Project Overview

In 2017, a documentary production team from OTW, Sweden travelled to Nepal to produce a fundraising documentary highlighting the experiences of children, teachers, and others connected with SOS Children’s Villages Nepal.

The production captured personal stories of hardship, resilience, and success through filmed interviews in different parts of Nepal. Swedish public figures and well-known personalities also participated in the documentary mission, making effective communication between the production crew and Nepali interviewees particularly important.

Square Services provided consecutive interpretation throughout the filming process, helping the crew communicate with interviewees and capture their stories naturally and accurately.

Our Role

Our interpreters accompanied the filming team to different SOS Children’s Villages and project locations, facilitating communication between the Swedish production crew and Nepali-speaking interviewees.

The assignment involved more than simply interpreting questions and answers. Interpreters needed to understand the purpose and tone of a fundraising documentary, while ensuring that interviewees could express their experiences in their own words.

Some interviews involved highly personal accounts of hardship and difficult experiences. Interpreters therefore had to maintain professionalism and sensitivity while accurately conveying the meaning and emotion of the interviewee’s responses.

Selected footage was subsequently transcribed and translated, providing additional language support for the production process.

The Challenge: Being Present Without Being Seen

One of the most distinctive challenges of the assignment was the need to interpret without appearing in the camera frame.

The interpreter had to remain close enough to bridge the language gap between the interviewee and the filming crew, while positioning themselves so that their presence did not interfere with the composition of the shot.

This required constant awareness of:

• Camera positioning and framing

• Interview flow and timing

• The filmmaker’s direction

• The emotional nature of the interviews

• Accurate and natural consecutive interpretation

The interpreter effectively became an invisible communication bridge between the interviewee and the production team.

Outcome

Square Services helped the Swedish production team conduct interviews across different locations in Nepal, enabling them to communicate effectively with children, teachers, and other participants while preserving the authenticity of their stories.

The assignment demonstrated our ability to provide sensitive, discreet, and context-aware interpretation for international documentary and media productions, including assignments where interpreters must balance linguistic accuracy with the practical demands of filming.