November 23, 2009 at 11:15New collective translation service
Here, many people know the collective translation service " Notabenoid ." We used it to translate one of our projects, but soon realized that this was not quite what we needed. Firstly, I wanted an online video, and secondly, greater focus on a specific topic in order to unite interested people around their ideas. This is how our ChinaFilm.tv project came about .
The site is completely written in Django , including the torrent tracker (thanks to Vitaly for the pieces of code from django-torrent-tracker ). Forum - PYBB (by the way, I highly recommend it, the project was abandoned, but recently it has risen and is developing again). Video for episodes is cut and converted automatically by a bunch of ffmpeg + flvtool2. Subtitles in episodes are shown by the captions plugin for jwplayer.
Now we are launching a mechanism that allows users to accelerate the emergence of new releases. Each project will have a “piggy bank”, where users will save money for translation. At the end of the transfer, part of the money goes to the project coordinator, part to the translators, part to the voice acting. We have already seen a similar scheme in working on one of the sites of a similar orientation and it works.
If you like Chinese cinema, then you might face the following problem: Chinese films are often translated by people who know nothing about Chinese culture or language. Translations are made from English voice acting or subtitles, while a lot is lost: wordplay, cultural features. Chinese is much more concise than English, and especially Russian, so phrases are often abbreviated to the detriment of meaning. Ridiculous Americanisms appear: for example, heroes call each other “miss” and “mister”, national musical instruments turn into “banjo”.
We decided to do something about it. First we selected a movie (not the easiest to translate, by the way) and uploaded it to Notabenoid. Everything went well, but very slowly. In addition, often the meaning was distorted due to the fact that the translators did not see or poorly remembered the scene on which they were working. It was decided to launch the same translation service, but with some modifications.
The site is now about a month old. During this period, we partially translated about a dozen films and completely translated and voiced the very film from which it all began. They drew other people for the voice acting, but the film only benefited from this. Satisfied with the result. Download and watch here or on torrents.ru .
PS The post was written by the main developer of ChinaFilm.tv Andrey Kravchuk,who often has something to say on Habré, but he does not have an invite . Thanks for the invite!
What is new?
- Firstly, we have a torrent tracker, so the translator can always download the exact version of the movie that’s being translated
- Secondly, the film is divided into separate episodes, which allows you to translate and discuss in separate semantic pieces
- Thirdly, there is a video on the site. Yes, each episode can be watched directly with subtitles, both with the original and with the translation
- Fourth, we have all the properties of a regular movie site - reviews, genres, biographies and photos of actors and directors, a forum, a wiki, movie news, tags
Technical details
The site is completely written in Django , including the torrent tracker (thanks to Vitaly for the pieces of code from django-torrent-tracker ). Forum - PYBB (by the way, I highly recommend it, the project was abandoned, but recently it has risen and is developing again). Video for episodes is cut and converted automatically by a bunch of ffmpeg + flvtool2. Subtitles in episodes are shown by the captions plugin for jwplayer.
What about monetization?
Now we are launching a mechanism that allows users to accelerate the emergence of new releases. Each project will have a “piggy bank”, where users will save money for translation. At the end of the transfer, part of the money goes to the project coordinator, part to the translators, part to the voice acting. We have already seen a similar scheme in working on one of the sites of a similar orientation and it works.
And a little about the subject of the project
If you like Chinese cinema, then you might face the following problem: Chinese films are often translated by people who know nothing about Chinese culture or language. Translations are made from English voice acting or subtitles, while a lot is lost: wordplay, cultural features. Chinese is much more concise than English, and especially Russian, so phrases are often abbreviated to the detriment of meaning. Ridiculous Americanisms appear: for example, heroes call each other “miss” and “mister”, national musical instruments turn into “banjo”.
We decided to do something about it. First we selected a movie (not the easiest to translate, by the way) and uploaded it to Notabenoid. Everything went well, but very slowly. In addition, often the meaning was distorted due to the fact that the translators did not see or poorly remembered the scene on which they were working. It was decided to launch the same translation service, but with some modifications.
And where are the results of the work?
The site is now about a month old. During this period, we partially translated about a dozen films and completely translated and voiced the very film from which it all began. They drew other people for the voice acting, but the film only benefited from this. Satisfied with the result. Download and watch here or on torrents.ru .
PS The post was written by the main developer of ChinaFilm.tv Andrey Kravchuk,