Sensibility and the Senses - Media Bodies Practices

The NECS 2017 Conference, 29 June - 1 July 2017, Paris

 

Thursday 29 June, 1.30-3.15pm,

Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3, room D27

CinEcoSA Panel 2: Invisible Mediators: Audiovisual Translation Players

 

Audiovisual translation is not only about translating words, it is also about offering the spectator the possibility to access the intonation and meaning the actor or actress gave to those words. Issues of how to convey a subtle choice of intonation or the specific quality of a voice are thus fundamental to the audiovisual translation process. When it comes to performance issues, choices are not made by the translator, but by other players: the distributor, the marketing director, the dubbing director, the dubbing artist, etc. 

After two previous research cycles on film marketing and film policies, French Research association CinEcoSA is launching a new research project on the Audiovisual Translation Industry. In order to open discussion on these topics, two CinEcoSA members are proposing panels for the 2017 NECS Conference. 

Audiovisual translation has rarely been studied as an industry. This approach however leads to raise issues regarding the skills of audiovisual translation personnel, the nature of their task, their working conditions, and the challenges they face. While invisible, these players are essential as they are part of the audiovisual translation mediation chain, which starts with the actor’s performance and ends with the spectator’s reception. This mediation is operated through a multitude of bodies: translator, but also subtitlers, dubbing directors, distributors, etc. The very physicality of the audiovisual translation personnel’s activity: the time they have to finish their task, the material they work on, the salary they receive, the pressure they feel, are as many elements that influence the final version experienced by the spectator. Réjane Hamus-Vallée and Luis Pérez-González both propose to examine the impact of the digital revolution on the subtitler profession, while Tim Heath brings to the fore the little known work of dubbing mixers. 

 

Chair : Joël Augros (University of Bordeaux)

 

Réjane Hamus-Vallée (Evry University) : The subtitler in the digital age

 

Luis Pérez-González (University of Manchester) : From Audiences to Audienceships: Participatory Subtitling Practices in the Digital Culture

 

Tim Heath (Royal Holloway, University of London) : From the Dubbing Suite to Our Living Rooms; How the transformation of dubbing mixers’ professional  practice is changing the soundtrack of British Television.