Length of Spoken Chinese vs English

[testa50]

Hello, quick question:

I was putting together a marketing video that will first be voiced in English, but will then need to be translated into a separate Mandarin Chinese version. I will hire a translator and studio for this. But for determining background video images, I need to have an idea of how the script will translate: will the Chinese translation of the sountrack run faster, slower, or about the same as the English version?

I would prefer to use the same video for both the English and the Chinese version, but if it takes a significantly longer or shorter amount of time to communicate an idea in Chinese than in English I will have some thinking to do.

Thanks!

[The guy from Beijing]

It depends on how elaborate you want the Chinese to be. But from my experience of reading English novels that got translated into Chinese, it'll probably be a little shorter than the English version

[testa50]

Thanks for the help! We will be at the mercy of a translator, who probably won't be anxious to make it particularly elaborate. As long as the two are in the same ballpark, I guess we will be alright.