4. Typical Settings Books Press Releases News Articles Digital Content (Internet) Magazines/ Journals TV and Radio Programs Movies
5. Some other special settings you might not think of… Corporate Communications (interpret over the phone/ video conference) Brochures and Other Marketing Materials Multimedia Presentations
6. Skopos of Media Translation Review. Anybody knows what are the skopos/purposes of media translation? We just mentioned it on previous two pages. Time-sensitive Express the exact emotions that the author wants to express Accuracy
7. Skopos of Movie subtitle translation For people who do not speak the source language. To reduce the culture barrier and help the audience appreciate the movie better. To entertain the audience while keeping the integrity. To convey the emotion of speaker as much as possible while keeping the genuine meaning. To help people get the information which cannot be received 100% correctly by hearing. For instance, places, organizations, dates and other terminology. http://www.51lunwen.org/literatureother/org200909080824267651.html
8. Genres and Linguistic Features Written to be Spoken Everydaylanguage,sometimesgrammaticallywrong. Colloquial: Slangs and idioms Sub-cultural languages Dialects Localcharacteristics; Auckland westie, Taiwanese Accents Swearing
9. Genres and Linguistic Features Show speaker’s emotion: the purpose of a movie is to make the audience feel the same way as the characters. Emotional Poetic Entertaining http://www.euroconferences.info/proceedings/2006_Proceedings/2006_Ramos_Pinto_Sara.pdf
10. Terminology Stunt performer Stunt co-ordinator Special Effects Supervisor Special Makeup Effects 3D animation Director Assistant director Producer Screenplay Writer Sound effects editor Sound mixer Sound recorder Set-Top Box (STB) Sound Crew Sound designer Sabre Artist Scenic artist Makeup Artist Set Decorator Set Designer 替身演員 音效編輯師 混音員 特技指導 錄音員 特效指導 現場收音 音效組員 特殊化妝 音效設計 3D動畫 電腦特效 導演 現場美術指導 副導 化妝師 製片 場務指導 編劇 場景設計 http://www.partycp8.com.au/index.php?aid=96&print=1
12. Featuresof terminology Combination of two to three words With limited space, it is essential to make the translation short and understandable. Ex: Sound effects editor 音效編輯師 Job titles in movie industry Most of the terminology are related to the jobs in movie industry. High similarity Translator must have some basic knowledge about the different job content between two similar terminology. Ex: Sound mixer 混音員/Sound recorder 錄音員
13. Translator’s Competence Translating subtitles is not like translating other genres of text. There are three things we need to keep in mind: Space Limitation two lines from 30 to 35 characters each only 13 to 14 per line for Chinese characters Exposure Time 6 to 8 seconds is the optimum exposuretime for a two-line subtitle and 4 seconds for a one-line subtitle Synchrony with Image if a subtitle is retained on screen during a shot or scenechange, it will result in an effect known as “overlapping”.
14. Essential Competence Ability to edit the length of text according to the timing of one shot Ability to convey the speaking tone through written words Understanding of target culture Understanding of different accents Familiarity of slangs and idioms of both languages Sense of humor
15. Essential Competency The Ability of Saving spaceThe purpose is to help the audience absorb more information in a short time, so they will have more time to appreciate the film.The main principle is that it should not be confusing. So what can we save?
16. Punctuations 1. Savecommas or periods when they don’t influence the tone. Keep punctuations which help the audience understand the speaker’s emotion better.For example: Question mark (shows doubt) U home? 你在家？ Exclamation mark (shows anger, surprise, pity) What a shame! 好可惜！ Ellipses (shows silence, hesitation, feeling like to say something) I am still thinking… 我還在想…
17. Numbers 2. Numbers Use Arabic numbers instead of Chinese characters Ex: 2475640 instead of 二四七五六四零 Use Chinese character together with Arabic number. For example:“3,500億”is much shorter than“350,000,000,000” Avoid confusion. Ex:“於97年後回來“ should be”於1997年後回來”
18. Pronoun and Auxiliary 3. Eliminate pronouns and auxiliary words. Could you lend me your car tomorrow?“你明天可以借我你的車嗎?”can be“明天可以借我車嗎？” (Do you) Want a drink? 要喝東西嗎? However, if the auxiliary words help the audience understand speaker’s emotion, it cannot be eliminate. For example：Kill me, come on!“殺我吧，殺呀！” should not be"來，殺我"
19. Abbreviation 4. Use abbreviation Well-known organizations. For examples: FBI, KGB, UN, EU, WTO When the abbreviations are eaiser to be understand than ChineseVCD(錄像光碟)、IBM(國際商業機器), ATM (自動提款機) A special character or terminology in the film should not be translated. For example: ET外星人
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21. Understanding of target culture Understanding of target culture Cultural difference: “你長得跟劉德華一樣帥" can be"You are as good-looking as Tom Cruise“ Terminology：Disney 譯為 “迪斯尼”(中國內地)、迪士尼(香港)、狄士尼(台灣) Colloquial words: police警察/差人/公安If the target audience are mainly local people, it is okay to translated more locally acceptable. It sometimes brings out more effects if you do so. For example:"Cop. Freeze!“ ="我係差人，咪郁！" (Hong Kong) or"我是警察，別動！" (consider about overseas Chinese)
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24. Sense of humor 楊世人的喜劇 楊恆人(翻開書): “To be or not to be, that is a question…” 楊母(站起):什麼吐皮不吐皮的,能吃的都應該吃下去!糟蹋了糧食可是罪過！ What is “to peel or not to peel”? Any food which is edible should be eaten! It is a sin to waste food!
