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Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham Unit 1

Professional Contexts of Translation

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UNIT 1: SUBTITLING

1.1 Aims This unit begins by looking at the different translation modes implemented when

translating audiovisual products, and then goes on to examine one of these modes,

subtitling, in more detail. It focuses on different types of subtitles and the impact of

medium constraints on the presentation of subtitles on screen.

1.2 Objectives By the end of this unit you will be able to:

• Identify and discuss the three main translation modes in translating

audiovisual products;

• Apply and critically understand concepts such as spotting, dialogue lists and

time codes;

• Identify and critically understand the time and spatial constraints that operate

when subtitling;

• Identify and assess the need to reduce information;

• Identify and critically discuss the conventions applied in the presentation of

subtitles on screen.

1.3 Reading Key reading

• Gottlieb, H. (2001) ‘Subtitling’. In M. Baker (ed.) Routledge Encyclopedia of

Translation Studies. London: Routledge, pp.244-248. (electronic version

available via ebrary)

• Ivarsson, J. & Carroll, M. (1998) Subtitling. Simrishamn: TransEdit.

www.transedit.se/bokreklam.htm

Unit 2 Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham


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• Karamitroglou, F. (1998) ‘A proposed set of subtitling standards in Europe’.

Translation Journal 2 (2) www.accurapid.com/journal/04stndrd.htm

Recommended reading

• Díaz Cintas, J. and Remael, A. (2007) Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling.

Manchester: St Jerome. (Contains training DVD.)

Optional reading

• Díaz Cintas, J. (2001) ‘Teaching subtitling at university’. In S. Cunico (ed.)

Training Translators and Interpreters in the New Millennium. Portsmouth:

University of Portsmouth, pp.29-44.

• Gambier, Y. and Henriek, G. (eds.) (2001) (Multi)Media Translation:

Concepts, Practices, and Research. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John

Benjamins.

• Luyken, G., Herbst, T., Langham-Brown, J. Reid, H. and Spinhof, H. (1991)

Overcoming Language Barriers in Television. Manchester: European Institute

for the Media.

1.4. Translation or adaptation? In the light of the many media constraints that shape linguistic transfer in the

audiovisual field, some translation theorists have chosen to consider these transfers as

examples of adaptation rather than of translation. This view, which can be considered

purist and outdated, underlies the relative lack of interest in professional activities in

the audiovisual field on the part of translation scholars; instead, they have favoured

the study of more traditional and prestigious subject matters such as the Bible,

literature and poetry.

From a tentative start involving somewhat superficial contributions in the late 1950s

and the early 1960s, followed by a couple of decades of relative lethargy in the 1970s

and 1980s, we have entered a period of vigorous activity, dating back to the early

1990s and pointing to a very promising future in decades to come. If Translation

Studies as a discipline has developed greatly in recent decades, few can deny that one

of the branches that has received the greatest impetus in training and research is



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audiovisual translation. In addition, translation carried out in the audiovisual field

accounts for an increasingly large proportion of translation activity. There are two

reasons for this: firstly, audiovisual translation products reach a large number of

people because reception is easy, primarily via the television; secondly, a large

quantity of translated material is transferred to other cultures – documentaries,

interviews, films, news, discussion programmes, shows, series, cartoons, and so on.

All of this has contributed to greater visibility for audiovisual translation.

The historical lack of interest is also reflected in a certain amount of indecision with

respect to terminology. The first studies carried out tended to refer to film translation,

but as the field of study extended to include television, video and DVD releases, the

term audiovisual translation (AVT) was introduced, a term that will be used

throughout this module. Another term in frequent use in the field is screen

translation, which is designed to encompass all products distributed via a screen, be it

a television, cinema or computer screen. This term opens the door for inclusion of the

translation of products that until now have escaped more precise categorisation, such

as computer games, web pages and CD-ROMs. Finally, another concept that is

gaining ground is multimedia translation, resulting from the multitude of media

channels through which the message is transmitted. The use of this terminology

further blurs the boundaries of the discipline, and also establishes a much closer link

with the localisation of ICT products and the translation of products available on the

internet.

