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5TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION

UNIVERSITY OF WARSAW

18-20 SEPTEMBER 2019

INSTITUTE OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS, UNIVERSITY OF WARSAW

DOBRA 55, 00-312 WARSAW

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Table of Contents

Programme ............................................................................................................................................................ 4

Sponsors .............................................................................................................................................................. 13

Partners ............................................................................................................................................................... 16

Plenary Speakers .................................................................................................................................................. 17

O'Sullivan Carol “Why write the history of audiovisual translation?” ................................................................... 17

Kruger Jan-Louis “Looking into the minds of AVT audiences: The past, present and future of experimental research on the reception and processing of AVT products” ............................................................................... 18

Abstracts .............................................................................................................................................................. 20

Abraitienė Lina “Text reduction techniques in theatre translation: a case study of surtitles for LA TRAVIATA” ... 21

Aleksandrowicz Paweł “Can subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing convey the emotions of film music? A reception study.” ................................................................................................................................................. 22

Arnáiz-Uzquiza Verónica, Oncins Estella “Accessibility revisited: New platforms, new needs, new practices?” ... 23

Astrauskienė Jurgita “Some of us can speak King’s English, others speak Jive. The Rendering of Sociolinguistic Variation in Subtitles.” ......................................................................................................................................... 24

Benecke Bernd “Make it funnier! The influence of the narrator in the AD of comedy and slapstick“ ................... 25

Bernabé Rocío, Orero Pilar, García Muñoz Óscar, Oncins Estella “360º: creation of easy-to-understand subtitles” ............................................................................................................................................................................. 26

Bernabé Rocío “Easy-to-understand access services: new taxonomy and developments” ................................... 27

Bogucki Łukasz “Revisiting Relevance: Decision-Making in Subtitling” ................................................................. 29

Borshchevsky Ivan, Kozulyaev Alexey “Unknown Forerunners of Audio Description” .......................................... 30

Dawson Hayley “A course in interlingual respeaking: results and reflections” ..................................................... 31

Flis Gabriela, Sikorski Adam, Szarkowska Agnieszka “Where do people look when watching voiced-over films? An eye-tracking study on the dubbing effect.” .......................................................................................................... 32

Fryer Louise “Getting in early: The role of access in the rehearsal room” ............................................................. 33

Giordano Valeria “u-AVT: Success or Failure in an On-Line Ubiquitous Environment for Learning Audiovisual Translation” ......................................................................................................................................................... 34

Intermedia. 5TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION

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González Meade Ana Gabriela “Then and Now: The Marriage of Audiovisual Translation History and Ever-Current Specialization Contributions to Field Quality” ...................................................................................................... 35

Greco Gian Maria “On the Need of Critical Learning Spaces in Media Accessibility Education and Training” ....... 36

Hasior Aleksandra “Audiovisual Translation Quality Assessment – the Case of Voice-over from a Practisearcher’s Perspective” ......................................................................................................................................................... 37

Hayes Lydia “The performance of audiovisual identities through accent: How to be Spanish in English?” ........... 38

Hutchinson Rachel, F. Eardley Alison “Making Memories: measuring the impact of AD facilitated experiences with Autobiographical Memory theory” .............................................................................................................. 39

Jankowska Anna “Why describers describe what they describe?” ....................................................................... 40

Kalata-Zawłocka Aleksandra, Szczygielska Monika “Sign language interpreting on TV in the eyes of Deaf viewers” ............................................................................................................................................................................. 41

Karantzi Ismini “Towards a multi-sensory approach in audio description (AD): A reception study” .................... 42

Kudła Dominik “Translating a video game – localization or AVT?” ....................................................................... 43

Künzli Alexander “Charting professional subtitling culture. A survey among subtitlers in three German-speaking countries.” ........................................................................................................................................................... 44

Leszczyńska Urszula, Szarkowska Agnieszka “I don't understand, but it makes me laugh. Domestication in contemporary Polish dubbing” ............................................................................................................................. 45

Liakou Evangelia “Linguistic suitability in AD: a word hunt” ................................................................................. 46

Magazzù Giulia “Transferring multilingual humour intralingually: the case of Big Night” .................................... 47

Mazur Iwona, Perego Elisa, Mangiron Carme “ADLAB PRO: Creation of audio description online training materials” ............................................................................................................................................................ 48

Mejías-Climent Laura “Accessibility from scratch: “inclusive scriptwriting” as an additional tool for making TV news more accessible to blind or visually impaired audiences ............................................................................ 49

Moores Zoe “Creativity, Diversity and Inclusion at Live Events Through the Lens of Respeaking” ....................... 50

Niedzviegiene Laura “Audio description of culture-specific items: the case study of the Lithuanian series Laisves Kaina. Disidentai” ................................................................................................................................................ 51

Ożarowska Aleksandra, Zelwerowicz Aleksander “Reading Assignments in Opera House: Operatic Surtitles and the Theory of Relevance” ..................................................................................................................................... 52

Pacinotti Ambra “Suggested guidelines for the description of churches as total works of art” ............................ 53

Pettit Zoë “Subtitling a South African television series to reach global audiences” .............................................. 54

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Phetcharat Anochao “Dubbing Wordplay in Children’s Programmes from English into Thai: The Case of Toy Story Films” ................................................................................................................................................................... 55

Plewa Elżbieta “Polish Subtitling in the 1930s” .................................................................................................... 56

Ramos Pinto Sara “More than Words: a reception study on the subtitling of nonverbal elements” ..................... 57

Reynolds Peter “How technology can improve AVT quality!” ............................................................................... 58

Reus Tim ”The Snowmen of Song Dubbing: Micro-Level Dubbing Strategies in the Song ‘Do you Want to Build a Snowman’ from Disney’s Frozen” ......................................................................................................................... 59

Rędzioch-Korkuz Anna “The Issue of Text Supremacy and Power: Surtitling Eugene Onegin for Polish Audiences” ............................................................................................................................................................................. 60

Rica-Peromingo Juan Pedro, Ángela Sáenz-Herrero “Audiovisual Translation in the era of the fake news: the case of mockumentaries” ............................................................................................................................................ 61

Romero-Fresco Pablo “Subtitling blindness and the global film” ......................................................................... 62

Romero-Fresco Pablo, Fresno Nazaret “Live subtitling in Europe and North America: different approaches, similar challenges”........................................................................................................................................................... 64

Satkauskaitė Danguolė ”Development of Film Dubbing in Lithuania: When, Who and How?” ............................. 66

Stagnaro Valentina “CAT tools and MTPE in Audiovisual translation: weapon or threat for AV translators?” ..... 67

Struk Tetyana, Struk Anastasiya “Inaccessible accessibility: the experience of implementing services that do not exist” .................................................................................................................................................................... 68

Szczygielska Monika, Dutka Łukasz ”Live subtitling, sign language interpreting and audio description in online streaming: Code of Good Practice in Accessible Live Streaming” ......................................................................... 69

Wells Vanessa “Even Jane Austen Needed an Editor” .......................................................................................... 70

Xavier Catarina “F*cks, sh*ts and ass*s: A study of the subtitling of taboo language within translation norms theory” ................................................................................................................................................................. 71


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Programme

Pre-conference workshops

18 September 2019, 9.00-17.00

8.30-9.00.00 - Registration in the foyer

Room 9.00 – 12.00 14.00 – 17.00

01.060

Level -1

FREE ILSA Project Multiplier event: Hands-on workshop on interlingual live subtitling with respeaking (English) with Pablo Romero-Fresco and Hayley Dawson

Translating films for voice-over (in POLISH) with Krzysztof Kowalczyk and Sylwester Misiorek

01.063

Level -1

FREE ILSA Project Multiplier event: Hands-on workshop on interlingual live subtitling with respeaking (Polish) day 1

with Łukasz Dutka and Monika Szczygielska

Making the most of your subtitling software (with EZTitles) with Agnieszka Walczak and Joanna Pietrulewicz

01.062

Level -1

Introduction to cloud subtitling (with OOONA) with Serenella Massidda

Introduction to eye tracking with Paulina Sauma (née Burczyńska)

(Room 00.096, ground floor)

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Free ILSA Project Multiplier Event

How to train live subtitlers?

18 September 2019, 14.00-18.00

Room 1.008/1.007, Floor 1

14.00-14.15

Opening and ILSA Project presentation Pablo Romero-Fresco (University of Vigo) & Agnieszka Szarkowska (University of Warsaw)

14.15-15.00

ILSA course on interlingual live subtitling Franz Pöchhacker (University of Vienna) & Łukasz Dutka (University of Warsaw)

15.00-15.30

Training live subtitlers for the French market Sylvain Caschelin (University of Strasbourg)

15.30-16.00

Training voice writers in the US Christine Ales

16.00-16.30

Training and certifying live subtitlers in the UK, Australia and Canada James Ward (Ai Media)

16.30-17.00 Coffee break

17.00-18.00

Roundtable discussion on the training of live subtitlers for television, live events and education

Pablo Romero-Fresco (University of Vigo), Sylvain Caschelin (University of Strasbourg), Christine Ales (freelancer), James Ward (AiMedia), Chad Theriot (Audioscribe/SpeechCAT)


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Day 1

19 September 2019, 9.00-18.00

8.00-9.00 Registration in the foyer

9.00-9.15

Conference opening Dr Agnieszka Leńko-Szymańska, Deputy Director, Institute of Applied Linguistics

Prof. Łukasz Bogucki, University of Łódź/Intermedia Research Group

Rooms 1.007/1.008, first floor

9.15-10.00

Carol O’Sullivan

Why write the history of audiovisual translation?

Chair: Agnieszka Szarkowska

10.00-11.00

Roundtable discussion with AVT translators Amalie Foss (AVTE), Kristin Gerdes (Subtle), Krzysztof Kowalczyk (STAW), Magdalena Adamus (freelancer), Agnieszka Walczak

Chair: Agnieszka Szarkowska


Room 1.007 First floor


11.30-13.00

AVT HISTORY

Chair: Carol O’Sullivan

PRACTITIONER’S PERSPECTIVE

Chair: Agnieszka Walczak

Elżbieta Plewa & Anna Rędzioch-Korkuz Polish Subtitling in the 1930s

Peter Reynolds

How technology can improve AVT quality?

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Vanessa Wells

Even Jane Austen Needed an Editor

Danguole Satkauskaite

Development of Film Dubbing in Lithuania: When, Who and How?

Ana Gabriela Gonzalez Meade

Then and Now: The Marriage of Audiovisual Translation History and Ever-Current Specialization Contributions to Field Quality

Ivan Borshchevsky & Alexey Kozulyaev

Unknown Forerunners of Audio Description

Aleksandra Hasior

Audiovisual translation quality assessment – the case of voice-over from a practisearcher’s perspective

13.00-14.00 Lunch

14.00-15.30

ACCESSIBILITY

Chair: Louise Fryer

LIVE SUBTITLING

Chair: Franz Pöchhacker

Rocío Bernabé

Easy-to-understand access services: new taxonomy and developments

Pablo Romero-Fresco & Nazaret Fresno

Live subtitling in Europe and North America: different approaches, similar challenges

Anastasiya Struk

Inaccessible accessibility: the experience of implementing services that do not exist

Christine Ales

Voice writing training techniques in the U.S.

Monika Szczygielska & Łukasz Dutka

Live subtitling, sign language interpreting and audio description in online streaming: guidelines, technical papers, good practices

Hayley Dawson

A course in interlingual respeaking: results and reflections


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Bernd Benecke

Make it funnier! The influence of the narrator in the AD of comedy and slapstick

Zoe Moores

Creativity, Diversity and Inclusion at Live Events Through the Lens of Respeaking


16.00-18.00

DUBBING

Chair: Iwona Mazur

SURTITLING, SUBTITLING & RELEVANCE

Chair: Danguole Satkauskaite

Urszula Leszczyńska & Agnieszka Szarkowska

’I don't understand, but it makes me laugh.’ Domestication in contemporary Polish dubbing

Łukasz Bogucki

Revisiting Relevance: Decision-Making in Subtitling

Aleksandra Ożarowska

Reading Assignments in Opera House: Operatic Surtitles and the Theory of Relevance

Tim Reus

The Snowmen of Song Dubbing: Micro-Level Dubbing Strategies in the Song ‘Do you Want to Build a Snowman’ from Disney’s Frozen

Anna Rędzioch-Korkuz

The Issue of Text Supremacy and Power: Surtitling Eugene Onegin for Polish Audiences

Anochao Phetcharat

Dubbing Wordplay in Children’s Programmes from English into Thai: The Case of Toy Story Films

Lina Abraitienė

Text Reduction Techniques in Theatre Translation: A Case Study of Surtitles for La Traviata

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Lydia Hayes

The performance of audiovisual identities through accent: How to be Spanish in English?

Day 2

20 September 2019, 9.00-18.00



9.00-09.45

Jan Louis Kruger

Looking into the minds of AVT audiences: The past, present and future of experimental research on the reception and processing of AVT products

Chair: Pablo Romero-Fresco

10.00-11.00

AVT AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Chair: Łukasz Dutka

EYE TRACKING RESEARCH

Chair: Jan Louis Kruger

Valentia Stagnaro

CAT tools and MTPE in Audiovisual translation: weapon or threat for AV translators?

