Mass Effect

Volume (approx.): 1 million words.

Involved as: lead linguist.

Project-specific issues: very rich script with full audio. Translation had to be as oral as possible, which is not something most localization translators are very good at. Luckily, I am! Proofreading the project therefore became an extensive rewriting session so as to obtain dialogs as smooth and natural-sounding as possible.

I also implemented work synergies between translation and recording, which are usually nonexistent (translation and recording all too often work in total isolation from each other):

• Involvement in casting choices: who is better qualified to assess the adequacy between a voice and a character than the lead linguist? As a lover of science-fiction at large, I also suggested numerous voice cameos from famous movies and serials – for instance, Captain Anderson is voiced by Alain Choquet, aka. Jean-Luc Picard in the French version ofStar Trek: The Next Generation. There are many other such references!
• Inserting stage directions into the scripts to help voice talents contextualize their parts.
• Listening of all audio files produced in order to isolate those that need to be rerecorded or otherwise improved.All in all, I did all my best to make Mass Effect’s French VO as convincing as possible. Here is a glimpse of how the final product sounds: