An attempt to learn more about audiovisual translation, TIL has teamed with the Italian women based start-up Associazione Restart.
What is AVT?
There are different types of Audiovisual Translation (AVT, which is the translation of audiovisual and multimedia products) such as subtitling and adaptation for dubbing.
– Dialogue Adaptation for dubbing:
Broadly speaking, dialogue adaptation is one of the techniques that enable us to “translate a movie”. Dialogue adaptation consists in creating a script in the language we are translating into, which will later be used by actors during the dubbing phase. You can adapt an audiovisual product in lip-sync (commonly used in the dialogue adaptation of movies, TV series, soap operas and short movies) or in simil-sync (commonly used in the dialogue adaptation of reality TV, docu-style series and entertainment products). The main differences between the two are that, while lip-sync needs synchronisation of lip movements, gestures and speech rhythm, in simil-sync-adapted products, the original audio can still be heard, albeit very low, under the dubbed dialogue; moreover, the latter does not require lip sync synchronisation but pauses and rhythm have to be respected. Usually, the original dialogues are characterised by spontaneity, abundance of repetitions, false starts, etc. Not to forget there’s also a third dialogue adaptation technique, known as voice over,that is usually used in the adaptation of documentaries, TV advertisements and video presentations. It is characterised by a linear and well-structured narration, similar to the one used in a written text; the narrating voice overlaps the video.
– Subtitling:
In this audiovisual translation technique one or more lines of text from onscreen dialogues are displayed at the bottom of the screen. Subtitling can be either interlinguistic, meaning that the language of the subtitles is different from the one used in the original product, or intralinguistic, meaning that the subtitles are written in the same language as the original product. One type of intralinguistic subtitling is Subtitling for the Deaf/Hard-of-hearing (also known as SDH) because it can be used in any audiovisual product in order to make the dialogue clear and understandable even with no sound. Unlike standard subtitling,SDHrequires a range of different techniques such as the use of symbols and sometimes even colours in order to set the characters apart or to clarify where a voice comes from. This kind of accessible subtitling also requires the indication of every other sound and/or noise that is key to the comprehension of its context.
Subtitling can help you reach a broader audience in different ways: interlinguistic subtitling enables people of different countries to understand the same product and interlinguistic subtitling makes the product more accessible for everyone and understandable even with no sound on. That is why, subtitling is commonly used both in videos and advertisements published on social media platforms and as a teaching tool, in particular in foreign language teaching.
– Audio Description:
Audiovisual and multimedia products can also be audio described as to allow people with blindness and individuals with visual impairments to enjoy it. Audio description consists in describing the key visual elements that help the audience gain a better understanding of the movie/audiovisual product and of what is happening on screen, e.g., places, movements, physical features of the characters, clothes and so on. These descriptions are placed into already-present pauses in a film/audiovisual product, hence respecting the audible dialogues.
