An introduction to Subtitling

An introduction to Subtitling

AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION (AVT) orSCREEN TRANSLATION or MULTIMEDIA TRANSLATION

•        Applies to any text which is transferred through two codes: the visual and the audio.

•        Deals with cinema, television, video and multidimensional products. It has its own characteristics: it requires special learning from the professional … due to the constraints and the particular techniques being used (Agost, 1999: 24-25)

Types of Screen Translation

• Inter-lingual translation

dubbing voice-over

simultaneous interpreting subtitling

•  Intra-lingual (monolingual)
subtitling

subtitling for the deaf and hard-of-hearing audiodescription

•       Live subtitling (e.g. news broadcasts)

•       Surtitling (for opera and the theatre)

What are they?

•         DUBBING: replacement of the original track of a film for another on which the translated dialogue is recorded

•         VOICE-OVER: the translator’s voice is heard on the top of the original. The volume is reduced to a low level that can be still heard in the background.

•         SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING: the interpretation occurs when the SL speaker speaks as quick as the interpreter can formulate the message in the TL

SUBTITLING

Translation mode which consists in displaying – usually at the bottom of the screen – a text which intends to account for what has been said (or shown in written form) in the audiovisual product (Díaz-Cintas, 2003:32)

COUNTRIES PREFERENCES

•        DUBBING: Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Turkey, UK (rare)

•        VOICE-OVER: Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, some CIS

•        SUBTITLING: Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, Scandinavia, Romania, Slovenia, Bulgaria, UK

DETERMINING FACTORS

•         Economic: subtitling and voice-over cheaper than dubbing

•         Political: dubbing as a form of censorship

•         Ideological: form of self-defence or as expression of nationalim (see Catalonia, Quebec, Wales)

•         Technical: technologies available

•         The force of the habit: preference for the mode everyone is more familiar with

PROS AND CONS (I)

DUBBING

•Expensive

•Original dialogue is lost

•Dubbing actors’ voices can become repetitive

•Constrained by lip-sync

•Does not distract attention from image

•Viewer can follow the sense even if distracted from watching

•Allows overlapping of dialogues

•Suits for poor readers

PROS AND CONS (II)

SUBTITLING •Pollutes the image

•Requires more reduction of original information •Dispersion of attention (2 codes can disorient) •Constrained by time and space

•Cheap

•Respects integrity of original dialogue

•Suits the hearing impairs and helps immigrants

•Promotes learning of foreign languages

•Quality of original actors’ voice ensured

Stages of subtitle production

•            being offered/accepting the assignment by a production/distribution company

•            getting the tape/DVD/etc and the dialogue list (if available and possibly, a post-production list). Time code is essential.

•            watching the entire programme

•            preparatory work, e.g. checking the accuracy of the dialogue list, linguistic research, background research

•            spotting and then translation or translation and then spotting

•            adaptation

•            revision

•            sending the work to your client

TCR (Time Code Reader)

Frame = sequence of images on the screen 1 second = 24 frames (in cinema) = 25 frames (in TV)

SPOTTING

Noting in the dialogue list when the

subtitles should start and stop (usually

done by a technician)

TRANSLATION (I)

•         No more than 2 lines on screen

•         Each line an avarage of 35 characters including blanks and punctuation marks (max 40 in cinema, max 37 in VHS/DVD, max 35 in television)

•         6 seconds rule: an avarage viewer can read a two-line subtitle of 70 characters in 6 seconds

•         Each subtitle must be a coherent, logical and syntactical unit.

•         Each subtitle must appear at the same time that characters start speaking and be removed when they stop speaking

TRANSLATION (II)

•               Total reduction (elimination) of original information

•               Partial reduction (condensation) through:

1.         reformulation, adaptation

2.         simplification of syntax

2a. Deletion of false starts, interjections, (some) repetitions, (some) interpersonal markers

Example:

No: Er, it was unexpected. They don’t speak that way.

Yes: It was unexpected.

They don’t speak that way.

Bibliography (I)

Bernal Merino, Miguel (2002) La traducción audiovisual, Alicante: Universidad de Alicante.

Buckland, W. (1998) Film Studies, London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Carroll, Mary (2004) “Subtitling: changing standards for new media”. Lisa XIII, 3.3

www.lisa.org/archive_domain/newsletters/2004/3.3/carroll.ht ml

Creeber, G. (ed.) (2001) The Television Genre Book, London: The British Film Institute.

Díaz-Cintas, Jorge (2001a) “Striving for quality in subtitling: the role of a good dialogue list”. In Gambier, Yeves & Henrik Gottlieb(eds) (Multi)Media Translation: Concepts, Practices and Research. Amsterdam & Phildalephia: John Benjamins, 199-211.

— (2001b) La traducción audiovisual: el subtitulado. Salamanca: Almar.

Bibliography (II)

— (2001c) “The value of the semiotic dimension in the subtitling
of humour”. In Desblache, Lucile (ed) Aspects of Specialised
Translation. Paris: La maison du dictionaire, 181-191.

— (2003) Teoría y práctica de la subtitulación: inglés/español.
Barcelona: Ariel.

Díaz-Cintas, Jorge & Aline Remael (2006) Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling. Manchester and Kinderhook, NY: St Jerome.

Egoyan, Atom & Ian Balfour (eds) (2004) Subtitles: on the Foreigness of Film. Cambridge, Massachussetts: MIT Press.

Frensham, R. G. (1996) Screenwriting, London: Hodder.

Fuentes Luque, Adrián (2003) “An empirical approach to the reception of AV translated humour”. The Translator 9(2): 293-306.

Gottlieb, Henrik (2001) [2000] Screen Translation. Six Studies in Subtitling, Dubbing and Voice-Over. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen.

Bibliography (III)

Hatim, Basil & Ian, Mason (1997) “Politeness in screen translating”. In The Translator as Communicator. London & New York: Longman Group.

Ivarsson, Jan (1995) “The history of subtitles”. Translatio, Nouvelles de la FIT-FIT Newsletter XIV(3-4): 294-302.

Karamitroglou, Fotios (1998) “A proposed set of subtitling standards in Europe”. Translation Journal 2(2).

Linde, Zoé de (1995) “‘Read my lips’: subtitling principles, practices and problems”. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 3(1): 9-20.

http://accurapid.com/journal/tj.htm

Mailhac, J.P. (2000) ‘Subtitling and dubbing, for better or worse? The English video versions of Gazon Maudit’. In M. Salama-Carr (ed.) On Translating French Literature and Film, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 129-54.

O’Connell, E.M.T. (2003) Minority Language Dubbing for

Children, Oxford: Peter Lang.