1.5. Modes of transfer Although some scholars such as Gambier (1996) and Luyken et. al. (1991) have

established typologies of up to ten different translation modes when dealing with

audiovisual products, habit and custom have made dubbing, subtitling and voice-over

the three most common ones. Let us consider a brief definition of each of these

modes:

Dubbing involves replacing the original soundtrack containing the actors’ dialogue

with a target language recording that reproduces the original message, whilst at the

same time ensuring that the target language sounds and the actors’ lip movements are

more or less synchronised.



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Voice-over involves reducing the volume of the original soundtrack completely, or to

a minimal auditory level, in order to ensure that the translation, which is

superimposed on the original soundtrack, can be easily heard. It is common practice

to allow a few seconds of the original speech before reducing the volume and

superimposing the translation. The reading of the translation finishes a few seconds

before the end of the original speech, allowing the audience to listen to the voice of

the person on the screen at a normal volume once again.

Subtitling involves displaying written text, usually along the bottom of the screen,

which gives an account of the actors’ dialogue and other linguistic elements which

form part of the visual image (letters, graffiti, and captions) or of the soundtrack

(songs, off-screen voices).

1.6. Europe at a glance Geographically, a clear dichotomy has emerged in Western Europe between the large

countries, which prefer dubbing (France, Germany, Italy and Spain), and the small

countries, which have shown a preference for subtitles (Greece, the Netherlands,

Portugal and the Scandinavian countries, amongst others). Owing to its inclusion in

the huge Anglophone audiovisual market, the case of the United Kingdom can be

described as a special one: neither dubbing nor subtitling is common, although a

certain degree of bias for subtitled products can be observed.

With regard to Central and Eastern European countries, the division appears not to be

so clearly defined. Romania, Slovenia and Bulgaria prefer subtitling, whereas the

Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia tend towards dubbing. As far as Poland, the

three Baltic States and some members of the Commonwealth of Independent States

are concerned, there seems to be an inclination towards voice-over. Some of their

audiovisual products are subtitled and voiced-over at the same time. These

distinctions are far from absolute, and in reality the various translation modes often

co-exist, the choice between them depending on whether the product is broadcast on

television or shown at the cinema, on the genre of the programme, and on the

audience profile.



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From a historical perspective, there have been numerous reasons for adopting one

mode or another. Countries with high levels of illiteracy have tended to prefer

dubbing. In times of political repression and violation of the freedom of expression,

legislation in countries such as Germany, Italy and Spain was biased in favour of

dubbing. Economics has also played a very important role in the choice of mode,

since subtitling is ten to twenty times less expensive than dubbing. Habit and custom

are also decisive since people tend to prefer the mode they are most familiar with.

Activity 1: National Practices

Find a magazine (via the internet if necessary) with a television and cinema

programme for your city (or any city of your choice). Work out the percentage of

films that are subtitled and/or dubbed during a given week. Is there any information

about which mode has been used to translate the films, or any other audiovisual

products? Why do you think this is?

1.7 Types of subtitling From a technical perspective, subtitles can be:

Open. The written text is delivered together with the image without the spectator

being able to choose its presence. This is the sort of subtitling we experience when we

watch a foreign film in TV or a cinema.

Closed. The subtitles are broadcast separately from the audiovisual product and the

spectator has the option to display them together with the original version. This is the

type of subtitling that is used for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, versions produced for

DVD, and television programmes which are broadcast to different language

communities with the relevant subtitle version encoded.

From a linguistic point of view, we can distinguish two types:

Intralingual subtitling (also known as captioning). Here there is no change of

language. This is primarily aimed at the deaf and hard-of-hearing, but also extremely

useful for people learning a foreign language.



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Interlingual subtitling. Here there is a change of language. The spoken/written

message of the original product is translated into the language of the target audience.

For further reading, please check http://www.transedit.se/history.htm, or Diaz-Cintas

and Remael (2007: Chapter 1).

Activity 2

a. Watch a subtitled film and make a list of at least 5 conventions that are

consistently applied when presenting interlingual subtitles on screen, e.g. the use

of inverted commas.

1. ____________________ 4. ____________________

2. ____________________ 5. ____________________

3. ____________________ 6. ____________________

b. Watch a film subtitled for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (HoH), and make a list of

at least 5 characteristics that define the intralingual subtitles that appear on screen.

You may find this type of subtitling on many DVDs.

1. ____________________ 4. ____________________

2. ____________________ 5. ____________________

3. ____________________ 6. ____________________

What are the main differences between these two types of subtitling?

1.8. The professional world Subtitling is the result of a common effort that involves the co-operation of several

professionals: technician, translator, subtitles adaptor. The actual translation of the

dialogue from a language into another is only one of several stages. The translation

process varies according to the type of product that has to be translated (films, tv series,

cartoons, commercials, documentaries, etc.) and the medium (cinema, television, VHS,

DVD). For clarity’s sake, we assume here that we are dealing with a film to be

distributed in the cinema.

If the translator only has access to a copy of the film, the first step will be the

transcription of the film dialogue and any other material (letters, graffiti, songs, etc.) that



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needs to be translated. This is a rather tedious task that can be done by the translator or

by a native speaker of the language used in the film. In many cases, contemporary films

tend to come accompanied by a dialogue list that is usually provided by the production or

distribution company. When translating old films chances are that the dialogue has to be

transcribed from screen, or a dialogue list found on internet. If the translator is asked to

do the transcription, a financial supplement ought to be charged to the client.

Once we have got a transcription of the whole dialogue, we proceed to do the spotting

(also known as timing or cueing) of the film, which in many cases is done by a

technician. This consists in noting in the dialogue list when subtitles should start and

stop. The concept of synchrony is here very important. Ideally, a subtitle should appear

on the screen at the precise moment the actor starts speaking and should disappear when

the actor stops speaking, with subtitles staying on screen no less than one second and no

longer than six to seven seconds. Spotting should take into account the places where the

speaker pauses, whether for breath or between grammatical or logical units. Once the in

and out times have been established, it is possible to work out the maximum length that

the translator has for each subtitle. For television, VHS and DVD programmes, the

typical unit of measurement is the second, while, when translating for the cinema, the

frame is used.

In some instances, the spotting may have already been done by the company providing

the dialogue list. This document – master (dialogue) list – contains the original dialogue

that has been condensed and segmented into what are known as master (sub)titles. These

master subtitles are in the same language as the one used in the film, usually English, and

the translator only has to translate the text and ideas conveyed by them. When the

spotting and reduction have been done by a professional other than the translator, the

latter’s freedom can be severely restricted. The imposition of a given segmentation of

ideas may not work equally well for all languages. This is why, if translators could do

their own spotting, they could be more flexible and be able to take decisions that would

allow them to make a more rational use of the spaces needed for any given subtitle.

Once the spotting has been done, the next step is the linguistic transfer from a source

language into a target language, carried out by the translator. The final stage consists in

adjusting the length of the subtitles to the spaces available, paying special attention to the



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syntactical segmentation of the subtitles, the consistent use of the different conventions,

and making sure that cuts and changes of scenes are respected. The person in charge of

adjusting tends to be a different professional known, by some, as the subtitler.

Nowadays, there is a call for the unification of all these tasks (spotting, translation and

adjustment) in the figure of the translator/subtitler, since it is believed that the

combination of these tasks in one person will help to reduce the risk of error. New

developments in specialised computer software for subtitling, together with the designing

of university modules where students are systematically taught all the necessary stages

for subtitling, suggest the consolidation of this versatile professional in the very near

future.

1.9. Dialogue lists In an ideal situation, the translator works from a document called a dialogue list (also

known as post-production script); a more or less exact compilation of the linguistic

exchanges that take place in the audiovisual product.

Besides including the linguistic material, a good dialogue list does the following:

• offers metatextual information about the social context and the cultural

connotations;

• makes clear the meaning of words and expressions that may be obscure for the

translator;

• explains puns and plays on words;

• offers the correct spelling of proper names;

• draws attention to ironic statements, etc.

This is an essential document for the efficient work of the translator and ought to be

provided by the production or distribution company. However, the reality is that many

subtitlers are forced to work without one of these documents and need to take the

dialogue from screen.



