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[Music]
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every film is a foreign film foreign to
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some audience somewhere around the world
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it is through subtitles in a film that
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an audience can experience different
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languages and
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culture and behind every foreign film
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that brings a culture to a viewer is a
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subtitler and there is this saying that
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a good film a good subtitled film is a
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film that you do not remember that it
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had subtitles so this is really the Opex
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of invisibility intertitles between
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scenes were used during the silent film
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era and those were the first form of
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subtitles engraved or burnt on a film
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print Cinema was usually a form of
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entertainment also for the illiterate in
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the society and there would be a
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translator in the cinema Hall who would
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entertain Their audience by telling them
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what is written on the screen today
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subtitles are projected on a film print
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through modern technology and software
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now electronic subtitles are supposed to
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laser subtitles which are just one uh
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copy with subtitles with uh electronic
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subtitles we've got two copies two
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working copies one one copy is the film
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and the other copy is the subtitles and
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the subtitles are projected onto the
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film they're not an integral part but
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they are projected onto the film so that
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uh we're not really interfering with the
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images the risks obviously is that there
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may be a lack of synchrony between the
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subtitles and the actual images
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depending on how you are projecting them
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although technology again has improved
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vastly so very often uh when the film
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finishes you don't get a name credited
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sometimes if you're lucky you get the
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company credited uh but not the name of
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the subtitler that is very rare indeed
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and it is very rare indeed to see it on
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the DVD actually you never see it on the
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DVD although V subtitler is such an
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important mediator uh when you want to
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watch a film a foreign film um
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unfortunately a lot of people don't
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appreciate how difficult it is to
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translate many people think oh you know
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two languages you can translate that or
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how many you know many friends of mine
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are even family U might come to me and
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say oh I have this small two pages text
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can you translate it in one hour I'm
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like no you know for free or people
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think it's just a a matter of speaking
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to languages but if you stop and try to
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translate something you'll see that
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there's a lot you need to well if you if
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you want to produce something good and
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there's a lot to be taken into account
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uh the first time I was in front of uh
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subtitle unit as they were called at the
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time uh it was this very convoluted
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environment where we had a TV set where
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you could watch uh the images then you
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would also have a VHS player so that you
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could play the material that you have
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received that will then be connected to
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a computer which you might have a very
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sort of arch and uh limited subing
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program uh and then uh you would also
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have uh stopwatch so that you could then
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do your technical uh waste in time in
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and time out so you can imagine the
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subjectivity and the alertness of the
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person very important technical aspect
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of subtitles is respecting shot changes
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and shot changes are in a film you have
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for example you have a scene of you have
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me talking here and then it might be
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that they're going to cut the scene and
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go to to the subtitle it might even be
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that I'm still the one talking but uh
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they're going to show a different scene
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and you don't want the subtitles to go
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over that unless they stay for quite a
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while on the screen otherwise it's just
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another information that needs to be
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processed by the brain very quickly to
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be aware of when the subtitle needs to
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appear on screen and when it needs to
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disappear from the screen
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it normally appears exactly when the
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voice of the actor starts being heard
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starts being psychologically perceived
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that's exactly when my subtitle should
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appear as if it is answering the
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unconscious question what is the actor
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saying and then the subtitle comes
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immediately as the answer this is what
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the actor is saying and then it
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disappears normally a bit after the
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utterance finishes I was lucky enough um
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to uh be put in contact with the
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director of the film which is extremely
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rare I would like to point out nowadays
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because the way the industry works is
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usually that you have sub Tien company
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or production company and they
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subcontracted to maybe another company
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and so you're often at the end of a very
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long chain and it would be completely
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unheard of um to to actually talk to the
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film maker
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first big impact in the industry came
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out of out with the Advent of the DVD uh
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the DVD was a big change uh technically
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but also in terms of distribution uh for
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the first time ever you could have uh uh
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in one single product you could have the
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original uh plus several languages plus
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even if you wanted adopt version of that
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program as well and that's one that's
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when subtitling became a sort of mass
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production activity you really need to
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think about which type of work words are
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being uh distributed where so if it's uh
