User:Skakkle/translation convention
The translation convention is a storytelling device in which the spoken of a piece of media, such as a language of a film or television program, is changed for easier consumption and broader distribution. This can be called the vehicular language of the piece of media. Today, the language commonly chosen is English, but the translation convention can be used for any media property produced in a major world language. Generally, the producers of the film or TV show plan to distribute it to foreign countries. This is a viable strategy for many world languages which have sizable speaker population outside the origin country, including (as mentioned) English, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, French or others.
The translation convention has a few variants, and the translation choices the filmmakers employ has implications for the broader story for point of view, and whether the audience has first person, omniscient or limited information about the characters' thoughts, feelings and intentions. (See list of narrative techniques.) This concept has been used since the beginning of narrative sound film. It uses, among other things, a degree of suspension of disbelief.
Overview[edit]
In many stories, the setting dictates what language characters would speak, and that is the vehicular language for the story. For example, if a story takes places Columbia, all native characters would speak Spanish, the native language there. When the translation convention is used, all characters will speak the vehicular language chosen by the filmmakers instead. Sometimes, some or all of the characters speak the vehicular language with an accent that reflects the actual natural language of the fictional or historical story setting. (For example, if an American company makes a story set in Germany, all Germans in the story will speak English, eventhough this would never occur under normal circumstances in Germany.)
Exceptions[edit]
A large proportion of films and television shows set outside the English-speaking world use the translation convention, especially those produced in the US and the UK. There are a few notable American-produced exceptions which have high-native-language fidelity or realism— that is they use large portions or 100% non-English— and all were large commercial successes. Among them are: The Passion of the Christ (which uses Aramaic, reconstructed ancient Hebrew, and Latin), Apocalypto (which uses Yucatec Maya), and Inglorious Basterds (which uses French and German). Despite being produced for a global audience or English-speaking audience, the filmmakers have committed to use the correct language or languages for the story's setting.