Learn How to Create a Translated Movie

Preparation

1. Before translating an iBiology talk, please contact the iBiology team via email at ibiology(AT SIGN)ascb.org and we will send you more info about uploading your translated transcript and/or subtitled movie. This way we can avoid duplicate translations and can ultimately get more talks translated.
2. *Optional*, only for creating Quicktime subtitled movies: download InqScribe software at http://www.inqscribe.com (educational discount available)
3. Go to the iBiology website at https://www.ibiology.org and identify the talk that you want to translate
4. The iBiology team will send you the English transcript in Excel or .txt format with time stamps if it is not already available on the website

Translation in Excel (using Spanish as an example)

You will find that each line in the text is associate to a time stamp in the preceding column. Your goal is to translate the text line by line.

1. I suggest listening to the original seminar in English to get an idea of the overall topic, tone, and gender of the speaker.
2. Translate the title of the talk and place it on the top of the translated text (no timecode)
3. Start translating line-by-line, starting with the first line with a time stamp. Write Translation in a separate column. Be consistent by utilizing the same words for recurring words and phrases that will appear several times in the text.
4. Copy names of people exactly as they appear in the English Transcript (except for historical figures (Cristobal Colón, etc).
5. If possible find the Spanish names for cities, rivers, animals, plants, etc. If there is no Spanish term for them, copy the English name.
6. Use online tools to help you find the meaning of words of phrases that fits with the overall tone of the talk. Google translate, wordreference.com or regular Google searches in web and images works well. For example search for

“how do you say elbow grease in spanish” or “qué significa slam dunk”

1. If in doubt, find common scientific terms (splicing, unfolded protein response, nonsense mediated decay) online. Use Spanish pages in Wikipedia, or descriptions of laboratories interested in these topics in Spanish-speaking countries.
2. Read the entire translated text and make sure it flows well and that you understand it. If you do not understand a phrase, or are unsure about a translation, change the font to red in excel.
3. Delete the column with English translation.
4. Do a spell check of your text in excel, save, and send in your transcrip to the iBio team! If you want to continue and make a subtitled movie, see instructions below.

Editing and generation of subtitled QuickTime movie

Work with InqScribe to edit and generate a QuickTime movie with subtitles. as described in iBioTutorial for transcriptions.

1. Copy and paste the excel column with Spanish text into the InqScribe text panel.
2. Drag downloaded movie into the InqScribe image panel.
3. Using the InqScribe tools, add a time stamp before and after the Spanish title of the movie. In this way, the title in Spanish will appear and disappear at the same as the as the English one.
4. Go to the end of the text and add a time stamp to coincide with the end of the audio and the add following text with associated time stamps.

Ve más en iBiology.org

1. Generate a subtitled movie. For iBiology talks, we chose the Verdana font at 36 (largest font size possible). Save as a self-contained movie.
2. Play the movie and check Spanish subtitles while listening to English audio, paying special attention to the doubts (in red) specified in the translated text in the excel sheet. I suggest that in this first run, you make sure the translation is accurate. Edit in InqScribe text panel as necessary. Also make sure time stamps allow for enough time to read the subtitles. Edit time stamps if required.
3. Generate a new corrected movie as described above, and turn audio off. Read the final text for a final check.
4. To avoid confusion, when the speaker corrects himself within the same line, only translate the corrected sentence.
5. To avoid confusion, delete translation of mannerisms like “you know” “you see”
   “well” , that may be confusing to the reader.
6. Copy text from InqScribe text panel. Copy into new excel sheet. Perform a final spell check and save excel sheet.
7. If any changes were made, copy excel sheet text and use this to generate final version of the subtitled movie.
8. Send the final video and transcript to the iBiology team.

Learn how to create a subtitled movie >>