Subtitle Project

Angelucci, Laura (2004)
Università di Bologna, SSLiMIT Forlì

Questa tesi è stata effettuata nell’ambito del progetto di ricerca Subtitleproject.
This thesis was carried out under the auspices of the Subtitleproject.

Abstract:
The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the reality of the subtitling market both in Italy and, by way of comparison, in Belgium, a country where subtitling is more common and more developed. This thesis starts from the Subtitle Research Project, a project on subtitling organised within the Department for Interdisciplinary Studies in Translation, Languages and Culture. The aim of this project is gather as much information as possible on the subtitling industry in our country, and my individual contribution has been a comparative study of the situation in Italy and Belgium. In the first phase of this project students have carried out interviews with a number of Italian subtitling agencies. The questionnaire was prepared by the group itself and is made up of three parts: Part A contains 24 questions about the company, the type of product, the type of client, the working method, the translators and the subtitling market; Part B contains some more detailed questions regarding technology, subtitling standards and costs; Part C focuses on production data. Starting with this research project I decided to carry out a similar survey in Belgium, which is one of the so-called ‘subtitling countries’ and is interesting because of its plurality of languages and cultures. The Italian questionnaire was thus translated into English maintaining the original structure to allow a comparison with the interviews carried out in Italy. In Belgium, the reaction to this project has been very positive: the Belgian subtitling companies were flattered that our University was interested in them and in the Belgian situation. The interviews were carried out in person and on the spot to establish a better relationship with the firms and to see the equipment they use to prepare subtitles. In Italy, the project has so far interviewed nine companies which work in the field of screen translation and which also produce subtitles. The interviews were carried out by nine different students. In Belgium I personally carried out nine interviews with companies whose main activity was the production of subtitling and this continuity helped to ensure more detailed and consistent information. Before analysing the Belgian and Italian subtitling markets, this thesis contains a first chapter about Screen Translation in general, which analyses the different translation methods and, in particular, dubbing and subtitling. There follows an analysis of the factors that have led to one system of screen translation establishing itself rather than another. Finally there is a more detailed analysis of subtitling – the subject of this thesis: its evolution and its main features. In the second and third chapter we present the Belgian and the Italian situation of the subtitling industry. In order to make it easier to do a comparison, these two chapters have a parallel structure and they follow the order of the questionnaire used within the Subtitle Research Project to interview the subtitling companies. Afterwards, in the conclusion we analyse the differences between the Italian situation and the Belgian one. Particular attention is paid to the subtitling industry in our country, which is growing, but which needs to develop a greater awareness and consciousness that this delicate job implies.