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Activity 3

In Appendix 1 at the end of this unit you will get a very detailed page of a dialogue list

from the film Manhattan Murder Mystery. Try to work out what all the information in

the page means.

In Appendix 2 you will find the same page with a key that explains what everything

means.

1.10 Technical dimension In order to minimise the impact of the written text on the original image, it is common

practice to present subtitles at the bottom of the screen, in one or two lines at a time.

The number of lines may vary depending on the distribution companies, and some

might use up to three lines when the density of dialogue information is high. If crucial

activity or information is shown at the bottom of the screen, the subtitles can be

moved to the top of the screen or to the middle.

The presence of the subtitle on screen depends on the speed and rhythm at which the

original dialogue takes place, and the assumed average reading speed of the target

audience. Given the physical limitation of the width of the screen, and taking into

consideration the overriding need for readability, it is commonly accepted that each

subtitle line can accommodate a maximum of 35 to 40 spaces, including characters,

blanks, and punctuation marks.

Although parameters vary according to subtitling companies, television stations, and

countries, the 6-second rule is generally applied, whereby two lines of a maximum of

35 spaces each (a total of 70) can be read in 6 seconds by an average viewer. Each

second is made up of 24 frames (cinema) or 25 frames (television). With this in mind,

a table of correspondences between duration of dialogue and number of spaces

available is worked out. In the cinema the unit of measurement is the foot, which is

made up of 16 frames. For the purposes of this module, we will only work with

seconds. Thus, a 3 second and 12 frame speech segment in a film will have to be

translated and fitted in a maximum of 41 spaces, and a 5 second segment in

approximately 59 spaces. The time code appears usually on the top of the screen and



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indicates the hours, minutes, seconds and frames. So, the value 01:06:33:13 means

that we are one hour, six minutes, 33 seconds, and 13 frames into the film.

Subtitling programmes are designed to work with time codes and, when spotting the

film, they are programmed to work out the maximum length allowed for any

particular subtitle. If translators go beyond the limit, the computer will let them know

that their solution is too long and may not be appropriate.

Some other considerations that the subtitler has to bear in mind are:

• the subtitle projection has to be synchronised with the actual dialogue – that

is, it has to appear on screen at the same time as the characters speak and has

to be removed when they stop speaking;

• in order to guarantee it can be read by the audience, no subtitle should appear

for less than one second;

• there has to be some time between subtitle projections so that viewers realise

that there has been a change of subtitle, otherwise the eye would not register

that there has been a change and will not read the new subtitle;

• a subtitle should not run over a cut or change of scene.

1.11 Linguistic dimension Contrary to Newmark’s statement (1988: 122) that ‘each lexical and grammatical unit

has to remain accounted for – that is [the translator’s] Antaean link with the [source]

text’, subtitles are not, and can never be, a complete and verbatim translation of the

source dialogue. The viewer needs to have sufficient time to read the information at

the bottom of the screen and to follow the action all over the screen. If our translation

tries to accounts for every item from the source dialogue, chances are that the target

viewer will be overloaded with information and will not have enough time to process

it. In addition, we speak faster than we read, and these are the two main reasons why

most subtitles are characterised by the need for reduction of original information.

Reductions can be of two types:



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partial, where we are dealing with condensation, and

total, when part of the message has to be eliminated.

Both strategies have to be applied in accordance with the principle of relevance, that

is, making sure that no information with a diegetic value is deleted. The need for

semantic condensation must not jeopardise the syntax or style of the original.

Coherence and cohesion are two extremely important parameters here; what is

conveyed in the subtitle must not contradict what the image is telling the viewer. For

example, when long sentences need to be continued in following subtitles, due care

must be given to the syntactic and logical cohesion of the message since the viewer

does not have the possibility of back-tracking in order to retrieve information. Hence,

the disposition of information in the subtitles in the left will make them more difficult

to read than the ones in the right:

It wasn’t even a stadium, it

was

a gym. We just dressed it.

We had to

make sure that all the

props and things like

that were brought back

and forth.

It wasn’t even a stadium, it

was a gym.

We just dressed it.

