisual translation revisited

• Formally equivalent translation seeks to ensure the

fullest conformity of both form and information of the

source text in the language form.

• Dynamically equivalent translation seeks to select or

create the closest target language match of a source

text unit in terms of the equivalence of impact on

emotions and behavior of a recipient.

Audiovisual translation revisited

Mode: dynamic equivalence requiring equivalent emotional

and behavioral responses

Subject matter: complex multimodal texts comprised of up

to 15 semantic systems (verbal and non-verbal)

Pre-translation analysis: requires a special protocol

Composition: a set of semantic units based on the visual

elements and the plot

Orientation: User-oriented translation requiring the

knowledge of the target audience

SQUARE PEGS FOR ROUND HOLES

Most of these basics aren’t known either to customer managers or to LSP rank-and-file sales personnel or to both. A variety of costly and faulty workflow scenarios result from that.

Let me just give you some vivid examples.

SCENARIO 1 – SELLING PRECISE WORD-FOR-WORD TRANSLATIONS OF AUDIOVISUAL PRODUCTIONS – the side effect of this scenario is at least 3 full and costly remakes of translations for subtitling because they are a) extremely verbose b) take most of the screen c) are unreadable due to the breaches of perception conventions. Such a scenario ruins any attempts to control production costs. The reason is the disregard for the formal/dynamic equivalence in translation.


SCENARIO 2 – SELLING THE SCRIPT OR SUBS TEMPLATE TRANSLATION AS THE KEY SERVICE.The side effect is the neglect for the texts in the video (text messages, computer screen messages, important newspaper headlines, graphs and tables). Customers usually request these gaps to be filled after the completion of a subtitle track or a soundtrack and it again incurs extra costs that add up to 30-50 per cent of the initially agreed budget. Here the mistake is the disregard of the AV discourse as a complex multimodal whole and the need to reproduce it in this format. Pretty often companies offering AV translation aren’t ready to adopt the principle of the so-called “collective author” reflecting the complex character of the productions. An AV translation for subs isn’t executed until it becomes a compliant part of a subtitle track.


SCENARIO 3 – FAILING TO PROPERLY STRUCTURE THE WORKFLOW DUE TO THE IMPROPER PRE-TRANSLATION ANALYSIS OF AV DISCOURSES. The side effect of this scenario is the complex tree of remakes and extra services that a sales unit incorporates into a sales pitch making it non-competitive. What are the most typical mistakes:

-LSPs quote for AV translation in words, pages, characters and not on a per minute or a per subtitle basis;-The process of translation for subtitling is wrongly understood and customers get pitches that include such unsolicited options as text transcription, text translation and cueing that make these pitches non-competitive.

SALES TEAM COURSE BASICS

The need for redefinition of the basics appears due to the fact that1) Most classical translation courses (and translation services sales managers are educated mostly within their frameworks) are text-centered and offer to practitioners no understanding of what AV translation really is;2) The lack of understanding of the issue of AV translation obscures the financially efficient management of workflows;3) Poor experience of loss-making management of AV translation assignments makes most LSPs shy away from selling these services or become non-competitive by adding unnecessary abut familiar steps to the workflows.

AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION THEORY FOR LSP SALES MANAGERSThere are four cornerstonesto the theory and practice of audiovisual translation

• Eugene Nida’s theory of dynamic equivalence in translation – AV translations are dynamically and not formally equivalent to source language productions

• The Tartu School research in the semantics of multimodal texts – in discourses consisting of many layers and semantic systems primary units of analysis aren’t linguistic (language-based ones)

AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION THEORY FOR LSP SALES MANAGERSThere are four cornerstones to the theory and practice of audiovisual translation

•Vermeer’s research in the skopos theory – every unit of an AV discourse has its clearly defined goal

•The research of Tytti Suojanen, Kaisa Koskinen, Tiina Tuominen (University of Tampere) in the user-oriented translation of multimodal texts – all AV discourses are built with specific target audience parameters in mind

Formal equivalence vs dynamic equivalence

Formally equivalent translation seeks to ensure the fullest

conformity of both form and information of the source text in

the language form.

Dynamically equivalent translation seeks to select or

create the closest target language match of a source text

unit in terms of the equivalence of impact on emotions and

behavior of a recipient.

Distinct Features of Audiovisual TranslationBoth source and target language audiovisual products are

coherent complex combinations of quite a number of

semantic systems (verbal and non-verbal).

All these systems have their own inner logics and structures

that do not coincide, but influence each other and compete

for the attention of the viewers at every moment of viewing

or gaming experience.

Distinct Features of Audiovisual TranslationAn audiovisual translator (as well as an average viewer) processes and

synthesizes data from 4 parallel equally meaningful data streams that

overlap in his/her perceptive and cognitive channels.