Pablo Romero-Fresco

Subtitling blindness and the global film

Rocío Bernabé Caro, Pilar Orero, Óscar García Muñoz & Estella Oncins

360º: creation of easy-to-understand subtitles

Gabriela Flis, Adam Sikorski & Agnieszka Szarkowska

Where do people look when watching voiced-over films? An eye-tracking study on the dubbing effect


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11.30-13.00

ACCESSIBILITY TRAINING

Chair: Pablo Romero Fresco

SDH & SIGNING

Chair: Łukasz Dutka

Gian Maria Greco

On the need of critical learning spaces in media accessibility education and training

Aleksandra Kalata-Zawłocka & Monika Szczygielska

Sign language interpreting on TV in the eyes of Deaf viewers

Iwona Mazur, Elisa Perego & Carme Mangiron

ADLAB PRO: Creation of audio description online training materials

Paweł Aleksandrowicz

Can subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing convey the emotions of film music? A reception study

Valeria Giordano

u-AVT: Success or failure in an online ubiquitous environment for learning audiovisual translation

Verónica Arnáiz-Uzquiza

Accessibility revisited: New platforms, new needs, new practices?

13.00-14.00 Lunch

14.00-15.30

EXPERIMENTAL AND RECEPTION RESEARCH ON AD

Chair: Gian Maria Greco

CURRENT ISSUES IN AVT

Chair: Łukasz Bogucki

Anna Jankowska

Why describers describe what they describe?

Alexander Künzli

Charting professional subtitling culture. A survey among subtitlers in the German-speaking countries.

Louise Fryer

Getting in early: The role of access in the rehearsal room

Ángela Sáenz-Herrero & Juan Pedro Rica-Peromingo

Audiovisual translation in the era of the

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Fake News: the case of mockumentaries

Ismini Karantzi

Towards a multi-sensory approach in AD: A reception study

Giulia Magazzu

Transferring multilingual humour intralingually: the case of “Big Night”

Rachel Hutchinson & Alison Eardley

Making Memories: measuring the impact of AD facilitated experiences with Autobiographical Memory theory

Dominik Kudła

Translating a video game – localization or AVT?


16.00-17.30

SUBTITLING

Chair: Mikołaj Deckert

AUDIO DESCRIPTION

Chair: Iwona Mazur

Sara Ramos Pinto

More than Words: a reception study on the subtitling of nonverbal elements

Laura Mejías-Climent & Julio de los Reyes Lozano

Accessibility from scratch: ‘inclusive scriptwriting’ as an additional tool for making TV news more accessible to blind or visually impaired audiences

Jurgita Astrauskienė

Some of us can speak King’s English, others speak Jive. The Rendering of Sociolinguistic Variation in Subtitles.

Ambra Pacinotti

Suggested guidelines for the description of churches as total works of art

Zoe Pettit

Subtitling a South African television series to reach global audiences

Evangelia Liakou

Linguistic suitability in AD: a word hunt


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Catarina Xavier

F*cks, sh*ts and ass*s: A study of the subtitling of taboo language within translation norms theory

Laura Niedzviegiene

Audio description of culture-specific items: the case study of the Lithuanian series Laisves kaina. Disidentai

17.30-18.00 Conference closing

Intermedia Research group announces:

• the winner of the Best Intermedia 2019 Presentation Competition

• the next Intermedia conference venue

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Sponsors

Platinum Sponsor

Nordisk Undertext In many ways, Nordisk Undertext is the odd bird within the localization industry.

The business idea has remained consistent since we opened shop on a very small scale back in 2002: By developing our own software and by consciously creating long-term relations with great subtitlers all over the globe, we control all important links in the quality work chain.

Staying true to our core values of being smart, flexible and innovative, keeping a tight, high-profile organisation and constantly cherishing fairness and transparency in everything we do, we serve quality-conscious clients in the media entertainment and corporate video segments on a global scale.

Our position in the crossroads of tech and localization, in combination with disruptive service models, has now made us one of the fastest growing companies in the language industry.

Plint is Nordisk Undertext’s revolutionary platform for media localization services.


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Gold Sponsors

Subtitle NEXT SubtitleNEXT is a user-friendly, innovative, customisable, intuitive timed-text software platform. Already adopted across various multimedia industries, it easily adapts to any settings, resolutions, and formats across online video, TV, film, theatre, concerts, festivals, conferences and events. It can be applied throughout the entire production process from concept to distribution.

OOONA Ltd OOONA Ltd was founded in 2012 with the aim to develop professional management and production tools to service the translation, captioning, and subtitling industry. The company’s flagship product is Translation Manager, a cloud-based system for managing subtitling and captioning workflows in a user-centric approach, with full visibility over the localization workflow and integration with financial tools. Translation Manager is complimented by a suite of cutting-edge web-based production tools, known as OOONA’s Toolkit, trusted by thousands of users in over 50 countries. Well-defined and thoroughly tested, with a 24/7 helpdesk and frame-accurate streaming, as well as a friendly pay-as-you-go pricing model, users can pick and choose the tools they require for their business, for the creation, translation, review, and burning of subtitles and captions, or their conversion to any industry format. The latest compliment to the company’s offering is OOONA’s Cloud, a reliable, secure and instantly scalable complete localization solution, offering OOONA’s international clientele peace of mind regarding the hosting and backup of their data.

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SUB-TI Sub-ti is an international subtitling company specialising in film festival subtitling and film translation in any format, also provide access services for audiovisual content, cultural and educational settings. Our main clients include renowned international film festivals (e.g. Venice Film Festival), national film archives (e.g. British Film Institute), international TV networks and other broadcast media (Channel4, Swiss Television).

Start International. Polska. A dubbing Company


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Partners

Fred. The Festival Insider

FRED is a web-based radio network which boasts 29 channels, broadcasting in 25 languages, with thematic channels dedicated to specific cinema content such as film education and the film industry. A media partner of many film festivals around the globe, FRED Film Radio - "The Festival Insider” - launched “FRED at School”, a project aiming to promote film literacy to secondary school students throughout Europe, supported by Creative Europe.

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Plenary Speakers

Carol O’Sullivan is Director of Translation Studies in the School of Modern Languages at the University of Bristol where she convenes the postgraduate translation programmes and teaches translation theory and subtitling, among other subjects.

Her research interests include audiovisual translation, translation history and literary translation. She is the author of Translating Popular Film (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) which considers multilingualism in film and the many ways in which film and translation engage with each other.

Her current project is on the history of screen translation in the silent and early sound periods, and she is the co-editor with Jean-François Cornu of a volume in preparation on this topic. Her specific research interests in the field of audiovisual translation include the origins and development of subtitling, the ideological apparatus of subtitling, the (para)textual status of subtitling, and the treatment of written text on screen. She is a past Board member of the European Society for Translation Studies, and is currently Editor-in-Chief of the journal Translation Studies.

O'Sullivan Carol “Why write the history of audiovisual translation?”

Research in audiovisual translation is one of the most lively areas of translation studies research. In a fast-changing digital environment, and with the rapid development of media accessibility policies in many countries, it is essential to understand how audiovisual translation is carried out, how it is received, and what it can become in the future.

In this plenary talk I will argue that it is also essential to understand the past (or rather, the multiple pasts) of audiovisual translation. While there has been considerable critical interest in translation after the transition to sound, the multilingual versions produced at Joinville and other studios and the choice of dubbing as the predominant mode of audiovisual translation in Western Europe, systematic research has only begun in this field. Research has long been characterised by a lack of dialogue, and hence a lack of shared research agendas, between film historians and translation scholars. In this talk I will look at some of the gaps and methodological challenges in this field of research. I will argue that some problems for audiovisual translation, including the problem of multilingual STs, and the problems of text superimposed on action, are not just problems for media distributors today, but have been problems since the silent period. I will argue that looking at the last great media transition, from silent film to synchronised sound film, has a number of lessons for us as we consider the transition from analogue to digital. The talk will also argue for the value of engaging with the surviving analogue record of audiovisual translation practices.


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Jan-Louis Kruger is Head of the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia where he also teaches in AVT.

His main research interests include studies on the reception and processing of audiovisual translation products including aspects such as cognitive load, comprehension, attention allocation, and psychological immersion. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Audiovisual Translation (JAT).

His current research projects investigate cognitive load in the context of educational subtitling with a view to optimising subtitles as language support in second language environments, as well as the processing of subtitles as dynamic text.

Kruger Jan-Louis “Looking into the minds of AVT audiences: The past, present and future of experimental research on the reception and processing of AVT products”

Audiovisual translation has grown tremendously over the past few years. This has been due, at least in part, to the vast increase in the volume of content on streaming services and social media. The introduction of accessible software through various applications has also meant that the profile of audiovisual translators has shifted to include a range of practitioners who can practice AVT without any dedicated training. At the same time, the quality of AVT products has been affected. In view of all these changes it has become necessary to assess the impact of AVT today on the reception and processing of multimodal texts on users.

The multimodal nature of AVT poses a number of challenges to researchers. Unlike in other fields in Translation Studies, audiovisual translation requires an understanding of the way audiences engage with the linguistic components of the AVT product (i.e. reading subtitles, listening to audio description, or to dubbing) while also attending to a range of other auditory and/or visual sources of information. To deal with this multimodality, researchers in AVT have increasingly turned to experimental research to gain a better understanding of the way in which these different sources impact on the reception and processing of AVT products (see, for example, D’Ydewalle & Gielen, 1992; D'Ydewalle & De Bruycker, 2007; D'Ydewalle & Van Rensbergen, 1989; Kruger, Szarkowska, & Krejtz, 2015; Kruger & Doherty, 2016; Perego, Del Missier, Porta & Mosconi, 2010; Szarkowska, Krejtz, Klyszejko & Wieczorek, 2011).

In this paper I will provide a short summary of some of the main avenues that have been pursued over the past few decades involving mainly eye tracking methods, but also electroencephalography (EEG) combined with performance measures. The emphasis will be on some of the main findings, as well as benefits and limitations of these approaches. I will then discuss some of the current developments where we are beginning to see a shift to more

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controlled experiments and more nuanced studies on local and global features of particularly subtitle reading. Finally, I will provide my perspective on future avenues for research on AVT.

References D’Ydewalle, G. and Gielen, I. (1992), Attention Allocation with Overlapping Sound, Image,and Text, in K. Rayner (ed), Eye Movements and Visual Cognition, 415–427, NewYork: Springer.

D'Ydewalle, G. and De Bruycker, W. (2007), Eye Movements of Children and Adults While Reading Television Subtitles, European Psychologist, 12 (3): 196–205.

D'Ydewalle, G. and Van Rensbergen, J. (1989), ‘Developmental Studies of Text-Picture Interactions in the Perception of Animated Cartoons with Text’, Advances in Psychology, 58: 233–248.

Kruger, J.L., Szarkowska, A. and Krejtz. I. (2015), Subtitles on the Moving Image: An Overview of Eye Tracking Studies, Refractory: A Journal of Entertainment Media, 25.

Available online: http://refractory.unimelb.edu.au/2015/02/07/kruger-szarkowskakrejtz/ (accessed 15/10/2016).

Kruger, J.L and Doherty, S. (2016), Measuring Cognitive Load in the Presence of Educational Video: Towards a Multimodal Methodology, Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 32 (6): 19–31.

Kruger, J.L. (2018), Eye Tracking in Audio-Visual Translation Research, in L. Perez-Gonzalez (ed), The Routledge Handbook of Audio-visual Translation Studies, 266-382 London: Routledge.

Perego, E., Del Missier, F., Porta, M. and Mosconi, M. (2010), The Cognitive Effectiveness of Subtitle Processing, Media Psychology, 13 (3): 243–272.

Szarkowska, A., Krejtz, I., Klyszejko, Z. and Wieczorek, A. (2011), Verbatim, Standard, or Edited? Reading Patterns of Different Captioning Styles Among Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Hearing Viewers, American Annals of the Deaf, 156 (4): 363–378.

http://refractory.unimelb.edu.au/2015/02/07/kruger-szarkowskakrejtz/


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Abstracts

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Abraitienė Lina “Text reduction techniques in theatre translation: a case study of surtitles for LA TRAVIATA”

Abraitienė Lina, Vilnius University, Lithuania

The emergence of audiovisual translation (AVT) was a means to facilitate the communication, to adapt audiovisual products to foreign audiences, to eliminate language barriers. Surtitling, one of the translation modes, facilitates the intelligibility of stage production, allows theatres to enlarge their audiences. Since surtitles deal with live production, they are constrained by time and space and the surtitler’s utmost purpose is to render the translated text in short.

The presentation aims at analysis of the text reduction/compression instances, which involves leaving out the target text elements present in the source text to retain the content of the words rather than preserve the structural adequacy of the text format, at word and sentence levels applied in the Lithuanian surtitles of the Act I of the opera La Traviata. The degree of compression is constantly increasing in contemporary translations; especially it is obvious in theatre and music translation due the necessity to convey informational content quickly.

The analysis reveals that many cases of text compression appear due to the linguistic peculiarities of the languages. In the Lithuanian surtitles, text compression strategies regarding word level mostly include omission. Text compression at the sentence level has been observed less frequently. In a number of cases, the surtitles contained more than one strategy of text compression. Thus, the combination of a few strategies in one surtitle has been fairly often employed.

References Pérez-González, L. (2009). Audiovisual Translation: Theories, Methods and Issues. London and New York: Routledge.

Palmer, J. (2013). Surtitling Opera: A Surtitler’s Perspective on Making and Breaking Rules. In: Minors, H. (ed.), Music, Text and Translation (pp. 21-34). London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Díaz Cintas, J., & Remael, A. (2009). Audiovisual translation: subtitling. Manchester: St. Jerome.


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Aleksandrowicz Paweł “Can subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing convey the emotions of film music? A reception study.”

Aleksandrowicz Paweł, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Poland

The present paper describes a reception study into subtitling music in subtitles for the d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing. The study makes use of a database of film fragments that were selected and tested for eliciting a specific emotion. The research involves two highly emotional clips from the database as well as one control clip. The three excerpts were shown to a control group of 26 hearing people. Then, three versions of subtitles were added to each clip – one with music description, another with the composition title and the name of the performer, and another one with no information on the music. Subsequently, the fragments were shown to a test group of 60 d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers divided into three groups.

