Universitat de València Departament Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya

 

 


Dubbing and subtitling: notes

Definitions

Audiovisual translation: the translation of the verbal text in an audiovisual medium. Other terms: screen translation, media translation, multimedia translation.

Two major modes: dubbing, and subtitling. Other modes: revoicing as intralingual post-synchronization; voice-over (a type of revoicing used in documentaries and interviews with original and translation overlapping, the former being heard a few seconds before the latter); surtitling or supertitling; intertitles; etc.

DUBBING = the replacement of the dialogues in the original track of an audiovisual text (typically a film, or a series episode) with "another track on which translated dialogues have been recorded in the target language" (Chaume 2012: 1).

Revoicing: sometimes used as a generic term for all methods of oral language transfer, including lip-sync dubbing

Costs: dubbing is 15 times more expensive than subtitling

Traditional dubbing countries in Europe: Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Wallonia in Belgium, Bulgaria for TV series, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Turkey, Czech Republic, Slovakia (Chaume 2012: 1, 6). Other countries: Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, althout mostly on TV; China, Japan, Korea, and some North African countries.

Traditional subtitling countries in Europe: UK, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Flanders in Belgium, Bulgaria for films (Chaume 2012: 6)

Other countries, such as "Portugal, Denmark and Norway are beginning to dub some teen TV series and films" (Chaume 2012: 2)

Voice-over is used in Poland (for TV), Russia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania (Chaume 2012: 6)

Ideological issues:

[...]

"Audiovisual translation is by nature a good example of multimodal translation. Audiovisual texts are semiotic constructs where meaning is produced by combining different signs, encoded in various codes and transmitted through at least two channels of communication: acoustic and visual" (Chaume 2020: 108).


DUBBING | SUBTITLING |

DUBBING

= the replacement of the dialogues in the original soundtrack of an audiovisual text with "another track on which translated dialogues have been recorded in the target language" (Chaume 2012: 2), and are in synchrony with the audiovisual codes in terms of timing and length (isochrony), gestures (kinesic sync) and lip movements (lip sync).

Synchronization:


Audiovisual translation problems and constraints are related to the interconnectedness and interaction of the linguistic or verbal code with the rest of audiovisual codes in the production of meaning.

Audiovisual codes

Acoustic codes:

Linguistic or verbal code

This is the primary concern of the translator. It is an oral text acoustically perceived, and this is the translator's Source Text, and not the written script that s/he may have been given or transcribed as a help in the translating process.

Many of the problems of this Source Text (what the translator hears in the audiovisual) are general problems shared by other kinds of translation of written texts (novels, plays, ...): genre or text type; register, which includes field, mode (in most audiovisual texts, a prefabricated orality), and tenor (level of formality: formal, standard, informal, colloquial, ...); dialects (geographical or/and social varieties); chronolect (temporal variety); style, imagery, metaphors, ambiguities, verse, wordplay, humour; cultural elements, intertextual references.

Paralinguistic codes

These consist of the non-verbal qualities of the human voice: intonation, rhythm, pitch, tone, timbre (colour), resonance, intensity (Poyatos; Nord 1991: 121). They are also called supra-segmental features. They are culture-bound signs (as are kinesic (gestural) and proxemic signs [see later]).

Dubbing actors (voice talents) have to reproduce paralinguistc features, and therefore it is useful to indicate them in the dubbing script.

In Spain, conventions for representing paralinguistc features are:

Paralinguistic signs can also be "translated" through a linguistic explicitation: in the Source dialogue, the phrase “Studying for the big communications final, huh?” with the alternant "huh" can be translated as “Estudiando el examen de comunicación ¿no?” (Chaume 2004: 194)

Silences and pauses: 2 or 3 seconds represented by ellipsis "..."; between 3 and 5 or 6 represented by a forward slash "/"; between 6 and 15 seconds represented by "//".

Musical codes

[...]

Special sound effects code

[...]

Sound position codes

"This code refers to where the sound comes from and how. Depending on the sound source, the translator, the dialogue writer or the dubbing assistant will introduce symbols that will be helpful to voice talents and sound engineers" (Chaume 2012: 108-9).

Visual codes:

Iconographic codes

Coherence between words and images:

An instance of interaction and coherence between the verbal and the iconographic codes is given when an idea or concept is conveyed both verbally and iconographically (e.g. Hamlet says "Look upon this picture", and he shows a miniature portrait of his father engraved on a medal he carries with him). This becomes a "semiotic or iconic constraint" (Chaume 2020: 110), since the presence of the image of the medal prevents the translator from render "picture" into Spanish as "cuadro" ("painting"), for instance. As the concept of "picture" is "repeated" through words and images, Chaume calls these situations "semiotic repetitions" (2004: 238).

Another example. A character mentions and omelette while an omelette appears on screen. This situation may constrain the options of the translator. However, if the omelette does not and will not appear on screen, "omelette" can be translated into Spanish as "pastel" ("pie"), if constrained by lip synchrony and in close-up shot, since both the terms omelette and pie [pastel] contain a bilabial consonant, which must be kept in the right place in the translation" (Chaume 2020: p. 110)

Another iconic constraint, of a different kind, can be found when an idea or concept is verbally elided (not signified through words) in the Source dialogue but is made explicit through an image (an icon) on screen. For instance, an utterance like "Look at that" in a situation where the speaker points to a "haggis", a typical Scottish sausage-like pudding (Chaume 2012, p. 110). Here the icon "haggis" on screen can be understood as substituting for the elided or implicit word "haggis". In this sense, Chaume calls this situation of interaction between the iconographic code and the linguistic code "semiotic substitution" (2004: 234-6). If the translator thinks that this image of the "haggis" has to be verbalized for Target spectators to fully understand the situation, s/he may translate "Mira ese haggis" [Look at that haggis] (with the techniques of borrowing and amplification), o "Mira esa morcilla" [Look at that sausage] or "Mira ese bodín" (generalization and amplification).

