Glossary
What is localisation in video production?
Localisation is the adaptation of a film for another market’s language and cultural context, covering subtitles, voiceover, on-screen text, music and sometimes the edit itself.
It is routinely confused with translation, which is only the smallest part of it. Translation converts the words. Localisation asks whether the film works at all for that audience — whether the humour lands, whether the pacing suits the market, whether the on-screen text fits once it is twice as long in German.
The cost profile is the thing worth understanding before commissioning. Localisation designed into the production plan is a modest addition. Localisation retrofitted after picture lock frequently approaches the cost of remaking the film, because the decisions that would have made it cheap — text placement, shot duration, audio separation — were all taken without it in mind.
Planned versus retrofitted
| Element | Planned in pre-production | Retrofitted after picture lock |
|---|---|---|
| On-screen text | Shot clean, added in post per market | Baked into the image, needs reshooting or covering |
| Shot duration | Held long enough for longer languages | Too tight; the edit has to change |
| Audio | Music, dialogue and effects kept separate | Mixed together, so dialogue cannot be replaced cleanly |
| Voiceover | Recorded per market from one script | Re-timed against an edit built for another language |
| Casting and culture | Considered at concept | Discovered as a problem at review |
| Cost | A modest addition | Frequently approaching a remake |
What to specify at briefing
- Which markets, even if only possible. Designing for three and using one costs almost nothing; the reverse is expensive.
- Whether native speakers will be involved, or only translators. Direct translation rarely lands a joke or an idiom.
- Whether text will be burned in or added in post. This single decision drives most of the retrofit cost.
- Whether audio stems will be delivered separately. Without them, replacing dialogue means rebuilding the mix.
- Whether the edit itself might differ by market, which is occasionally the honest answer.
In practice
The DFDS Seaways campaign ran natively across UK, Dutch and German audiences from a single production. Language variants, regional audio and subtitle formatting were designed into the plan from the brief stage, and native speakers were involved rather than the script being translated — because the film is a comedy, and comedy does not survive direct translation.
See how multi-market work is planned on the commercials page.
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