The participants reported on the emotions they felt by filling a Differential Emotions Scale questionnaire. For every emotion the clips were supposed to elicit, the results for each subtitling method are very similar to each other, suggesting that either method of subtitling music is equally effective in an emotional scene. Moreover, the emotion intensity the d/Deaf felt is also very close to the intensity experienced by the hard-of-hearing and the hearing control group. Yet, the choice of the subtitling method did impact the intensity of interest and surprise felt by the participants.

References Schaefer A., Nils F., Sanchez X., & Philippot P. (2011). Assessing the effectiveness of a large database of emotion-eliciting films: a new tool for emotion researchers. Cognition and Emotion, 24, 1153-1172.

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Arnáiz-Uzquiza Verónica, Oncins Estella “Accessibility revisited: New platforms, new needs, new practices?”

Arnáiz-Uzquiza Verónica, University of Valladolid , Transmedia Catalonia, Spain. Oncins Estella, Transmedia Catalonia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

Audiovisual accessibility has become a key field of research for audiovisual translation studies. Its multi and interdisciplinary nature make it evolve continuously, subject to an unprecedented growth. This is especially the case of subtitling. Technological advances have not only modified subtitles’ applications, life and development; but also subtitlers’ practices and profiles. But... what about end users? Has there also been a shift in the target audience of subtitling in terms of accessibility?


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Astrauskienė Jurgita “Some of us can speak King’s English, others speak Jive. The Rendering of Sociolinguistic Variation in Subtitles.”

Astrauskienė Jurgita, Vilnius University, Lithuania

The paper examines the way a particular American reality as portrayed in the biographical crime film “BlacKkKlansman” (2018) is represented through the translation into Lithuanian for Vilnius International Film Festival “Kino Pavasaris”. The film is rated as restricted mainly because of strong language and racist epithets as well as some violent content and sexual references. However, strong language plays a key role in the film as it helps to create a realistic atmosphere, reveal ideological views of the characters and expose a peculiar way of code-switching between the so-called “King’s English” and “Jive”. Slang is often used to establish the social identity of the characters and to reinforce their cohesiveness within the group. Hence, the target viewers’ understanding of the film largely depends on the translation of its linguistic variation, since “the translation of taboo words and swearwords is crucial when they contribute to characterization or when they fulfil a thematic function in a film” (Cintas, Remael 2014, 197). The analysis has shown that subtitling of the film depended on the external factors which determined translation strategies. Differently from films that are translated for television, here the translator was not constrained by linguistic regulations which helped to preserve the sociolinguistic variation this way not distorting character representation and the overall message of the film.

References Díaz Cintas, J., & Remael, A. (2014). Audiovisual translation: Subtitling. London, New York: Rouotledge.

Internet Movie Database. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7349662/ The Lithuanian Association of Literary Translators. Available at: https://www.llvs.lt/turinys/1040

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7349662/

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Benecke Bernd “Make it funnier! The influence of the narrator in the AD of comedy and slapstick“

Benecke Bernd, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Germany

The Audio Description of films holds some challenging problems especially for genres like action or comedy. A good describer may overcome these problems and create a text that covers all the necessary aspects. But especially in the genre of comedy and slapstick the success of the description lays in the end in the work of the narrator.

Presenting a funny text in a neutral way may kill all the fun - whereas a good narrator may change a not-so-funny-text into a funny AD. So choosing the right woman or man to voice your comedy description in very important.

She or he should be able to adapt the style or tone of the original and transfer this style into the spoken description. The overall challenge in this is to catch the comedy in the original without adding to much of your own. The show is still the film – not the description. So yes, be funny – as funny as the original - but do not put anything or at least only a little on top.

This presentation will focus on case studies about voicing comedy and slapstick. It will show how high the influence of the narrator especially in this genre is. Examples of good and not so good comedy AD will be presented and discussed.

References Benecke, B. (2014). Audiodeskription als partielle Translation: Modell und Methode. Berlin/Münster: Lit

Chion, M. (1990). Audio-Vision: Sound on screen. New York: Columbia University Press


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Bernabé Rocío, Orero Pilar, García Muñoz Óscar, Oncins Estella “360º: creation of easy-to-understand subtitles”

Bernabé Rocío, Caro SDI, München - University of Applied Languages., Germany. Orero Pilar, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain. García Muñoz Óscar, Plena Inclusión Madrid, Spain. Oncins Estella, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain

The UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD) identifies poor literacy as a risk and explicitly states the necessity to aid understanding. In our digitalised world, audiovisual content forms the basis for communication, education, and full social and democratic participation. Users interact, receive, create, and enjoy content virtually. In this reality, literacy becomes a fundamental skill to participate in an equal basis and to counter one of its major threats, namely disinformation. In the field of Media Accessibility, access services such as audio description and subtitles already bridge the gap for audiences with sensory disabilities. Conversely, access services that target cognitive accessibility are still lagging.

Easy-to-understand information can be created by merging simplification recommendations, such as the guidelines for Plain Language (PL) or Easy to read (E2R), with those that apply for audiovisual modalities. This new easy audiovisual content can meet the needs of varied audiences which include people with low literacy or learning difficulties, persons with intellectual disabilities or those who struggle with reading and understanding. However, at the moment, there is still a lack of comprehensive guidelines for implementation, trained experts and data on users’ reception1.

Under the umbrella of the European Horizon 2020 project Immersive Accessibility (ImAc), a first attempt to provide guidelines on easy-to-understand subtitles was undertaken. The process was divided into two stages: creation and end-users validation. The creation stage aimed to identify parameter candidates for paratextual and linguistic adaptation. The reference guidelines used were the Spanish standard UNE 153010:2012 on subtitling for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing and the Easy to read guidelines Information for all published by Inclusion Europe. The validation stage aimed to evaluate the comprehension and reception of the easy-to-understand subtitles. To do so, two validation groups of end users evaluated the easy-to-understand content. Each group was moderated by a facilitator who gathered the input in an evaluation form. The presentation at the Intermedia Conference will describe the hybridisation process, elucidate the validation process, and report on the results.

1 Results from the EASIT, Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training, EU co-funded project. Reference: Project ref.: 2018-1-ES01-KA203-05275

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Bernabé Rocío “Easy-to-understand access services: new taxonomy and developments”

Bernabé Rocío, SDI, Germany

The Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities states that access to information through written and electronic communications is essential for personal development and full participation in society (United Nations, 2008). The evolving legal frameworks surrounding diversity and inclusion are enabling the participation of all audiences in accessible scenarios. Digital content can be made barrier-free in different ways. At a compliance level by implementing the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 (W3C, 2018). At a content level, by providing accessibility services such as audiodescription and subtitles. In the field of Media Accessibility, access services have emerged to meet the varied sensory user needs and are becoming mainstream (Bernabé & Orero, 2019a). Conversely, modalities that target cognitive accessibility, which is still less developed (FEAPS Madrid, 2014), are lagging.

Easy-to-understand access services can arise from merging text simplification recommendations, such as plain language and Easy to read, with existing guidelines that apply to the modality. This hybridisation results in new easy access services with own design and language implementation guidelines (Bernabé & Orero, 2019b). Easy audiodescriptions will target users with sight loss who also struggle with understanding audiovisual content (Bernabé & Orero, 2019b) Easy respeaking will enhance access to live intralingual information (Eugeni & Bernabé, forthcoming) and easy subtitles will benefit users who struggle with reading and understanding (Bernabé, Orero, & Arnáiz, forthcoming). In this light, it is necessary to provide a reference for both future development and research: for instance, a taxonomy to categorise the dimensions of easy-to-understand services; unified recommendations to guide implementation; and empirical data to understand users’ reception and attitudes towards the simplified content. Currently, the EU co-funded project EASIT is catering for implementation guidelines for easy audiodescriptions, subtitles, and news, and for learning materials. The EU H2020 project ImAc is testing the reception of easy-to-read subtitles in immersive contexts.

The presentation at the Intermedia is twofold. Firstly, it will illustrate the dimensions of a proposed taxonomy of easy-to-understand access services which is part of the author’s doctoral thesis. The taxonomy classifies the emerging services following main underlying dimensions from both audiovisual translation and text simplification. Secondly, it will present the qualitative results of a study conducted as part of the EASIT project on how to integrate simplification recommendations in audiodescriptions, subtitles and news.

1. Easy Access for Social Inclusion training (2018-1-ES01-KA203-05275)

2. Immersive Accessibility (761974)

References Bernabé, R., & Orero, P. (2019a). Easy to Read as Multimode Accessibility Service. Hermeneus 21.


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Bernabé, R., & Orero, P. (2019b). Easier audio description: a more readily understood accesssibility service. In IATIS Yearbook.

Bernabé, R., Orero, P., & Arnáiz, V. (forthcoming). Creating 360º easy-to-understand subtitles.

Eugeni, C., & Bernabé, R. (forthcoming). How to simplify live subtitling: easy-to-understand respeaking as a new modality.

FEAPS Madrid (2014). Accesibilidad Cognitiva: Guía de Recomendaciones. Retrieved 12/11/2018 from http://www.plenainclusionmadrid.org/publicacion/guia-de-recomendaciones-en-accesibilidad-cognitiva.

United Nations 2008. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Retrieved 01/03/2019 from https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities.html.

W3C. (2018, June 05). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. Retrieved 02/02/ 2019 from https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/

http://www.plenainclusionmadrid.org/publicacion/guia-de-recomendaciones-en-accesibilidad-cognitiva

http://www.plenainclusionmadrid.org/publicacion/guia-de-recomendaciones-en-accesibilidad-cognitiva

https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities.html

https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities.html

https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/

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Bogucki Łukasz “Revisiting Relevance: Decision-Making in Subtitling”

Bogucki Łukasz, University of Łódź, Poland

This paper aims to investigate the process of decision-making in subtitling of feature films and entertainment series. The research hypothesis is that the technical, linguistic and translational constraints at work in subtitling result in a curtailed target text. The restrictions on the form and content also stem from the additive nature of subtitling, which increases the audience's cognitive effort, therefore optimum subtitles are inconspicuous and easy to process. On the other hand, subtitles must render the dialogue not in isolation, but in conjunction with the information load of the three other semiotic channels, viz. picture, soundtrack, and text on screen.

The study of constraints on subtitling is done within the cognitive framework of Relevance Theory, a communicative approach put forward by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in 1986. The central notions of „cognitive effort”, „inference”, „ostension” and „principles of relevance” all serve to build up a model of constrained decision-making in interlingual subtitling. In line with Relevance Theory, greater cognitive effort should be offset by extra benefits, therefore the audience should only be put to excessive processing effort if there is additional information value, e.g. linguistic humour based on wordplay. The approach presented herein draws from a model of relevance as a meta-constraint in AVT (Bogucki 2004), but is based on a brand-new corpus, chiefly made up of feature films and entertainment series available on Netflix.

Several categories of examples of English - Polish subtitles will illustrate how subtitlers, knowingly or not, make use of the principle(s) of relevance in their work. In the case of translation errors, it is shown how the quality of subtitling could be improved by following the general rules and principles of relevance.

References: Bogucki, Ł. (2004). A Relevance Framework for Constraints on Cinema Subtitling. Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego.

Gutt, E.-A. (2000). Translation and Relevance: Cognition and Context, 2nd. ed. Manchester: St. Jerome.

Sperber, D. and D. Wilson (1986). Relevance: Communication and Cognition. Oxford: Blackwell.


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Borshchevsky Ivan, Kozulyaev Alexey “Unknown Forerunners of Audio Description”

Borshchevsky Ivan, RuFilms, Russia. Kozulyaev Alexey, RuFilms, Russia

Audio description is an important form of the audiovisual translation, as it provides equal access to information. Its official history began in 1970s and 1980s, when such pioneers in this field as Gregory Frazier and Margaret Pfanstiehl and her late husband Cody made first attempts to adopt the audiovisual content for the blind audience. There is no doubt, that efforts to describe visual information to the blind and visually impaired people were made long before the 20th century. Biblical patriarch Job (XIV century B.C.E) said, "I was eyes to the blind." Ancient Greeks introduced the genre of ekphrasis, a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. However, some forerunners of audio description have remained unnoticed by the professional community for years.

Our research in AVT and audio description revealed several previously unknown aspects in their history that could teach us a lot even now. First, it should be mentioned that Russia is a country with one of the largest Muslim populations in the world. The Islamic faith discourages the making of depictions of a person and other of sentient beings. This aniconism gave birth to a new religious genre hilya (Arabic حلیة), which started with descriptions of the Prophet Muhammad and expanded to describe the first four Caliphs, Islamic saints, and prophets mentioned in Quran. The long tradition of verbal descriptions of persons' appearance may with good reason be considered an AD forerunner.

The silent film era introduced a new profession that also could be (and even was) called "a describer": kinodeklamatory (“film reciters”) in Russia, lecturers in the UK, bonimenteurs in France, دیلماج (interpreters) in Persia, and 活動弁士 (benshi) in Japan described films to the audience, translated intertitles, and explained cultural references. Investigations of the above practices may enrich modern-day audio description techniques taking into account the cultural background of the target audience.

References Altman, R. (2004). Silent Film Sound. Columbia University Press.

Bush, W.Stephen. (1908) Lectures on Moving Pictures. The Moving Picture World. August 22, 1908

Kulanov, A. (2017) Oshchepkov. Moscow: Molodaya Gvardia. (In Russ).

