Audiovisual translation: the subtle art of subtitling
Have you ever come across a freshly released episode of one of
your favourite TV series on the internet, with subtitles that had
been added by a community of fans, and spotted big mistakes
that made you think ''I could have come up with a better translation
for this''?
Well, hold your horses, because translating subtitles or creating
them from scratch is not as simple as it may look. Here are some of
the challenges that you may come across when translating subtitles.
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| The Tumblr page lessoustitresdelahonte.tumblr.com collects bad cases of translated subtitles. |
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First of all, where do you start from?
Your client may have provided you with either of the following:
- only the video,
- the video and the original script,
- or the video and a ''template'', i.e. the subtitle files, already
divided into segments and time-coded
The two first options will require you to create a subtitle file
yourself, and time-code it so that it fits the video perfectly. There
are many subtitle editing software you could use to help you.
Among
them, Subtitle Edit and Subtitle Workshop are two free and
open-source multilingual, user-friendly software.
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Specific guidelines and limits of subtitling.
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Screen limits.
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Subtitles on a screen must fit into a fixed space. This means your
translation cannot be too long, as it would then risk taking up too much
screen space or being cut off by the edge of the screen. You also
have to keep in mind that the size of the screen your viewer will use
may vary, as it could be a TV screen, a laptop, a tablet or a phone.
Generally speaking, you want to keep your translation short: usually,
you get specific guidelines and are only allowed 32 or 34 characters
on two lines, including spaces. Think about it: this is not a lot of
words. Just to give you an idea, the previous sentence is 43
characters long.
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Dialogue speed.
Another reason why you want to keep your translation short is that
you do not want a time lag between the line you are translating and
what is being said on screen. You also need to keep in mind that your
viewers will need to read your translation, so you have to make sure
that they will have time to do this before the actors on screen move
to the next line of dialogue.
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Register and style.
The same way you would be loyal to a text you are translating, you
have to keep close to the original script of the video you are
working on. Some tips you are already using when translating texts
can be adapted to the process of subtitling: for instance, it is
advisable to read the whole text you aim to translate before starting
your work – similarly, it can be a good idea to watch the whole
video you are working on before beginning to translate. You should
always exactly convey the message as it appears in your video, so it
is important that you use the language register which suits the
situation.
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Different genres, different needs.
According to a professional subtitle translator, here are the average
number of subtitles per 10 minutes of video for various genres:
- Drama: 100
- Documentary: 150
- Comedy: 160
- Stand-up: 165
- Reality TV: 175
The most time-consuming genres are documentary, as it requires
additional research due to a more complex terminology, and comedy and
stand-up, because you will need to find humourous equivalents to the
puns and jokes used.
- Career prospects?
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| An example of the type of questions used in the test. |
In March 2017, Netflix launched a program called Hermes, an online subtitling and translation test which aimed to finding ''the best translators across the globe'' to translate their programs into more than 20 languages.
This 90-minute-long test consisted in
multiple-choice questions assessing the candidate's understanding of
English, command of idiomatic phrases and ability to spot and avoid
mistakes.
Due to the popularity of Netflix, the platform received
thousands of applications in weeks and Hermes is now closed.
Ever
since, some people have criticised the test, saying that a
multiple-choice questionnaire was not enough to evaluate all the subtlety
of translation, and have questioned the fact that Netflix contracts
are paid per minute – not per minute of work but for minute of
video, so translating a short, complex documentary would make you
earn you less money than translating a long animated film with fewer lines of dialogue.
Back in 2012, Youtube also developed its own online subtitle editing
service, allowing every viewer to transcript or translate videos
directly on the platform. However, this is often done by communities of
fans for free, as they want to help their favourite Youtuber reach a
larger audience.
Since the cost of dubbing is far more expensive than subtitling, and
there is a growing popular demand for films or series in their
original version, subtitling could offer interesting prospects in the
future, notably with the growth of online streaming services such as
Netflix or Amazon Prime Video.
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Sources.
