Domestic film and television set off a sea fever, can not be separated from these ＂nobody＂!

Special feature of 1905 film network With the coming of summer vacation, domestic movies have once again set off a sea fever. On July 9th, the film directed by Japan was released, which was well received by local audiences. On the same day, the theme film was released in cinemas in Britain, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates. On July 16th,, starring in the word-of-mouth masterpiece, will also land in the Japanese cinema market.

Prior to this, many important commercial blockbusters have been shown overseas. It has become a trend for domestic film and television works to go to sea.

"We need more movies to go out and tell in the world language, which may be more acceptable to the world when we go out." At the main forum for the opening of the 24th Shanghai International Film Festival in Golden Goblet Awards, the president of Wanda Culture Group said so. The "world language" here refers not only to the universal values that are easy to understand, but also to the translation of texts when in Rome.

Excellent translation can often add luster to film and television works and overcome the cognitive differences brought by different cultures to the greatest extent. On the other hand, it may become one of the important reasons why a masterpiece is not acclimatized. With the increasing demand for "going out", the competition in the domestic translation industry has become fierce.

The competition between old and new "players" is fierce.　

Domestic film and television dramas have been at sea for a long time.In 2016, in order to encourage more China films to go global, the National Committee for the Management of Special Funds for the Development of Film Industry decided to reward domestic films whose box office income in overseas markets reached more than 1 million yuan. In 2017, China International Television Corporation initiated the establishment of "Film and Television Culture Import and Export Enterprise Collaboration" to help more film and television works go out to sea. Encouraged by various policies, domestic film and television works collectively accelerated to the sea.

In this context, many professional translation companies, such as Oracle bones and bones, vivid language association and so on, began to enter the film and television translation industry. When new and old players get together, the competition will escalate.

"At present, the industry should be in a white-hot stage of competition, which is very market-oriented. The scattered competition pattern for many years has undergone a trend change. With the accumulation of resources, production and organizational capabilities, the mature team that has passed the test has stood still. " Jiang Zheng, CEO of Jiaguyi (Beijing) Translation Co., Ltd., admitted in an interview with 1905 Film Network that the fierce competition in the industry far exceeds the imagination of the outside world. Previously, the company had participated in the translation of Chinese and foreign films.

According to enterprise survey data, there are 95 related enterprises whose current business scope includes "film and television translation/script translation/film translation/TV translation". Among them, 69 companies are in business and exist. In the 10 years since 2011, the number of registered enterprises has generally fluctuated and declined. In 2011, there was only one new registered enterprise, and it increased significantly in 2018, reaching 27. In 2019 and 2020, the number of registrations was 8 and 3 respectively. In the first half of 2021, a related enterprise was added.

In addition to local enterprises, film and television translation companies have to face competition from foreign teams. What kind of translation company is more likely to win in the competition? "If it’s a hard standard, first of all, we prefer companies with experience in Chinese translation, because its language and expression will be more accurate. In addition, according to the budget and release schedule, we will choose whether to find a foreign team or a domestic team for translation. " He Yuan, the head of the distribution business of the international distribution department of Chinese film industry, gave his own experience. The company has participated in the overseas distribution of domestic blockbusters such as The Wandering Earth and A Writer’s Odyssey, which made her know more about the selection criteria of translation companies.

At present, some domestic film and television translation companies have begun to set up translation bases overseas, and the service scope is showing the trend of global coverage. In the future, the translation work related to the overseas distribution of domestic films will be more convenient and fast.

"Language" is rare.

For domestic film and television dramas, the translation company will provide one-stop packaging service of "translation+dubbing+subtitles".

This kind of packaging service is usually charged according to the duration. The price per minute ranges from hundreds to thousands of yuan, and the works must meet the broadcasting standards of the corresponding media in the landing country. For a 90-minute domestic film, the cost of translation usually ranges from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yuan. In the process of translation, compared with major languages such as English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian, the cost of small languages such as Thai and Malay is higher.

"As far as languages are concerned, based on the same translation standards, because there are more companies that translate English, the price is relatively cheap. Some uncommon, such as some languages in northern Europe, will be relatively more expensive. " He Yuan believes that the charging logic is that the rarer the language, the scarcer the translation resources, and the charging is naturally relatively high. In addition to the scarcity of language itself, the types of film and television content (animation, drama, film) and the resources of the dubbing company itself will affect the price.

In terms of dubbing, large domestic translation companies usually hire professional actors from the country where the distribution is located to dub, and each person has a corner. The addition of professional actors will also increase the overall translation cost. Some irresponsible small translation companies, sometimes under the pressure of cost, may employ local students to dub, and one person with multiple angles and low-quality output. In the process of practice, translation companies sometimes need to do as the Romans do, so as to overcome the barriers of understanding caused by cultural differences.

"The lines are mainly presented in the form of dialogue, so the screenwriter will design some slang and idioms for the characters as lines in order to express the characters and plots concisely, vividly and vividly. When the company encounters such lines, the principle is to restore the meaning of these slang and idioms as much as possible, or to translate them by loan or free, and the most taboo is to use’ word interpretation’ translation. " Jiang Zheng believes that when in Rome, do as the Romans do is not a rigid literal translation, but a comprehensive plot and object, smooth and silent transformation.

For example, if the idiom Zhuge Liang is translated literally, foreign audiences will be at a loss. And translated into English slang "It’s easy to be wise after the event", foreign audiences will understand. For another example, in the foreign film "love me love my dog", Chinese suddenly understood by borrowing the Chinese idiom "Love my dog".

Domestic overseas distribution When doing overseas new media distribution, subtitle translation sometimes takes hearing-impaired audiences into account.

"Because when they are watching movies, it is difficult for them to get information such as background sound, such as the tone of the speaker, whether he is crying or laughing, etc., and we need to add this information to the subtitles when we translate." He Yuan revealed this. Translation should not only do as the Romans do, but also be people-oriented

Overseas simultaneous release gradually normalized.

In recent years, during important schedules, overseas Chinese in some areas can watch domestic blockbusters simultaneously for the first time. For example, films such as The Wandering Earth and A Writer’s Odyssey in the Spring Festival and My People，My Country in the National Day were released overseas simultaneously.

Among them, the A Writer’s Odyssey for the Spring Festival in 2021 was released in other regions except Chinese mainland, and also dubbed in English, Russian, German, Italian, Thai and other languages, and will continue to arrange translation work in other languages including French in the future.

At the beginning of the project, the relevant translation and distribution work were synchronized or even carried out in advance. The sooner the relevant companies enter the overseas distribution stage, the more they can cooperate with the film side, formulate a more detailed overall distribution plan, and the simultaneous distribution will be smoother.

According to past experience, domestic film and television dramas are popular in Southeast Asia and countries along the Belt and Road."Because of the success of the grand strategy of the Belt and Road construction, the demand for film and television content in China has increased in its neighboring countries, and the excellent film and television content in China has gone out, which is also a boost to the economic construction of the Belt and Road to some extent." Jiang Zheng’s outspoken cultural exchange with a long history has become the main reason for the popularity of domestic film and television dramas in the above areas.

In the eyes of the industry, Southeast Asia is a traditional region and market for the export of domestic film and television dramas, and cultural familiarity is a natural advantage. Whether the works can be broadcasted, whether the content theme can resonate with the audience in the landing country is the key.In the future, what outstanding domestic film and television works will be released overseas?summermovie seasonHeatedChinese DoctorsWaiting for the film, maybe it is already on the way to the sea.