We had to make sure

that all the props and things

like that

were brought back and forth.

One of the defining characteristics of subtitling is the change of medium from oral to

written speech. Although screen dialogue is not the same as the dialogue of everyday

life, it still shows a series of paralinguistic features that distance it from written

discourse. Oral speech has a higher level of redundancy and repetition. Sometimes,

actors do not finish their sentences or contradict themselves. In other instances, their

statements are grammatically or syntactically incorrect. If all these devices were to be

transcribed verbatim in the subtitles, the audience will be taken aback and the



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message will be very difficult, if not impossible, to understand. The implications of

this shift of medium, together with the need for reduction, means that not everything

said can or should be accounted for in the subtitle. Depending on the context, some

solutions will take precedence over some others. Elements of the linguistic exchanges

that fulfil a phatic function such as fillers (you know, man, I mean, sort of), vocatives

and expressions as a way of introduction (hi, hello, hiya) or farewell (bye, see you)

can be eliminated along with repetitions that do not have relevance to the plot.

Activity 4

The following excerpt comes from the film Manhattan Murder Mystery (Woody Allen,

1993):

No, wait a minute, wait. It, but it doesn’t make sense at all, Larry, because suddenly, you know, he

murders her. I mean, what’s it all about?

Produce a subtitle (either in English or in a foreign language) that conveys the same

information as above but is no longer than 56 spaces.

Given the general belief that taboo expressions are a lot more offensive when written

down than when uttered verbally, they do not have to be fully accounted for in the

subtitles. Using them sparingly can also convey the same effect. The key point in this

area is to be able to strike the right balance.

The semiotic dimension of the image and the visual context in which the action takes

place can also be essential in shaping the subtitle, and the use of deictics, contractions

and imperatives may help the subtitler to keep within the space restrictions. So, a

question of the type “is that your computer?” can easily be subtitled as “(is that)

yours?” if the person asking is pointing to a computer that appears on screen.

In some areas, such as cases of linguistic variation – dialects, sociolects, regionalism

and the like – the strategies to convey the same extratextual information can prove to

be very limited and in most cases the subtitler will have to concede defeat. Only the

spectator with a flair for foreign languages and a good ear for detail will be able to

feed from the original soundtrack.



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1.12 Orthographic and typographic conventions The subtitling discourse is governed by a set of rules that determines the graphic

presentation of the information although there is a clear hesitation and lack of

harmonisation in the market. Short of international, or even national consensus,

translators have to do their utmost to be consistent in their use of punctuation marks

throughout a programme to avoid disorientating the viewers and calling undue

attention to the graphic presentation of the subtitles.

Activity 5

Watch two different films subtitled into English and commercialised by two different

distribution companies or television channels, and consider the following questions: (a)

Are there many discrepancies in the use of conventions? If there are, what sort of impact

do you think this lack of harmonisation might have on the audience? (b) Do you prefer

one way of presenting the subtitles to the other? Why? (c) Would you propose any other

parameters?

The following is a brief list of conventions that are usually applied when subtitling,

and will help you to carry out activity 6:

• To indicate that two characters are speaking in the same subtitle, each line

belongs to one of them and starts with a dialogue dash, <–>.

• A dot at the end of a subtitle <.> indicates that the idea is self-contained in the

subtitle and it is not carried over to the next subtitle.

• The three suspension dots <…> are used to indicate a pause, omission,

hesitation or interruption in the delivery of the speech.

• Punctuation marks that are characteristic of a particular language, e.g. <¡> and

<¿> in Spanish, should never be eliminated in an attempt to shorten a subtitle

line.

• Upper case letters should be used sparingly since they are more difficult to

read than lower case. Nowadays, they are mainly used for translating the title

of the programme or some inserts that appear written on screen.



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• Voices that come from a television or radio set and from speakers that are off-

screen and distant from the action tend to go in italics. Italics are also used to

translate songs, to give emphasis to a particular word or to subtitle the voice of

a narrator.

• Quotation marks <”> are used to indicate that the speaker is quoting from a

source, in which case they should be repeated at the beginning of each

subtitle. They can also be used to draw attention to certain colloquial words or

expressions, puns or non grammatical constructions.