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conjunctions like because
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or uh and they should be in the second
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line or in the next subtitle so lots of
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things like that which are the rules of
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of subtitling
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[Music]
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[Music]
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in India film songs are now screened
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with subtitles on national television
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channels this step is taken by the
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government to eradicate illiteracy and
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to encourage people to read and enjoy
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their favorite
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music is if you think of older black and
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white films when there is someone
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reading a letter for instance and then
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you hear the voice of the person who
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wrote The Letter being heard as the
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person silently looks at the letter that
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has to be in italics as well because it
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denotes that the um Voice is coming from
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elsewhere
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while the most emotional experience was
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the first time that I ever saw sdh being
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projected in Greece um and it was for
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the theater of the deaf in Athens where
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they were um projecting a film for the
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audience and it was the first time I saw
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s on screen and I just started crying
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[Music]
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so if you think of how much money and
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how much energy goes in the into the
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making of a film um months work m a lots
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of money from the script the set
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everything octos in order to make an
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audio visual material um and if you
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think that all of this effort all of
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this sensitivity into very fine points
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into you know fine-tuning the film so
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that you're happy with the final result
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all this can be destroyed from a bad day
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of subtitling for instance that is a
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very important thing to bear in mind um
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jokes humor this is really difficult to
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trans because sometimes the joke just
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won't work in your language so you
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either need to create a new joke out of
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the joke which sometimes is impossible
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or just miss the joke completely and
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just uh uh subtitle without the joke and
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many people who understand the language
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so say if it's English they will
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understand the joke and know that the
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subtitle doesn't have the joke and get
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quite annoyed but it's just very
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difficult in Brazil the audience
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audience can complain to authorities if
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they notice bad subtitling in a film to
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compensate that subtitling error the
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authorities usually send a compliment
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DVD to the one who has made the
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complaint in China sexual references in
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the film would be written in the form of
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subtitles but with references to food
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for example if there is a dialogue stop
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touching my butt it would be translated
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as stop touching my to
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it's very rarely that one would see the
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name of the subtitler at the end of a
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film if you buy a DVD you probably
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wouldn't never find out who was the
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subtitler or the translator of that film
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whereas in other areas for instance uh
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literature uh it has improved
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dramatically and many translators will
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have their name if not on the front page
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very close and very prominently uh
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advertised an audience can't enjoy a
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film that is foreign to them it is
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subtitles is who will their creative
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skills bring those films to us but in
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this process they are thriving to
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survive in this globalized business of
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the film
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industry up to more or less
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2202 these big um DVD authoring
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companies or media companies they would
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find their subtitles locally in very
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Cosmopolitan Place London where many
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talented skilled people come and we
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would offer our services to these
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companies and the rates were very good
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at the time uh um but what happened is
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this globalized business was
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restructured
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centralized and then we subtitlers were
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simply outsourced that means that uh the
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companies would at that time and also
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with the help of Technology sent films
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and I would say pre-timed subtitled
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subtitled files in English called
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template files or Master files they
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would send them abroad and they and
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subtitlers from all over the world would
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subtitle uh would send their translated
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version back to the center in order to
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streamline uh the the the process of
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producing subtitles uh the technical
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Dimension was taken away from subtitlers
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and it was done became to be done by uh
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professionals uh that only know how the
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technicality of the software of the
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subtitling software and then the
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translation was left to this sub to the
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subtitlers or the linguists uh breaking
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the job in such a way many people were
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very upset because they they were they
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would much prefer to work the whole
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thing from the very beginning to the end
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themselves doing the technical Dimension
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and also the linguistic Dimension but
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once the technical Dimension is taken
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away from the translator the industry
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had an excuse to lower rates and claim
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that they weren't doing as much work as
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they were doing uh and then the rates
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needed to be a
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[Music]
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lower the rates would be in in this
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particular company would be per thousand
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words uh in my particular language um
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combination they were paying 90 per
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th000 Words which was a very good rate
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um eventually this rates became as low
