Filmmaking is a collaborative art. There is a need for different types of artist to make the film. To make a good film you need artists who can act, edit, cinematography, design sets, etc. There is one more art which is always right under your nose but it doesn’t get as much attention as others. It is the art of subtitling.  

                                

You may think, how can subtitling or translating a movie be considered as an art? It may seem simple but, there are many challenges faced while doing it. It is an art which helps the movie reach all over the globe. If it wouldn’t have existed then filmmakers would have no source of inspiration from movies of the other countries and other parts of the world. Translating is not the only goal of making subtitles there are many others factors.    

Since, film is an expressive art. It is really important to make the film understood by others and the story from one part of the earth is expressed elsewhere. In this post we’ll look into some of the facts and challenges of subtitling. So, that next the time you watch a movie with subtitles you can appreciate it.   

Expressing the emotion:   

The subtitles should be able to express the same emotion of the scene as in the dialogues. This is one of the most difficult part of subtitling, the editor and the translator should hand pick words that are effective and words that express the same emotion. If not the person who will be watching may have a hard time understanding the scene.

The word problem:  

The language is a tool for communication. We must remember that every word is made to express something. But, in some countries many of the words we use in English may not exist or many words in their language may not exist in English. This happens when there is no use for that word in their country. For example, Portuguese language doesn’t have a word for “bully”, while bread dough, cake mix, batter and pastry have a word in Portuguese called “massa”. When “massa” is used in the film, there will be no one word English translation to it.  

When this happens, the editors will get frustrated. This is a common problem. Most of the time the same word is used as in the foreign language and the meaning of the word are put in brackets. This is not a good practice, but this is what is done when there’s no other option.     

Its has its own screenplay:

While making regional films the director or the writer of the film also makes drafts in English language while writing the film. This will save a lot of time and money during the editing of the footage. Recently a 2016 Kannada film Thithi had 10 different drafts for subtitles. Here's the trailer. Look how subtitle is doing it job. Taking the help of a translator is not recommended because a translator may ignore the artistic aspect of the film. Its like you take a poem in your native language and use Google translate to English, The poem will lose its power.

Time and Space:

The subtitle should be showed for exactly the same amount of time as the character is talking, or else the audience will get confused about who is talking and who isn't. This is a very difficult task, because there will be different length of words in different language and the time which is required to read the subtitles should also be taken into consideration. 

Swearing and songs:   

When cuss words are used in the film it is very difficult, because a bad word in one language may not be as bad in the other. Most foreign language film has the same problem, the words they use to swear is not as effective when translated. Most of the time the word is replaced with similar word which gives the same emotion, this is done with a lot of trial and error.

Movies with songs are more difficult. As I told before, the poem when translated to other language may not be as good. Especially in Indian movies with songs will have a tough time subtitling.  Sometimes, bad subtitling will lead to hilarious meanings of the song.

Thanks for reading, let me know how you felt about this post in the comments. Cheers!

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