The art of subtitling

6 Minute English

语言学习

2023-06-08

6 分钟

单集文稿 ...

  • Neil: I'm Neil.

  • Beth: And I'm Beth.

  • Neil: If you're deaf or hard of hearing,

  • watching television would be impossible without subtitles -

  • the words of dialogue added at the bottom of the screen explaining what the characters are saying.

  • Beth: Subtitled captions aren't only for dialogue.

  • In the most dramatic, action-packed scenes of a movie, there might be no-one speaking,

  • but there are plenty of sounds - a scream, a thrilling car chase…

  • And all these sounds need to be described as well.

  • Neil: In this programme, we'll be meeting Karli Witkowska, a subtitler

  • who works on the Stranger Things show, to find out more.

  • And of course, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

  • Beth: But first I have a question for you, Neil.

  • Movie subtitles are written ahead of time,

  • but subtitling for live TV has to be done in the moment, as the person is speaking.

  • This can lead to mistakes - sometimes very funny ones, including a subtitle

  • which appeared in an interview for the BBC Six O'Clock News in 2019.

  • But what did the subtitle say? Was it:

  • a) We can't allow Spiderman to become prime minister?

  • b) We can't allow Superman to become prime minister?, or,