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Re: "My dog Tulip" nominated to....

Posted: 07 May 2009, 20:26
by Paul Fierlinger
Thanks for the kudos, guys. Zig, you ask if I am attracted to such lewd scenes; in the context of this film, yes, because of the way it is presented by the author in his perfect King's English and delightful sense of irony (to which children and 30 year-olds aren't yet adjusted ). It's a film which dog lovers adore because it speaks to their hearts, so you are right, it is a film for only a certain portion of the audience and will never show up in the cineplexes. But should filmmakers (and particularly independent ones) make films with only easy and mass distribution on their minds?

Eventually, I hope, the movie will do best in the home distribution circuit where there are millions (billions?) of dog owners. It'll be a bell curve most likely; a slow slog finding its way around and certainly we are going into the next film with less bravura (and keeping the 13 and up on our minds) but neither are we pandering to children or to mass taste. As I've said many times on these forums, it's the process of making the films I enjoy most about making films. Once they are done, the fun is mostly over and I need a new film to work on to enjoy what I like to spend my days and nights doing more than anything else, and for that I don't need to be rich.

Re: "My dog Tulip" nominated to....

Posted: 07 May 2009, 21:32
by ZigOtto
Paul Fierlinger wrote:... Zig, you ask if I am attracted to such lewd scenes ...
well, in fact, the question was asked to Elodie (I quoted her "...being too young" just before),
anyway, I got your answer, and I think I benefited by the change. :wink:



ps: last question, (adressed to you this time) :
the copy of your film you will present at Annecy is a (french) subtitled version ?
... or simply an original (english) version without subtitles ?

Re: "My dog Tulip" nominated to....

Posted: 07 May 2009, 23:04
by Fabrice
Annecy always asks for french subtitles :)

Re: "My dog Tulip" nominated to....

Posted: 08 May 2009, 00:21
by Paul Fierlinger
And to that I should add that in the case of Tulip the subtitles will be translated in Annecy by a French translator. My producer went to the cheapest New York translator who did a very poor job of it (Fabrice pointed this out to him) so he went to another cheap one who did another bad job of it. If you are still following me, he got two cheap translations for the price of one good one. Now Annecy is taking care of it themselves so it better be right or I'll tell my producer and he'll laugh (in English).

The fact is that the original English must be very difficult to translate in our case and needs someone experienced to fit all those words within the film's allotted space; I understand that the French language comes out to be in the average about 20% longer than English. Tulip is wall to wall narration so it's not a good film for subtitles. I can return the French version of the book you so kindly supplied us with and you can read it three times through before you come to the screening.

Re: "My dog Tulip" nominated to....

Posted: 08 May 2009, 16:54
by ZigOtto
Paul Fierlinger wrote:... he got two cheap translations for the price of one good one.
a "cheap" businesman with sewn pockets.
Fabrice wrote:Annecy always asks for french subtitles :)
Paul Fierlinger wrote:... The fact is that the original English must be very difficult to translate in our case and needs someone experienced to fit all those words within the film's allotted space; I understand that the French language comes out to be in the average about 20% longer than English. Tulip is wall to wall narration so it's not a good film for subtitles.
unless a VF (dub in french) version is provided for Annecy screening, you know, we have good (voices) french actors here too,
and not necessary so expensive !
but I guess a re-work (as re-timing some lipsynch scenes) would be necessary to fit perfectly with the french voices
(cause the 20% over-length from the English>French translation) ...
Paul Fierlinger wrote:... I can return the French version of the book you so kindly supplied us with and you can read it three times through before you come to the screening.
the best would be a bilingual edition, kind of english left-side & french right-side, (with plenty of white spaces to left). :wink:

Re: "My dog Tulip" nominated to....

Posted: 09 May 2009, 12:17
by Fabrice
Paul Fierlinger wrote:And to that I should add that in the case of Tulip the subtitles will be translated in Annecy by a French translator. My producer went to the cheapest New York translator who did a very poor job of it (Fabrice pointed this out to him) so he went to another cheap one who did another bad job of it. If you are still following me, he got two cheap translations for the price of one good one. Now Annecy is taking care of it themselves so it better be right or I'll tell my producer and he'll laugh (in English).
Paul, it may have been a misunderstood here : the second translation was much better, I think you can keep it.
the only problem was the lenght on a few sentences

Re: "My dog Tulip" nominated to....

Posted: 09 May 2009, 12:35
by Paul Fierlinger
The huge problem with the second translation was that every sentence started in the proper place of the dialogue list but was translated with no regard to the time it would spend on the screen (the 20% problem). So it was absolutely useless and once more proof that such things should be done by experts or at least consulted with experts first.

Example: I know how to write dialogue lists not because I had ever done it before but because I remembered a conversation I had 45 years ago with a friend who used to do these . Basically, he explained that it is important that new titles appear on a cut and titles should not carry over from one scene to the next which makes people read them the second time.

Every specialty has its own rules which stem from experience and often one needs to just consult an expert -- or in these days look it up on the Internet. I really get impatient with people who will say, without a thought, 'sure, I can do that for you and you can pay me less than what that professional is asking you for.' When I was researching the prices of translators for our producer I learned so many things I never heard of before just from one short e-mail with a friend who is a professional translator ... the gist of it was that knowing how to speak two languages is the least of it.

Re: "My dog Tulip" nominated to....

Posted: 18 May 2009, 07:23
by Mads Juul
Congratulation Paul. I'm coming to Annecy and looking forward to see it!

Re: "My dog Tulip" nominated to....

Posted: 18 May 2009, 07:48
by Elodie
sniiif, everybody will be at Annecy, instead of me :(

Re: "My dog Tulip" nominated to....

Posted: 18 May 2009, 08:14
by Fabrice
madsjuul wrote:Congratulation Paul. I'm coming to Annecy and looking forward to see it!
excellent news !

Re: "My dog Tulip" nominated to....

Posted: 18 May 2009, 08:46
by Mads Juul
Fabrice wrote:
madsjuul wrote:Congratulation Paul. I'm coming to Annecy and looking forward to see it!
excellent news !
YES! I'm looking forward to meet the TVPaint team In persona. And maybe some of the betatesters ? I can understand that Paul is giving a masterclass? It could be nice to meet there.
:-) Mads

Re: "My dog Tulip" nominated to....

Posted: 18 May 2009, 09:08
by Fabrice
The masterclass is on tuesday 9th june. 14 o'clock. :)

Re: "My dog Tulip" nominated to....

Posted: 18 May 2009, 12:27
by Paul Fierlinger
Fabrice wrote:The masterclass is on tuesday 9th june. 14 o'clock. :)
Good to know; no one has told me yet and I haven't seen this on their website. Madsjul, please contact me when you get there. Looking forward.

Re: "My dog Tulip" nominated to....

Posted: 18 May 2009, 12:46
by ZigOtto
Paul Fierlinger wrote:... and I haven't seen this on their website.
http://www.annecy.org/home/index.php?Pa ... 9&l=&e=&h=
curious you haven't been yet informed by the festival's organisation team ... :o
and take care for the place, (it's not in "Bonlieu" center).

Re: "My dog Tulip" nominated to....

Posted: 18 May 2009, 12:49
by Fabrice
Paul had many other things to prepares :wink: , and I had the info confirmed only this week-end