Summary of the fourth chapter of the book "Audiovisual Translation: Dubbing" by Chaume, Schemi e mappe concettuali di Lingua Inglese

Scarica Summary of the fourth chapter of the book "Audiovisual Translation: Dubbing" by Chaume e più Schemi e mappe concettuali in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! CAPITOLO: SYNCHRONIZATION OR LIP-SYNC: READ MY LIPS The main aspect of achieving synchronisation is knowing the source language and mostly the target language. Synchronisation is a key factor in Dubbing. Dubbing is an example of the invisibility of translation because it is an artistic and technical exercise. Dubbing replaces the original dialogue track (SL= source language) with a new dialogue track in the TL (Target language). Instead, Voice-over is a technique in which the original dialogue can still be heard in the background (nel sottofondo). KEY FACTORS Synchronization is the process of matching a target language translation in a recording made in a dubbing studio to the screen actors’ body and articulatory movements. The key factors of synchronisation are:  synchronization between target text sentences and source text sentences  synchronization between the translation and the body movements of screen actors  synchronization between the translation and the articulatory movements of screen actors TYPES OF SYNCHRONISATION There are three types of synchronisation: • phonetic or lip synchrony (sincronia fonetica o labbiale) • kinesic synchrony or body movement synchrony (sincronia cinetica o corporea) • isochrony or synchrony between utterances and pauses (isocronia o sincronia tra gli enunciati e le pause) Phonetic or lip synchrony consists of adapting the translation to the articulatory movements of the on- screen actors, especially in close-ups (primi piani). In order to achieve this effect, particular care should be taken when translating open vowels and labio-dental consonants. In Kinesic synchrony or body movement synchrony, translation must correspond with the movements of the screen characters. For instance: a head shaking which indicates a negative cannot be accompanied by an affirmative “yes”. In the Isochrony, the translated dialogue must be exactly the same length as the time the screen actor or actress has his/her mouth open to pronounce the source text dialogues. A fault in the Isochrony is most likely noticed by the viewer (spettatore). WHAT SYNCHRONISATION IS NOT? Character synchrony and content synchrony are not strictly included in the concept of synchronisation. Character synchrony refers to the coincidence between the voices of the dubbing actors and the sound of the voices expected by the viewers. For example: a child actor cannot be dubbed by an older male voice. Content synchrony refers to the semantic relation between the translation and what happens on screen (images and music). The translation must not only follow the written source text, but also the events on screen. It must be coherent with the communicative situation established on screen (context of situation). To achieve this, the translator has several cohesive links at his or her disposal (ellipsis, recurrence, substitution). Kinesic signs are sometimes accompanied by redundant words which make their meaning explicit. At other times they appear alone, with no spoken word, caption, sound or other icon to explain them. In the first case, translators simply have to translate the words accompanying the kinesic sign. In the second case, they have to decide whether the sign needs to be made more explicit or not. EXAMPLE: The dubbed version into Catalan of the TV Series “Mission impossibile” Mr. Johnson: Then, won’t there be more holidays until next year? Secretary: No, Mr Johnson. (Kinesic sign: head shaking) DESCRIPTION In the Catalan translation, they say: “Yes, Mr Johnson” in the sense of acknowledging Mr Johnson’s inferences. The problem is that the secretary accompanies her affirmative answer with a shaking of her head which is very obvious. This example shows that kinesic signs work as translation constraints. TRANSLATION AND TECHNIQUE STRATEGIES ABOUT SYNCHRONISATION The main strategy is to be coherent with the actor’s body movements, in this example, with the shaking head. The main techniques are:  Natural translation or coined equivalent in the Target language but if it does not work, there are other techniques.  Substitution of the original words for other word classes (conjunctions, pronouns, etc. such as “neither”) and phrases with the same semantic content (“at all”, etc.). In cases in which a paralinguistic sign accompanies a body movement (a person about to fall, for instance), the translator will look for the coined equivalent that corresponds with that body movement. The English interjection “Oops!” can be rendered in Spanish or Catalan as ¡Epa! or ¡Ep! And they respect the bilabial phoneme /p/ where required in case of close-ups and extreme close-ups.  Repetition of the original source text, when the term has already penetrated the target language or there is a similar equivalent. For example: “Hey!” can be translated as¡Eh! in Spanish or the substandard *¡Ey!, which also contains the open vowel for close-ups and extreme close-ups. In a hierarchy of priorities, synchronies take precedence over a faithful rendering of the source text content. A faithful rendering can be for example the translation of the english word “dog” with the Italian word “cane”. Complete substitution, including change of semantic meaning, would also be accepted when none of the proposed techniques works and when the change of semantic meaning does not affect the overall meaning of the film, or the character’s personality. ISOCHRONY In subtitling, translators also aim to synchronize all subtitles with the utterances of screen characters. This process is called “spotting”. In this way, viewers can relate the subtitles to these utterances. However, Synchrony in subtitling does not need to be as perfect as in dubbing. A subtitle may appear some frames before the screen character opens his/her mouth or a subtitle can remain on screen for some frames, or even seconds, after the character has closed his/her mouth.