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Dawson Hayley “A course in interlingual respeaking: results and reflections”

Dawson Hayley, University of Roehampton, United Kingdom

Respeaking is one of the youngest disciplines within media accessibility and it is used to make live and pre-recorded television accessible to the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. As audiovisual material is increasingly and globally streamed live, there is a growing demand for this live content to be made accessible in a foreign language. This calls for interlingual live subtitling (ILS), which is intended for both foreign-language and hearing-impaired viewers, illustrating the wider and inclusive notion of media accessibility where access is needed for audiences with and without disabilities.

Over the past two years, extensive research has been carried out for my PhD project, which has also informed intellectual output 2 of the Interlingual Live Subtitling for Access (ILSA) project to identify the required skills and the best-suited professional profile for ILS. The comprehensive data acquired about respeaking performance has successfully informed part of the first ever course on interlingual respeaking, which was delivered online by the University of Vigo from January – May 2019, to seven students with backgrounds of interpreting, subtitling and intralingual respeaking.

The course was comprised of three eight-week modules on simultaneous interpreting, intralingual respeaking and interlingual respeaking. Some students consistently reached the 98% threshold for ILS and produced respoken texts that would have been suitable for live broadcast. The results show ILS as a complex task in which (live) translation and speech recognition skills are equally important, but also one that is feasible providing appropriate training is delivered. This presentation will focus on the course design, performance of students, what worked well and what could be improved for future training in ILS. Finally, an outline of a research-informed training programme for ILS will be presented, which is regarded as a step in the right direction to help consolidate this new discipline as an access service.


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Flis Gabriela, Sikorski Adam, Szarkowska Agnieszka “Where do people look when watching voiced-over films? An eye-tracking study on the dubbing effect.”

Flis Gabriela, University of Warsaw, Poland. Sikorski Adam, University of Warsaw, Poland. Szarkowska Agnieszka, University of Warsaw, Poland

The goal of this study is to verify whether the "dubbing effect", previously observed by Romero-Fresco (forthcoming) in English-to-Spanish dubbing, can also be observed in the case of English-to-Polish voice-over. The "dubbing effect" consists in the spectators avoiding looking at the mouth of the speakers (actors) and concentrating their visual attention on the eye area instead. Romero-Fresco found that in a film dubbed into Spanish approx. 95% of the viewers’ visual attention was focused on the eyes, and only 5% on the lips, whereas in the control group (English people who watched the original English production and Spanish people who watched a Spanish production), the proportions were 75% and 25% respectively. The dubbing effect may be explained by the imperfections in lip synchronization. Romero-Fresco argues that viewers unconsciously feel there is something “wrong” with the dubbed version, and in order to stay immersed in the film, they avoid looking at the characters’ mouth.

In our study, we wanted to find whether a similar effect occurs in voice-over translation, which is characterized by the lack of synchronization between the translated text and the original utterances and – in contrast to dubbing – the simultaneous presence of the original soundtrack. Using eye tracking and self-reports, we hypothesized that in voice-over, Polish viewers may also avoid looking at the lips of the film's protagonists, especially in the case of female actors, because the translation which is read by a male voce talent may lead to cognitive dissonance. The direct effect of cognitive dissonance resulting from the lack of synchronization may be low immersion experienced by viewers.

Even though voice-over seems to be even more artificial than dubbing, we did not find an effect similar to the dubbing effect in viewers watching voiced-over films. Since the phenomena was linked with lower immersion levels in participants, the lack thereof may suggest that voice-over tends to be more transparent than dubbing in this particular case. However, we also found that those participants who looked at the mouths more, did in fact report lower immersion levels in terms of Perceptual quality and Ecological validity, which means that they perceived the world portrayed in the medium as less realistic than those who looked at the eyes more frequently.

References Romero-Fresco, P. (forthcoming in 2020). The dubbing effect: An eye-tracking study on how viewers make dubbing work. Journal of Specialised Translation, 33.

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Fryer Louise “Getting in early: The role of access in the rehearsal room”

Fryer Louise, University College London, United Kingdom

Traditionally audio description (AD) has involved a describer (or describers) writing (and in some countries voicing) a description once the AV product (film, play, artwork etc.) is complete. In the UK, some theatre companies have been embracing “integrated AD” whereby AD is conceived from the start as an integral part of a production. This is similar to the approach of Accessible filmmaking (cf. Romero-Fresco, 2014). Yet, a few theatre directors have been introducing access practices even earlier in the process in order to tap their creative potential. This presentation reflects on a couple of those experiments..

For example, one company was working on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. With a visually impaired actress in the company, they made use of other access strategies, mainly line-feeding. While this technique is already acknowledged as a liberating process in rehearsal not only for actors with a visual impairment but also for actors with dyslexia or with cognitive disabilities or actors with no impairment who don’t want to be tied to the book, what was exciting were the possibilities line-feeding opened up were it to be carried into performance. The question of who should feed the lines to Lady McBeth (perhaps Hecate, another of the witches or MacBeth himself) would fundamentally affect the audience’s impression of who was pulling the strings, adding to the questions the play poses about power. Similar questions were asked about which voice provides the AD. In addition, questions were raised about how much inflection should come from the line feeder and how much from the character. Also the degree to which the visual layout of the text on the page affected how and where the text was segmented. These aspects would not have come to light, had the emphasis in the rehearsal not been on the role of the describer in turning visual stimuli into auditory information.

By getting in early with the AD, the company become co-creators in the access provided. This increases the company’s understanding of and investment in access, raising its visibility and allowing creative people to devise solutions that may not have been possible to implement or simply may not have occurred to the describer had they been working alone or later, once the production had been fixed. By getting in early, not only do access professionals provide access to content and access to creation (Dangerfield, 2017) for actors with disabilities, they also have the potential to transform the way non-disabled audiences experience theatre by transforming the way theatre is performed.

References Dangerfield, K. (2018). The value of difference in media accessibility quality. In Understanding Media Accessibility Quality (UMAQ) Conference, June 4–5, 2018. Barcelona.

Romero Fresco, P. (2014). Accessible filmmaking.


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Giordano Valeria “u-AVT: Success or Failure in an On-Line Ubiquitous Environment for Learning Audiovisual Translation”

Giordano Valeria, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy

Ubiquitous learning is a computer, mobile supported learning environment, aiming to provide learners with contents and interaction anytime and anywhere. Both E-learning and AVT are at an early stage in academic environments and often greeted with scepticism. Besides, the teaching of AVT came about in response to the need in the market for skilled AVT translators who are rarely offered formal training.

This paper discusses innovative approaches in the distance learning modules of the post-graduate programme “AVT and Adaptation for Dubbing and Subtitling” at the University of Tor Vergata. The on-line solution provides education which cannot be imparted in traditional courses. It also responds to the challenge for educators to facilitate the development of a student-centred model, helping to ensure successful interaction with the mediating technology, a crucial aspect in AVT training.

The study provides reassurance to those who have undertaken AVT on-line courses and encourages towards the u-learning teaching format. Early findings reveal that it enhances the students’ motivation and learning effectiveness. It reduces the teaching load, enabling better control of class order. Critical issues are also discussed: the scepticism of traditional teachers, reluctant to interact via Facebook or WhatsApp; the students’ confusion when used to a book-oriented approach and who may be unprepared to appreciate the feasibility of u-learning in an academic course.

References Gwo-Jen Hwang, Chin-Chung Tsai, & Stephen J.H. Yang. (2008). Criteria, Strategies and Research Issues of Context-Aware Ubiquitous Learning. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 11(2), 81-91. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.11.2.81

Peng, H., Chou, C., & Chang, C.-Y. (2008). From virtual environments to physical environments: Exploring interactivity in ubiquitous-learning systems. Educational Technology & Society, 54-66.

Shih, J., Chu, H., Hwang, G.-L., & Kinshuk. (2011). An investigation of attitudes of students and teachers about participating in a context-aware ubiquitous learning activity. British Journal of Educational Technology, 373-394.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.11.2.81

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González Meade Ana Gabriela “Then and Now: The Marriage of Audiovisual Translation History and Ever-Current Specialization Contributions to Field Quality”

González Meade Ana Gabriela, ATA Audiovisual Divison, Mexico

Great worldwide demand has brought about an audiovisual content revolution with a recorded format scalability evolution progressively faster in pace from, early on, broadcasters and cable TV special circuitry to later on, predetermined media and, finally, digital streaming services that formally took over circa 2013.

This competitive industry has undergone a recent quality assurance evolution with expert linguists now performing fail-safe errors flagging.

This will break down the additional media-related translation constraints to the standard technical, textual, and linguistic subtitling constraints of an audiovisual product with the added difficulty of being made up of a dialogue or monologue audio track recorded on top of the original film's soundtrack. The mainstream audiovisual translation process is altered and the linguist must make sense of the impromptu dialogue filled with long pauses, stuttering, breaking of the thread of the conversation, and mid-sentence pickups as opposed to the customary dialogue formula of the articulate train of thought in thoroughly refined movie script writing; thus leaving behind a mental process automatically trained to look for cues on the two customary SL reference points in audiovisual material of image and soundtrack, and re-training our brains for spotting more indispensable elements to compensate for the feedback loss as an effective teaching tool for present-day market demands when rounded off with updated pointers to meet streaming media's latest standards as guidelines and the target audience take priority.

References Georgakopoulou, P. (2009). Subtitling for the DVD Industry. Audiovisual translation: Languagetransfer on screen, 21-35.

Nedergaard-Larsen, B. (1993). Culture-bound problems in subtitling. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 1 (2): 207-241.

Díaz Cintas, J. (2004). Subtitling: The long journey to academic acknowledgement. Journal of Specialised Translation, Issue 01, 50-68.


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Greco Gian Maria “On the Need of Critical Learning Spaces in Media Accessibility Education and Training”

Greco Gian Maria, TransMedia Catalonia, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, and GALMA, University of Vigo, Spain

Over the past few decades, a wide range of areas have undergone a series of profound changes as a consequence of several ontological, epistemological, and methodological shifts produced by accessibility. A process that has been leading to the emergence of the field of Accessibility Studies. MA is one of those areas that have experienced this very process. In recent years, we have witnessed an increase in research that focuses mainly on providing and discussing lists of specialised skills and competences of some specific MA expert or offers proposals of related training programmes. The new position reached by MA requires ever-greater engagement on foundational research on education and training programmes.

Embracing a stance similar to the one adopted by Pym in the field of Translation Studies, the presentation aims to initiate a debate on “the general theoretical and pedagogical problem involved” (Pym, 2003) in education and training within AS. I will discuss the need for the development of a pedagogy of accessibility, that is, a systematic approach to the practice(s) of teaching and learning accessibility. One that could then solidly support extensive investigation of specific skills of accessibility professionals and researchers, frame analyses of current programmes, and strengthen proposals for new curricula and professional profiles. Focusing on the case of MA, I will argue that the constitutive features of accessibility call for the inclusion within MA and AVT professional- and research-oriented courses of “critical learning spaces”. I will substantiate the tenet through the discussion of a study carried out within the Master in AVT of the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2018-2019.

References Greco, G. M. (2018). The nature of accessibility studies. Journal of Audiovisual Translation, 1(1), 205-232.

Pym, A. (2003). Redefining Translation Competence in an Electronic Age. In Defence of a Minimalist Approach. Meta: Translators’ Journal, 48(4), 481-497.

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Hasior Aleksandra “Audiovisual Translation Quality Assessment – the Case of Voice-over from a Practisearcher’s Perspective”

Hasior Aleksandra, University of Bielsko-Biała, Poland

In terms of quality assessment, AVT research has, until recently, mainly focused on the quality assessment of dubbing and subtitling, while voice-over modality has been largely overlooked. One of the aspects which has thus far warranted analysis has been synchrony, nevertheless there are other factors which would allow for the assessment of the quality of the final product with regards to perspective.

As the ultimate test of quality in translation is the effectiveness of the communication, a translation should meet the criteria of accuracy, meaningfulness, accessibility, effectiveness and ergonomics, compliance with rules and regulations and the client’s interests (Gouadec 2007). For both the client and the translator, the most important factor is efficiency and suitability of the translated material, i.e. the satisfaction of the translation provision process. For the audience, this factor is the invisibility of both of the voice-artist and the translator. In the case of the voice-artist this translates to the synchrony of delivery and the acoustics, while for the translator, accuracy, fidelity and correctness of a text is of paramount importance. The perspective of the voice-artist, in need of a text that is easy to read with the appropriate intonation and rhythm, is sometimes easy to overlook. The aim of the paper is to analyse these factors and possibly define the parameters that could be taken into account in voice-over quality assessment.

References Franco, E., Matamala, A., Orero, P. (2010). Voice-over Translation. An Overview, Bern: Peter Lang AG.

Gouadec, D. (2007). Translation as a profession. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Mossop, B. (2014). Revising and Editing for Translators, London/New York: Routledge.


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Hayes Lydia “The performance of audiovisual identities through accent: How to be Spanish in English?”

Hayes Lydia, University College London, United Kingdom

This paper posits the existence of dialectal memes, which are the associations attributed to an individual’s identity according to the accent with which he or she speaks. These memes are specific to lingua-cultural communities and to individual experience, in such a way that exposure to speech varieties and to their textual representations determine audience perception of accent. When accentual variation is perceived by a listener, the dialectal meme for that accent is activated in his or her psyche, from which point an image of identity is formulated therein. As such, it can be said that the accentual layer of the utterance is a performative speech act that is realised at the speaker-listener –and therefore audiovisual– interface. Given that perception is a top-down process, screenwriters take advantage of those most prominent dialectal memes prevailing in their target audience and direct the use of specific accents by actors in order determine the creation of their characters’ identities (Hayes, forthcoming).