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www.slate.fr/story/169668/netflix-sous-titrage-traduction-recrutement-remuneration
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www.proz.com/forum/subtitling/303530-tips_for_translating_subtitles_more_efficiently.html
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medium.com/netflix-techblog/the-netflix-hermes-test-quality-subtitling-at-scale-dccea2682aef
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thenextweb.com/apps/2017/03/31/netflix-wants-to-pay-you-to-translate-subtitles/
.
translateplus.com/blog/subtitling-services-five-challenges-youll-come-across-translating-subtitles/
.
www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/futuremedia/accessibility/subtitling_guides/online_sub_editorial_guidelines_vs1_1.pdf
Have you ever worked with subtitles
before, or is it something that may interest you?
Please
leave your thoughts and
comments below!
Liselotte Sorli.
It can be the perfect job to translate the subtitles of your favorite shows/series! I can't see any negative aspects except maybe having to watch a scene you don't like over and over until you find the perfect subtitles! Do you know if they usually pay the translator by the number of words or by the number of segments? Emmanuelle D.
RépondreSupprimerHi Emmanuelle, I agree with you! Especially because you can get a chance to know what's going to happen before everyone else hahaha! I actually think they usually pay the translation per minute of video. Thanks for your comment!
Supprimer--
Liselotte S.
What a cool, interesting article, Liselotte! It was very thorough and well explained.
RépondreSupprimerBy the way you speak of it, it sounds like you're an expert in the subject, or that you've at least had some experience in dabbling in it. Is it the case?
I also saw about the Netflix campaign. I wanted to take the test myself, but I didn't get around to doing it/I forgot haha. Did you take it, or would you take it if the opportunity came around again?
- Pam V.
Hi Pam, thank you so much! It is not actually haha, but I feel like it is something I may enjoy doing. And I didn't actually learn about the Netflix campaign before I started doing some research to write this article, so I didn't take the test. Maybe I would if I could yes, just out of curiosity haha!
Supprimer--
Liselotte S.
Nice article, good job Liselotte!
RépondreSupprimerI have always had a keen interest in audiovisual translation, but I never would have thought that subtitling could be so complex, thank you for enlightening me.
Although I wondered, does it mean that in some cases, translators are forced to type in subtitles that are not 100% accurate, outright incorrect even? Because of all the restrictions?
Hello Rémi, thank you so much! True, there are quite a lot of conventions surrounding subtitling. And I don't think they ever use inaccurate translations, but they probably have to adapt them until they fit the restrictions, which they wouldn't have to do if they were just translating a classic type of document. In a sense it limits creativity, especially since subtitles have to be very short.
Supprimer--
Liselotte S.
Thank you for your article Liselotte !
RépondreSupprimerI used to use Subtitle Workshop and I learnt all the basics with it! I find this part of translation fascinating !
I heard about the Hermes test, but I wasn't sure what to think about it, is it okay to let non-professional people do the translations?
I've never thought about helping to translate Youtube videos, have you ever done it? If yes, was it a nice experience?
~ Laura R.
Hello Laura, thank you for your comment!
SupprimerOhh that's so nice, so you enjoyed it?
And I agree with you, there's a technical part to translation that is not as instinctive as we may think, so it would make sense to argue that you need to study it in order to produce good translations. I believe other articles from this blog mentioned the same "native speaker vs professional translator" debate. It is not an easy one!
I did it once or twice, yes, but it is quite a hard, time-consuming work, that is not really rewarding if I'm being honest. You can never be sure your translation will help anyone, and you don't really receive any recognition for it. And it's really based on your will to do it, no one will check after it (unless someone specifically asked you to do it), so no one will say or even notice anything if you drop everything in the middle of the process either. Sure, you can have your username in the description box but, well, is it really worth it? Maybe if you're a really big fan of a Youtuber and want to help them expand their audience. But I think translating short films that are uploaded to Youtube would probably be more interesting than translating lifestyle/humorous videos, which was what I did.
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Liselotte S.