Audiovisual translation: How did I improve?
- Federica Cocuccioni
- 18 dic 2017
- Tempo di lettura: 2 min
After graduating my first achievement was to start translating audiovisual material for an Italian translation agency. I started specializing mainly in translating documentaries about animals and nature, but also TV series and reality shows. Finally I had the opportunity to do something that really thrills me and that I enjoy so much.
Because I have the possibility to translate animals and nature-related documentaries I really feel satisfied as these are my main fields of expertise and, to be honest, also my biggest passions and worries (just think about climate change and mass extinction of species…).
However it was not easy to nail it. At the university I never really studied how to translate and adapt scripts in simil sync. Yet I was lucky to find this agency that provided my with all the supporting material and helped me growing as translator-adaptor. At first I received a lot of corrections and advices on how to better do my job. I started improving in quality and my compensation grew too.
Now, almost two years after starting this job, after many highs and lows, I can say that I’m a fully grown translator and adaptor of audiovisual material.
What did I do?
I thoroughly followed reviewers’ advises and corrections;
I reread and reviewed every single script I translated comparing my version with the reviewed the version;
I read about audiovisual translation and others translators’ experiences;
I started watching the episodes of the series or documentaries that I was and I working on in my mother tongue in order to collect new ideas and hear the versions of other translators.
The last documentary I translated was South Africa: Cradle of Killers. I loved it!
This is my experience, did you have a different one? Feel free to share it with me in the comment section!
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