Audiences love foreign TV and film.
Theres just one little challenge.
Watch Your Language
The process and perils of translating foreign content for global audiences.
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When in doubt, ask Ken Watanabe.
Thats what the producers and directors ofTokyo Vicelearned on the set of the bilingual HBO Max show.
You cant just translate the words directly.
As audiences embrace subtitles, translated series have become more common, particularly on streaming services.
The show unintentionally served as an example of how localization can go wrong.
Its a process that generally unfolds over the course of five steps.
1.Rewriting (and Rewriting, and Rewriting) the Script
1.
Like practically everything else in the industry, there is no industry-wide standard for templates.
LinQ is one of several localization companies whose work Netflix and other streamers outsource to provide subtitles.
These services are supervised by the streamers, but the actual translation depends entirely on individuals like Fredriksson.
Often the vendors work is created without meaningful feedback or oversight from either streaming platforms or production companies.
Each companys distribution guidelines are somewhat different.
Disney+s guidelines grew from Disneys corporate DNA as an international home-video distributor decades before it launched a streaming service.
As the number of languages in demand increases, so does the need to streamline the process.
One way to do that is by creating a pivot script in English.
Even with all that checking, an airtight pivot script doesnt guarantee a perfect adaptation.
HBOsGame of Thronesfamously made headlines when it revealed howHodor got his name.
Since there isnt a one-size-fits-all solution, Fredriksson offers a blanket answer: Keep the original word.
2.Building a Subtitle Barrier
2.
Netflixs guidelines specify everything from the positioning of subtitles, alignment, bolding, and italics.
(There are differences in how Latin American and Castilian Spanish, for example, are formatted.)
Thats one of her teams rules.
We have language managers who set those guidelines and standards, Rokni says.
Yet we are constantly reviewing those guidelines and testing for new subtitle options and customization.
The medium profoundly affects the message.
And final calls arent always made in-house.
As Fredriksson puts it, the lack of space and time means you are constantly forced to compromise.
Jokes you thought were hysterical disappear from the screen too fast.
Words that seemed inessential but provided context are discarded.
A moreliteraltranslation would be: I am very smart, I just never got a chance to be educated.
Fredrikssons solution to this, as with balrogs, is to leave certain things untranslated.
The more you see it, the more you get used to it, he says.
Longtime anime fans know what hes saying.
3.Here Comes the Dub
3.
When people talk about things getting lost in translation, it is 100 percent true, Heil explains.
The script goes through two phases and things get changed.
(In the case ofSquid Game, the majority of the voice cast was Korean American.)
4.The Caption Crunch
4.
5.Watching and Waiting
5.
Done wrong, theyre a disjointed mess.
Accounting for that frustration was on the minds ofTokyo Vices team from day one.
I watched that and my head exploded, Poul says.
It didnt seem to hurt Americans enjoyment of it, but it was suddenly amateur hour.
