FEATURE or series to local standards or expressions. Right from the synopsis phase through to pre-production and post production, lip-sync dubbing and voice-over screenplays, localisation and subtitling skillsets are involved in making programmes and movies coherent for all audiences. Netflix and Amazon productions are also making use of subtitles, with examples such as Roma and many Amazon series. Riccardo Mimmi is a skilled localisation specialist and subtitler based in Italy and has been translating and subtitling hundreds of well-known movies, TV series, and documentaries from major Hollywood studios, broadcast networks and online streaming companies over the course of his entire career. Some of the many titles he has worked on include The Man in the High Castle, The Americans, The Office and others. Passionate about his work, Riccardo says, “The goal of any filmmaker is to convey messages and emotions by transposing stories and characters to the screen. Localised versions are only as good if they are faithful to the creative intent that sparked their creation.” Universities and colleges are on board with preparing subtitling students for the film industry. A good example is the Hellenic American College in Athens, which is offering courses in leading subtitling software platforms in its Masters in Translation (MAT) Programme and Audiovisual Translation Lab. Students in the MAT programme acquire the credentials to begin a career in translation, audio-visual translation and editing. They have the option of specialising in the creative industries and entering the world of audio-visual translation, gaming localisation or translation for museums or advertising companies. Dr. Vasilis Manousakis, who teaches Literary and Audio-visual Translation at Hellenic American College, is an artist in his own right, having subtitled and translated a broad range of genres, series and films produced by Disney, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. and Netflix, including Star Wars and Game of Thrones. He noted, “Our industry is made up of companies such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney; they all require Accessibility Functions (Audio Description and SDH).” Another major advantage that subtitling brings to filmmakers is that it does not add any large expense to the budget. Both filmmakers and broadcasters need to view subtitling as an affordable “add-on” that increases product value, adheres to accessibility rights, and gives a competitive edge. Furthermore, subtitles play an essential role in helping to improve communication – a fact verified by our current times during the present Covid-19 global pandemic. The United Nations and World Health Organisation along with governments across the globe are relying on using videos with subtitling to demonstrate urgent and emergency messaging to populations. Ranging
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from instructional and practical advice to providing educational and instructional details on facts and figures, subtitles have provided an invaluable resource and communications device on phones and television to convey messaging across entire countries and continents concisely with clarity. Solutions architect and support engineer Pedro Jervis from broadcast and media solutions reseller Pantalha based in Portugal shared his views on why he thinks that subtitling is so valid. “While most of our customers are not using, or even need, a subtitle system yet, I foresee that they may do so very soon. One cannot ignore the globalisation of the world, and as customers work towards reaching more and more consumers, they will have to adapt to the reality that they will have viewers from different nationalities. This demands a good subtitling system behind it to ensure maximum quality. Especially once we get into streaming, and the customer wants to provide different languages as subtitles. They will need a quick and easy system that can empower their content. “Portugal, compared to fellow European countries such as Spain and Germany, has very little tradition of dubbing international content other than children’s television shows. As such, we are quite used to subtitling imported content. Having a platform that allows subtitling companies to quickly and easily create and add subtitles to their customer’s content, proves itself to be an invaluable tool.” CEO of PBT EU Ivanka Vassileva who heads the distribution of the SubtitleNEXT system which has been adopted by the likes of Belgium’s production company Videohouse and has been used on series such as Vikings and Big Little Lies, said the team at SubtitleNEXT, firmly believe in opening audiences up to a whole new world. “By creating a subtitling application to help surpass language barriers, our aim is to make subtitling more widely accessible and user friendly. From the very beginning, the platform was created to be made available to everyone at every level. To achieve this, it has familiar text-editing application tools that are user-friendly.” Vassileva’s words provide an optimistic overview of subtitling and the future ahead. “In these difficult times when sharing vital information with everyone is crucial, it is apparent how important subtitles and captions have become. The current global health crisis has demonstrated how essential subtitles are for critical information exchange. On a filmmaking note, subtitling is being used to enhance entertainment and help audiences enjoy a wider variety of film, television and social media footage. “Subtitles are informative, helpful, and a great communication tool and enhance a movie. Our message to filmmakers out there is to use them where you can and have fun with them. Happy subtitling!” n
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