×

Customers

USA: +1 332 2131 466

UK: +44 (0)203 603 3676

sales@voquent.com

Talent

USA: 1 332 2131 466

UK: +44 (0)203 603 3676

talent@voquent.com

Production

8 Easy Steps to Transcribe & Translate Interviews

Noemi Distefano

Noemi Distefano

5 August 2019

8 Easy Steps to Transcribe & Translate Interviews - Voquent

Italian Journalist and filmmaker Noemi Distefano explores the art of transcribing and translating interviews.

Transcribing interviews for video editing purposes is quite a tedious process, and it can become even more daunting if the original spoken audio is in a foreign language.

Suppose you are involved in translating audio or video content or planning to produce content with foreign interviews.

In that case, I hope you will find my own experience and the steps I followed a helpful reference. 

 

So let’s go back to 2017 

I took a flight to India to film a short feature documentary all by myself. 

When my days as a Journalism Master student came to an end, I wanted my final project to be something different, challenging, that would push my limits. I decided sneaking around Asia’s biggest slum with a camera would be that challenge. I was ready to face a severe amount of difficulties, but I was confident the language barrier wouldn’t be an issue for some weird reason. 

India is a former British colony; after all – everyone speaks English, right? Nope. Half of the interviewees my fixer had approached didn’t know a single word of English. 

They spoke Hindi, and I had no budget for an interpreter. Luckily a friend helped me out! 

The simplicity or the complexity of transcribing and translating interviews depends on how you film your interviews. Transcribing interviews is a tedious and often stressful process, so it’s essential to have a method that works well for you. 

Here are the eight easy steps I followed: 

 

1. Film interviews with an interpreter onset and use their expertise.

To quote the great Cicero: “you are the master of your own destiny“, and you are starting to shape that destiny the moment you click record on your camera. 

With an interpreter onset, you can be 100% sure of the interviewees’ answers and already be confident that you’ll have ready-to-edit content. 

When you get only one shot at the interview, it’s vital to check that you’ve got what you need before packing away your equipment and going home.

Can you imagine the panic of starting the transcription and translation realising you haven’t got anything relevant? 

In my experience interviewing Hindi speakers, I found it was crucial to review the material with my interpreter then and there to know that I was gathering helpful content.

 

2. Use a clapperboard to mark every question and answer.

Marking up your audio or video is essential to break down the interviews into smaller clips. 

You can also do this later using an audio–to–text converter app or any editing software, but marking it up now is a HUGE time-saver. 

Using a clapperboard, when you export the audio content, you will already have macro sections of a few minutes to work with, rather than big chunks with hours of video to trawl through. Thus making a considerable difference to the time needed during the edit.

 

Noemi lines up a shot and checks lighting

3. Ask concise questions to get straightforward answers.

This point applies to every interview, no matter the language spoken by your interviewees. 

Even a short three minutes clip will take you a relatively consistent amount of time to write out. If your questions are too broad, it is more likely that the answers will be long-winded and may wander off-topic. It’s easy to get lost in long sentences during the transcription process—mainly where the meat of the content (the critical messages you want to use in the edit) are scattered.

When filming: don’t wait for your transcripts to confirm all the ‘blah, blah, blah‘. Ask concise questions, break down the interview into small clips with a clapperboard and check you’ve got the proper responses with your interpreter before leaving. This preparation will also reduce your transcription and translation costs later.

4. Label your clips.

Remember, it is better to create macro sections when filming using a clapperboard to get an immediate understanding of the content of a specific clip.

If you know the content of your clips by their code or their name, when editing, you don’t have to go back and listen to them again.

I found myself discarding entire macro sections and never going back to them. Labelling is vital, especially if you are going back home with over 250GB of content like me.

5. Decide how to transcribe and translate the interviews.

When it comes to producing the transcripts and translations, there are various options to choose from depending on the complexity of the content, timescales, and budget. 

 

a) Outsourcing to a transcription agency

This solution is a good one for projects where you don’t want to be hands-on or need a faster turnaround. A transcription agency can quickly get accurate transcripts from and into almost every language in the world. Most agencies will charge per minute of material but may charge for the translation by the word. 

 

b) Hiring a freelance transcriptionist

Hiring freelance transcriptionists is a good option if you have a bit more time and don’t have vast content. A freelancer will often do as good a job as an agency, but I’d still recommend that another linguist proofread and edit their work. The additional cost and increase in turnaround are small prices to ensure you’re as close to 100% accuracy as possible.  

 

c) Automatic speech to text converters

There is a plethora of automatic transcription software (machine transcription tools) available in the cloud that will convert speech into text. 

There is also bespoke software used by transcriptionists and interpreters, some free, others paid, or yearly subscriptions. Automatic speech to text converters can be a timesaving solution, but they rarely transcribe with 100% accuracy. 

