Subtitling: A Real Art

When we talk about what Subtitling is, we can say inby sentence. As subtitling doesn't just mean to
simple words that it is a printed translation. Whichtranslate the dialogue, thus other meaningful language
surely is true, but what if we take it as an art. You'llin films such as signs, letters, captions and other
not agree with me on the first place. When givenwritten words are also an important area needed to
some deep thoughts to it, nobody can deny thebe considered upon. When a film has lots of written
importance and skills required to be a subtitler.language and dialogue happening together, this can
On a simple note subtitling is one of the severalresult in some very difficult choices for the
processes commonly used in the translation ofsubtitler.The subtitler may or may not have access
audio-visual products. It can be in the form ofto a written transcript of the dialog. Especially in
captions or simple subtitles shown at the bottom oncommercial subtitles, the subtitler often interprets
the screen.what is meant, rather than translating how it is said,
Subtitling is much cheaper than dubbing, and it takesi.e. meaning being more important than form. The
less time, so it is common in smaller countries forsubtitler does this when the dialog must be
which the audience is too small to justify dubbing oncondensed in order to achieve an acceptable reading
a large scale.speed.
Now lets discuss it further.The subtitler's task is already difficult because
From a linguistic point of view, subtitling can besubtitles are so limited in space (about 37 characters
divided into two types: a) Intralingual subtitling, alsoper line, and a maximum of two lines) and time
known as captioning, which is primarily aimed at the(subtitles should not stay on the screen longer than
deaf and hard of hearing, but also extremely usefulsix seconds). The result is that the content of the
for people learning a foreign language; b) Interlingualdialogue has to be cut down to fit in the subtitles.
subtitling, the spoken/written message of the originalNot only that, but the content has to be translated,
product which is translated into the language of theand the subtitles also have to be ‘spotted' or
target audience. From technical point of view it cantimed carefully to match the dialogue.
again be of two type: a) Open Subtitling, whichThe basic aim of any translation is to reformulate a
refers to subtitles that appear permanently on screensource language message in a given target language,
and cannot be ‘switched off' by the viewer; b)avoiding at all costs any misunderstandings in the
Closed subtitles, which the viewer can choose to seeprocess. In other translation practices mistakes can
or not.easily pass unnoticed, but this is rarely the case in a
Translation of subtitling is sometimes very differentmode of translation as uniquely vulnerable as
from the translation of written text. Usually, when asubtitling. Hence it will no be incorrect to project
film or a TV program is subtitled, the subtitlersubtitling as another real art form of contemporary
watches the picture and listens to the audio sentencetime.