China Stories

Lost in translation (part 2).

2nd May 2008 15:00, Gerald

After our mind bending meeting where we talked through the translations and how awfully complicated it could all get, I decided to drop our fixer a wee note to let him know our concerns. I also sent him an example of the kind of thing we would want back from the translator. Thankfully, he sent a note back saying, "I am happy to say that this is exactly how we do translation so please rest assured everything will be alright".

"Everything will be alright", did you hear that? You are all my witnesses.

Our other translator (Xiao who lives in Glasgow) was also in touch to say that she is really looking forward to working with us and is happy to come in and be involved in the edit. When we get to that bit I'll see if she will do a little video diary entry to tell you how it all works (and to hopefully say how nice it is to work with people as nice and organised as us).

In other news, I had a morning of meetings. First I met with the Gaelic team to work out how we would translate our programmes from Mandarin to English to Gaelic. We also chatted a bit about when we will be using subtitles and when we will be voicing people over in English (or Gaelic depending on the programme).

Actually, did I tell you we are making these programmes in Gaelic too? If I didn't, sorry, now you know.

Then Maria and I met with Bronek who is going to mix the sound on our programmes. We have both worked with Bronek loads and so we know him pretty well. We had a good laugh and he was able to give us loads of advice in terms of what sounds to record when we are out there and how we should record interviewees, to make his job easier when we get to the dub.

The last meeting was really just a catch up with Maria to make sure we were both ok with how things are going. We had a good chat and both got excited AND nervous about our trip. It's only one and a half weeks until we go! I also ate the biggest scone I think I have ever had.

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