To illustrate the hypothesis that the ideological load of accent is memetic and its utterance performative, an empirical study has been designed to survey audience perception of accent, in general, and Hispanic accents in English dialogue, in particular, using audio files exclusively. The hypothesis underpinning the study is that degrees of perceptual specificity vary according to the geographical and linguistic distances between the speaker and the listener as well as individual experience, which together determine that the level of authenticity required to be Spanish in English is [relatively] low. It is anticipated the study may bring to light the characteristics of the Spanish meme in English dialogue and that successful attempts at being Spanish in English may be a function of certain phonological realisations as well as other audiovisual factors such as celebrity, physical appearance and setting.

The paper will also reflect on how the results of this questionnaire can inform dubbing research and practice. The question of how to use memetic strategies to dub fictional Spanish and Hispanic accents into Castilian Spanish will be considered vis-à-vis the reality of standardisation practices– a particularity of the prefabricated orality of audiovisual texts and of dubbese or the register of dubbing generally.

References Hayes, L. (forthcoming). The performativity of accent in the construction of audiovisual identities: speech acts, memes and topoi. Syn-Thèses (10).

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Hutchinson Rachel, F. Eardley Alison “Making Memories: measuring the impact of AD facilitated experiences with Autobiographical Memory theory”

Hutchinson Rachel, University of Westminster, United Kingdom. F. Eardley Alison, University of Westminster, United Kingdom

Audio Description (AD) seeks to enhance the user experience by providing access to visual information through spoken language. AD research has become increasingly focused on the audience experience (e.g. Ramos, 2016, Walczak & Fryer, 2017). This research examines how our memory for personal or ‘autobiographical’ experience can be used as an innovative tool for evaluating the long-term impact of AD for cultural experiences, for both visually impaired and sighted audiences, thereby exploring the potential of AD as a tool for inclusive design.

Autobiographical (AB) memories are memories for personally experienced events throughout the life span, which are reconstructed from fragments stored in our long-term memory system. This paper describes two studies examining the impact of AD on the memorability of a series of photos, from the Museum of London’s collection. In Study 1, 150 sighted participants viewed 9 photos with either a standard audio guide, audio description, or with no audio interpretation. Use of an AB memory coding model revealed that participants in the AD group had the richest memories of the artworks. In Study 2, photos were presented to 40 sighted and 40 blind and partially sighted (BPS) individuals, with standard AD and AD enriched with sound effects. Photos with enriched AD were better remembered by BPS participants and enriched AD had experience benefits for all participants.

We discuss the nature of AB memories, their richness, and how AB memory theory brings new insight to AD reception studies.

References Ramos, M. (2016). Testing audio narration: The emotional impact of language in audio description. Perspectives, 24 (4), 606–634. doi:10.1080/0907676X.2015.1120760

Walczak, A. & Fryer, L., (2017). Creative description: The impact of audio description style on presence in visually impaired audiences. BJVI, 35 (1) 6-17. DOI: 10.1177/0264619616661603


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Jankowska Anna “Why describers describe what they describe?”

Jankowska Anna, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland/UAB, Spain

My presentation will report on the results of the ADDit! project (1311/MOB/IV/2015/0) that is carried out to study how ECRs are transferred in AD, based on an extensive corpus analysis and experiments that involved working with audio describers from Poland and Spain who were asked to create descriptions to both Polish and Spanish films. In the presentation I would like to present the results of corpus analysis that shows the strategies that describers use depending on their origin (American, British, Polish and Spanish) and the nature of the film (national/foreign) as well as results of the experiment with describers that involved methods such as eye-tracking, keyboard logging, screen recording and think aloud protocols. All this will allow me to draw conclusions on the describers' decision-making process.

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Kalata-Zawłocka Aleksandra, Szczygielska Monika “Sign language interpreting on TV in the eyes of Deaf viewers”

Kalata-Zawłocka Aleksandra, University of Warsaw, Association of Polish Sign Language, Poland. Szczygielska Monika, University of Warsaw, Dostępni.eu, Poland

In many European countries provision of sign language interpreting, alongside subtitles and audio description, is a requirement TV broadcasters must meet under the existing laws on accessibility. In Poland sign language interpreting on TV has a considerably long tradition. Initially, it was provided in sign supported Polish and for a very limited number of programmes. Nowadays still only around 10% of the TV content is interpreted, but the language of interpretation is predominantly Polish Sign Language.

The aim of our presentation is to share the results of a research conducted in May and June 2019 via an online survey among Deaf viewers from all over Poland. The research, titled “Interpreting into sign language – preferences”, focused on such areas of sign language interpreting as its linguistic quality and onscreen presentation. Deaf viewers evaluated the overall understandability of sign language renditions, commented on the size and placement of the sign language interpreter on the screen, the combination of colours: of the background and of the interpreter’s clothes, and the general screen composition etc. Eventually, Deaf respondents were required to indicate those areas of TV interpreting they are satisfied with as well as recommend improvements in those that they evaluate as not satisfactory.

The major research finding is that Deaf viewers fervently appeal for a bigger size of the interpreter on the screen. The remaining results will help us raise the awareness of Polish TV broadcasters about the actual needs and expectations of Deaf viewers on the one hand, and contribute to increasing Deaf people’s access to television content on the other.


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Karantzi Ismini “Towards a multi-sensory approach in audio description (AD): A reception study”

Karantzi Ismini, Ionian University, Greece

It is a fact that the alternative senses for individuals who are blind or visually impaired (B/VIP) have predominantly been hearing and touch. In the case of museum exhibitions, descriptions may be combined with touch tours (ADLAB). Can it also apply to animation films? The work explores the usage of touch as a secondary communication channel to deliver additional information along with AD. The research is user-oriented and deals with AD of a foreign, stop-motion short animation film projected to the Greek B/VIP audience with the use of audio subtitles (AST). The projection was followed by the distribution of questionnaires from a sensory and linguistic point of view.

Animation, as a film genre, uses objects that have some sort of emotional inner life that is somehow conserved and liberated by touch (“tactile memory”) (Wells, 2014). Moreover, stop-motion animation is directly related to the notion and sense of touch. Since animation comes from the Latin verb animare, meaning to bring to life, the puppets (main characters) “beg to be touched” (Barker 2009:137) and can engage the audience. Within this framework, prior to the projection of the film, the audience had the opportunity to touch the protagonists (replicas) and to feel their clothes and features as well as the material used for their construction. The audience found the touch tour interesting, since it stimulated its imagination and received further information about the protagonists that was difficult to be conveyed within the available time between the dialogues. Apart from touch, emphasis was placed on linguistic and paralinguistic aspects of AD.

Wells defines the fabrication of objects as “the re-animation of materiality for narrative purposes” (1998:90). Thus, since also animators view the potential of the object or puppet, using animation as a method to reveal the emotive narrative, touch and hearing can enhance the film watching experience for B/VIP audiences, adding new insights into the discussion of AD strategies to be followed.

References ADLAB (2011-2014). Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind [online].

Barker, J. (2009). The tactile eye: Touch and the cinematic experience. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Wells, P. (2014). Chairy Tales: Object and Materiality in Animation. Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media (Issue 8).

Wells, P. (1998). Understanding Animation. London, UK: Routledge.

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Kudła Dominik “Translating a video game – localization or AVT?”

Kudła Dominik, University of Warsaw, Poland

Video games have undoubtedly become one of the most popular branches of contemporary entertainment and culture. According to recent reports, in 2018 the global revenues of the video-game industry have exceeded the sums gained by the film or music industry. Creating language versions of numerous games for multiple markets has contributed significantly to this success.

Consequently, this process attracts the attention of an increasing number of translation-studies scholars. However, scientists are not unanimous as to how to classify and call such translation practices. Diverse names, e.g. localization, audiovisual translation, adaptation and transcreation, have been suggested. Moreover, video games include numerous translatable elements which are also subject to audiovisual translation, e.g. subtitles and voiced dialogues. Nonetheless, some factors render it possible to distinguish between the traditional audiovisual media and video games and, as a result, also between the translation practices they require.

This speech will focus on comparing the major aspects both shared by and dividing audiovisual translation and the translation practices of the video game industry. Special attention will be given to the possible classifications of these practices within the frames of various translation-studies models. Theoretical considerations will be enriched with examples from translations involving both video games and films.

References Bernal-Merino, M.Á. (2015). Translation and Localisation in Video Games. Making Entertainment Software Global. New York: Routledge.

Chandler, H.M./ O’Malley Deming, S. (2012). The Game Localization Handbook (2nd ed.). Sudbury [MA]/ Ontario/ London: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

O'Hagan, M./ Mangiron, C. (2013). Game Localization: Translating for the Global Digital Entertainment Industry. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Sajna, M. (2013). Translation of video games and films – a comparative analysis of selected technical problems. Homo Ludens 1 (5), 219–232.


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Künzli Alexander “Charting professional subtitling culture. A survey among subtitlers in three German-speaking countries.”

Künzli Alexander, University of Geneva, Switzerland

Working conditions, production processes, and collaborations between the different stakeholders involved in subtitling projects were investigated in a survey of professional subtitlers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Fifty-nine subtitlers responded to an online questionnaire that contained both open-ended and closed-ended questions. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were conducted with SPSS (Künzli, 2017).

The results show that there are a number of aspects related to the status of subtitlers that have the potential for optimization according to the subtitlers themselves, in particular with regard to market transparency and the right to be named as authors of the subtitles. Somewhat surprisingly however, at least when compared to recurring claims in the specialized literature and empirical observations in other subtitling cultures (e.g., Jankowska, 2012; Nikolić, 2010) subtitlers express satisfaction with subtitling rates and deadlines. Also, inferential statistical tests show that two subcultures can be identified that differ in their respective assessments of their professional perspectives. It was found that subtitlers working for the deaf and hearing impaired are significantly more optimistic about the future demand for subtitling services than those working for hearing audiences.

The results have implications for curriculum design and future research in audiovisual translation. Whereas many aspects of subtitles and subtitle reception have been quite well investigated, little is known about the professional subtitler’s workplace environment and their attitudes to and perceptions of key aspects such as required skills, recent developments in the subtitling industry, and variables that have a major influence on subtitle quality.

References Jankowska, A. (2012). ‘I do what I like, and I don’t have to go to work every day’: The status quo of audiovisual translators in Poland. In S. Bruti & E. Di Giovanni (Eds.), Audiovisual translation in Europe. An every-changing landscape. (pp. 35–58). Oxford: Peter Lang.

Künzli, A. (2017). Die Untertitelung - von der Produktion zur Rezeption. Berlin: Frank & Timme.

Nikolić, K. (2010). The subtitling profession in Croatia. In J. Díaz Cintas, A. Matamala, & J. Neves (Eds.), New insights into audiovisual translation and media accessibility. Media for all 2. (pp. 99–108). Amsterdam: Rodopi.

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Leszczyńska Urszula, Szarkowska Agnieszka “I don't understand, but it makes me laugh. Domestication in contemporary Polish dubbing”

Leszczyńska Urszula, University of Warsaw, Poland. Szarkowska Agnieszka, University of Warsaw, Poland

Despite being (in)famous for using voice-over in fiction films, Poland has a longstanding dubbing tradition (Szarkowska, 2008). Contemporary Polish dubbing is largely domesticated, which apparently increases viewers’ enjoyment (Borowczyk, 2011; Chmiel, 2010; Janikowski, 2005; Sikora, 2013). However, can Polish viewers identify references to Polish culture in the contemporary Polish dubbing of foreign animated films and enjoy them?

We conducted an online survey and tested 201 participants. Many references relate to items from the near or distant past, we therefore predicted that viewers may not fully understand them. The results show that, paradoxically, although viewers do not fully recognise references to Polish culture, they welcome such allusions, declaring that they make films more accessible.

Allusions to Polish literary canon were the most difficult to identify, whereas the best scores were achieved in the categories of social campaigns and films. Younger participants had more difficulties in recognising allusions from before the 1990s. The vast majority of participants declared they enjoy domestication in contemporary Polish dubbing.

References Borowczyk, P. (2011). Różne oblicza Asteriksa i zielonego ogra. Studium nad tłumaczeniem dialogów. In I. Kasperska & A. Żuchelkowska (Eds.), Przekład jako produkt i kontekst jego odbioru (pp. 71–84). Poznań: Wydawnictwo “Rys”.

Chmiel, A. (2010). Translating postmodern networks of cultural associations in the Polish dubbed versions of Shrek. In J. Díaz Cintas, A. Matamala & J. Neves (Eds.), New Insights into Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility. Media for All 2 (pp. 123–136). Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi.

Janikowski, P. (2005). Dobry polski Szrek. Wrażliwość kulturowa tłumacza w rękach magnatów popkultury. In P. Fast (Ed.), Kultura popularna a przekład (pp. 39–47). Katowice: Śląsk.

Sikora, I. (2013). Dubbing filmów animowanych: Strategie translatorskie w polskim dubbingu anglojęzycznych filmów animowanych. Nysa: Oficyna Wydawnicza PWSZ.

Szarkowska, A. (2008). Przekład audiowizualny w Polsce – perspektywy i wyzwania. Przekładaniec, 20, 8–25.


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Liakou Evangelia “Linguistic suitability in AD: a word hunt”

Liakou Evangelia, Ionian University, Greece

In audio description, describers will find themselves moving mostly from the non-verbal visual and auditory to the verbal auditory communicational channel (Gottlieb, 1998: 245). In other words, audio description “provides a verbal version of the visual whereby the visual is made verbal, aural and oral” (Snyder, 2008) .The language is the most powerful arrow in the describer's quiver: it is the medium that conveys not only the actual meaning of the picture (what is seen), but also creates an atmosphere and ultimately impacts the way the audiovisual material is perceived. It has been mentioned time and again that the describer is required to have an excellent knowledge of the language and the vocabulary they are translating into (Georgakopoulou, 2008). The linguistic choices influence the way the audience will visualize the communicated meaning. But how can someone define the adequacy of the language chosen (i.e. words, phrases and expression)?

