Case studyMARKÍZA – SLOVAKIA spol. s r. o.

The goal and needs of the customer

The company approached us with a request for simultaneous interpretation of the royal wedding between Prince Harry and actress Meghan Markle on their wedding day – on 19 May 2018 from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM.

The second simultaneous interpretation we were tasked with was the 91st Annual Academy Awards (where the most prestigious film industry awards “The Oscars” were presented in a ceremony held in Los Angeles, USA), which took place on 24 February 2019 in the late evening hours at the studio.

Language combination and focus

For the royal wedding coverage, 2 particularly focused experts were needed:

• Interpreter 1 – experience in interpreting church weddings and with church terminology
• Interpreter 2 – an expert on royal protocol and on British culture; an English scholar/Anglophile

For coverage of the film industry awards ceremony, interpreters with experience in a similar interpreting format and who were interested in American show business were needed.

Materials for the interpreters

The wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

• a generic script for guidance

The 2019 Oscars

• script
• shortlist of nominees

Prepping for interpreting

Prepping for this interpreting assignment was broken down into three steps:

1. a detailed study of all available materials,
2. watching and studying ceremonies from previous years,
3. several hours studying the films, actors, and directors that were nominated as well as the fashion designers for award-winning celebrities, Hollywood show business, and more.

The interpreting process itself took place in real-time and was enhanced by a series of interesting comments and tips from the interpreters themselves.

Benefits

• The client received extensive and terminologically challenging simultaneous interpretations of important foreign events.
• Thanks to the professional specialisation of the interpreters (church terminology, British culture, royal protocol, etc.), the interpretations of the royal wedding went smoothly and without any problems.
• The interpretation of the Oscars took place in the late evening hours and lasted a total of 9 hours.

Problems – how did we resolve them?

• Both events took place abroad with a bit of a time lag, but even that didn’t stop our interpreters from doing their work at a high level of quality.