I know. It's hard to keep track of all the different things I do on YouTube. The newest one is all about day jobs in Hollywood, in the entertainment industry, which don't involve becoming rich and famous. Here's the video:
Dialogue list creation
Hello. Today I’m launching a new series of videos where I’m
going to talk about some of the non-glamourous, nine-to-five kind of jobs
available to people who want to work in the entertainment industry. Maybe you
want to be an actor or a writer, but you need income until it happens (used to
be health insurance), or you just love TV and movies and will do anything to
work on them.
I’m going to start the series with jobs I’ve actually had.
Job Description:
Today I’m going to talk about the job of Dialogue List
Transcriptionist, which is often called an “English Editor,” “Script Editor,” “Master
English Transcriber,” or part of the “English department” or “International
Versioning” department. Lots of companies like to have a slightly different
name for the department.
I did this as part of
my job for about 8 years. Basically, you watch a tv show or movie and you write
down exactly what each character says. You put a starting time (sometimes an
ending time - if you are handing your work over to someone who does audio
description) to when they speak, put their name, and then write what they say.
For a dialogue list, this is very thorough. You’ll include filler words like
“um,” or you might write “grunts.” You’ll include if they clear their throat or
cough or giggle. Basically, if you hear the character make a noise with their
mouth/throat/voice, you write it down. And you need to be as precise as
possible. So, like, if a character goes “no-no-no-no-no!” part of your job is
to actually count how may times they said “no” and write it down.
You’ll also need to break up long sections of dialogue into
smaller groups. So if someone has a long speech that lasts for several minutes,
you’ll make a few entries at naturally breath points to help the page not look
overwhelming.
If a character speaks in a foreign language, you usually
have to include that also, but in most instances you report back to whoever you
are working for, alert them to the foreign language area, and they’ll provide
you with a transcription of the dialogue in that section. You aren’t required
to also know every foreign language which might pop up.
Although, I have worked on two different movies where the
foreign language was Martian. In one, the Martian was provided to us by the
client and we just had to make sure we were putting it in the right place. In
the other, we were asked to do our best to phonetically transcribe the Martian.
If a character mouths something, you need to include that.
And, although it isn’t actually dialogue, you include anything on screen that
the viewer will be expected to read. Signs, letters, subtitles.
You also need to include all the background dialogue. So if
a scene is set in a bar, you’ll add an entry for the walla. I’ve worked on at
least one project where the editing room supplied a track of just the walla to
help pick it out and transcribe it. Sometimes you can say “overlapping
chatter,” other times you’ll created a new character and write down their
shoutout line, which is distinct from the crowd.
You’ll also frequently encounter dialogue which is difficult
to understand. You’ll need to be able to admit you don’t understand something
and let other people know. Sometimes, a shooting script (the version of the
script the actors used when they learned their lines) will be provided. It can
often help solve mysteries of garbled words.
In Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Jack Sparrow
gives a speech about cuttlefish which included the word “flippercanoriuos.”
Well, we had no idea what he was saying. We asked our contact at Disney. He
asked the sound editors and… no one knew what the word was. We unfortunately
had to deliver our DL with that word as “indistinct.” Years later, the internet
helped us figure it out, but it was too late. I have no idea what the dubbed
versions of the movie went with.
You will often have to include if a character is off camera
or on camera when they are speaking. The translator uses this as a way to know
how much they might have to match lip flap when they do their translation.
Turnaround times and Number of versions - TV maybe 2. A
movie, maybe 10. (Mary Alice Young on Desperate Housewives)
NDA
What is the reason this job exists: This list, called
a dialogue list, gets sent to a translator for dubbing. That way every
translator is given the same record of the dialogue in a movie and it isn’t up
to them to try and figure out the English version before translating it into
whatever language they specialize in.
It also gets included in something called a combined continuity
and spotting list, or CCSL, which I’ll talk about more in a different video,
when I talk about what continuity is. But the biggie, is that it gets sent to a
translator.
