By Lídia Mello
Language serves among others, for people to communicate and connect, to express different cultures, identities and histories.
The audiovisual translation deals with sounds and images, making accessible to a wider audience films made in different languages. In addition, it favors people’s learning and understanding of certain subjects, as well as assists companies and clients in negotiations and acquisition of products. Therefore, it is used in films, TV shows, theater, advertising, video games, internet videos, institutional, corporate, informative and educational videos, and softwares, in cultural areas and others.
Translation for subtitling
Translation for subtitling, in turn, moreover making films and videos accessible in various languages, enables the digital inclusion of people with hearing impairments and the democratization of diverse audiovisual content – whether over the internet, on social networks, on streaming platforms, or on TV, from the school to the business environment, or at home, by cell phone or computer. This feature is widely used in movies and is a powerful tool in understanding a language you don’t understand.
This kind of work requires linguistic, technical and cultural skills, and competencies of the translator, who must have knowledge of research tools and preferably also of the cinematographic language. This type of professional should also know about grammatical domain, the structure of the different languages, the subjects to be translated, how to use specific software, the different subtitle formats (srt, sub, etc.), respect the technical norms, such as character division by line, timing, synchronization, and understand quality standards. Nonetheless, it is important for a translator to comply with the requirements of the international audiovisual market, for example, Netflix, which has specific rules.
For a good understanding and adequacy of what is translated, furthermore being detailed, agile and careful, the translator must adapt the pace of the film and rhythms of speech in the act of translation, without losing the meaning of what is being said. And it is desirable that the translator knows how to revise well what has been translated.
The use of subtitling on social media
Although social networks, such as YouTube and Instagram (IGTV), which are widely accessible references to the public, offer the automatic or manual video subtitling feature, many users and some companies are unaware of these functionalities. However, this feature still has many translation errors, usually made by machines, and need to be reviewed by a professional subtitling translator.
The social function of translation for subtitling
Translation for subtitling contributes to the social function of companies, NGOs and public institutions, since subtitles serve to communicate certain information to different audiences in the world, especially in times of global crises, such as epidemics and natural disasters. In countries with dialects and expressions that vary according to region, subtitling helps in understanding various discourses and dialogues between people, through audiovisual means.
