Translation of movies and games. Part 2

Cultural adaptation of phenomena and terms

Transculturation or adaptation of material to the cultural code of the country. This concerns the cultural references in the film. For example, residents of most countries have their own iconic car models. However, these cars are different in each country and word for word translation says nothing to a person who is not familiar with the culture or history. Therefore, translators, in such cases, replace the name of the car model with the other words - for example, "vintage".

Or, for example, the phrase "here is looking at you, kid" is a reference to the film "Casablanca", that's why, after the translation the viewers should understand this reference.

It is equally important to translate metric values into the international system of units, so that the viewer can easily understand what volumes or distances are in question. Because of such mistakes, the meaning may be lost. For example, the original expression "luxury apartment 220 square feet." However, when you convert feet to meters, you get a little more than 20 square meters. Therefore, this phrase, in fact, is ironical.

An important aspect for a translator is to understand for whom he/she translates. His/her task is to provide a comfortable and pleasant viewing. The viewer should easily catch the plot, understand the speech of people on the screen and feel empathy for the characters.

If the viewer does not manage to feel the beauty that the translator put into the film, the distributor will suffer losses, and the viewer will not feel these moments - will not laugh or shed a tear and will not "live" the film. The work of many creators of the tape will be misunderstood, misjudged and in fact, will be in vain.

Cultural adaptation of characters

As such an example, the film "Thor".

Loki, the antagonist of the film, was originally conceived as a completely negative character. Some languages, however, use intonation and word order to turn unambiguous statements into elegant irony.

Moreover, in some localizations, after the translation and adaptation of the film, this character has become much less unambiguous. Working with phrasing and voice professionals able to show it rather a clever fraud, violating prohibitions, than a vile villain. This was made possible thanks to the professionalism of the voice actor.

What is the difference when translating games and movies?

The film requires ensuring the equivalence of the impression from the same movie in the people of any country. The film must be true to its genre and the comedy must remain a comedy and the dramatic story - a drama.

Translation of the game is a different kind of work, as its course is constantly changing, because the player is required to make a choice. Work in this genre is called integrated audiovisual translation.

Most often, a translator works as part of a development team. On the one hand, his/her wishes and comments can be taken into account, but on the other hand, to see the game as a whole, as a rule, it is possible only on the day of the global release.

Large studios can take the translator to their offices, and then all the work goes in one office, in the mode of close cooperation. For example, if the translator has a variant of a good, suitable phrase that does not fit into the animation - lip movements can be redrawn.

Game translation is a much more integrated process and the responsibility of the translator is not only semantic translation, but also maintaining the atmosphere of the game and even some marketing tasks. The release of the game is often a large-scale international event, so the translator is largely responsible for the commercial success of the project.

It is predicted that due to the growth and expansion of the game industry, the field of audiovisual translation will require more and more qualified specialists.