You will still need to proofread and edit the transcript before it’s correct. They can be huge time-savers if the audio is clear and transcribes a language you can read and understand. Many offer translations too, but they’ll lack the accuracy of a human translator—with local colloquialisms, humour, or metaphors mistranslations guaranteed.

 

d) DIY

I transcribed everything myself because I didn’t have a big budget, and I decided not to use automatic transcription. 

I did use the Express Scribe app for a few interviews in English. It allows you to control the audio speed through software settings or external hardware, such as pedals—a manual process but sufficient for my needs.

 

Noemi interviews a Hindi speaker, the interpreter is out of shot

 

For the rest of the Hindi interviews, I could have started with automatic transcription, using a cloud-based tool such as Happy Scribe, but it wouldn’t have given me 100% accuracy, and it would still need to be translated. 

If I’d had the budget, I probably would have used Voquent or hired a freelancer to do this part for me. Voquent would have given me a time-stamped transcription and translation with the Hindi and English text to reference during the video edit. The benefit is I could get on with the video edits myself without anyone else’s involvement. 

Luckily for me, my friend was there to help me out again. I first exported the macro sections I mentioned above into my editing software (Avid Media Composer) and transcoded them. My interpreter then manually played the clips from the editing software and provided me with a simultaneous translation in English. Hiring a linguist to sit in the edit with you is a good solution if you don’t have the time to get everything transcribed and translated.

 

6. Mark your clips for recording and editing. 

Most video and audio editing software will allow you to insert comments/marks. So, during the transcription from Hindi into English with my interpreter in real-time, I marked up my video and audio, picking out some great content. 

This is how I created micro sections within macro sections, and when I got to edit, I knew where to look.

 

7. Note the timestamps during transcription.

While transcribing, note down the exact second your interviewee starts and finishes a specific answer in the video. 

Not only will your editing be quicker, but your translations will also be more accurate. Whilst 99% of my audience doesn’t understand Hindi; it’s not an excuse for being lazy about the sync! If you produce content for an English-speaking audience, you will eventually need to either dub over the interviews or insert subtitles. For this film, I decided to dub over. 

The original language needed to match the voice perfectly I heard in English. As it is not a movie, I did not want to replace the original voices completely. I needed the British voice-over to ‘breathe’ and leave some space to hear the original audio in the background—a common technique in factual news and documentary. 

With the timestamps, I can better prepare a final script for the voice-over recording. A timestamped bilingual script translation will make this much easier for the voice-over talent, studio and engineer. 

And with the audio synced, it’s easy to drop it into the edit!

 

8. Dubbing the interviews

Now I have the final film ready for dubbing, along with a timestamped bilingual voice-over script.

I head to the recording studio and record sync to the picture. After the recording, I edit the voice-over audio and drop it into my video timeline.

If I hadn’t timestamped the transcript, it would make it much harder to locate the appropriate sections, and the recording session would take longer.

It can save even more time if you pick out the specific sections you want to dub, especially if you have multiple interviews and you’re using numerous dubbing artists. This way, you aren’t spending time in the session with material that’s irrelevant to the voice-over artist selected.

 

View my finished documentary below!

 

The above process is just my own experience, and depending on your project’s timeline and budget, you may go a different route. I managed to achieve what I wanted, and I’m pleased with the documentary.

Group picture with Noemi and some of the Hindi participants

Voice-Over Translation Services

Accessibility Services

Noemi Distefano

By Noemi Distefano

Noemi Distefano is a UK based broadcast journalist and filmmaker.

More from this author

8 Easy Steps to Transcribe & Translate Interviews

Production

8 Easy Steps to Transcribe & Translate Interviews

By Noemi Distefano

5 August 2019

Sometimes we include links to online retail stores such as Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, if you click on a link and make a
purchase, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.

Read more from the Voquent Blog

Tips for Finding the Perfect Voice Actor for Animated Content

Production

Tips for Finding the Perfect Voice Actor for Animated Conten...

By Al Black

10 February 2025

How to Set Up Your Home Studio

Guides

How to Set Up Your Home Studio

By Megan MacBride

25 November 2024

The Top Audiobook Production Companies

Production

The Top Audiobook Production Companies

By Dylan de Koning

12 November 2024

What is localization? Answers & Examples

Production

What is localization? Answers & Examples

By Dylan de Koning

18 October 2024

Interview: Kaiji Tang from Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer & Yakuza

Entertainment

Interview: Kaiji Tang from Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer ...

By Dylan de Koning

10 October 2024

Interview: From Voice Acting to Coaching with Richard Cotton

Entertainment

Interview: From Voice Acting to Coaching with Richard Cotton...

By Dylan de Koning

7 October 2024