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as uh 50 pound per thousand words and
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and after that um even worse when when
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the rates were done by minute per minute
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program um it was the equivalent of 30
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or 25 per thousand words really uh so
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you can see how how much the cuts um
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affected people and and their
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professions
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unfortunately many of the production
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even production companies or
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Distributors they they don't really care
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about that stage they just want
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something cheap and quick so even though
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they spent two years three years
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producing a film they want the
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translator to do it in two days so they
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they don't want to give any information
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about you you know the film they might
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have uh for example a glossery for the
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um for the actors to know you know if
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it's
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a
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uh a war film for example there might be
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words from the time that they were using
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and they might you know they could pass
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this on to the translator to help I'm
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sure they they did a lot of studies to
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create all that for the film but what
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they do is they just give the their film
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to to company and they want it done in
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three days in two days it's
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so it's really
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difficult an organization was formed in
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London called subtle where subtitlers
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would meet regularly and talk about the
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issues affecting
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them you know the quality of our work is
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is is is being lost um so you know
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subtle was born also with the idea of
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campaigning of of finding a way to
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regulate the profession eventually um
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and and to create like you know in back
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to in the union for U uh filmmakers you
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you can see that all the different uh
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professions are taken care of we don't
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have that we we are alone basically um
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with our own resources and being bullied
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by Studios big studios what we have uh
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so far far achieved the satle is um that
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we um really links up the uh not only
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other members in the country but also
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other associations in uh in other
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European countries and uh a European um
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Association has been founded last year
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so we really trying to to work together
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the other associations on a European
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level which I think is very important I
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believe that most sub titlers do not
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gain the recognition they should in
00:17:02
their profession because they are the
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invisible part of a movie the invisible
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part of um anything projected on TV or
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in the cinema or at the theater um I
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think that in my case because um I
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mostly work in the field of
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accessibility and making things
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accessible through subtitling and audio
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description uh the the the role of the
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the subtitler is much more important and
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more recognized
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by the audience because they see
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subtitlers as the medium for
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communication in general they see them
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as the medium that will give them the
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information that they cannot hear so
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they are well respected and they are
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recognized for what they do and people
00:17:48
are grateful about that it was It was
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supposed to be a whole series uh I got
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the first two episodes I worked on them
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and I got the positive feedbacks okay I
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got the go ahead had to continue working
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on this project but before uh right
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before I was supposed to start they
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asked me to work for uh 40% less of the
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rate I had translated the other two so I
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said no and I said I'm sorry uh I can't
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work for for you anymore on this uh for
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this rate and I thought okay uh I was
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really upset but uh there there was
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nothing else I could do and I thought
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okay I've lost a
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client uh then now I'll have to replace
00:18:29
this client but to my big astonishment
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and also um
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satisfaction um a couple of months later
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this client came back to me without any
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explanation and offer me a job for my
00:18:43
rate so I hope that it this means that
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either they weren't able to find people
00:18:51
who would work for the rate they were
00:18:52
proposing or they were unhappy of the
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quality
00:19:04
[Music]
00:19:06
subtit companies um offer European
00:19:10
subtitles to go to places like Indonesia
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or India um so low pay countries to work
00:19:18
there for a year or two uh for the local
00:19:21
fees uh which is incredible um but it is
00:19:25
really happening and um the third thing
00:19:28
is that they there are always people who
00:19:30
may be St to the profession who are
00:19:32
ready to to do that and um this is a big
00:19:35
issue in the in the industry I
00:19:38
personally think that the mistake that
00:19:40
companies made was that they didn't
00:19:42
invest on quality they only invested on
00:19:46
making these profit margins uh bigger
00:19:49
that means they didn't look for
00:19:50
qualified skilled subtitlers when they
00:19:53
outsourced their work abroad they looked
00:19:55
for people who would simply charge uh um
00:19:59
lower rates and that really had an
00:20:02
impact on quality I know this as someone
00:20:06
who Pro Freeds work that comes from
00:20:09
outsourced translations back to me and
00:20:13
obviously there are a lot of mistakes
00:20:16
now we've also seen a move uh to uh have
00:20:20
a lot of subtitling being done in other
00:20:22
countries particularly in places like
00:20:24
Bangalore in in India where uh there um
00:20:29
emergent uh trend of having companies
00:20:32
dealing with subtitling uh into sort of
00:20:35
languages not just Indian languages but
00:20:37
any language from the world these are
00:20:38
remember multinationals and they are
00:20:40
deating there to drive costs low and to
00:20:46
um you know to still carry on producing
00:20:48
the service that they've been doing so
00:20:50
far
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[Music]
00:21:01
[Music]
00:21:08
[Music]
00:21:10
various ways of developing as a
00:21:13
subtitler I would say from personal
00:21:15
experience one that one should become
00:21:18
should aim to become generally a
00:21:20
language specialist rather than just a
00:21:24
subtitler I think the best way to
00:21:26
inspire someone to get into their
00:21:28
profession
00:21:29
and taking it from the point of view of
00:21:31
accessibility would be to take them to a
00:21:34
place where uh a film would be projected
00:21:37
with subtitling for the death and audio
00:21:40
description for the blinds so that they
00:21:42
could see the reaction of the audience
00:21:44
and this is the only thing that could
00:21:47
keep you uh very enthusiastic about your
00:21:52
job subtitled films have always been a
00:21:56
part of film history but sub titlers
00:21:59
themselves who bring these films to us
00:22:01
for our entertainment today are being
00:22:04
marginalized in the film industry
00:22:07
subtitlers are an invisible feature of a
00:22:10
foreign film and that's how exactly they
00:22:13
are being treated in this globalized
00:22:15
business of the film industry making
00:22:18
them look as invisible as possible
