Audiovisual translation Flashcards
(35 cards)
Definition of audiovisual translation
It is the process of TRANSLATING PRODUCTS such as tv shows or movies,.
The two most popular forms of audiovisual translation are SUBBING and DUBBING, and preferences vary across countries –> we have DUBBING countries (Italy) and SUBTITLING countries. On top of that, there are also VOICE OVER countries, where the soundtrack is not replaced but its volume is turned down ad the new dialogues are acted over it
Issues in the AVT field
1) the relation between verbal output and pictures and soundtrack,
2) the relation between a foreign language/culture and the target language/culture
3) the relation between the spoken code and the written one.
Different terms for AUDIO VISUAL TRANSLATION
- Multimedia translation, which also refers to games, theatre, comics and digital resources such as CD-Rom
- Screen translation, a widely used term but considered to be too narrow by some
- Versioning, used within the industry by professionals
- Film translation, which was the term used before TV and video became popular (in the ‘50s)
- Audio-medial text (Reiss, ‘70s)
- Constrained translation
- Audiovisual language transfer
- Diagonal translation
Gottlieb’s four blocks
Gottlieb has identified 4 different blocks of countries that adopt different audiovisual translation stategies:
- Source-language countries: countries that are english speaking and hardly have non-anglophone imports. If there are imported materials, they tend to be SUBTITLED rather than dubbed
- Dubbing countries: Italy, Germany, France, Spain, where almost evry imported material is dubbed
- Voice-over countries: Russia or Poland, where dubbing would be too expensive and subtitling wouldn’t help very much because of the low literacy rates. Sometimes we have one narrator that interprets all the dialogues. The original soundtrack is not erased but its volume is turned down
- Subtitling countries
Dubbing
the replacement of a soundtrack for a new one, with a different language than the original
In dubbing we have:
- cultural references,
- deliberate ambiguity,
- humorous allusion
- various pragmatic intentions of the speakers need to be understood and included
[!] Dubbing is considered a CONSTRAINED TRANSLATION because we have to respect 6 priorities:
- Acceptable lip-sync
- Credible and realistic lines of dialogue
- Coherence between images and words
- Loyal translation
- Clear sound quality
- Acting standards
A very important feature of dubbing is the SYNCHRONIZATION, which consists in matching the target language translation and the articulatory and mouth movements of the screen actors and actresses, ensuring that the utterances and pauses in the translation match those of the source text’.
We have 3 types of synchronization
- LIP OR PHONETIC SYNCHRONY (especially in the case of close-ups)
- KINESIC SYNCHRONY (body movements)
- ISOCHRONY (utterances)
- CHARACTER SYNCHRONY (a child cannot be dubbed by an adult)
Best man speech
The clip we saw comes from 4 weddings and a funeral and shows the best man speech at the wedding.
We saw the original speech and the dubbed one.
The main difference is in the DOMESTICATING NATURE of the italian version
- In the italian version we have someone who says the line “Discorso Charlie” because in our culture is not always compulsory for the best man to have a speech, while in anglosaxon cultures it is. Therefore, the italian version sort of needs someone who exhort him to speak.
- elements of british humour have been ironed out
- fillers/hesitations have been ironed out
- the reference at the end referring to the SHEEP is changed into SECRETS, even if after that scene there is actually a sheep coming out of a car and the people at the wedding say “baa baa”
- the idiomatic expression “there are no skeletons in his cupboard” is replaced with “non ci sono scheletri nel suo letto” which is a compensation strategy due to the fact that in italian we say SCHELETRI NELL’ARMADIO
Who are the professionals in dubbing?