In order to venture an answer to this question, criteria were set according to which the suitability of the linguistic choice could be tested and verified. These criteria included, among others, the precision and clarity, spatio-temporal adequacy, style compatibility and conceptual accessibility of the words and phrases (e.g. jargon). As research material we used examples from the AD scenarios of three films which we described as part of our larger ongoing study on Greek AD guidelines. The goal was to criticize and/or justify the choices made during the description, explore or decline possible alternative options.

Language is an integral part of audio description and the linguistic choice is not always easy to make. We believe this research to be significant mainly because the results that will be produced could lead to the composition of a "checklist", which could assist in teaching, correcting and practicing audio description.

References ADLAB Pro (2016-2019). Audio Description: A Laboratory for the development of a new professional profile. https://www.adlabpro.eu/

Georgakopoulou, Y. (2008). Audio Description Guidelines for Greek. A Working Document, ed. by Sonali Rai, Joan Greening and Leen Petré (2010). A Comparative Study of Audio Description Guidelines Prevalent in Different Countries. London: Media and Culture Department, Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), 105–108.

Gottlieb, H. (1998). Subtitling. In Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ed. by Mona Baker, 244–248. London and New York: Routledge.

Snyder, Joel. (2008). Audio Description: the visual made verbal ed. by Jorge

Díaz- Cintas, mThe Didactics of Audiovisual Translation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamin.

https://www.adlabpro.eu/

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Magazzù Giulia “Transferring multilingual humour intralingually: the case of Big Night”

Magazzù Giulia, “Gabriele d’Annunzio” University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy

The term “multilingual” can be used to describe texts incorporating official languages, dialects, sociolects, slang, pidgin and invented languages (Delabastita, 2009), but for the purpose of this study a film is considered as being multilingual only when two or more official languages are spoken. According to Meylaerts (2006:5), translation can no longer be understood as “the full transposition of one (monolingual) source code into another (monolingual) target code for the benefit of a monolingual target public”. The translation of multilingual films inevitably results in the levelling out and flattening of linguistic diversity, leaving any geo-social connotation attached to the characters for individual viewers to work out for themselves (Chiaro, 2010). Often such films are serious and tackle significant social and political issues. However, what happens when a multilingual film adopts linguistic diversity to create a comic effect? According to Kozloff, “Comedy relies upon confusion, and in screwball these confusions are engendered by the way characters talk, the way they listen, and the way they (mis)interpret what they’ve heard” (Kozloff, 2000:198).

Multilingual humour goes beyond Verbally Expressed Humour (VEH) strictu sensu (such as puns and wordplay) but embraces a wider area, in which language itself contributes to accomplishing a comic effect. Starting from these observations, the present paper sets out to employ a synchronic perspective in order to analyse the Italian dubbing of the movie Big Night, a 1996 comedy-drama whose protagonists are two Italian brothers. In the original dialogues, they often speak Italian (even with customers) and in our analysis we will focus on the Italian dubbed version to see how the dialogues have been conveyed and especially how VEH and stereotypes from the Italian language and culture are transferred intralingually and to what effect.

References Chiaro, D. (ed). (2010). Translation, Humour and the Media, Volume 2. London and New York: Continuum.

Delabastita, D. (2009). Fictional representations. In M. Baker & G. Saldanha (Eds.), Routledge encyclopedia of translation studies (2nd ed., pp. 109–112). London: Routledge.

Kozloff, S. (2000). Overhearing film dialogue. California University Press.

Meylaerts, R. (2006). Heterolingualism in/and translation: How legitimate are the other and his/her language? An introduction. Target, 18(1), pp. 1–15.


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Mazur Iwona, Perego Elisa, Mangiron Carme “ADLAB PRO: Creation of audio description online training materials”

Mazur Iwona, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. Perego Elisa, University of Trieste, Italy. Mangiron Carme, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

ADLAB PRO: A Laboratory for the Development of a New Professional Profile is a three-year (2016-2019) European project financed under the Erasmus+ Programme. It is coordinated by the University of Trieste and involves both academic and non-academic partners from Belgium, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, and the UK. The project’s main aim has been to create audio description (AD) training materials that would be available online to all interested parties. It has had six Intellectual Outputs (IOs), from gathering European best AD practices (IO1) to attributing ECTS/ECVETS to created AD materials (IO6).

In the presentation we will focus on an AD course structure and training materials that have been created as part of IO3 and IO4, respectively. First, we will present the course’s structure that encompasses six modules (including AD for the screen, live events and museums), followed by a discussion of the different types of training materials that have been created for each module (such as videos, tasks, reading lists, etc.). We will also show a selection of sample materials and suggest how to navigate the website.

The AD training materials will be made available on a Creative Commons license. Given the modular nature of the course, as well as the fact that all units are self contained, AD trainers will be able to either use the entire course as is or create their own courses tailored specifically to their training needs.

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Mejías-Climent Laura “Accessibility from scratch: “inclusive scriptwriting” as an additional tool for making TV news more accessible to blind or visually impaired audiences

Mejías-Climent Laura, Julio de los Reyes Lozano Universitat Jaume I, Spain

Taking audiovisual translation as a starting point, this empirical and exploratory research project intends to propose solutions in order to improve the degree of accessibility in audiovisual materials addressed to people with sensorial limitations (deaf or hard-of-hearing, and blind or visually impaired). This project is based on the concept of accessible audiovisual production, whose objective is to integrate accessibility as a part of the audiovisual production process. This integration is intended to guarantee the maximum quality of audiovisual products, which are to be elaborated by taking into account both semiotic and linguistic factors from the very beginning, so that they can be easily translated and made accessible. In order to achieve this, the study aims at setting the theoretical basis to facilitate the collaboration among audiovisual producers and audiovisual translators. Within this context, results on the preliminary analysis of TV news will be here presented with a special focus on audio description.

TV news are not usually audio described on Spanish television. After selecting a collection of TV news formats, we analyzed the specific audio description needs of blind and visually impaired together with the filmic characteristics of the news. Our results show that some important visual information is not usually included in the aural dimension of some news formats. As audio describing TV news is not very feasible in the context of Spanish television, we propose to integrate accessibility in the phases of preproduction and postproduction through "inclusive scriptwriting" following the path of "integrated audio description" (Fryer, 2018).


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Moores Zoe “Creativity, Diversity and Inclusion at Live Events Through the Lens of Respeaking”

Moores Zoe, University of Roehampton, United Kingdom

The Respeaking at Live Events research project has explored how live subtitles created through speech recognition can be introduced at unscripted and partially scripted events in the UK to increase the amount of access currently provided in this sector. A combination of focus group work and action research, conducted with strong input from users and service providers, was used to test this provision and determine whether professional television respeakers could transfer their skills to this new setting and provide high quality access. This presentation will share the core findings of the study, with a focus on what makes this access provision effective.

Since live events are dynamic and diverse, the way in which access is provided depends on the nature of the individual event. Whilst there is a natural flow that hosting venues, presenters and respeakers can prepare for, there is much that is unpredictable - in particular, the interaction and engagement that each audience member brings on the day. A model for participatory engagement at live events, which is in line with the proactive approach to access (Greco, 2018) and similar to that seen in accessible filmmaking (Romero-Fresco, 2019), and which allows and encourages everyone present to collaborate in shaping and benefitting from the access provided, will also be presented.

References Greco, G. M. (2018). The nature of accessibility studies. Journal of Audiovisual Translation, 1(1), 205-232.

Romero-Fresco, P. (2019). Accessible Filmmaking Integrating Translation and Accessibility into the Filmmaking Process. London: Routledge.

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Niedzviegiene Laura “Audio description of culture-specific items: the case study of the Lithuanian series Laisves Kaina. Disidentai”

Niedzviegiene Laura, Vilnius University, Lithuania

This report presents the development of the audio description (hereafter AD) methodology and the distribution of audio-described audiovisual products in Lithuania. Till the end of 2017 there was only one audio-described television product in Lithuania – the Lithuanian classic film “Grazuole” (“The Beauty”), its version with AD was accessible through the website of Lithuanian National Radio and Television. In addition there were some other audio-described Lithuanian products: short films and animated films, sports events, fashion shows, dance performances, music videos, visual works of art, audio guides for the blind etc. However their AD was either live or accessible exclusively through the Lithuanian Library for the Blind. However until the end of 2018 the AD of theatre performances was considered as more developed in comparison to other types of AD in Lithuania. An intense discussion about TV content adaptation for the Lithuanian visually impaired audience led to some results: at the end of 2018 the National Television began broadcasting the TV series “Laisves kaina. Disidentai” (“Price of Freedom. Dissidents”) with AD, and at the beginning of 2019 the Lithuanian Parliament Seimas issued a law that imposed a mandatory quantity of TV production adapted for blind and deaf people.

In this report special attention will be paid to the AD of the above mentioned TV series “Laisves kaina. Disidentai”. It is the first television project in Lithuania with additional AD audio track, which can be turned on in the settings of the TV or the digital receiver.

The series “Laisves kaina. Disidentai” has been broadcasted on the National Television for twelve weeks. It consists of twelve episodes with an average duration of about 56 minutes per episode. The series depicts a difficult period in Lithuania between 1956 and 1986 when the partisan movement was suppressed by the Soviet regime and the resistance to occupation gained other forms – a dissident struggle emerged. Since the series is based on historical facts of the occupation of Lithuania and the Soviet era, as a core problem emerges the fact that a range of subjects and objects do not exist nowadays. This report focuses on the AD of culture-specific items (CSI) which are hard to perceive not (only) because of vision loss but also because the new generation of TV viewers hardly understands the political, legal and administrative system of the former Soviet era, hardly knows the everyday life of that period. In this sense AD is helpful to better understand the historical situation and the idea of the series itself. Hence, it is possible to state that AD serves as a compensatory tool which provides a better access to cultural content and other kinds of information both – to the visually impaired audiences and / or to sighted people that have insufficient historical knowledge, thus AD expands the potential audience and can undoubtedly facilitate dissemination of such national products as well as possibly help to accelerate the development of the AD methodology in general.


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Ożarowska Aleksandra, Zelwerowicz Aleksander “Reading Assignments in Opera House: Operatic Surtitles and the Theory of Relevance”

Ożarowska Aleksandra, University of Warsaw, Poland. Zelwerowicz Aleksander, National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw, Poland

Surtitling is a fast growing area of translation and more and more libretti translations presented in the world’s biggest opera houses prove that surtitles are a significant element of the whole operatic performance. Moreover, they can considerably shape the significance of operatic productions or even manipulate them. Such adjustments are made particularly for productions with altered interpretation or modernised setting.

While focusing on the manipulation in surtitling, one may refer to the Theory of Relevance, a theory of cognition and communication formulated by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson, which sees translation as an act of communication between the translator and the target audience. The translator needs to communicate the most relevant information to the addressee (audience), but this relevant message may change depending on the operatic production and in some cases the source and target text may differ considerably.

Relevance theory has been applied to audiovisual translation for a long time, but surtitles have not been analysed from this perspective yet. Surtitles may be considered as a type of subtitles and they are even more heavily constrained, so if Relevance Theory is particularly applicable for subtitling, then the case of surtitles proves equally interesting. In addition, creating surtitles which at the same time are severely constrained and adjusted to particular productions is not an easy task.

In my research I focus on the surtitles provided to the audiences in the major opera houses, i.e. Metropolitan Opera House, Royal Opera House and Bavarian State Opera. Comparing the original libretti with the surtitles, I noticed that the surtitles accompanying the non-standard productions often diverge from the original meaning, as different information may be considered relevant. Furthermore, it is interesting to see whether these adjustments are made just in order to preserve the coherence of the non-standard performance or to actually lend the production or even an individual scene a new significance and still be relevant to the audience.

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Pacinotti Ambra “Suggested guidelines for the description of churches as total works of art”

Pacinotti Ambra, Università degli Studi di Trieste – UNITS, Italy

This contribution focuses on the audio description of churches as total works of art by means of a set of ad hoc guidelines devised by the author to deal with this specific category of art products.

Within the wider framework of experimental research in AVT, this study mainly draws upon the results of the European projects ADLAB, revolving around the creation of new and research-based guidelines for audio description, and ADLAB PRO, aimed at creating training materials for AD professionals.

The suggested guidelines for the description of churches take into account some critical aspects of an existing project aimed at making churches accessible through AD and follow a progression that combines state-of-the-art knowledge about AD and a traditional art history approach. They can be useful for describers as a guide for content selection and are examined in this contribution as a little step forward towards standardising the practice of AD, finding shared criteria for audio description quality assessment and increasing the accessibility of cultural heritage sites.

References Neves, J. (2012). Multi-sensory approaches to (audio)describing the visual arts. In E. Di Giovanni, P. Orero, R. Agost (Eds.), Multidisciplinarity in Audiovisual Translation. Multidisciplinarietat en traducció audiovisual. MonTI 4, 277-294.

Orero, P. (2012). Audio Description Behaviour: Universals, Regularities and Guidelines. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 2(17), 195-202.

Remael, A., Reviers, N., Vercauteren, G. (Eds.) (2015). Pictures Painted in Words: ADLAB Audio Description Guidelines. Trieste: EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste.

Snyder, J. (2014). The Visual Made Verbal: A Comprehensive Training Manual and Guide to the History and Application of Audio Description. Arlington: American Council of the Blind.

Vercauteren, G. (2007). Towards a European guideline for audiodescription. In Díaz-Cintas, J., Orero, P., Remael, A. (Eds.), Media for All: Subtitling for the Deaf, Audio Description, and Sign Language (pp. 137-149). Amsterdam: Rodopi.


