How to Flag the Presence of Additional Languages in a Project

This article explains how editors should proceed when they encounter untranscribed/untranslated lines in an additional language other than the OV-language within their project, to ensure that these are assessed by the ICS Languages Coordination Team and that they are correctly assigned to a linguist for transcription/translation by a linguist.

For example, when working on an English-language feature, we may suddenly have a section shot in Italy, featuring many untranscribed and untranslated lines in Italian. Or, as another example, while working on a Korean-OV reality show, we may suddenly encounter a guest who speaks both Korean and Spanish, with the latter lines currently untranscribed and untranslated in our DL.

Both these cases are examples of times when we would need to escalate the presence of untranslated additional languages to the ICS Languages Coordination Team.

It is very important that we try as much as possible to flag the presence of additional languages during our creation step. Flagging early (pre-delivery) allows the ICS team the time to secure a linguist to review, before our deadline to client. Please flag to your supervisor immediately if you are set to complete a QC step or deliver a post-processed file without transcription, translation, or phonetics, as they need to discuss this with the PM team for approval.

Before flagging the presence of untranscribed/untranslated additional languages to ICS Languages Coordination, we should make sure we have first correctly transcribed the untranslated events in question as <speaks language> and that we have correctly tagged them as Non-OV/Additional Language, if we have been able to identify what language is being used. See below.

1. Create and time the event as you usually would. Add the correct cue to the event. For example, <speaks Afrikaans>, <speaks undetermined language>, etc.
   

    

2. Tag the event as a Non-OV/Additional Language.

   Click on the button shown below.

   

   In the dropdown menu, select "Additional Language"

   

    

   Next, choose the desired language from the list that will open. We can also insert a custom language if the one we need isn't on the list, by simply typing the name of the language in the search bar and hitting return.

These operations are key to ensuring that the events can be surfaced and found by the linguists when they access the DL jobs and that they are already correctly tagged.

It is now important to note that there are two different methods for flagging the presence of additional languages to ICS Coordination, based on whether the project is a Theatrical project or a Non-Theatrical project, and that the editor must make sure to use the correct method. Please make sure to consult the correct section below for your project.

• THEATRICAL PROJECTS

• NON-THEATRICAL PROJECTS

THEATRICAL PROJECTS: How to Flag the Presence of Additional Languages

In the Theatrical team, requests for transcriptions/translations of lines in additional languages are handled through the Theatrical Corrections Tracker. Before using this, editors should make sure to be familiar with its basic functionality concepts explained in this article, and ideally should complete the correspondent LMS Course.

When the correct steps are followed, ICS will receive an email directly from our entry in the Corrections Tracker, and will be able to check the request and respond directly in the Tracker itself.

First of all, you will need to claim one of the unclaimed ADDITIONS Sheets. For details on how to claim one of these sheets. In this sheet, scroll down to the first empty row, then enter info in the following fields (listed left to right):

1. [Date Added to Tracker]: today’s date (pressing ‘t’ works)
2. [Added to Tracker By]: your name
3. [Flag Source]: select “Editor” or “Creative” as applicable
4. [Flag Type]: select the appropriate “ICS Request - _____” option - ! IMPORTANT ! Make sure to insert the correct type (e.g. "Transcription" or "Translation") to ensure that ICS knows what is being requested.
5. [Video Version]: select the version you’re working on
6. [Flagged Configuration]: select the config you’re working on
7. [Reel]: select the reel you’re working on
8. [Timecode(s)]:  
   1. If there are a handful of additional language dialogue events, please add each on a separate row
   2. If all additional language events are within a scene, you may give the start/end timecodes (TCs)
   3. If there are MANY additional language events, and ICS will need to do a full linear pass, you may write “throughout”
9. [Action Notes]:
   1. Give your best guess as to the language
   2. Write either “Americas”, “APAC”, “EMEA”, or “Korea”, depending on your best guess as to the language
      1. It’s important to write the ICS region exactly as it appears above (quotes unneeded) – this dictates which ICS team is notified
      2. E.g., “Italian - EMEA”
   3. If you are asking ICS for a full linear pass (and not providing them specific TCs), please specify what they should search for (e.g., “<speaking Italian> or (speaking Italian)”)
10. [Flag Status]: select “ICS Request – Flagged to ICS”
    1. This sends an email to ICS - ! IMPORTANT ! Make sure to select the above item in the "Flag Status" field or ICS will not receive your flag and the request will not be addressed.
11. SAVE (ctrl + s) -- Note – this currently takes 30 secs – I’d add all Requests first
    1. If after saving, any fields are ORANGE, please fill them in!

NON-THEATRICAL PROJECTS: How to Flag the Presence of Untranslated Additional Languages

When working on Non-Theatrical projects, editors will flag the presence of additional languages through specific fields in their DV assignment form, in the following three fields.

Let us look in more detail at what we should include in each of these fields.

Non-English dialogue to flag? When we have untranscribed/untranslated Non-OV additional languages, we should use this field to include any notes (timecodes, language indications, or any other useful information) that ICS Languages and the linguists assigned to the project may need. We should also indicate what is needed (transcription, translation, phonetics, etc.) so that the linguists know what is being requested specifically.

Hand over or flag to Languages? Here we will indicate which ICS Languages regional team we are requesting to assess the flag. This will be based on the language we are flagging. Currently we can choose between EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), APAC (Asia-Pacific), Americas and Korea Scripting and Subtitling.

Handover vs Flag - This will clarify if we are requesting linguists to look at a specific flag on a project, in which case we should select "Flag" or if we are handing over the project per expected workflow, in which case we should select Handover. If you are uncertain whether languages will be working on the file before you or after you, please check the workflow of the project and if still uncertain, ask Coordination.

! IMPORTANT ! - Please note that in order for the DV form to send an automatic email to the correct ICS Languages team, all the fields above will need to be filled in.