25. Convey the Speaking Tone Ability to convey the speaking tone through written words This ability requires a combination of all above mentioned skills. A good subtitle translator must know use the right skill to make the best decision. When I was young and crazy…译为“当我还是愤青的时候……”。 Kill me, come on!“殺我吧，殺呀！” should not be"來，殺我"
26. Ethical dilemmas Confidentiality Do not disclose the movie in advance, even he or she is your best friend. Impartiality No personal opinions allowed even if the translator has a different point of view. Accuracy and Punctuality Punctuality is really important since the Cultural differences dealing with offensive words Sensitive topics political views, censorships
27. Movie Translation Market Overview The market for movie translation issegmented into : Captioning (subtitling) dubbing( voice over )
28. Translator in Subtitling Market Translators identify a market for subtitling, a market for multilingual website video development, etc. which obviously require specialized skills that are often more highly valued than standard translation skills. Whenever the translator can call him self a sub-titler, a videogame localizer or a dubbing author, things get better, both from the point of view of self-esteem and from the financial point of view .
29. Role of Movie Subtitle Translators Transnational media and their role in facilitating, or encouraging, intercultural understanding; The translator / interpreter as cultural broker in a transnational world;
30. Role of Subtitle Translators The role of the translator involves maintaining the coherence of the communication between the addressees on the screen, while at the same time, seek to address the target audience. Translator as facilitator: translators help the audience understand the plots by taking corresponding translation decisions and choosing the right words.
31. Thetrendof media translation market :Significant examples in subtitle movie market New Trend: Recognizing the potential of global communication powered by the Internet, some new tool and browser turn out to meet the changing market. Examples : “dotSUB” dotSUB is a browser based tool enabling subtitling of videos on the web into and from any language. the founders of dotSUB created a web-based tool that enables video to be accessed in an open, collaborative, "wiki" type environment. The dotSUB tool gives anyone the ability to translate video content into multiple languages via subtitles rendered over the bottom of the video.
32. Effect of dotSUB It aims to engage the power, methodologies and thinking of open source, wikipedia, social networking, creative commons and web2.0 user involvement to substantially remove language and cost as a barrier to cross-cultural communication using video. NowdotSUB is integrating its functionality with businesses and organizations in all fields - for anyone using video as an internal or external communication tool. dotSUB is creating the ability and global network to re-purpose this content into all of the world's languages. http://dotsub.com/view/1a10c452-f152-465a-86e8-ea1b593903f7
33. Other significant figure: TED TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started in 1984 as aconference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then, its scope has broadened to include science, business, the arts, and the global issues facing our world. The diverse audience – CEOs, scientists, creatives, and philanthropists – is as remarkable as the speakers, who have included Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, ect. http://blog.allsubs.org/2009/09/
34. Other Significant Figures The TED Open Translation Project brings TEDTalks beyond the English-speaking world by offering subtitles, interactive transcripts and the ability for any talk to be translated by volunteers worldwide. it launched the project with more than 250 translations, 50 languages and 100 volunteer translators. It's an ambitious project (generously supported by our sponsor Nokia) that radically enhances the accessibility of the talks -- for the hearing-impaired, for whose who speak English as a second language, for search engines (which can now index the full transcript of a talk), and of course for the vast audience of non-English speakers worldwide.
35. The process of Adding Subtitle First find a video that you want to add captions to or translate. Then go to "Captions and Subtitles" at the top; You can do this one way by using “MediaSubtitler”,or sign up for a free account at www.dotsub.com; Select the video and under the translate and transcribe options, click "Transcribe Video”, and clicked save to upload it. Scroll down to the bottom and select "Mark this transcription complete" and click OK
36. The process of adding Subtitle Now wheneveryou play the video it is going to have the subtitlesplaying right along with it. Now if you look under the transcribe options, it gives you the option to transcribe it into other languages as well.
37. Subtitle Resources links dotSUB website http://dotsub.com/tutorials.jsp Online discussion http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/03/subtitle_scandal_who_dumbed_do.html Subtitle Scandal! Who Dumbed Down Let the Right One In%3F -- Vulture.html Media translation online books http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=3rJwhoBsRJ4C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=&f=false
