Sam Rocha, Bilingual Producer
(en español)
I am often hired to produce the Spanish version of a recently-produced English language program. Most times I am asked to manage the complete post-production process for creating the Spanish version, and I am usually called in just as the English language producing team is completing its work.

All too frequently I face a production hurdle. Too often, the fact that a Spanish phrase usually takes longer to say than its corresponding English phrase has not been taken into account. What results is that we have to either try to have the Spanish voice-over talent speak faster when recording, or else, if permissible, we have to go in and open up the video edits to make room for the Spanish – give it some breathing room. The end result is that the Spanish versioning process becomes more expensive than it needs to be.

So, here are two tips if you are producing a program that will have both an English and Spanish version:

• Refrain from editing the English version too tightly. If you are finding yourself squeezing the English version to meet a pre-determined show length, you should step back and reconsider. You may be creating an impossible situation for the Spanish version of the program.
• When laying in b-roll, do so such that there still remains some usable footage on both sides of the edit so that the Spanish-version editor can easily open up edits and trim accordingly.

Watch for more about producing media in Spanish with Sam here on DavidRyanMediaSolutions.com

Sam Rocha can be contacted at srtvproductions@aol.com or 301.828.6193