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AVT

Audiovisual Translation

AVT, or Audiovisual Translation, is an umbrella term that refers to a specialized field in the translation industry which includes many different tasks and processes performed by localization professionals and deals with the transfer of multimodal and multimedial texts into a different language, culture or format.

These translation processes can be applied to various fields, including cinema, television, digital content platforms, video-games, advertisement, e-learning, professional training, corporate videos, et cetera.

Among these tasks, we can find:

  • Dubbing, or lip-synchronization, is the process in which an original script is translated into another language (or another variant of the same language) in order to be acted out by a voice talent in the target language. This process includes the translation and transfer of both text and special effects, sounds and non-verbal communication.
  • Voice-over involves the original track and the translation being heard simultaneously. In this case, special effects and non-verbal communication are left out by the translator, as they can be heard in the original track.
  • Subtitling is the linguistic practice that shows onscreen text containing a condensed translation or transcription of the audio. The professional subtitler is in charge of transcribing and/or localizing what is being said, time-coding the text (setting an in- and an out-time for every piece of text or subtitle) and either burning them in the video itself or creating a special subtitle file to be delivered to the client.
  • Video game localization is the process of producing video game content for a specific region in a way that recreates the equivalent experience for players anywhere in the world.
  • Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing or Closed Captioning are subtitles in which it is assumed that the viewer cannot hear the audio. They include a transcription of the dialogue or commentary of audiovisual material, and they also include additional text description of the sound effects and character identification.
  • Audio-description: Audio description (AD) is additional commentary that explains what’s happening on-screen. It describes body language, expressions, movements, scenes and the action of the on-screen content in between the dialogue, making the audiovisual product clear through sound.

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