Subtitling Vs Dubbing

Subtitling and/or Dubbing?!
Mihaela Alina Ifrim

Audio visual translation and film language
• Audiovisual translation can be defined as a discipline that represents
more than a simple transfer as pictures, music, sounds and other non-
verbal elements are involved in the process of transfer of meaning
• It contains technicalities of the production, language transfer and
socio-cultural factors
• Audiovisual texts are built in accordance with the convention of a very
complex language having its own rules and conventions and
overcoming linguistic communication. This language is called film
language
Film language – the unique language of
cinema
• ‘speaking’ the film language = going beyond the ‘denoted’ meaning and
deciphering the ‘connoted’ meaning
• There are 3 areas: film form/structure, film language, meaning
Film form – micro & macro levels
Film language – visuals, sound, editing, acting, lighting etc.
Meaning – the meaning of the film is its essence & is provided via theme,
story, characters, various elements of film language, as well as its composition.
cinema
• Film form – microstructures and macrostructure
– function
– repetition and similarity
– difference and variation
– development
cinema
• Film language
Cinema, being a medium that has a rich language of its own, needs one to
pay attention to the elements of image and sound.
Deciphering various aural and visual cues provided through the text and
subtext is crucial to understand the film. While it is important for the filmmaker to
handle this language skilfully, it is equally important for the spectator to be
sensitised to this unique language.
In a film, every image carries a meaning of its own; also, sound plays an
important role as it may complement/support/exaggerate visual image. Proper use
of both ‘sound’ and ‘silence’, as abstract as they are, lend a beauty to the whole
film.
cinema
• Mise-en-scene (‘staging an action’ or ‘putting on the stage’)
In film, the term is used to refer to the director’s control over
what appears in the film frame.
It is one of the most frequently used and variously interpreted
term in film analyses.
Generally, mise-en-scene study includes elements such as:
production design (setting & props), costumes, colour (both in
production design and lighting), actor’s performance (including casting
& make-up) and movement (blocking), framing including position of
camera, aspect ratio, depth of field, height and angle, diegetic sound
Types of audiovisual translation
• Interlingual translation:
a. subtitling,
b. dubbing,
c. voice-over
• Intralingual (monolingual) subtitling for the hard-of-hearing and the
deaf
• Audio description for the blind
• Live subtitling (news broadcasts)
• Subtitling for the opera and the theatre
Subtitling vs Dubbing
• S & D represent two methods for language transfer in the translation
process of mass audiovisual communication such as film and television,
with little attention paid from the discipline of Translation Studies
• Subtitling – a translation of the spoken source language in the form of
synchronized captions, usually at the bottom of the screen. It is the form
that alters the source text to the least possible text, enabling, at the same
time, an awareness of the audience in terms of the foreignness of the text
• Dubbing – the foreign dialogue is adjusted to the mouth and movements of
the actor in the film, the main aim of it being to make the audience feel as
if they watch a film whose actors actually speak the target language
Subtitling – advantages
• It is considered the most neutral, minimally mediated method that
involves the least interference with the original (preserves the flavour
of the foreign language as well as the sense of a different culture)
• May have a role in language learning and in a better understanding of
the narrative network of a film
• It is not expensive
• It is better for the heard-of-hearing and the deaf and for immigrants
and tourists
Subtitling - disadvantages
• It involves significant cuts in the length of the dialogue

• There is a greater loss of information because of compression
• The attention of the audience is split between soundtrack, image and
subtitles
• It spoils the image (debatable)
Dubbing - advantages
• It does not distract attention from the image
• It represents the ideal form of film translation in terms of faithfulness,
on the assumption that strictly linguistic considerations should not
determine the overall value of a translation. The phonological
synchronism requires a perfect match between what is seen, and the
sounds produced by the studio actor (words, breathing, screams,
grunts etc.)
• It is considered better for children and people with poor reading skills
Dubbing – disadvantages
• It is much more expensive than subtitling and it takes more time

• It may involve loss of the original soundtrack
• The voices of the dubbing actors can be repetitive after some time
• There are particular situations when dubbing becomes a nonsensical
act (e.g. scenes with characters that speak different languages)
Choosing between subtitling and dubbing -
factors
• The economic factor

• The historical factor
• The ideological factor
• The cultural factor

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Subtitling and/or Dubbing?!

Mihaela Alina Ifrim

Film form – micro & macro levels

Film language – visuals, sound, editing, acting, lighting etc.

• It involves significant cuts in the length of the dialogue

• It is much more expensive than subtitling and it takes more time

• The economic factor

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