Transcreation: changing the content rather than the words
Transcreation changes what is said rather than only which words say it: names, references, settings and jokes that would not land. It belongs at the script stage, because everything downstream is built from the script. As of 2026-09-22.
| Change | Belongs at | Cost if done later |
|---|---|---|
| Character names | The script | Regenerating every shot that names them |
| Setting and architecture | The script | Regenerating the scenes |
| Units, idiom, dates | The subtitle | A file edit |
| Performance and delivery | The audio | A new audio pass |
Inclusion rule. The kinds of change a market version can need, each assigned to the layer it belongs at. The cost column assumes the change is made after that layer. Order. Most expensive to move first.
1A market version is more than translated dialogue
Character names, the ethnicity written into appearance descriptions, the architecture and street furniture of a scene, products on a shelf and any text visible in frame all belong to a market.
A production that localises only the dialogue produces something that sounds local and looks imported. Whether any tool addresses that is a separate question from how many languages it speaks.
2It has to happen where the decisions flow downstream
In a generated pipeline the script produces the character descriptions, which produce the reference images, which constrain every shot. A name changed after that chain has run means regenerating the parts that carry it.
So this is the layer where a market decision is cheap and every later layer is where it is expensive. That ordering is structural and is the same for any tool.
3Nothing in this register measures it
One vendor here describes region presets that adapt names and appearance, which is the only statement in the register touching this. It is recorded on that vendor pages rather than as a column.
A column would need several vendors publishing comparable material. One statement is a fact about one vendor, and treating it as a measurement would misrepresent how much of this question anybody has answered.
A definition, not a measurement: no vendor figure appears here that is not also in the register. Region and appearance adaptation is recorded where the vendor publishes it.
Nearby terms: Text expansion, Interface string. The whole vocabulary is at terms; nothing on this page is a claim about a named product.