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Pettit Zoë “Subtitling a South African television series to reach global audiences”

Pettit Zoë, University of Greenwich, United Kingdom

The global media services provider Netflix continues to extend its reach. Alongside this expansion and the need to offer programme diversity within the context of global audiences, the first season and 8 episodes of a new South African television series called Shadow, set and filmed in Johannesburg, was acquired by Netflix and released in 2019. It is the first South African written and produced television series that has successfully made it onto Netflix. The subtitles range from Arabic, English [CC], French, Polish to Traditional Chinese.

Shadow provides the opportunity for international audiences to access a setting which is likely to be different from their own. Whilst the series follows plot lines associated with the generic crime, action-adventure genre, the specific context brings differences. Furthermore, sub-genres can be identified in the episodes as they shift between action-drama, horror, thriller and comedy. My analysis will engage with the translation choices and strategies of the French subtitled version.

Linguistic diversity is a characteristic of sub-Saharan Africa which is reflected at policy level in South Africa where eleven languages are prescribed as official languages in the Constitution. Although English and indeed South African English are ubiquitous, multilingualism and code-switching occur frequently. This reality is conveyed in South African audio-visual productions. This paper expands on previous studies through its focus on the subtitled version of a streamed television series rather than subtitled films released on DVD. The interplay between subtitles, image and soundtrack of the original will be investigated within the broader context of the television series genre and its digital distribution via Netflix.

References Gareth Crocker & Fred Wolmarans (Directors). (2019). Shadow [Television series]. Motion Story Productions. Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81033727

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81033727

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Phetcharat Anochao “Dubbing Wordplay in Children’s Programmes from English into Thai: The Case of Toy Story Films”

Phetcharat Anochao, University College London, United Kingdom

This research project sets out to analyse how wordplay elements contained in children’s programmes are dubbed from English into a lesser known language such as Thai with particular reference to a corpus of three Pixar’s animated feature films: Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3.

Wordplay, considered as one of the most problematic and challenging linguistic aspects to be tackled with in the field of translation studies, particularly in Audiovisual Translation, is among other essential linguistic features commonly found in the many texts targeted at young receptors. As used by many authors to introduce their young audiences to new linguistic features, these attributes require some degree of creativity by the translators when transferred into the target language. With that being said, when the audiovisual productions addressed at young audience and containing wordplay are imported into Thailand, the dubbing translation is meant to be carried out in the way in which it serves the same purpose of the original text – boosting development of the young audience’s linguistic skills.

By adopting Toury’s (1995) framework of Descriptive Translation Studies and Delabastita’s (1996) work on wordplay classification, this preliminary work uncovers the various techniques implemented by the Thai translators when dealing with the dubbing of wordplay. It is expected to help gain a better and clearer understanding of the dubbing translation in Thailand for the benefit of the many stakeholders involved, and particularly for the knowledge distribution and the training of future translators that would like to enter this ever-expanding profession.

References Delabastita, D. (1996). Introduction. The Translator. Studies in Intercultural Communication 2(2). Special Issue on Wordplay and Translation, 1-22.

Toury, G. (1995). Descriptive Translation Studies – and beyond. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.


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Plewa Elżbieta “Polish Subtitling in the 1930s”

Plewa Elżbieta, University of Warsaw, Poland

We present the results of an archival study on Polish subtitling of pre-WWII films (until 1939). The main focus will be on the technical aspects of subtitling in Poland in the 1930s, such as the number of lines, number of characters per line, and subtitle display times. We will show the development of Polish film translation in its initial phase. In our talk, we will present previously unpublished pictures of early film subtitles, which come from original archival research. Contrary to some previous claims, film translation did not start with the introduction of sound in films – which occurred in Poland in the 1929/30 cinema season. Prior to that, in the silent cinema period, intertitles were a tested way of delivering content to the viewer. And these silent movies' intertitles were translated. Copies of various foreign films have even been preserved with Polish intertitle translation rather than the original intertitles. Imitating intertitles in silent films, subtitles began to appear in films with sound and dialogue. These were “inserted subtitles” – between scene edits. Only later were subtitles burnt into the image, which began modern film subtitling.

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Ramos Pinto Sara “More than Words: a reception study on the subtitling of nonverbal elements”

Ramos Pinto Sara, University of Leeds, United Kingdom

Acknowledging the complexity of audiovisual products, Audiovisual Translation has turned to fields like Multimodal Studies for new and more adequate methodologies and analytical frameworks. Such turn has, however, known little in-depth reflection on the principles upon which those tools have been built or on what accepting those principles means for TS.

In this presentation, I will revise some of the basic principles of Multimodal Studies and their implications for subtitling. I will discuss how both the practice and research on subtitling have remained mostly focused on verbal resources and their translation (reducing nonverbal resources to ‘context’) and the theoretical and practical implications resulting from this. As a result, I will question the contextualising role to which nonverbal resources have been reduced to and challenge the traditional understanding of a) nonverbal elements (such as images or sounds) as universal codes easily interpreted by any viewer without further mediation, and b) translation as limited to the verbal.

Building on the principles proposed by Multimodal studies, I will contend that all resources co-occurring with speech are signs in their own right that might present different challenges to (different) viewers. This will be achieved on the basis of empirical data collected by a recent reception study (50 participants) focused on comparing the impact on viewers’ meaning-making of current subtitling practices focused on the verbal and innovative subtitling procedures (such as the use of headtitles) aiming at translating meaning expressed by nonverbal resources. The results collected through a triangulated methodology (eye-tracking, questionnaires and interviews) point towards the need for a fundamental shift in our understanding of nonverbal resources, reconsidering the impact of logocentric subtitling practices on the target product’s profile and reception. They also point towards the need to revisit key concepts such as “subtitling”, “text”, “source/target text”, and “equivalence”.


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Reynolds Peter “How technology can improve AVT quality!”

Reynolds Peter, memoQ, Poland

While CAT tools and machine translation have been used in audio-visual translation for some time. They have not always helped improve the speed and quality of the translation. One problem is that the technologies are not designed with AVT in mind or they are proprietary tools which can only be used for certain projects. This presentation will look at trends in translation technology that have AVT as a more central discipline and improve the quality of the translation.

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Reus Tim ”The Snowmen of Song Dubbing: Micro-Level Dubbing Strategies in the Song ‘Do you Want to Build a Snowman’ from Disney’s Frozen”

Reus Tim, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Despite the global popularity of animated musical films, such as Disney’s Frozen (2013), little academic research has been conducted on the strategies and effects of dubbing the songs of such films. This study concentrates on one song from Frozen, ‘Do you Want to Build a Snowman’, and analyses the micro-level dubbing strategies found in the dubbed product.

To investigate what constraints affect the dubbing process, this study uses the triangle of aspects (Reus 2018). This model combines musical aspects such as rhythm, rhyme, and singability (e.g. Low 2017); visual aspects such as synchrony and gestures (e.g. Chaume 2012); and verbal aspects such as sense and register. The resulting analysis is used to discuss the differences between the Netherlands and Belgian Dutch TTs and the ST.

It is found that the Netherlands TT is most similar concerning the musical aspects, and differs most strongly concerning the verbal aspects. The Belgian TT, conversely, is most similar concerning visual aspects, and less so concerning the musical and verbal aspects. This analysis offers an insight into song dubbing practice and highlights the value of the quantitative tools provided by the triangle of aspects for an otherwise large qualitative area of research.

References Chaume, F. (2012). Audiovisual translation: dubbing. Manchester: St. Jerome.

Low, P. (2017). Translating songs: lyrics and texts. Abingdon & New York: Routledge.

Reus, T. (2018). Exploring skopos in the Dutch dubbed versions of the songs of Disney's Frozen. New Voices in Translation Studies, 19(1), 1-24.


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Rędzioch-Korkuz Anna “The Issue of Text Supremacy and Power: Surtitling Eugene Onegin for Polish Audiences”

Rędzioch-Korkuz Anna, University of Warsaw, Poland

The paper will discuss Polish surtitles for the well-known opera “Eugene Onegin” by Pyotr Tchaikovsky staged at the Polish National Opera in Warsaw. The point of departure will be the question of power seen as a constraining factor stemming from various sources.

“Eugene Onegin” is an example of an operatic work of which libretto is based on a canonical text. Adapted by the composer to a considerable extent, the libretto closely follows its literary source, therefore it is wordy and is characterised by an elevated style and a high degree of poetry. The Polish translation of the libretto renders the stylistic markedness of the original and serves as a textual basis of surtitles. As a result, the process of surtitling, apart from other intricacies and constraints typical of this AVT modality, may involve acknowledging the status of the translation and the libretto literary source as well as the existing literary translations of the poem into Polish. Moreover, the original and its translation may be subject to yet another process of rewriting initiated by persons in charge of the staging, which again may be visible in the surtitles.

The paper will be an attempt made to assess whether the canonical nature of the original source may be considered one of the key constraints in the surtitling process along with the power of creative authors responsible for the staging. By addressing the question of the status of the source (meaning intermediary texts, such as Polish translations of the poem and the libretto translation) and its reflection in the corresponding surtitles, the paper will try to determine whether the latter serve as a rendition of literature or an integral element of the operatic text. It will also try to examine potential impediments which may hinder the process of the performance reception, mainly due to the flowery language of the surtitles that may not match the staging, which appears rather austere.

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Rica-Peromingo Juan Pedro, Ángela Sáenz-Herrero “Audiovisual Translation in the era of the fake news: the case of mockumentaries”

Rica-Peromingo Juan Pedro, UCM, Spain Ángela Sáenz-Herrero, UE, Spain

In the era of the fake news and the post-truth, distinguishing between fiction and reality supposes not only a problem of perception but also presents a dilemma in the identification and characterization of popular culture. Identifying what is humorous and laughable and what is not proposes to the consumer new values, meanings and confusion. The elements and participants in the films catalogued as mockumentaries such as the fictionality within its documentary format; the cultural aspects and the humour implicit in its discourse are all components to be taken into account in the adaptation into another language.

After selecting a corpus of films sharing similar characteristics (they have been broadcasted on TV or have TV format, they present similar features in their plot (conspiracy theories), they include a large number of cultural references), we propose a methodological framework (Werner 2010; Zabalbeascoa, 1996) for audiovisual translators that might help when they face and unfold these films.

We suggest an examination from an integral point of view, taking into account the different AVT aspects (cinematographic, linguistic and technical) and the tools present in the mockumentaries: humorous aspect and deconstruction of reality (Roscoe & Hight, 2001:73). These are all aspects present nowadays in the era of the fake news.

References Roscoe, J. & Hight, C. (2001). Faking it: Mock-documentary and the subversion of factuality. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Werner Díaz Navarrete, M. (2010). Tesina: “Un estudio Traductológico de los referentes extralingüísticos en la subtitulación ejemplificados en la serie de televisión Cuentame cómo pasó”. Copenhague.

Zabalbeascoa, P. (1996). “La traducción de la comedia televisiva: implicaciones teóricas” in Fernández Nistal, P. and Bravo, J.M. (eds.), A Spectrum of Translation Studies. Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, pp. 173-221.


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Romero-Fresco Pablo “Subtitling blindness and the global film”

Romero-Fresco Pablo, Universidade de Vigo, Spain

By promoting the integration of accessibility and translation into the filmmaking process, accessible filmmaking (AFM) fosters the collaboration between filmmakers and translators/media accessibility experts, thus helping two bridge the gap between professionals whose jobs are normally as related as they are disconnected (Romero-Fresco, 2013). In the AFM model, before discussing with translators the strategies to be adopted in a particular film, filmmakers are provided with research-informed knowledge about what happens when films are translated or made accessible. This is based on decades of empirical research in audiovisual translation and media accessibility (Di Giovanni and Gambier, 2018), which has traditionally been overlooked by both filmmakers and film scholars (Dwyer, 2017). The findings of this research reveal aspects that can have a dramatic impact on the nature and reception of films and that have so far been placed solely on the translators’ shoulders.

Of all those aspects, one of the most important ones is subtitling blindness (Romero-Fresco, 2019). Drawing on perceptual phenomena observed in original film viewing such as inattentional blindness (the failure to notice a fully visible element when attention is engaged on another task) (Simons, 2007) and edit blindness (failure to notice cuts) (Smith & Henderson, 2008), subtitling blindness refers to instances in which reading a subtitle may prevent viewers from watching an important part of the image on screen. This presentation analyses five scenarios that may trigger subtitling blindness: shots with dialogue/narration over on-screen text, an important visual element at the beginning of a scene with dialogue/narration, an important visual element in a scene with fast dialogue, shots where the subtitle covers important visual elements and short shots with dialogue/narration. Research conducted on subtitling blindness (Romero-Fresco, 2019) shows that when faced with any of these five very common scenarios, foreign viewers and viewers with hearing loss may end up effectively watching a different film to those watching the original version, or, at least, they may be watching the same film so differently that it becomes a different film.

In order to tackle this issue, this presentation introduces the concept of the global film (which includes the original and the translated and accessible versions of a film) to help filmmakers widen their perspective beyond the original version of their films (Romero-Fresco, 2020). An overview of similar concepts used in different contexts is followed by examples in which the notion of global film could have helped to solve translational issues and, finally, by an account of pioneering filmmakers who have already considered the global film and applied a similar approach to the AFM model, ensuring that their vision is maintained across translated and accessible versions.