- Translators
- Dubbing directors
- Dialogue writers
- Voice actors
- Sound engineers
PROS and CONS of dubbing
PROS No need to read Nothing covering the original image Closer to actually spoken language Less active (requires less attention)
CONS Mis-matched lip movements Words choseiin to match lip movements/dialog length Bad vice actors Not the original performances More expensive
Subtitling
It usually consists of a written version of the lines found in the soundtrack shown together with the visual material generally on the lower part of screen
- Peculiarities: it involves transferring the characteristics of spoken dialogue to the written mode. Spoken language is grammatically more intricate but lexically less dense, and written language is more nominalized
Features of subtitles:
- Synchronous with the visual material
- Semantically adequate
- They should remain displayed on the screen for long enough for the viewers to read them, because on average a person reads 175(180 words per minute, therefore a minimum time for subtitle to be on the screen has been established (6’ seconds rule)
- The text must accommodate to the width of the screen (32-41 characters per line)
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SUBTITLING
1. Reduction (pack all the ideas)
2. Change of Medium (oral to written)
3. SPECIFIC FEATURES
a. Technical dimension; spatial consideration and temporal consideration (giving time to read to the viewers
b. Linguistic considerations (involving mostly syntax-punctuation)
4. Space constraints
Clear, concise message, simple structure (max 2 lines, 3 not allowed)
5. Time constraints
Spotting, segmentation into 1-2 line blocks. Syntactically and semantically self-contained lines.
Line breaks and subtitle breaks have to respect grammatical and logical aspects
6. Spotting
Also known as timing or cueing, determines the IN and OUT times of subtitles, or the exact moment when a subtitle should appear on screen and when it should disappear according to precise spatial and temporal parameters.
7. Shot changes
The subtitle should leave the screen just before the cut occurs and a new subtitle spotted after the cut, which functions as a dividing frontier between subtitles
8. Dialogues
We can either SEPARATE the lines between characters or we can simply WRITE THEM CLEARLY. In addiction, to that, we can also find in subtitles the descriptions of the scene (useful for hard of hearing people), including relevant sounds, singing or music, all put in squared brackets.
9. Synchronization
Subtitles must be synchronized with:
• The dialogue, respecting the minimum reading speed, and the general reading rhythm of the film (actors’ speech)
• The shot changes (change within the same scene)
• The sound (and names, titles, dates and other elements that can be recognized from one language to another)
• The image
- Text reduction
Viewers must be given the time to read, watch and listen in order to better understand what is happening in the scene
The subtitler must:
- ELIMINATE what is not relevant for the comprehension of the message
- REFORMULATE what is relevant in as concise a form as possible
Problems of subtitling
The loss of many prosodic features inherent in the spoken code, such as tone and modulation of the voice, regional accents or sociolinguistic markers (i.e. grammatical peculiarities), important sociolinguistic indicators –> the deletion of these features may result in an impersonal style, the so-called “STYLE ZERO”
PROS and CONS of subtitling
PROS
- Does not need to match lip movements
- Enables viewers to hear original voice track (original acting + helps foreign learners)
- Cheaper
CONS
- Limited amount of room
- Distracts from image
- Exhausts viewer*
- Bi-modal translation: language to language and spoken to written
- Requires more attention
- Harder for children
Basic rules of subtitling
1) When the visual dimension is crucial for the comprehension of a particular scene, subtitlers should offer only the most basic linguistic information, leaving the eyes of the viewers free to follow the images and the action.
2) Conversely, when important information is not in the images, but in the soundtrack, subtitlers should produce the fullest subtitles possible to ensure that the viewers are not left behind
3) The presentation of subtitles, the way in which the words of each subtitle are arranged on the screen and on each subtitle line, can help enhance readability.
In what consists research in subtitling?
Research in subtitling consists in the eye-tracking method, which uses eye-tracers which measure the duration of the fixation of the eye on a specific part of the screen
Professionals of subtitling
- SPOTTER: responsible of deciding the in and out times of the subtitles
- TRANSLATOR: is in charge of the target language-version of the film or programme. Translators need to have a very good knowledge of the source and the target language. They also have to be experts in the semiotics of subtitling
- ADAPTORS: experts in subtitling; they adapt the text to the scene [!]
