Non-Professional Subtitling in Iran: A Study on Quality, Motivation, and Audience Perception

As the subtitling industry in Iran continues to grow and evolve, it is interesting to see empirically how the quality of the professional subtitles and fansubs differ. Furthermore, most Iranian studies in the field subtitling have only focused on the linguistic and cultural aspects. However, far too little attention has been paid to the reception of subtitling, particularly fansubbing, in the Iranian context, and it is not apparent empirically why Iranian fansubbers do subtitling and why Iranian audiences watch them. Finally, regarding the statement of the problem, this study investigates the following main problems: (a) there has been no empirical comparison between the quality of Persian professional and fansubs, (b) there has been no academic investigation of the motivations for subtitling among Iranian fansubbers, and (c) there has been no academic investigation of the reception of fansubbed television programs by Iranian audiences. Therefore, in this project, the following objectives are addressed: (a) to determine the quality of Persian pro- and fansubs, (b) to identify the main categories of motivations and reasons for subtitling among Iranian fansubbers, (c) to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of Iranian fansubbers regarding the quality of professional and fansubs, and (d) to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of Iranian viewers regarding the activity of fansubbing and quality of fansubs. This study explored the reception of non-professional translation among fansubbers and audiences of fansubbed programs in Iran. Furthermore, the Persian contextualized version of the functional equivalence, acceptability and readability areas (FAR) model was used to assess the quality of pro- and fansubs in the Iranian context. Since professional subtitlers often maintain a quality control process to ensure accuracy, consistency, and readability, the quality assessment results showed that professional subtitlers performed better than fansubbers in terms of functional equivalence, acceptability, and readability. The results of the interview and survey revealed that the low quality of the current official subtitling and dubbing in Iran can be attributed to a lack of respect and recognition for subtitlers. Additionally, they felt that the translators selected for the official translations were not solely based on their qualifications. In addition, there was a strong emphasis on providing free fansubs to users, and the reasons for translating for free included religious reasons, good intentions, and charges for official translation services. According to the results, some fansubbers believed that working in a team was beneficial, while others preferred to work alone. It was important for those who preferred to work alone to maintain their independence and freedom when translating. Although most fansubbers feel some connection to the fansubbing community, there is no clear consensus regarding the strength of this connection, or whether they prefer it over other types of communities. The study also revealed that fansubbers gain satisfaction from seeing their work reach a wide audience and being appreciated. Based on the results of the netnography survey, fansubbing was considered an acceptable method of free online content sharing, and Persian viewers appreciated that fansubbers took the time and effort to translate and subtitle the shows they enjoyed. There was a mixed opinion among viewers regarding the quality and speed of the Iranian fansubs' creation. While some viewers appreciated the high quality of the fansubs and the speed at which they were created, others expected more and compared the Iranian fansubbers to others from other countries. As a result of the study, some audiences expressed their gratitude by naming their favourite fansubbers or groups. In addition, some users believed that the website provided subtitles, when in fact it only uploaded films. In sum, this mixed-methods study provided the first empirical evidence on the (non) professional subtitling i

Translation of Graphic Codes: The Case Study of Two Official Persian Dubbed Versions