Most dialogue lists also have to have something called
annotations included, but I’ll talk more in depth about annotations in another
video.
If you work at a company that has a large English
department, this list might also get sent around to people who do closed
captions and spotting lists, so they don’t have to always also start from
scratch.
Example: Here’s a little example of what a dialogue list
looks like. This is just from my video, to give you a basic idea of format.
Qualifications: English fluency, fast typing. If you
are working from home, you’ll need a computer with a fast video processor and
probably some basic software like Word and Excel. Many companies have their own
software they want you to use, often web based, so you need to be good at
learning new programs. Oh, the space bar makes the video play in this player,
but the 5 on the number pad does it in this software. Be flexible. You won’t
get paid for not understanding how to use the programs.
Tests: You will, most likely, have to take an English
test to get this job. The tests are almost always “open book,” meaning you can
look up things on-line or in the style guide the company you are testing for
uses (Chicago/AP). And a house dictionary.
The test will probably also include some proofreading items
- finding spelling errors or when the wrong character is identified as the
speaker of a line.
Training: This job isn’t given a lot of training,
unfortunately. If you freelance, you are kind of on your own and expected to
already know the basics of how to find the in-time for an entry and how to
match the format in a sample they will supply. If you work at a company, they
usually say they will train you, but everyone is too busy to really do it, so
again, you’re on your own. The faster you are at figuring things out and
self-directing, they better off you’ll be.
What kind of person is this good for:
People who have a good attention to detail and can get
obsessive about things can do well in this job. A lot of writers get into it, or people who
majored in English in college. A degree is often required, but the testing is the
most important determining factor on hiring someone.
If you are the kind of person who knows that when you say
“the back yard of my house,” back yard is two words, but when you say “I’m
having a backyard barbeque,” that backyard is one work, this might be a good
job for you. And if you are the kind of person who can be told “this is how we
spell ok in these parts” and you’ll remember it and stick with it, you should
do fine.
The downsides: A lot of projects have tight
deadlines.
Starting on the dialogue list is dependent on the editing
room getting copies of the latest version out, it is not at all uncommon for a
dialogue editor to receive files the afternoon before a three-day weekend and
then to be expected to work over that three-day weekend. During the eight years
or so when I worked in this field, I think I had to work most Thanksgivings,
and if not the actual day then the Friday and weekend after.
Also because of global production, having a deadline of 9 pm
on a Sunday night isn’t unusual so that files are ready for someone in India as
soon as they get to work Monday morning, or to be trying to finish something in
London’s overnight so they have something ready in the morning.
The pay:
If you are part of an English department, your job will not
only be creating spotting lists. You will need to be able to do some of the
other jobs within the department, like spotting list creation, annotating and
proofreading.
If you can get a job at a company that does this for big
studios, you can make enough to survive, but you won’t be getting rich. I was
salaried when I did this for a company, and that is a bad deal. If you have a
choice, stay hourly. My mistake was accepting a promotion to supervisor, which
they would not pay hourly.
Like with so many things, it comes down to who you work for.
I don’t accept freelance work of this kind because it isn’t financially viable
for me. Even though I type very quickly, my level of attention to detail kills
me in the number of hours/pay ratio department. Most freelance work will either
pay you a flat fee for a reel or TV show, or give you an price per run-time
minute. So a 22 minute reel could pay anything! But you should be told the rate
of pay in advance and then can decide if you can fit it in to your schedule, if
it is worth it to try or not.
($5x21min=$105)
Wrap up:
I hope I’ve helped you figure out if Dialogue
Transcriptionist is something you would be interested in pursuing. Or that at
least it helps you get a little bit better understanding of this job. Things
people do from nine-to-five in Hollywood.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them
below. Don’t forget to subscribe so you can see all my videos and learn more
about what people in Los Angeles who aren’t rich and famous do.
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