My next editing job is for Ebay China (yikes!), a big job for a big client and big director (yikes!). I'm actually helping my boss Danny on this one. He is editing the humungous 60 sec spot, and I'm cutting the 2 x 15 second ads. They all have visual effects in them, cityscapes created etc....well, the 60 second ad does! But I've just found out that the 2 ads I am editing will have 100% dialogue in Mandarin (Danny's doesn't, it's all voice-over). How the f@#k am I going to understand what they are saying?!!
Actually, I've edited something in another language before....Hindi actually, and it's quite fun to work on a non-English speaking script. You start to pick up words, and the ends of sentences are naturally points of reference for lines...
It's also quite amazing how it's possible to pick up on the bad performances. Fluffed lines are obvious, but you can actually judge bad acting or a bad delivery of a line in the actor's eyes and facial expressions. I'm not saying that it's easy, but it certainly is possible.
I remember reading an article on "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and how the American editor Tim Squires found the Mandarin dialogue scenes the most challenging to edit (as opposed to the frenetic fight sequences), simply because he doesn't understand Mandarin. (I suspect he also had some difficulties, considering that Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-Fat are not Mandarin speakers themselves.)
Fingers crossed on this one. I'm looking forward to brushing up on my Mandarin skills. Zaijin!
2 comments:
Check out www.engrish.com and see how bad they bungle English. Imagine if you edited a Mandarine segment and it ended up sounding like, "Always liking the precious gas that life doesn't kill." Something to think about.
wow multilingual-ish...can u just edit in your own bad mandarin enunciations to clean up?! that would be hirari-arse.
editing fx, thought u might like this cool animated music clip below, that I just watched while trying to find 'Anything in English' on the net. It's all made from still photos, & looks like a lot of hard work! But, hm, really I just like the pics too, cause they feel homey & like something you've done. http://www.abc.net.au/4minutewonders/showcase/freezeflow.htm
PS you should come and *teach* in Japan next time, these "School Club 7 days/week" kids would love your psychotic run-joyfully-every-day behaviour! Then again, I now too enjoying ride a bike to school every day morning. body becomes energy. what I can say.
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