A great way to save time and money is to take an existing video and change it slightly to suit your needs. This is called "versioning".

Producing a French version of an existing English video for the Quebec market is a common request. We've also translated videos into many other languages including Mandarin, Italian and Spanish. Clients with head offices in the United States often bring in a video produced South of the border and have us create a "Canadian" version of it which includes the Canadian website and Canadian contact information.

When preparing for versioning, please keep in mind the following:

1) To ensure the highest quality, it's best to find the original master tape. We can work with a VHS copy. But a betacam is better, if it exists.

2) We begin with an "as produced" script. If one is not available, the final program needs to be transcribed before translation. Transcribing is a process in which all narration and onscreen text that appears on the videotape is typed out. This text then needs to be translated into the new language. While you may feel that one of your bilingual employees can do the translation, hiring a professional translator is well worth the cost. It saves time in the studio when you are recording the narration, which in turn saves money.

3) Make sure you supply your translator with a VHS copy of the video so they can write the translation "to time." This means that the translator makes sure that the new narration fits scene by scene in time to the original program. Otherwise, we will need to make it fit by editing the script while in the recording studio. This takes time of course, and since editing out text can become a debate, it is always best to have an approved script before going into the recoding studio. All this to say that translating to time is crucial.

4) If you are changing the onscreen text to text in the new language, a "superless" master, also known as a "textless" master (a master with no English titles on it) is a godsend - but rarely a reality. If you can't secure a superless master, there are many ways we can cover the English with the new language. It just takes a little more time.

5) If you are changing the onscreen text, please supply us with all the revised titles in a Word, Wordpad or a .txt file. This file can be brought in on a diskette or emailed to us in advance. This will save studio time, money and potential tipos... errr, I mean typos.

6) When deciding who will do the narration, the same advice for translation applies to narration. Get a professional. Again, you can use a bilingual person at your office, but experience tells us that much time will be saved at the recording stage if you hire a pro. And you will be happier with the end results. Non-union talent is great. Union talent is even better. Our scheduling coordinator can help you find the right talent for your project.

7) If the original video has music, securing a master with split track audio will help save time at the audio mixing stage. Split track audio is when you have only the narration on one track and only the music and sound effects on the other.

8) If we are not supplied a master with split track audio, we will need to lay in new music, if the original master has music while there is narration, because there is no way we can detach the original voice-over from the music. We have an extensive music library that offers a selection to choose from that is sure to suite the needs of your video. Please note that there is an additional charge to secure the rights to use this music because there are royalties attached to stock music.

That just about covers it. If you require additional information, please speak to one of our account managers to discuss your specific versioning needs at 905-629-2553.