Gottlieb strategies in translation
1) Extension: expanded expression, adequate rendering (culture-specific references)
2) Paraphrase: altered expression, adequate content (non-visualized language)
3) Transfer: full expression, adequate rendering (slow, unmarked speech)
4) Imitation: identical expression, equivalent rendering (proper nouns, international greetings, etc.)
5) Transcription: non-standard expression, adequate rendering (intended speech defects)
6) Dislocation: differing expression, adjusted content (musical or visualized language-specific item)
7) Condensation: condensed expression, concise rendering (mid-tempo speech with some redundancy)
8) Decimation: abridged expression, reduced content (fast speech, low redundancy speech)
9) Deletion: omitted expression, no verbal content (fast speech with high redundancy)
10) Resignation: deviant expression, distorted content (incomprehensible or “untranslatable” speech)
Reduction, which is the most important and frequently used strategy in subtitling, is generally applied on the basis of the three functions of language as suggested by Halliday (experimential function, interpersonal function and textual function)
In what consist reformulation and condensation?
- Simplifying periphrasis
- Using a SHORTER expression
- Changing word classes
- Changing negative sentences into affirmative and questions into affirmation
- Simplifying modality:
- Simplify compound sentences
- Pronouns, deictics to replace nouns
Caro Diario
We saw a scene from Caro Diario, directed by Nanni Moretti, in which we find many proofs of condensation, deletion and decimation stategyiesin the subtitles:
- DELETION ”ormai ho paura di rimettermi in gioco” I’m worried about jumping back into the fray
- DELETION/OMISSION “In tutti questi anni”
- CONDENSATION “Incominciano a pesare le sconfitte” Defeats are beginning to weigh on me = the weight of defeats
- CONDENSATION What has our generation become? La nostra generazione…che cosa siamo diventati?
- DECIMATION Assessori = in the list of professions, “assessor” has been left with no detriment to the discourse. The usual case of expansion may be due to the type of register. Compromised and co-opted seem to be less convincing.
- EXPANSION: sold out
- DELETION: Non c’è niente di concreto nella mia vita
- DECIMATION: Rassicurante; ora tutto è cambiato = DECIMATION
There are a number of linguistic elements that many subtitles in the profession would omit even if the spatio-temporal constraints of subtitling did not apply, such as:
(a) Repetitions
(b) Names in appellative constructions
(c) False starts and ungrammatical constructions
(d) Internationally known words, such as ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘OK’
(e) Expressions followed by gestures to denote salutation, politeness, affirmation, negation, surprise, telephone responses, etc.
(f) Exclamations, such as ‘oh’, ‘ah’, ‘wow’ and the like
(g) Instances of phatic communion and ‘padding’, often empty of semantic load, their presence being mostly functional speech embellishment aimed at maintaining the desired speech-flow. Among these, we can find expressions such as ‘you know’, ‘well’, etc.
Montalbano, colloqualisms and swear words
We saw some extracts from Montalbano subtitling, where we can find the tendency to dilute and omit colloqualisms. . This is particularly true of taboo language, especially sexually-based swear words, which are usually toned down.
However, due to the fact that we may find many dialect uses, subtitles fail to show these peculiarities
Even if all the relevant prosodic features cannot be captured, the lexical items (slang, taboo terms, etc. which are important markers) compensate sufficiently even with the necessary toning down referred to above
STRATEGIES USED:
1. STANDARDIZATION by sing a tender language
- Dialectal expressions have been omitted, as well as the word “Dottori”, commonly used in Italian to refer to many people, especially those who live in the streets
2. SAME PRAGMATIC EFFECT
Sbirro –> cop
Fetente –> jerk
The same pragmatic effect is given by using a stronger variety of English
3.TRANSFER
Translating accurately spiari with spy
4. DECIMATION AND DISLOCATION
Carusi is deleted while babbiata becomes the idiomatic expression PULL A FAST ON SOMEONE, which has the same exact meaning as babbiata/scherzo
5. CULTURE BOUND TERMS
The word Carabinieri and antimafia are preserved because it is obvious that those who watch Montalbano may be familiar with these italian concepts
Translating film titles
Titles in movies have got the same function of headlines in newspapers, acting as the brand name and/or advertisement of a film and determining or not the success of the movie
FEATURES
Short and brief, because they must give the audience various clues on the story
Some films are name after their protagonist
Some are named with the place or main scene in which the story happened (
Others are given the names according to the plot or story
Newmark has proposed 3 main functions of a film title:
Informative function (focus on the facts of a topic, reality outside language)
Aesthetic function is designed to please the senses, firstly through its actual or imagined sound, and secondly through its metaphors.
