Directing Scenes in a language you don't understand

[djkarn105]

One of the scenes in the film I'm working on includes the daughter and her mother get into an argument where they start speaking in spanish. I found this scene pretty difficult to direct, even though I knew the scene, other than from a general perspective.

I'm just curious if anyone else has worked on a similar scene and how they dealt with it.

 

[Cassius]

I've never done it, but I know it can be difficult. All of 'Letters from Iwo Jima' was like that, but that was done by a ridiculously experienced director. I don't know that there really are any suggestions to be had, you just have to be able to look past the words. Most of your audience doesn't speak spanish, right? If that's the case, then you're in the perfect situation to decide what works in the scene.

 

[cyclone]

I have found it to be surprisingly easy (easier than I thought). What happens is that you direct the emotion. The dialogue reflects the emotion. I don't speak Spanish, but 10% of what I direct is Spanish. Client seems happy.

 

[polfilmblog]

I had this issue on my first short. The good guys were Mexican, and they had a long conversation in a moving car. The audio was unusable, and we had to dub everything.

I had it translated line by line, careful not to have any repeating dialogue. It was tedious.