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Mon 17 Jan, 2005 04:31 am
I am running out of time, all my native speakers friends are asleep now, I have to hand in this translation by 4 pm CET today. It would be great if anybody there somewhere could check this text and tell me it its English is decent and if not, what to change. It is my first translation into English for money, so I hope you understand...
Here is the text
Petr's parents are extraordinary, too. His mother is obsessed with charity sending big packages full of used clothes to war and natural disaster victims all around the world. His father who used to narrate communist news-reels with confidence, is now hopelessly tottering in the complex new world of freedom. One accidental phone call and a little bit of black magic trigger a roller coaster ride of comical situations full of absurd "ordinary madness".
And some more , please.
Director and screenwriter Petr Zelenka adapted his own original play to shoot a comic love story about different forms of love. Having shot Knoflikari, Rok dabla and having written the script for Samotari, Petr Zelenka offers another story sparkling with his distinct sense of humor.
A co-production of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany, the feature was granted support by the Czech Republic's State Foundation for Supporting and Developing Film. It was produced by the company Negativ, which had worked on Zelenka's film Rok dabla. Television company Nova has contributed to the production, too.
The film was shot in Prague and its surroundings from June to August 2004, 49 days altogether. 2, 037 shots were made equalling 30 hours of material and using 35 km of film tape. For the scene of Fidel Castro's arrival, contemporary documentary images were mixed in the set with the most extras, which was shot on Evropska Avenue. The longest sets were shot at the Ruzyne airport in Prague. Actor Ivan Trojan had taken a course in driving a fork lifter. The feature was a film debut for Miroslav Krobot who had to make a cell phone call while skydiving. Actress Petra Lustigova had no choice but to undertake cosmetic surgery. Besides Miroslav Krobot, Petr Zelenka cast yet another theatre director Jiri Babek for the role of Ales. Nina Diviskova had to run around the Wenceslas Square dressed in men's underwear.
thank you for your help, especially if you make it by 4 pm CET
Just a few commas added here.
Petr's parents are extraordinary too. His mother is obsessed with charity, sending big packages full of used clothes to war and natural disaster victims all around the world. His father, who used to narrate communist news-reels with confidence, is now hopelessly tottering in the complex new world of freedom. One accidental phone call and a little bit of black magic trigger a roller coaster ride of comical situations full of absurd "ordinary madness".
A bit more work here.
Director and screenwriter Petr Zelenka adapted his own original play to shoot a comic love story about different forms of love. Having shot Knoflikari, Rok dabla and having written the script for Samotari, Petr Zelenka offers another story, sparkling with his distinct sense of humor.
A co-production of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany, the feature was granted support by the Czech Republic's State Foundation for Supporting and Developing Film. It was produced by the company Negativ, which had worked on Zelenka's film Rok dabla. The television company Nova has contributed to the production too.
The film was shot in Prague and its surroundings from June to August 2004, 49 days altogether. Over two thousand shots or takes were made equalling 30 hours of material and using 35 km of film and tape.*** For the scene of Fidel Castro's arrival, contemporary documentary images were mixed in with the takes with the most extras. It was all was shot on Evropska Avenue. The longest scenes were shot at the Ruzyne airport in Prague. Actor Ivan Trojan had taken a course in driving a forklift. The feature was a film debut for Miroslav Krobot who had to make a cell phone call while skydiving. Actress Petra Lustigova had no choice but to undertake cosmetic surgery. Besides Miroslav Krobot, Petr Zelenka cast yet another theatre director Jiri Babek for the role of Ales. Nina Diviskova had to run around the Wenceslas Square dressed in men's underwear.
*** Did they use both 35mm film and videotape? Those are two different things, it's either film or tape, but not "film tape". Also, 'sets' usually refers to the PLACES where the film is shot, not the shots or takes made.
Your English is very good, though the last four sentences seem somehow disconnected, one does not seem to lead to the next. Put the two about Krobat together and then the two about the actresses. JN
The feature was a film debut for Miroslav Krobot who had to make a cell phone call while skydiving. Besides Krobot, Petr Zelenka cast yet another theatre director, Jiri Babek, for the role of Ales. Actress Petra Lustigova had no choice but to undertake cosmetic surgery. Nina Diviskova had to run around the Wenceslas Square dressed in men's underwear.
JN
Shouldn't the names of the films be underlined?
Joe, thank you very much again.
Lash, it's up to them if they want to underline them, I was just trying to follow and keep the original graphics.
Joe Nation wrote: roller coaster ride of comical situations full of absurd "ordinary madness".
The only quibble I have would be the rule that in American-style English all periods & commas always stay inside the quotation marks, therefore
"ordinary madness."
would be correct. British & International English is different and depends on logic (thank God we don't have to rely on that).
Check this website for a fairly clear explanation:
http://www.grammartips.homestead.com/inside.html
Quote: ...the point is that if you are an American, you need to keep your commas and periods inside your closing quotation marks, where they belong.*
________________________
* And just why, you may ask, do they belong there? Well, it seems to be the result of historical accident. When type was handset, a period or comma outside of quotation marks at the end of a sentence tended to get knocked out of position, so the printers tucked the little devils inside the quotation marks to keep them safe and out of trouble. But apparently only American printers were more attached to convenience than logic, since British printers continued to risk the misalignment of their periods and commas.
I should have caught that quotation mark use and nixed it, unless he was actually quoting something from the movie or some other spoken source.
One of my editors hated the use of what he described as "the quotation marks or irony." "If you want to be ironic, be ironic, but don't use quotation marks for any other purpose than marking off the spoken word. There is no such thing as the quotation marks of irony."
Lash, you're right about the titles. I was rushing through this to improve the wordage and sluffed off all the embroidery.
Joe (I'm not an expert, but if I concentrate, I can fake it.) Nation
Good idea, Joe, just get rid of the quotation marks altogether. If "ordinary madness" were, say, part of the title, then would he need the quotes?
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