Subtitling
The function of subtitles is to make a movie or video clip available to audiences of languages different to that spoken on the original soundtrack.
As opposed to the translation of written texts, subtitles work together with imagery to render language. But this has its tricks, too. Not only they operate within two different modes, that is, oral to written, but they also must summarise the content to allow the audience the time to appreciate the images, yet keep the entire sense of what is being said in the movie.
When subtitling, the translator is faced with a big challege: the way the rendition is presented to the target audience. Due to the characters' fast pace and the overlapping of their lines, they often must summarise the dialogue, and some expressive content may be lost in this process. Some lines may sometimes need to be cut short so as to give the audience a chance to appreciate the scene visually as well: the characters' gestures add plenty of expression to their lines and hence to the scene as a whole: anger, a particular look, movement, voice pitch are non-linguistic elements that sometimes dominate the scene. It would be unfair towards the director and the talent of the actors to keep the audience too busy reading line after line after line, missing on key aspects of the movie. Subtitles are a mode that fail to convey much of the mood of the characters, a large part of the expressiveness of the line and, ultimately, of the scene.
Even though the overlapping of spoken lines may make subtitles run fast, the translator needs to know when to slot in some blank pauses.
With DVDs taking over VHS for home entertainment, recent years have seen new aternatives for the subtitling of movies and clips, for example, subtitling for the hearing impaired. Subtitlers need to know the target audience of their work, so as to make important decisions in regards to description of noises, music, gunshoots and tone of voice, among others and how to differentiate them from dialogue. Also summarising will have to be more efficient, as required by the increase of written lines. Often commercial releases are subtitled in the original language twice: in addition to standard subtitling (useful for advanced learners or to facilitate comprehension of an uncommon accent) and another one for the hearing impared.
Do subtitles interfere with the director's intention?
Sometimes. It could well be the case that garbled dialogue, for instance, is part of the intention of the director. This would be difficult to render by means of subtitles. Subtitles could not be expected to convey the whole message of what is being spoken (let alone of what is being sung). It is then left to the skilled subtitlers to know when to introduce pauses, clues, italics, or accommodate the rendition (by means of terminology or other) to make up for certain expressive components of dialogue that otherwise would remain 'lost in subtitling'. ❒
As opposed to the translation of written texts, subtitles work together with imagery to render language. But this has its tricks, too. Not only they operate within two different modes, that is, oral to written, but they also must summarise the content to allow the audience the time to appreciate the images, yet keep the entire sense of what is being said in the movie.
When subtitling, the translator is faced with a big challege: the way the rendition is presented to the target audience. Due to the characters' fast pace and the overlapping of their lines, they often must summarise the dialogue, and some expressive content may be lost in this process. Some lines may sometimes need to be cut short so as to give the audience a chance to appreciate the scene visually as well: the characters' gestures add plenty of expression to their lines and hence to the scene as a whole: anger, a particular look, movement, voice pitch are non-linguistic elements that sometimes dominate the scene. It would be unfair towards the director and the talent of the actors to keep the audience too busy reading line after line after line, missing on key aspects of the movie. Subtitles are a mode that fail to convey much of the mood of the characters, a large part of the expressiveness of the line and, ultimately, of the scene.
Even though the overlapping of spoken lines may make subtitles run fast, the translator needs to know when to slot in some blank pauses.
With DVDs taking over VHS for home entertainment, recent years have seen new aternatives for the subtitling of movies and clips, for example, subtitling for the hearing impaired. Subtitlers need to know the target audience of their work, so as to make important decisions in regards to description of noises, music, gunshoots and tone of voice, among others and how to differentiate them from dialogue. Also summarising will have to be more efficient, as required by the increase of written lines. Often commercial releases are subtitled in the original language twice: in addition to standard subtitling (useful for advanced learners or to facilitate comprehension of an uncommon accent) and another one for the hearing impared.
Do subtitles interfere with the director's intention?
Sometimes. It could well be the case that garbled dialogue, for instance, is part of the intention of the director. This would be difficult to render by means of subtitles. Subtitles could not be expected to convey the whole message of what is being spoken (let alone of what is being sung). It is then left to the skilled subtitlers to know when to introduce pauses, clues, italics, or accommodate the rendition (by means of terminology or other) to make up for certain expressive components of dialogue that otherwise would remain 'lost in subtitling'. ❒