They are:

- Non-verbal visual stream

- Non-verbal audio stream (music and environment)

- Verbal audio stream (character dialogue)

- Verbal visual stream (subtitles, inserts, credits)

Distinct Features of Audiovisual TranslationVarious activities may be dominant at any given moment of

an AV discourse. At some point more attention is paid to

visual images but in a second the dialogue of characters

takes over and the next second the cue to the

understanding is given by an text message the main

character receives on her phone.

The viewer creates his understanding of the AV discourse

constantly at every moment of the viewing and corrects it on

the go. It is a dynamic process.

Distinct Features of Audiovisual Translation• The interaction of these semantic systems creates in the original AV

production a coherent plot.

• All non-verbal components exist in an AV discourse outside the grasp of a translator.

• An AV translator may work with dialogue and verbal credits only in a way that won’t disrupt either the plot coherence or the emotional impact of a production.

• Thus AV translation faces a lot of constraints. It is a heavily constrained type of translation.

Distinct Features of Audiovisual Translation• Without understanding these constraints as well as true structure of

AV discourses and basic units of pre-translation analysis, a translator

runs an enormous risk of damaging or “killing” an AV production

creating a dull but immaculately “translated” show out of a hilarious

box office hit comedy.

• Some researchers ponder over the issue of AVT being a variety of

oral or written translation. It is neither.

• AVT is a two-tier entity. A piece of AV translation doesn’t exist until it

is integrated with the key medium.

Distinct Features of Audiovisual Translation• At level 1 it is performed in the written format by a

translator.

• But at Level 2 it is integrated with the output by translator

itself (rarely) or other elements of the so-called collective

author (actors, sound engineers, game developers)

• And requirements and restrictions of Level 2 are

predominant for translation activities.

Distinct Features of Audiovisual TranslationThe so-called classical translation yields almost word-for-

word translation that still needs to be transformed due to the

fact the verbal stream is outstandingly dependent on the

visual context and translations need to integrate non-verbal

semantic codes into the holistic discourse.

No other type of translation depends so much on factors

that are external to the language.

The DNA of Audiovisual Translation

THE BIG THREE T’s OF AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION

Transculturation

Transcreation

Translation

Types and Forms of Audiovisual TranslationThese three types of AVT are in various proportions present in three forms of audiovisual translation which are direct manifestations of AVT activities

Audiovisual Adaptation

Audiovisual localization

Audiovisual Translation

• Audiovisual advertising

• Audiovisual Games

• Lip Sync Dubbing

• Kid content

• Subtitles

• Voiceover

• Lectoring

Key Definition of AV translation

Audiovisual translation is the CREATION of a new

polysemantic whole in the target language and culture on

the basis of the whole that already exists in the source

language and culture in a way that is emotionally,

behaviorally and semantically consistent with the original.

The new whole will become then an element of the target

culture and won’t be linguistically alien to it.

REQUIRED SKILLS – THEORETICAL SUMMARYTo ensure the goals of AV translation are achieved, LSP sales managers and translators must:

• Be able to analyze the dominant visual language of the discourse

• Be able to analyze the AV discourse as a manifestation of storytelling with regard to all the elements of a story

• Be able to perform user-oriented translation with regard to language, style and other linguistic and extralinguistic limitations

• Understand the processes of the creation of integral AV productions and his role and place in the “collective author” setup.

KEY MANIFESTATIONS OF AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION

Translation for lecturing and voiceover

Translation for 2D classical subtitling

Translation for audiences with specific needs

Translation for lip-sync dubbing

Translation for 3D subs

Audiovisual translation workflow revisited

• Non-verbal visual and aural semantic systems

• Plot structure

• Verbal oral and written semantic systems

Structural analysis

• Social parameters

• Cultural parameters

• Psychoemotionalparameters

• Language parameters

Audience model• Strategies of the

recreation of an AV production in the target language

Personalized knowledge and experiences of a

translator

MANAGEMENT ELEMENTS TO BE REDEFINEDIt is important for sales managers to know that AV assignments aren’t different only in their essence, but also in a way they are managed -At the sales phase-At the production phase-At the post-production phase.

What are the key points?

MANAGEMENT ELEMENTS TO BE REDEFINED

AV Productions

Collective authorship

Complex workflow

Deliverables’ structure

Customer-oriented service

Translation evaluation

Games versus AV

productions

DELIVERABLES = COSTS

Correct evaluation

of deliverables

Workflow organization

Cost structure

Time constraints

Compatibility issues

DELIVERABLES - HIGHLIGHTS FOR AV TRANSLATION SALES MANAGERS

Deliverables define everything in bringing together a successful and financially viable sale of AV translation services. There are too many workflow, cost and deadline related factors that directly stem from what you get from customers and what you are supposed to hand over.Very few customers expect an LSP playing in the AV translation market to deliver translation services only.

