The appeal of audiovisual products comes greatly from the combination of visual and auditory resources; but professional subtitling focuses on translating dialogue and specific written information on screen.
If in a Portuguese film or documentary, someone pinches their earlobe without saying anything, how are British viewers, for example, expected to understand that it means ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ when that hand gesture is not familiar to them? More worryingly, how can we avoid Italian viewers, for example, from misunderstanding the situation when in their culture the same gesture has a sexual and offensive connotation?
This project challenges the assumption that an audiovisual content is made accessible when only verbal resources are translated. It will make an innovative contribution to the subtitling industry by contributing to the review of current subtitling practices, test the possible limitations and the opportunities of alternative subtitling practices focused on translating meaning expressed through any element (visual or auditory, verbal or non-verbal).
If in a Portuguese film or documentary, someone pinches their earlobe without saying anything, how are British viewers, for example, expected to understand that it means ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ when that hand gesture is not familiar to them? More worryingly, how can we avoid Italian viewers, for example, from misunderstanding the situation when in their culture the same gesture has a sexual and offensive connotation?
This project challenges the assumption that an audiovisual content is made accessible when only verbal resources are translated. It will make an innovative contribution to the subtitling industry by contributing to the review of current subtitling practices, test the possible limitations and the opportunities of alternative subtitling practices focused on translating meaning expressed through any element (visual or auditory, verbal or non-verbal).
This project has three mains strands:
STRAND 1. Conduct interviews with professionals involved in production and distribution
This include a series of interviews with film directors, film producers and distributors in order to better understand how their understand the viewers' meaning-making process and how that influences the way they produce audiovisual content. This strand also aims at collecting data on these professionals understand subtitling, its purpose and process.
COMPLETED
STRAND 2. Collect data on subtitling professionals attitudes and perception
This includes a large survey and a series of interviews among subtitling professionals and project managers to better understand:
- how they understand subtitling and its possible limitations
- how they normally deal with meaning expressed non-verbally when subtitling,
- how they perceive alternative subtitling practices and the implications a change in practice might have on their workflow and training
COMPLETED
STRAND 3. Guidelines for Enhanced Subtitling
This includes the development of an analytical framework capable of accounting for the multimodal nature of audiovisual products together with the development of a set of guidelines for a newly developed Enhanced Subtitling in which meaning expressed visually and auditory, verbally and non-verbally is translated through the use of subtitles and additional titles on screen.
The aim is not to replace current subtitling practice, but to develop an alternative practice for enhanced accessibility and viewing experience.
Related to this, see the project "Subtitling of Clear Shadows: an action research project on enhanced subtitling"
The aim is not to replace current subtitling practice, but to develop an alternative practice for enhanced accessibility and viewing experience.
Related to this, see the project "Subtitling of Clear Shadows: an action research project on enhanced subtitling"
COMPLETED
STRAND 4. Collect empirical data on viewers' reception and perception
This will include a series experimental reception studies taking advantage of eye-tracking technology, questionnaires and interviews. The aims is to collect data on:
- the impact of current subtitling practices in maintaining or eliminating the source text’s layers of meaning;
- the impact of innovative subtitling practices in maintaining or eliminating the source text’s layers of meaning, and
- the viewers’ expectations and attitudes regarding different subtitling practices.
