So you have a final script on your computer and the final raws as well. Now it is time to place all the lovely text on all of those pages. Though before we do that you might want to get out your curved pipe and Sherlock hat because this part takes some deductive reasoning skills so that you don't get lost in translation.
Special thanks goes to the staff at Jinchuuriki and Obsession who's generosity will allow me to use parts of a real script and the images for that script to demonstrate.
First off you will have a text document that is your script. (Personally I like to have that open in Microsoft word.) You also have a folder with your cleaned raws. I tend to work on one page at a time and I do them in order. This helps me to prevent things like overlooking a page or overlooking a bubble that needs to be filled.
And now a word on scripts... I have the opportunity to work with many different scripts, many different translators and proof readers as well. Each script is different. I have seen differences in scripts even from the same translator. Some groups have a key to reading their scripts others don't. Most scripts will have page # before the translations for that page, and Character name: followed by dialog or thought content.
Some groups will break it up by frame/panel like this:
Page 13:
Frame 1: Hatch: Hmmm...
Frame 2: Hatch: I assume...
Frame 4: Hatch: ... you couldn't start yourself
because you lacked the missing pieces
which broke off.
Frame 5: Hatch: Is that why you felt down recently?
Orihime: Er, not exactly... did we need to go over this for the sixth time?
Frame 6: Hatch: Though... Hmmm...
Hatch: but if your reiatsu showed you had powers
close to mine even when
fragmented...
Frame 7: Hatch: I should be able to restore them.
This style of scripting means that as the typesetter sometimes has to decide where to split the text since there are often more bubbles than the amount of lines present in the script. For example the line: "Frame 5: Hatch: Is that why you felt down recently?", could potentially be broken up into two or more text bubbles. With this style of scripting it is more difficult to tell if there is a missed translation somewhere.
Other groups will break it up by bubbles like this:
pg 159
kame: Sem... sempai... / Thank you for defending me earlier.
*thud*
ryu: I didn't defend you.
ryu: You / simply stuck in my heart.
ryu: Slow Tortoise-kun.
*tha-dump*
*heh*
kame: Um, my name is Kameyama. / You may not think it, but I'm quite athletic~
ryu: I'm going to specially train you.
kame: (YES!!)
*heh heh*
With this last example
you see that when there is a double bubble there is a (//) or (/) mark to
show that. Also the SFX and 'out of bubble' text here are marked by using
asterisks: *text*. This example is not the only way a script could be keyed
it is just one example. Once you've seen a few scripts you can start to
get a feel for what is a thought bubble, sfx, or 'out of bubble' text.
Now lets have a look at the pages that
go with these translations...
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Things to remember:
The typesetter is one of the last people to touch the project before it is released and as such you are a part of the quality control effort. Everyone is human and even translators and proof readers make mistakes sometimes... I have worked with scripts that have little to no punctuation, words spelled incorrectly (wright/write), and missing translations for one or more bubbles. These are just a few examples of little things that can slip through the cracks. Often the proof reader only has access to the script and not the raws. This can lead to some interesting mistakes at times. For instance... I was editing a chapter of manga were there was a dog, this dog was a Doberman pincher (the Manga-ka even used the english word doberman when referring to this dog in one panel). The script referred to him as a shepard. After clarifying with my project coordinator I changed it to Doberman.
When you have the bubble type script you can often tell if there is a missed translation since you have more bubbles than text to fill them. This should alert you to ask for a translation for that/those bubbles.
There were a couple of different chapters I have worked on where I got to a page and realized that the order of the pages in the script didn't appear to match up with the images for those page numbers. It turns out that these pages had been mixed up and the translations for two of the pages were listed two pages before they really appear in the manga. Once again I clarified since I don't read Japanese, Chinese, or Korean, and we got the the pages back to there proper order.
When you are working with a frame/panel type script it is important to split your sentences in a way that makes sense when you have to split for bubbles. A good place to split is where a coma or ellipses are present. Sometimes you won't have convenient punctuation to make the split at so you just have to use your best judgment on where a good place to split the text is. Sometimes I even read the sentence out load to see if it makes sense where I want to split it. Additionally try and look at the bubbles for size to give you a clue on where you might want to split the sentence. Also look at the bubbles themselves, you don't want to split Hatches dialog into a bubble that is clearly pointing at Orihime.