DELIVERABLES - HIGHLIGHTS FOR AV TRANSLATION SALES MANAGERS

The customers root for finished products-Ready-to-use subtitle files-Ready-to-use presentation and corporate video files with localized credits and graphics-Voiced-over or dubbed sound files-Beta-tested translations for games

Ordering JUST a translation file is always a poor man’s contingency for a sophisticated customer.

TYPES OF DELIVERABLES IN AV TRANSLATION

Incoming

Outgoing

TYPES OF DELIVERABLES IN AV TRANSLATION

Printed

Video

Audio

PRINTED DELIVERABLES

Dialogue continuity lists (final, preliminary, cued,

uncued, subtitle track files)

Notes to scripts

Delivery specsLegal documentation (rights agreements,

NDAs)

Printed deliverables

VISUAL DELIVERABLES

Premaster (final edited version)

Non-final version

Full video editing projectClean version (with credits removed for

localization)

VISUAL DELIVERABLES

AUDIO DELIVERABLES

Inseparable single AV fileSeparate video and audio

tracks

Container file that allows to extract separate tracks

( for example, mov)

Software container

(say, Pro Tools)

AUDIO DELIVERABLES

CHECKLIST FOR A SUCCESSFUL AV TRANSLATION SALE – STEP 1

Deliverables

Consolidated incoming deliverables inventory

Consolidated outgoing deliverables inventory

Receipt and delivery calendar plans

GOOD WORKFLOW MODELLING = NO EXTRA COSTSWorkflow modelling is the process of the compilation of a

minimal or optimal list of operations required to get the final

output file done.

Audiovisual translation is a collective authoring process. A

very good translation can be totally obliterated by poor voice

talent performance, superb joint efforts of a translator and

an actor can be destroyed by a poorly done mix that is not

up to requested specs.

All too often traditional LSPs sell sets of services that are

familiar to them.

ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE OF POOR WORKFLOW MODELLING

A Russian LSP provider tried to enter the market of broadcasting subtitle translation and consistently lost pitches. When I reviewed the workflow process it turned out they suggested to prospective customers the following “cutting-edge” workflow-Transcription of audios-Translation of printed transcriptions with all fashionable MT wizardry involved-Subs cueing off translated transcripts

No wonder they lost to companies that created and immediately translated subs using specialized applications.


Workflow

Workflow chartVendors/responsible

persons graphOutput review

CORRECT STRUCTURING OF STAKEHOLDERS = SLIM BUDGET

Costly mistakes

Excessive reliance on outsourcing

Excessive drive towards in-house production

Excessive reliance on customer expertise

Excessive reliance on outsourcing

Outsourcing is often perceived as a blessing in disguise for most LSP ills.In the case of AV translation, outsourcing should be exercised with caution.Reason 1 – software development makes many adjacent operations so seamlessly integrated with the translation process that it is cost-effective to consider some minor personnel training (say, in subtitling or subtitle output preparation).Reason 2 – some of the processes require an uninterrupted quality check chain that can be dome in-house – this relates mostly to the translation of audiovisual games.


Some LSPs perceive the expansion of their activities in the field of AV translation as “let’s-buy-a-lot-of-sound-studio-equipment” process making the structure of the company lopsided.Audiovisual translation is not about working with the sound only. Moreover, it can not be standardized – every request is unique in its structure due to the variations in deliverables and customer goals.


An AVT sales person should understand that “send-me-your-price-list” approach to ordering AV translation services is either a sign of low competence of the customer in the field or a polite form of refusal to cooperate.AV translation service provides have flexibility as their motto and a mere purchase of hardware and further attempts to sell standardized sets of services are hardly instrumental.Studios must be purchased – but for servicing existing customers, for the cost optimization within an existing workflow, but not as a basis of a sales expansion strategy.

Excessive reliance on customer expertiseLocalization of audiovisual is a complex process and it is sad truth that most customers understand that there is something very peculiar about audiovisual translation, but they are still influenced by text-centered translation basics. The problem is that this approach to the translation of AV texts influences the tasks set by corporate customers.Thus a salesperson very rarely can rely on the customer expertise in formulating the exact task and making a precise selection of operations he wants to order from an LSP from a standardized process list. AVT customers order results (like dishes in a restaurant) and not separate ingredients (that they could take home and use for cooking)


Execution

In-house operations Outsourcing

gains/losses evaluationSoftware requirements

Need for brief personnel training

CORRECT UNDERSTANDING OF CUSTOMER SERVICE = NO REMAKES

An AVT sales person right now is to a certain extent an educator telling to customers what they want and showing to them what they want and how it will look. The main sales tool of an AVT sales person is a portfolio of samples of how the product will look, sound and play.But a salesperson must define the terminology – dubbing/vs voiceover (10-times difference in costs), subtitling vs credit localization (absolutely different workflows)There also are certain physical and computational restrictions to deadlines – like, even state-of-the-art computers will require several hours to tweak a 350 GB source 4K video file into a flash video for a Web site upload. A customer might wish to do it in a matter of couple of hours – but it is physically impossible.


AVT Customer service

Terminology defined (VO/dubs, subs/credits)

Workflow disclosed Deadlines explained Samples introduced“No price lists” introduced – every AV translation job

is custom-made

PROPER EVALUATION OF OUTPUTS = CUSTOMER TRUSTAn AVT sales person and an account manager must be able to evaluate the quality of outputs so that the best translation and voice talent could be offered and ways of improving the performance on returning orders might be found.It also relates to software compatibility and QC procedures.


Evaluation of outputs

Translation compatibility

Overall AV product acceptability

Software compatibility (subs, Pro Tools)

Costs of QC

Core competences/Theoretical moduleWe single out 5 groups of competences listed below according to their importance for process of AV translation

• Group 1 – general visual language analysis competences, overall workflow understanding and basic technological competences needed to understand the processes of dubbing and subtitling

• Group 2 – general cultural and psychoemotional competences necessary to ensure the fulfilment of the key requirement of the customers - to ensure the enjoyable viewing experience of the target audience without breaking the fabric of the plot and overall meaning

Core competences/Theoretical module

• Group 3 – script/plot/world of a series analysis competences that relate to the ability of a translator to narrate the story in the target language. Intertextual competences – knowledge of key movies and the history of moviemaking to be able to locate and correctly translate crossreferences

• Group 4 – linguistic competences – both in the source language and in the target one as AVT requires very high proficiency in the native language to ensure the dynamic equivalence of an AV translation

• Group 5 – strategic competences – the ability to choose correct strategies of AV translation for specific genres and tasks and execute them

Core competences/Management module- Deliverables evaluation and workflow modelling-Establishing workflow stakeholders/collective authors and cost evaluation-Basics of customer-oriented approach to selling audiovisual translation - use of samples, customization, client education-Basics of translator output evaluation and the evaluation of overall AV productions (subtitles/closed captions, voiceover, dubbing)-Basics of selling audiovisual translation for games

Basic structure of the AVT course for LSP sales managers•Phase 1 – redefining the subject of AVT

• Step 1 – theory of AVT. Basic competencies of an AV translator

• General

• Linguistic

• Step 2 – Visual language. Visual syntax. Interaction of visual and verbal languages in an AV discourse.

• Step 3 - Scriptwriting and plot building basics for AV translators

TEACHING METHODS – PHASE 1

Theory

Sample analysis –classroom and home

assignments

Translation practice

• Short forms

• Long forms

Basic structure of the AVT course for LSP sales managers• Phase 2

• Deliverables types, structure and evaluation

• Cost evaluation and locating openings for good profit margins

• Workflow optimization

• Extended range of services (+ video editing, +copyrighting, +glossaries)

• Parameters and methods of the evaluation of the finished results (translations, subs, dubbed tracks, games)


Practical situations

Theory

Rapid response deliverables analysis and evaluation of output

Scenario and classroom interaction discussion


• Practice of handling the processes of VO and dubbing in the studio to see the actual workflow and cost trimming reserves

• Practice of translation for subtitling and subtitling itself in order to get the feel of time expenditures involved to be able to evaluate the feasibility of deadlines

TEACHING METHODS – PHASE 3Studio

practiceDiscussions


• Basics of customer-oriented approach to selling audiovisual translation

• Use of samples,

• Principle of customization,

• Ways of client education

• Customer-manager interaction scenarios and role games

• Quotes and scenarios of sales pitches

• Most common mistakes and ways to avoid them


Case discussions

•Voiceover/Dubbing

•Subtitling

•Games

Scenarios

•Positive

•Negative

•Approaches to turning the table in your favor

Principles

•Aggressive use of samples

•Extreme customization

•Ways of client education

Common mistakes and ways to avoid

them

Basic structure of the AVT course for LSP sales managers• Phase 5 –

• Selling audiovisual translation for games

• Theory of AV game translation

• Workflow as opposed to film/movie translation

• Deliverables

• Output evaluation

• Organization of beta-testing


Theory – game AVT translation vs classical

AVT

Workflows and

business processes

– case analysis

Deliverables

Output evaluation and beta-

testing principles

CONCLUSION

The course for sales managers of LSPs in selling AV translation has two primary goals:

• to change the framework of understanding what AV translation is

• to change sales processes on the basis of this understanding

CONCLUSION

It helps LSPs

• to greatly increase sale communication success rates

• to increase markups and profits on every assignment as complex AV production chains leave ample room for cost optimization

• to be able to respond to the expanding scope of services requested by their existing customers with cost-effective pitches

equip your sales team to sell complex audiovisual translation · audiovisual productions and games....

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