Finally, if subtitles are to be easily understood in the short time available, each

subtitle must be a coherent, logical and syntactical unit. Ideally, each subtitle should

be self-contained, finished in itself. In order to facilitate the readability of the

message, line-breaks ought to be applied in such a way as to coincide with the natural

breaks in sentence structure. That is, lines should be divided in such a way that words

intimately connected by logic, semantics or grammar are written on the same line,

whenever possible.

Activity 6

Out of the following 5 subtitles, choose the one you think is the easiest to read:

i) After that, he gave me a penguin and a parrot ii) After that, he gave me a penguin and a parrot iii) After that, he gave me a penguin and a parrot. iv) After that, he gave me a penguin and a parrot v) After that, he gave me a penguin and a parrot.

1.13 Your turn



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Having read this unit, it is now your turn to sample subtitling following the principles

and conventions highlighted above.

Activity 7

The following excerpt is from the very beginning of the film Monty Python’s Life of

Brian (Terry Jones, 1979). The spotting has been done for you.

Write the first 11 subtitles. On the right column, you are given the maximum number

of spaces you are allowed to use. Whether you present each subtitle in one or two

lines is up to you.

[1] Mother: Ooh! Who are you? Gaspar: We are three wise men. [2] Mother: What? Balthasar: We are three wise men. [3] Mother: Well, what are you doing creeping around a cowshed about two o’clock in the morning? [4] That doesn’t sound very wise to me. [5] Melchior: We are astrologers. Balthasar: We have come from the East. [6] Mother: Is this some kind of joke? [7] Gaspar: We wish to praise the infant. Balthasar: We must pay homage to him. [8]Mother: Homage? You’re all drunk! It’s disgusting! Come on out. [9] Coming in here with tales about Oriental fortune-tellers. Come on out! Balthasar: No, no... We must see him. [10] Mother: Go and praise someone else’s brat. Go on. Balthasar: We were lead by a star. [11] Mother: Lead by a bottle more like. Go on out.

59 spaces 45 spaces 65 spaces 33 spaces 43 spaces 25 spaces 63 spaces 55 spaces 62 spaces 65 spaces 40 spaces

1.14 General debate



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Due to the different constraints that impinge on subtitling practice, some scholars and

practitioners refer to it as an art. In the following quote from Ivarsson and Carroll

(1998:v), Ivarsson refers to one of his previous books and states:

It was a book about subtitling, not translation. Translation is a different art. I decided to call it Subtitling for the Media – A Handbook of an Art, since in my view subtitling, when it is done to high standard, includes so many of the elements essential to art and above all demands so much skill, imagination and creative talent that it is indeed an art.

Activity 8

Do you agree or disagree with this conception of subtitling as an “art”? Why?

Activity 9

Go to the following website:

www.titelbild.de/assets/pdf/Code%20of%20Good%20Subtitling%20Practice_en.pdf

Here you will find a list of the skills needed by good subtitler. Do you agree or

disagree with them? What do you make of the last one? Are they different from those

required to be a general translator? Place them in order of importance.

1.15 Useful links Associations

European Association for Studies in Screen Translation (ESIST): www.esist.org

Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs (FIT): www.fit-ift.org/media

Seminari d’Estudis sobre la Traducció Audiovisual i Multimèdia (SETAM):

www.ijlv.uji.es

TRAG (TRAducción de Guiones de películas): www.xcastro.com/trag

Glossary of subtitling terminology

http://www.transedit.se/glossary.htm

Díaz-Cintas & Remael (2007) offers the most recent up-to-date list of resources in

this field.



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Film scripts

Websites you can visit to get scripts are:

Movie Scripts and Screenplays Web Ring Home Site

http://www.geocities.com/moviescriptsandscreenplays

Drew’s Script-O-Rama:

http://www.script-o-rama.com

Nexus 7

http://www.cinefantastico.com/nexus7/cine/guiones.html

Script Shack

http://www.scriptshack.com/shop/enter.html (scripts are for sale)

1.16 Commentary on activities Activity 2

Some of the differences you may find between the two types of subtitles are to do

with intralingual subtitling:

• resorts to the use of colours to identify the main different characters,

• use of information in parenthesis to indicate that actors are speaking in a low

voice,

• subtitles are positioned under the actors that are speaking,

• use of >, <, ^ to indicate that the speech belongs to an actor that is off camera,

• subtitles are preceded by the symbol # to indicate that it is a song,

• paralinguistic information that the deaf and hard of hearing cannot appreciate

from the soundtrack is included, usually in parenthesis: (dog barks),

(telephone rings), (big explosion), etc.,

• use of (!?), or similar, at the end of an statement to indicate irony,

• unlike interlingual subtitling, they can resort to 3 and 4 lines of information,

• etc.



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Activity 4

No, wait a minute, wait. It, but it doesn’t make sense at all, Larry, because suddenly, you know, he murders her. I mean, what’s it all about?

Here you have a possible way of reducing the text in Spanish:

No tiene sentido porque luego la asesina. ¿Qué pasa?

It doesn’t make sense because then he kills her. What’s all about?

Activity 6

Subtitles iv) and ii) are certainly the easiest to read for most people, boosting

comprehension of the message in the short span of time that they are available on the

screen. Numbers i) and iii) should be avoided at all costs since they can be confusing.

Activity 7

The main problems in this scene are the informal tone of the dialogue exchanges, the

speed at which actors speak, the overlapping of some of the statements and the

underlying humour. Languages that make a distinction between formal and informal

addressees (e.g. “tú” and “usted” in Spanish, “tu” and “vous” in French and “du” and

“Sie” in German) will have to decide at this very early stage on which of the two

forms to use. The play on words in subtitles 1, 2 and 4 with the adjective “wise”

might be another source of difficulty.

Here you have a possible translation of the dialogue in Spanish:

[1]

-¿Quiénes sois?

-Somos tres Reyes Magos.

[2]

-¿Qué...?

-Somos tres Reyes Magos.

[3]

-¿Y qué venís a hacer a este establo

a las dos de la mañana?



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[4]

Eso no me parece muy mágico.

[5]

Somos astrólogos

y venimos desde Oriente.

[6]

¿Estáis de guasa o qué?

[7]

-Venimos a adorar al niño.

-Venimos a rendirle homenaje.

[8]

¿Homenaje? Estáis borrachos.

Sinvergüenzas. ¡Largaos!

[9]

-¡Venirme a mí con cuentos chinos!

-Tenemos que adorarle.

[10]

-Iros a adorar al niño de otra.

-Nos ha guiado una estrella.

[11]

Más bien una botella.

¡Fuera!

Activity 9

If you went to the given website, this is the text you should have found:

www.titelbild.de/assets/pdf/Code%20of%20Good%20Subtitling%20Practice_en.pdf

Future subtitlers require:

• a superb command of their own mother tongue;



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• very solid command of one (or more) foreign language with an understanding

of the connotations (best learned through having lived in the foreign country);

• sound experience in translation;

• broad general knowledge and solid general education;

• familiarity with reference works and research methods;

• a love of film and of matching language to images;

• devotion to detail;

• an openness to using technology;

• computer literacy;

• familiarity with basic film and TV technology including time codes and sound

tracks;

• an acceptance of the need to compromise.

To these skills you may want to add:

• Good at getting the gist of the message.

• An ability to grasp the stylistic nuances of the original.

• Excellent aural skills to translate from screen.

• Excellent knowledge of audiovisual culture.



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Appendix 1



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Appendix 2

[1] Film title. [2] Reel. [3] Page number. [4] Subtitle appears: foot 459, frame 8. [5] Subtitle disappears: foot 465, frame 14. [6] Duration of subtitle: 6 feet & 6 frames. [7] Master title: information that needs to be translated.

[8] Additional information for the translator. [9] Column with “pruned” dialogue to use in the subtitling. [10] Column wit the literal transcription of the dialogue exchanges to be used for dubbing. [11] Subtitle number: 109 in reel 2. [12] Additional information to contextualise the scene.

4 5 62 3 1

7

8

910

12

11

unit 1: subtitling - · pdf file1/3/2015 · interlingual subtitling. here there is...

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