Prof. Elena Di Giovanni

1. Prof. Elena Di Giovanni Second Year Course MultimediaAudiovisual Translation Corso di Laurea Magistrale in LSCCI A.A. 2008/09

2. Multimedia Translation ? Screen Translation ? Audiovisual Translation ?

3. Polysemiotic texts vs Monosemiotic texts • one or more channels of communication • advantages and disadvantages for translation Film and TV programmes: • Verbal auditory channel • Non-verbal auditory channel • Verbal visual channel • Non-verbal visual channel Isosemiotic translation Diasemiotic translation

4. Subtitling: subtitles, sometimes referred to as captions, are transcriptions of film or TV dialogue, presented simultaneously on the screen. Subtitles usually consist of one or two lines of an average maximum length of 35 characters. (Routledge Encyclopedia of TS) Subtitling: a translation practice that consists of presenting a written text, generally on the lower part of the screen, that endeavours to recount the original dialogue of the speakers as well as the discursive elements that appear in the image (letters, inserts, graffiti, inscriptions, etc.) and the information contained onthe soundtrack (songs, voices off).(Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling)

5. Adaptation or translation? It has to be understood that the subtitled text is not a proper translation, but rather a simple adaptation that preserves the general meaning of the original. (Pommier) Also.. For some, this activity falls short of being a case of translation proper because of all the spatial and temporal limitations imposed by the medium which constrain the end result. (Diaz-Cintas, Remael) Translation or ‘art’? 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. (Ivarsson)

6. Some “rules” for AVT(Gambier, 2003) Related to target language norms, lexical choices, rhetorical patterns, etc. • Acceptability • Legibility • Readability • Synchronicity • Relevance • Domestication Strategies Specific to subtitling: fonts, position of subtitles, etc. Reading speed rates, text complexity, density of information. Appropriateness of speech to lip movements, of utterance in relation to non-verbal elements, etc. What information is to be conveyed, what is to be deleted, condensed or clarified. An audiovisual product has to be different enough to be ‘foreign’, but also similar enough to what viewers are familiar with.

7. Subtitling VS Dubbing… • Costs (dubbing some 15 times more expensive than subtitling) • Agents involved(dubbing at least 5, subtitling 1, 2, 3 or even 4) • Time of text production PLUS… • Dubbing involves less textual reduction • Subtitling involves no loss of authenticity • Dubbing does not require a high level of literacy • Subtitling enhances knowledge of other languages (mainly English) • ?

8. Classification of subtitles Intralingual VS Interlingual Pre-prepared VS Live Open VS Closed Laser-printed VS Electronic

9. What is a dialogue list? A dialogue list is essentially the compilation of all dialogue exchanges uttered in the film and it is a document usually supplied by the film distributor or producer. Besides a verbatim transcription of all the dialogue, the ideal list also offers extra information on implicit socio-cultural connotations, explains plays on words or the meaning of colloquial/dialectal terms… Spotting, cueing, timing… Spotting consists of determining the precise moments when a subtitle should appear on screen (in-time, entrata del sottotitolo) and when it should leave the screen (out-time, uscita del sottotitolo).

10. A translator’s working pack… Dialogue list // spotted script, on file // subtitles in another language (on video file or DVD) Video files in several formats Software (not always) Additional material/info from the distributors DEADLINE!

11. Some technical features… • One, two or more lines? • Which one is to be preferred? • Position on screen • Font type /colour • Number of characters per line • The six-second rule • Spotting / Frame changes

12. SUBTITLING GUIDELINES 1 • I sottotitoli devono accompagnare la fruizione di un testo audiovisivo, senza risultare dominanti rispetto a quest’ultimo né troppo visibili. Alla luce di questo principio generale, si dovrà fare in modo che i sottotitoli risultino sempre chiari, facili da leggere, corretti, ben articolati, non frammentari, non troppo lunghi né troppo ridotti rispetto all’originale. Inoltre, non devono presentare incongruenze, parole e frasi ambigue o volgari (laddove non ve ne siano nell’originale), slittamenti di registro linguistico all’interno dello stesso film, un uso eccessivo della punteggiatura e di altre convenzioni grafiche (corsivo, virgolette, puntini di sospensione, ecc.). • In generale, l’idea è che lo spettatore deve impiegare poco tempo per leggere, in modo da avere il tempo di vedere il film. • Conseguentemente, per quanto possibile bisognerebbe sempre seguire delle regole semplici ma importantissime, come ad esempio: • usare parole brevi invece di parole lunghe dallo stesso significato: ad esempio “ora” invece di “adesso”; • ricorrere a parole ed espressioni di uso comune e facilmente comprensibili (salvo i casi in cui una parola più rara e di registro elevato sia necessaria in base al contesto): esempio “fare una ricerca” piuttosto che “effettuare una ricerca”; • fare attenzione alla coesione del testo che si crea nel tradurre, ad esempio traducendo sempre nello stesso modo un termine o un’espressione ricorrente e particolarmente significativa; • fare attenzione alla coerenza del testo tradotto, verificando sempre che nel passaggio da un sottotitolo all’altro non si perda il senso del discorso (che quest’ultimo si sviluppi, appunto, in modo coerente); • evitare le ripetizioni inutili e la resa, nei sottotitoli, delle interiezioni o esitazioni dei parlanti. Tutti questi elementi restano accessibili e sono quindi comprensibili da parte del pubblico, poiché la colonna sonora originale resta immutata. […]