Extended Abstract 1. Introduction One of the four channels of expression of meaning in audiovisual translation (AVT), with which translators have to deal, is verbal information in written forms on the screen. Although it has also been referred to in terms such as “integrated subtitles” (Fox, 2016) and “TELOP” (O’Hagan & Sasamoto, 2016), Chaume (2004a) prefers to use the term “graphic code” borrowing from the school of Film Semiotics for such verbal visual information on the screen. This school claims that cinema is composed of several meaning codes, thus Chaume (2004a, 2012) has worked on a taxonomy of film codes which apply to translation operations. Despite the considerable significance and rising number of graphic codes in an accurate understanding of the course of a dubbed movie, it has received relatively little attention in the literature on AVT. Hence, this study aims at examining and comparing the rendition of graphic codes in two of the methods, namely voice-off and insertion in two Persian versions of the new Sherlock Holmes TV series dubbed by an official Iranian TV network and a BBC Persian TV network. The study also attempts to provide answers to the research questions adopted from Chaume (2012). The audiovisual text is a complex medium and the audiovisual translator ought to handle verbal and non-verbal information, meanings openly expressed and meanings that are inferred by subtler forms of communication such as a rise in intonation or a gesture accompanying the utterance (Pettit, 2004). Therefore, the screen products are made up of complex visual codes comprising elements such as costumes, gesture, body movements, and facial expressions, or as Chiaro (2009, p. 142) names them “polysemiotic” elements. In general, graphic codes may be classified into two categories: static graphic codes – written information in newspapers and on computers which cannot be separated from the screen – and moving graphic codes – pop-up written information on the screen (O’Hagan, 2010) which can be possibly separated from the screen. Most studies have only focused on graphic codes as one of the communication channels in AVT (e.g., Chiaro 2009; Delabastita 1989). Other studies have also investigated graphic codes from a non-translational and filmmaking perspective (Pérez-González 2013; Sasamoto 2014); a few others have also examined them in terms of translational functions (Khoshsaligheh & Fazeli Haghpanah, 2016; O’Sullivan, 2013). Additionally, some research has also studied graphic codes using eye tracking (Fox, 2016; O’Hagan & Sasamoto, 2016). They have also been the focus of some experimental research as well (Mehdizadkhani & Khoshsaligheh, 2018 in-press). 2. Methodology This qualitative research is a case study which aims to investigate and compare two translation techniques, namely voice-off and insertion in the rendition of graphic codes in two official Persian dubbed versions of the case of Sherlock (Gattis, Moffat, & Vertue, 2010), a British TV series. The main reason for the choice of this case as the subject of the study was the availability of two professionally produced Persian dubbed versions, and in each version the graphic codes are rendered in the two different methods. The second reason was “the prominent role that digital technologies play in the actual adaptation of the series” (Pérez-González, 2013, p. 14) shown by moving graphic codes. Moreover, McMillan (2014) refers to Sherlock as the “best use” of graphic codes in the TV series. The researchers also classified moving graphic codes into three categories: SMS language, Sherlock’s web searches, and his unverbalized inner thoughts. 3. Discussion It was revealed that BBC Persian TV network rendered all of the graphic codes using the insertion technique. Voice-off technique, instead, was used by the Iranian TV network, but it left five scenes with graphic codes untranslated. The most common justification in such situations is the case of “code interaction” discussed by Chaume (2012, p. 107). That is, the voice-off method cannot be applied when graphic codes overlap with a close-up shot in which one or more characters are speaking. The results also indicated that the rendered graphic codes in the insertion technique remained on the screen for a fair amount of time giving the opportunity of rereading (see also Szarkowska, Krejtz, Krejtz, & Duchowski, 2013). Hence, Mehdizadkhani and Khoshsaligheh (2018 in-press) argue that this fair amount of time in the insertion technique could lead to better comprehension of graphic codes in comparison to when the voice-off technique is used. However, if the rendition of graphic codes in voice-off could be considered as normal dubbing (see Koolstra, Peeters, & Spinhof, 2002), the findings revealed that the dubbing team have not dealt with problems such as lip-synchronization (see Chaume, 2004b, 2013). Therefore, in comparison with insertion, this technique allows the dubbing team more freedom in modifying the stress, tone, and accent, and it helps the viewers to better focus on the film content (Mehdizadkhani & Khoshsaligheh, 2018 in-press). Iran is known as a dominantly dubbing country (Khoshsaligheh & Ameri, 2016; Naficy, 2011), but still in some cases, dubbers have to deal with (sub-)titles, intertitles, and written texts on the screen. Despite numerous instances and relying on the significance of graphic codes for the complete comprehension of Sherlock series (Pérez-González, 2013; McMillan, 2014), the findings seem to recommend that when dubbing translators encounter “code interaction” (Chaume, 2012, p. 107), they may use the insertion technique in rendition of graphic codes. 4. Conclusions It was beyond the scope of this study to examine the static graphic codes. On the other hand, to the researchers’ best knowledge, no previous study has investigated the translation of these codes in AVT of Iranian context. Therefore, a further study is recommended to explore and compare strategies used in translation of static graphic codes in different modes of AVT, such as in subtitling based on the frameworks introduced by Gottlieb (1992), Bogucki (2004) or Díaz-Cintas and Remael (2014). Moreover, this study did not address the translation quality of translated graphic codes. Although the two versions are professionally dubbed into Persian, the translation approach toward factors such as censorship and cultural references are very likely to be different. A further study on these issues with further focus on graphic codes is therefore suggested. Having divided the moving graphic codes into the three categories, the research questions that could be asked in audio description research area include how audio describers render those moving graphic codes and if the methods of translation of different types of graphic codes are similar

Insertion or voice-off in rendition of graphic codes: an experiment in Persian dubbing

Concerning graphic codes, there are currently three methods for their rendition in dubbing: audio-rendition of the target graphic codes (TGC) with an actor?s voice-off and adding the voice-off when the close shot is on the original graphic code (OGC); subtitling the OGC; and editing and inserting new TGCs replacing the OGCs in the film. The purpose of the current mixed-methods study was to compare the efficiency of voice-off versus insertion, two methods of rendition of graphic codes in dubbing, in terms of viewers? comprehension and information processing. To this end, the Persian-dubbed versions of the Sherlock TV series broadcast on BBC Persian, using the insertion method, and on Iranian official television, using voice-off, were selected. The findings of the experiment revealed that the participants experienced better information recall and comprehension of the content of the graphic codes when they were translated using the insertion method. In the qualitative phase, the retrospective interview data involved issues in terms of the genre of audiovisual material, dialogue interaction, types of graphic codes, target language cultural references, literacy and viewing ability of the audience as relevant variables in the preference of each of the two methods

Chinese audiovisual translation: Strategies and solutions applied in multilingual films

The increasing use of multilingualism in audiovisual products,especially feature films, has attracted attention from audiovisual translation(AVT) scholars; however, such research is missing in the Chinese AVT context.This paper strived to fill this niche by exploring the common methods of therendition of a third language (L3) in Chinese dubbing, subtitling, andfansubbing. The corpus of the study comprised six English-speaking feature filmsalongside their fan and professional-created Chinese subtitles and dubsavailable online, and its contents was mainly selected based on two criteria:(i) the L3s used, for example, French, Indian, Swahili, Xhosa, and Russian, and(ii) the availability of fan and pro-produced Chinese subtitles and dubs. Fordubbing, the analysis of the corpus revealed that the Chinese professionaldubbing team marked the L3s in a few cases but applied translational patternsinconsistently. the comparison of the pro- and fansubs demonstrated that bothdid not mark the L3s in their translations and that professional subtitlersperformed better than the fansubbers in the rendition of multilingualism interms of graphic codes and the original films’ storytelling