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References Di Giovanni, Elena and Gambier, Y. (2018). Reception Studies and Audiovisual Translation. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Dwyer, T. (2017). Speaking in subtitles: revaluing screen translation (p. 228). Retrieved from http://cataleg.uji.es/record=b1439594~S1*cat

Romero-Fresco, P. (2013). Accessible filmmaking: Joining the dots between audiovisual translation, accessibility and filmmaking. Journal of Specialized Translation, 20, 201–223. Retrieved from http://www.jostrans.org/issue20/art_romero.php

Romero-Fresco, P. (2019). Accessible Filmmaking: Integrating translation and accessibility into the filmmaking process. London: Routledge.

Romero-Fresco, P. (2020). The accessible filmmaker and the global film. MonTI - Monografías de Traducción e Interpretación, 11.

Simons, D. J. (2007). Inattentional Blindness. Scholarpedia (Vol. 2, p. 3244).

Smith, T. J., & Henderson, J. M. (2008). Edit Blindness: The relationship between Attention and Global Change Blindness in Dynamic Scenes. Journal of Eye Movement Research (Vol. 2, pp. 1–17).

Henderson, J. M. (2008). Edit Blindness: The relationship between Attention and Global Change Blindness in Dynamic Scenes. Journal of Eye Movement Research (Vol. 2, pp. 1–17).

http://cataleg.uji.es/record=b1439594%7ES1*cat

http://www.jostrans.org/issue20/art_romero.php


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Romero-Fresco Pablo, Fresno Nazaret “Live subtitling in Europe and North America: different approaches, similar challenges”

Romero-Fresco Pablo, Universidade de Vigo, Spain. Fresno Nazaret, University of Rio Grande - Texas, USA

Ever since live subtitling was first introduced in Europe and North America as a regular service towards the end of the 20th century, it has been approached very differently in those two continents. Until now, real-time captioning in the US and Canada has been treated as a profession, rather than a research area, and it has been very much related to communication access real-time translation (CART), and more specifically the use of stenography on court. Given the need to provide a verbatim account of the audio in this legal context, when applied to TV, real-time captioners have taken a similar verbatim approach (Jensema, McCann, & Ramsey, 1996). In Europe, where live subtitling is a vibrant area of research within audiovisual translation and media accessibility, respeaking is currently the most common method, which explains the non-verbatim and more edited approach to live subtitles (Romero-Fresco, 2009). Despite these differences, live subtitling in Europe and real-time captioning in North America are now facing similar challenges, which is bringing them closer than they have ever been. One of those challenges is quality, as countries in both continents are having to asses and report on the quality of live subtitles, revise the need to include quality metrics in official regulations, find ways to certify live subtitlers and quality evaluators and test the use of new approaches, such as the use of automatic live subtitles or interlingual live subtitling.

Building up on several studies conducted by the authors (Fresno, 2019; Romero-Fresco et al., forthcoming; Romero-Fresco, 2016), this presentation will provide an overview of the present and future of live subtitling in Europe and North America. Firstly, it will compare data on live subtitling quality (accuracy rates, speed and delay) across several European and North American countries using the NER model. This will be followed by an analysis of the official live subtitling regulations and the professional certifications (whether for respeakers, such as LiRICS in the UK, or for quality evaluators, such as the NER certification in Canada) available in those countries. Finally, the presentation will focus on how European and North American countries are tackling new developments in live subtitling, with data on interlingual live subtitling from the EU-funded ILSA project and the first preliminary results comparing the use of respeaking and automatic subs in the UK and Canada.

References Fresno, N. (2019). Of bad hombres and nasty women; the quality of the live closed captioning in the 2016 US final presidential debate. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 27(3), 350–366.

Jensema, C., McCann, R., & Ramsey, S. (1996). Closed-captioned Television Presentation Speed and Vocabulary. American Annals of the Deaf, 141(4), 284–292.

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Romero-Fresco, P. (2009). More haste less speed: Edited versus verbatim respoken subtitles. Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 6(1).

Romero-Fresco, P. (2016). Accessing communication: The quality of live subtitles in the UK. Language and Communication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2016.06.001

Romero-Fresco, P., Melchor-Couto, S., Dawson, H., Moores, Z., & Pedregosa, I. (forthcoming). Respeaking certification: Bringing together training, research and practice. Linguistica Antverpiensia New Series.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2016.06.001


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Satkauskaitė Danguolė ”Development of Film Dubbing in Lithuania: When, Who and How?”

Satkauskaitė Danguolė, Vilnius University, Lithuania

Since there is no extensive study of the history of AVT modes in Lithuania, a brief overview of it will be given in the presentation with the focus on dubbing.

AVT history is inevitably related to the history of the country. Therefore three main periods of AVT could be distinguished: 1) from the first attempts to produce, translate and show AV production in Lithuania to the occupation by the Soviet Union in 1940, 2) the use of dubbing and other AVT modes in Soviet Lithuania (up to 1989) and 3) dubbing practice in independent Lithuania since 1990.

In the first period, in Lithuanian cinema theatres, films were either shown without any translation or subtitled in different languages, depending on the political situation and language policy respectively.

In the second period, Lithuanian Cinema Studio and Lithuanian Television were responsible for film purchase and translation. The communist regime has imposed strict censorship on the content of all AV production in this period. During three decades, Lithuanian Television dubbed around 1,000 animated films, produced in the Soviet Union and known as “Old Animation” (Lith. Senoji animacija).

At the beginning of the third period, there were neither financial nor technological possibilities for film dubbing. The particularly successful dubbing of Shrek 2 in 2004 could be considered as a rebirth of Lithuanian dubbing. At present, at least 6 Lithuanian companies are involved in AVT, including dubbing. Even though dubbing is mostly focused on animation with some rare exceptions, recent research has revealed that dubbed animated films are more popular in Lithuania compared to other countries. One of the factors for such a trend could be the use of AVT modes, namely – dubbing.

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Stagnaro Valentina “CAT tools and MTPE in Audiovisual translation: weapon or threat for AV translators?”

Stagnaro Valentina, translator and subtitler, Italy

The development of the audiovisual market has shaped producers’ and users’ expectations about the quality of the end product, although the role of the AV translator, at least in Italy, is often neglected. The lack of recognition and the low fees have incouraged non professionals to enter the sector, with a huge impact on end quality.

This presentation aims to explore the pros and cons of CAT tools and MTPE in AV translation, and their implications in terms of productivity. Typically, CAT tools are not used in media translation and are generally frowned upon by many professionals in the AV sector. Starting from the original script format, the workflow will be analyzed in order to highlight its qualities and flaws through the discussion of some examples of TMs and terminology management, and QA. While CAT tools might improve the quality-related aspect, MTPE could meet the clients’ requests in terms of deadlines and limited budget. However, MTPE is strongly linked to the use of controlled language in the source text and to a new professional figure able to perform the different phases of MT post or pre-editing. Some examples processed with MateCat will be discussed to highlight the strenghts of MTPE as well as its limits.

The use of such technologies could discourage non-pros, allowing professionals to focus just on quality.

References Federico, M., Cattelan, A., & Trombetti, M. (2012, november 12). Measuring User Productivity in Machine Translation Enhanced Computer Assisted Translation. Retrieved from MateCat.com: https://www.matecat.com/publications/measuring-user-productivity-in-machine-translation-enhanced-computer-assisted-translation/

Lecci, C., & Di Bello, E. (2012). Usare la traduzione assistita. CLUEB.

Moorkens, J., Castilho, S., Gaspari, F., & Doherty, S. (2018). Translation Quality Assessment. Springer International Publishing.

Perego E. (2005). La traduzione audiovisiva. Carocci.

https://www.matecat.com/publications/measuring-user-productivity-in-machine-translation-enhanced-computer-assisted-translation/

https://www.matecat.com/publications/measuring-user-productivity-in-machine-translation-enhanced-computer-assisted-translation/


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Struk Tetyana, Struk Anastasiya “Inaccessible accessibility: the experience of implementing services that do not exist”

Struk Tetyana, Ukraine Linguistic Centre® Translation and Localization Company Struk Anastasiya, Ukraine Linguistic Centre® Translation and Localization Company

Speakers will talk about the peculiarities of the development and implementation of accessibility services by the company, which (as it turned out) logically complement the services traditionally offered by translation companies.

This includes audio description, web accessibility, sign language translation, translation into simple language, and much more – the range is actually wide and there is only the one issue that complicates everything: these services are not available in the country, and the small amount that exists is provided by volunteers.

How to offer services for which there are no clear performance criteria and quality assessment?

How to find a vendor if there are no trained specialists yet?

How to assess the feasibility of implementation, if the market for such services is marked only by legislative regulations, which are kept only by a few organizations?

Tetyana and Anastasiya are ready to share their first steps on the way of such implementation in audio description that includes development of the training scheme, finding clients, and creating the workflow for services that do not exist in their country.

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Szczygielska Monika, Dutka Łukasz ”Live subtitling, sign language interpreting and audio description in online streaming: Code of Good Practice in Accessible Live Streaming”

Szczygielska Monika, University of Warsaw, Dostepni.eu, Poland. Dutka Łukasz, University of Warsaw, Poland

Different access services have the potential to provide multilingual access to live events for blind, D/deaf, deaf and blind people, as well as migrants, foreigners and anybody who needs individual solutions to fully understand and participate in live events.

Guidelines are needed to professionalise the provision of access services such as live subtitling, audio description and sign language interpreting and better serve the needs of the users participating in the event in its venue or remotely, through online streaming.

The paper follows our previous work on guidelines for live subtitling in online streaming and aims to provide a wider perspective encompassing all major access services. We will discuss the technical and organisational challanges related to implementing different intralingual and interlingual access services in live events. We will present a draft version of the guidelines on accessiblve live streaming with live subtitling, audio description and sign language interpreting in the form of the Code of Good Practice in Accessible Live Streaming with particular attention paid to specific challenges arising from the co-existence of these services. Following the consultations with the stakeholders, the final version of the guidelines will become available online.

This work is part of the ILSA project on interlingual live subtitling funded by the European Comission.


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Wells Vanessa “Even Jane Austen Needed an Editor”

Wells Vanessa, Reel Words Subtitle and Caption Editing, Canada

No writer creates perfect communication; as it is in book publishing, so it is with subtitling: professionally translated dialogue needs a collaborator—a target-language editor to ensure the audience remains immersed in the story.

Subtitle editing must not be prescriptive, nor should it infringe on the subtitler’s crafted text. But as Pablo Romero-Fresco discusses, a Director of Accessibility and Translation collaborates with a creative team throughout the accessible filmmaking workflow to ensure faithfulness to the “filmmaker’s original artistic intentions,”1 which can include amendments to subtitles. Copy editing interlingual subtitles or SDH benefits the audience, as they are reeled in to flawless communication of the director’s vision.

Subtitlers and production houses are starting to turn to subtitle editing to ensure the film’s audiovisual translation reaches the target-language audience without stumbles in processing what they’re reading. The subtitler’s text is also checked for the types of errors that their own writers can rarely spot, because cognitive performance breakdowns and lack of feedback loops can lead to typos the keyboarder cannot detect.2 In short, the editor catches issues that might undermine the subtitler’s efforts and polishes the timed text—just as the book editor saves face many times over for the award-winning author. If Jane Austen hadn’t embraced editing, her teenage blockbuster would have been printed in perpetuity as Love and Freindship.3

References Romero-Fresco, P. & Fryer, L. (2018). Accessible Filmmaking Guide. London: British Film Institute, 3.

Kalfaoglu, C. & Stafford, T. (2014). Performance Breakdown Effects Dissociate from Error Detection Effects in Typing. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 67(3), 508–24. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2013.820762.

Project Gutenberg’s Love And Freindship And Other Early Works, by Jane Austen. www.gutenberg.org/files/1212/1212-h/1212-h.htm.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1212/1212-h/1212-h.htm

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Xavier Catarina “F*cks, sh*ts and ass*s: A study of the subtitling of taboo language within translation norms theory”

Xavier Catarina, ULICES-University of Lisbon Centre for English Studies, Portugal

Within Audiovisual Translation Studies, there have been many studies dedicated to the subtitling of taboo. Nonetheless, they are mainly restricted to quantitative and qualitative data about translation strategies as well as overall explanations justifying the results. Thus, an analysis of taboo language from the point of view of translation norms theory is still missing.

Positioned within the Descriptive Translation Studies paradigm, this paper primary purpose is to study subtitling norms as far as taboo language is concerned in broadcast TV in Portugal, during the 21st century. Still, as Chesterman ([2006] 2017: 185) puts it: “[n]orms have become a key concept in Translation Studies, at least since Toury (1980). But there is still disagreement about how best to define them, and also how to study them”. As shared social entities, norms regulate not only the individuals’ behaviour but also their expectations regarding what is the appropriate behaviour at a particular place and time (Schäffner, 2010: 237). Norms, being non-observable phenomena, however, raise methodological concerns in an empirical, descriptive and systematic study. Bearing this in mind, this paper proposes a model based on data triangulation focused on the investigation of observed regularities, on the one hand, and subtitlers’ beliefs, on the other, by examining i) a corpus of more than 134000 words from different subtitled movies broadcasted on national television between 2001 and 2015, and ii) the attitudes of Portuguese subtitlers towards the subtitling of taboo collected through questionnaires. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses, regarding the corpus and the questionnaires, which have identified the most frequent subtitling strategies, their possible motivations as well as the relevance of different textual (repetition, markedness, sematic field, textual function; extratextual function) and contextual variables (time period; state vs private channel) will contextualize the formulation of a norm regarding the subtitling of taboo words.

References Chesterman, Andrew. [2006] 2017. A note on norms and evidence. In A, Chesterman (Ed.), Reflections on Translation Theory. Selected papers 1993–2014. (pp. 185-192). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Schäffner, Christina. 2010. Norms of translation. In Y. Gambier & L. van Doorslaer (Eds.), Handbook of Translation Studies. Vol. 1 (pp. 235-244). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.


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