Another example (Chaume 2004_ 235-7). In the film Pulp Fiction>, Mia says "You can get a steak here, daddy-o. Don't be a ..." and then the screen shows Mia drawing a square with her hands while dotted lines appear on screen forming a square. The meaning of this square can be interpreted as "Don't be boring/ dull/ conventional/...". This could also be explained as the image of the "dotted lines forming a square" being substituted for the predicative noun ("square") that is elided in the Source dialogue. If the translator judges that the image will not be understood by Target spectators, the translated dialogue could verbalize or make explicit the iconographic sign Mia draws, for instance, in "Aquí puedes comer carne, cabeza cuadrada" (Chaume 2004: 237). In this solution, instead of a translation of "daddy-o. Don't be a..." as "colega. No me seas...", the dubbed version could be said to substitute a six-syllable verbalization of the image ("cabeza cuadrada") for the six-syllable "daddy-o. Don't be a..." (Chaume 2004: 237).

Photographic codes

[...]

Mobility codes

[...]

Planning codes

[...]

Camera work: types of shot

Graphic codes

[...]


An example of a dubbing script [guió de doblatge / guion de doblaje]

------------------------------------------------------------------

"COOL HAND LUKE."

"LA LLEGENDA DEL INDOMABLE".

------------------------------------------------------------------

1 / 02.00

ORIGINAL (COMENÇAMENT PEL-LÍCULA: MÚSICA + CRÈDITS)

------------------------------------------------------------------

2 / 2.11

TITOL1 "Infracció" Fins 2.13

------------------------------------------------------------------

3 / 03.33

POLI1 SB) Què fa ací, amic?

LUKE 38)(BORRATXO) DE) Estava tallant... estos pals...

POLI1 SB) Ens haurà d'acompanyar.

LUKE R)

------------------------------------------------------------------

4 / 03.48

TITOL2 "La llegenda del indomable". Fins 52)

------------------------------------------------------------------

5 / 03.53

TITOL3 "Reduir velocitat. Obres." Fins 55)

------------------------------------------------------------------

6 / 04.03

DRAGLINE Permís per despullar-me, senyor!

KEAN 05) DE) Permís concedit, Dragline.

KOKO 14) Permís per mocar-me, senyor!

SHORTY 15) OFF) D'acord, Koko. Moca't.

GAMBLER 18) Permís per beure, senyor!

KEAN LL) Sí, Gambler! Podeu beure! Tu, Rabbit! Reparteix aigua!

SHORTY 34) OFF) Atenció! Permís per fumar!!

AMBIENT 36) OFF) Gràcies, senyor!!

------------------------------------------------------------------

7 / 04.38

ORIGINAL

------------------------------------------------------------------

8 / 04.53

KEAN Què mires, Society?

Dubbing symbols in Spain

Symbols inserted in the dubbing script or final translation, indicating where the voice comes from and some paralinguistic signs


SUBTITLING

= "a translation practice that consists of rendering in writing, usually at the bottom of the screen, the translation into a target language of the original dialogue exchanges uttered by different speakers, as well as all other verbal information that appears written on-screen (letters, banners, inserts) or is transmitted aurally in the soundtrack (song lyrics, voices off)." (Díaz-Cintas 2020)

Subtitles are "expected to provide a semantically adequate account of the original dialogue" (Díaz-Cintas 2020)while complying with spatial and temporal specifications inherent to the medium.

An "account": not an integral translation, otherwise viewers are forced to read too much and to disregard the audiovisual elements. In some subtitled versions, up to 40% of the information is reduced.

ESIST: Code of Good Subtitling Practice

Technical aspects:

Spotting (timing, cueing) [pautat ; pautado]= determining the in and out times of subtitles, depending on space and time parameters (Díaz-Cintas and Remael 2007, p. 88)

determining when a subtitle must appear on screen (in-time), and when it must leave the screen (out-time) depending on limitations of space and time. In other words, dividing the original dialogue into units to be subtitled, taking into consideration both the length of each of the exchanges and the media limitations” and indicating “ the in and out times of each individual subtitle” (Díaz-Cintas and Remael 2007, p. 252)

Segmentation =

Relationship between oral Source Text (temporal) and written Target Text (spatial): time measured in seconds and frames (24 frames per second); space measured by typographical characters (including blank spaces)

"Six-second rule" : it takes six seconds to read two full subtitle lines. If each full line has 36 characters, and the subtitle 72 characters, then
-> 1 second = 12 characters
-> 2 frames = 1 character.

Thus, a speech of 2 seconds and 8 frames would require a subtitle made of 28 characters.

Linguistic aspects

Reduction characterizes subtitling : its is "the core strategy" in subtitling, whether it is a partical reduction or condensation, or a total reduction or omission (Díaz-Cintas 2020)

Relevance is key to the decision of what to condense or omit.

Linguistic features likely to be omitted:

Bibliography

For further bibliography, see this AVT section