Vocative function focuses on the reader, the addressee
Possibilities of translation
1) Literal translation
2) Original title + explication
3) A completely new title
Free commentary
It is an adaptation for a new audience, with additions, clarifications, omissions and comments. The synchronization is done with the on-screen images rather than with the soundtrack
The translator acts like a journalist, and the translation he creates is more like a narration.
For what is it used?
- children’s programmes,
- documentaries
- corporate/promotional videos
Voice over
A non-synchronous voice that does not replace the source text and language (original soundtrack). In fact, the volume of the original soundtrack is turned down and the new soundtrack is put over it.
They are used in countries like Poland or Russia, where dubbing would be too expensive and subtitling not very useful (literacy rates)
They use fvoice commentaryfor television rather than film translation.
A particular feature of voice over is that it does not require the sme precision as in dubbing, but they still have to follow some timing rules
Subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing
Subtitling for the deaf and hard-of-hearing are very specific because they have to include the information about sound effetcs and music, n the premise that, otherwise, people with deafness would miss out on important aural information
What do we need to convey?
- Verbal components dialogue and narration
- Non-verbal components character identification (ID), tags, labels, music, sound effects, tone – paralinguistic features
How do we convey it?
- Formatting font, size, colors, italics; note that these elements may vary from culture to culture
- Layout characters per line, numbers of lines, alignment, position
- Timing speed, synchronization, shot changes
A few norms on SDH (RAI) in Italian
• 37 characters for each line
• Minimum duration 2 seconds, maximum duration 12 seconds (subtitles can rance from 37 to 72 characters maximum in two liners)
• Black background – colours: white, cyan, magenta for main characters
• Black background – colours: yellow for generic characters
• Sound effect: yellow background and blue text – capital letters – no punctuation – centred on screen (on the top)
Audiodescription
Audio description is a literary art form, a type of poetry. It provides a VERBAL version of the VISUAL for those who cannot see. It was born in the States in 1981
It is normally done by using succinct words, vivid and imaginative in order to convey the visual image, because it has to specify who is in the image, what is their appearance, the ethnicity, gender, age, clothes.
This type of audiovisual translation concerns tv, movies, but also museums and exhibitions
How to audiodescribe
1.Standard information, overview: artist, nationality, title, date, medium, dimensions and the location of the work
2. General overview: subject form and colour using verbs belonging to the sensorial spectrum like “see” or “watch”
3. Orient the listener with directions
4. Describe the importance of the technique or medium
With oil paint, colored pigment is suspended in a viscous oil medium that is slow to dry
5. Use specific words
- Clear and precise language crucial to any good description
- Avoid ambiguous and figurative language because s blind listener can take words very literally. For instance, saying “light falls on an object” has no meaning for blind individuals.
6. Use the focal point
Describe what is most essential for the viewer to know in order to understand and appreciate the image being described.
• What’s happening? For a clear understanding and appreciation of the image(s)?
• Describe expressive gestures and movement
• Describe what you see, or W.Y.S.I.W.Y.S. WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU SAY
7. Provide vivid details
Accessibility (audiodescription)
Accessibility refers to the act of making something available to everyone despite their disabilities (subtitles and audiodescription)
In particular, access in AUDIODESCRIPTION refers to the verbal description using the NON-VISUAL LANGUAGE to convey the VISUAL WORLD. In this way, it is possible to guide the visitor through a museum or to a work, or provide access to the visual aspects of a performance
