2007-05-02
You don’t have the time to go to Heiligendamm although you have a critical opinion about globalisation? Or you want to go there but don’t know yet what exactly to do there? We have an idea: be part of the video activism network and make it possible to have international video reports about it! We urgently need translators!
Who or what is the network?
We are video collectives and single persons who make video reports around the action days against the g8 summit; we publish our videos in the internet, on indymedia and other platforms like this. We work in a non-commercial way and have a politically left position.
What is it about?
We are part of the mobilisation against the g8 and offer preliminary reports. During the action days we produce video clips about the protests which takes place in the region around Heiligendamm.
A lot of people are not able to come to Germany but are interested in what’s going on there. Video as a medium of the internet is part of daily life for a lot of people. But until everybody understands what is going on the videos have to be translated because pictures not always say more than words!
What will be translated?
There are a lot of different translation tasks: before the g8 it is necessary to translate mobilisation clips and preliminary reports as well as texts which invite people to work with us in the network (like the text you are reading at this moment). During the action days (June 1st to 8th) there will be daily video reports and a live stream, which needs a fast translation.
A part of the videos will be produced in German language; we want to translate them into English, French, Spanish and Russian. When there are videos in another language than German a translation into German would be good. And, of course, every other language is welcome!
What is it in practice?
You tell the video activism network that you want to translate, which languages you speak and when you have time. It is also possible to translate only a single video! But when you promise to translate something it would be nice when you are reliable because we really like to have actual news.
To co-ordinate the translation there is the video-translation-g8@kanalb.org-mailing-list. When a new video is produced a mail will be send on the mailinglist with a link where to find the video and with the transcript. Translators should use the mailing-list to inform the other translators when they start with a translation to avoid double work. Therefore you should write a clear message in the subject line, for example ‘ translation xyz german-spanish in progress’ or ‘translation xyz german-spanish done’ or ‘part of translation xyz ready, who continues?’.
When you have a translation ready, you send it back to the same mailinglist. It will be put on-line by the translation coordinator for download. Besides there will be an overview over the videos and the transcripts on this website:
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/HeiligendammVideoTranslationProject
Are you interested in learning to make subtitles? We wrote a help file for the program ‘Subtitle Workshop’. It is on the website:
http://www.videoactivism.de/training/subtitles/subtitles_win_english.html
With subtitle workshop you can write the translation directly in the form of subtitles. The program makes it possible to make two steps in one: translation and the making of subtitles. This will be a big support for the video activists.
The videoclips and the subtitles will be published on the video-website http://g8-tv.org. When you want to watch the video you have to download the video and the subtitle file of choice. You can play them together in for example VLC player.
It is a bit the same principle then a dvd: there you also can choose the language.
It would be nice if you are able to test it before the summit, let us know if something is not clear! We like to help you. We want that the video reports are available to as many people as possible and different languages shouldn’t be a problem. With the internet technology we can go one step further.
The video website http://g8-tv.org will be online May 10th.
More information about the german videoactivism network you will find on www.videoactivism.de but this website is a german one. The english website about videoactivism is www.videoactivism.org.
You can contact us here:: videoactivism@nadir.org.
Please forward this mail to interested people!
