SUBTITLING BLINDNESS

How Subtitles affect the Viewing Process

The SubtitleNEXT team collated key quotes from leading experts in subtitling within the film industry and from major universities across Europe to share their insights into why subtitling needs to be considered at the start of production and also what it entails in terms of what the differences are between interpreting and translating and how localization comes in to the mix.  This week we kick off with some wise words that  Lukasz Dutka, a member of AVT Lab, a research group on audiovisual translation and a trainer in subtitling at the University of Warsaw in Poland shares with us.  He explains that with eye-tracking technology you can study how people view movies and how subtitles affect the viewing process:

Lukasz Dutka, a member of AVT Lab, a research group on audiovisual translation and a trainer in subtitling at the University of Warsaw, Poland, explains that with eye-tracking technology you can study how people view movies and how subtitles affect the viewing process. “What we see in research is that the moment a subtitle is displayed on screen, our eyes automatically move to read it. Once we have read the subtitle, our attention turns to the image again. If subtitles include unidiomatic language or just too much text, viewers will need more time to process subtitles, leaving them less time (or no time at all!) to look at the images.”

“Some researchers call this ‘subtitling blindness.“ he continues, “As a content producer, you might end up with scenes where subtitles take so much of the viewers’ attention, that viewers miss a crucial item on the screen, or they miss the whole shot altogether. Filmmakers put a lot of thought, effort, and money into creating a beautiful image and the viewers will not see it. If filmmakers don’t take localization into account at the production stage, subtitles can ruin the viewers’ experience of a movie. But if filmmakers make sure that subtitling is done skilfully, it can enhance the viewers’ appreciation of the content.”

Lukasz also points out, “If you look at the US-based streaming platforms, a big share of their subscribers (a majority in some cases) are international viewers that access English-speaking content thanks to subtitles. In the streaming era, it is likely that many, if not a majority of viewers, will be watching content with subtitles. The film industry can’t afford to ignore this.”

Courtesy –  Lukasz Dutka: (www.avt.ils.uw.edu.pl)