Name: The art of subtitling ⏲️ 6 Minute English
Uploaded: 2023-09-27T04:31:41.000Z
Duration: 6 min 23 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

watching television would be impossible without subtitles -

the words of dialogue added at the bottom of the screen explaining

what the characters are saying. Subtitled captions aren't only

for dialogue. In the most dramatic action-packed scenes of the movie,

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

and all these sounds need to be described as well.

In this programme, we'll be meeting Karli Witkowska,

a subtitler who works on the Stranger Things

we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

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

We can't allow Spiderman to become Prime Minister. b)

We can't allow Superman to become Prime Minister or c)

We can't allow Batman to become Prime Minister

I guess the subtitling mistake involved Spiderman.

I'll reveal the answer later in the programme. Of course

it's not just deaf audiences that subtitles help.

The translated subtitles of foreign films are great for learning languages,

letting you read a word and hear how it's pronounced at the same time.

describe everything from monster squelches

it's a great way to learn new adjectives.

how her choice of adjective creates emotion for the viewer.

And so if you have a very upbeat sort of period piece where the music is very

jaunty, you like you would use the word jaunty to describe the music.

what a second is like and using a very, very descriptive word

in order to do so. Karli bases her descriptions

A style of film, music or book with its own particular set of features.

The sound effects needed for a thriller like Stranger Things -

creaking stairs and sudden screams - are very different from the sounds used

in historical period dramas, which are more upbeat, lighthearted and cheerful.

the adjective Karli chooses to describe a sound. For example,

upbeat music might be described as jaunty - full of energy and confidence.

Subtitles started out as an accessibility feature for deaf audiences

and to translate foreign language films into English,

but since the growth of online streaming services

like Netflix, subtitling has become something of an art.

who try to make their descriptions as close as possible to the sounds they

silence', because you were able to tell that people were like almost

on the verge of a gasp or on the verge of like a shock

But there wasn't actually a sound so when,

the surprise characters were about to gasp -

There was no speech or sound in the scene,

but Karli's team found the perfect adjective to describe the silence -

'gobsmacked', which is slang for being so surprised,

This was definitely one description that deserved a high five - lifting up

your hand to clap hands with someone else as a greeting or to say

it went viral and started being used in all kinds of situations.

Maybe gobsmacked was how the viewers of that TV

news programme felt - you know the mistaken subtitle you asked me

'We can't allow Spiderman to become Prime Minister'. Which was...

said, 'We can't allow that man to become Prime Minister' speaking

But the misheard subtitle appeared as 'Batman'.

we learnt from this programme on subtitles.

A style of film, music or book with its own particular set of characteristics.

is cheerful, hopeful and lighthearted. The

Subtitles ListPlay Video

The art of subtitling ⏲️ 6 Minute English

reveal

deserve

recap

period