Transcriptions & Translations

Transcriptions & Translations GUIDE

Quick Tips

• If your piece needs transcriptions or translations reach out to Sergio.Ceballos@vice.com with your request. Be sure to include the length of the piece, date when the piece is expected to lock and go out for translations, languages needed, air date and project ID. This service is a direct cost and usually done out of house
• If you need translations in a more obscure language, let Sergio know before you shoot so he can start reaching out to translators
• For transcripts and translations of raw footage have your AE do a string out of these sections to speed up the time. Sergio will let you know the approx. turnaround time based on the amount of footage.
• For transcripts and translations before air, make sure your cut is locked and there will be no change in timecodes.

Allow at least 1 business day for transcriptions and 2-3 business days for translations.

UPDATED 3/17

Producers Responsibilities:

Notify sergio.Ceballos@vice.com with Veronica Mukhia veronica.mukhia@vice.com on cc (for Digital content only) on Foreign Shoots

1. If your team is going to shoot in a foreign location where a foreign language(s) will be spoken, please notify the Translation Department in advance. We will need at least two weeks to research, train and hire qualified translators. If we’re not able to locate any qualified translators we will reach out to a company for assistance and follow up on costs and turnaround times.

2. When in the field, please confirm the foreign language(s) being spoken by your subjects and follow up with the department if your information changes.

3. Let us know how many days you will be shooting for so that we can hire a sufficient number of translators to meet your production deadlines.

4. We will then place your project on our production calendar and coordinate with our freelancers and vendors. We share our resources with HBO, TV and Branded, so it’s important to keep us updated. If we hit capacity we will outsource your project to a company and follow up with a quote and turnaround time.

Ingesting and Exporting Footage

Associate Producers will be in charge of watching down the footage. Assistant Editors will need to organize and then the AP/AE will need to send us downloadable links that meet the following parameters:

1. Clips must not have large gaps where no one is speaking

2. We should be able to clearly hear the subjects, so please cut the boom mic or any channel that’s picking up background noise when exporting clips

3. Make sure the links are downloadable

4. Links for translation and transcription cannot be longer than 30 minutes each

Translation of Raw, Foreign Language Footage into English

This is a two-step process where we hire qualified translators to translate and subtitle raw video footage. The first part of the process produces rough English transcripts. Since every translator is unique, each translation will vary in tone and wording, so we recommend that the final cut be quality checked by a professional translator (second-step). We will either use our best translator to proofread and quality check the final cut or we will outsource it to a company.

Transcription of Raw English Footage

We will either employ a vendor or a freelancer (depending on availability and amount of work) for this workflow. The transcribers use our transcription template, which is a time-stamped Word document. The speakers are labeled and the document is time-stamped every minute and every time the speakers change. If you want to review the template, please email me.