Departing from the Default

The default is intended to be helpful and efficient, but not set in stone. It is a point of departure from which the subtitles can be adapted. As suggested above with just the positioning, adapting the default was sometimes necessary to resolve a practical issue, but other times, adapting it was more subjective and was done to add a particular stylistic or diegetic function.

Figure 23 Figure 24

Figure 21 Figure 22

Many of the departures from the default were quite specific, relating only to a scene or even a shot, depending on its needs. This was partly due to the aformentioned variety of scene situations in the whole ‘Bretodeau’s Box’ sequence. However, there was one consistent departure that I chose to apply to the whole sequence, and that was the positioning of the narrator’s subtitles. The narrator is a very important part of the film, providing exposition and commenting on what is in frame. Indeed, he almost feels like an extra, invisible character. The narrator is a recurring motif, so it is a good opportunity to take advantage of aesthetic subtitles’ potential to represent particular themes. Over the course of ‘Bretodeau’s Box’, the subtitles for the narrator are never positioned in the default position (bottom of screen and centred, see figs. 25–28).

Instead, they are moved to become part of the composition. Sometimes, this can have a balancing effect as the subtitle occupies the opposite half of the screen as the action, which is the case in figures 25 and 27. Making the decision to always re-position the narrator’s subtitles also gave me the freedom to move a subtitle closer to the action or to an actor’s face. This is particularly important in narrated scenes as they often feature no dialogue, and so the actors resort to mime. Positioning the subtitle closer to the actor means the audience’s eyes do not have to travel as far between the subtitle and primary focus points, which are facial expressions and gestures. The way the narrator’s subtitles constantly change position also mimics the way his voice seems directionless and omnipresent. Monaco suggests that the top of the screen is perceived as more unstable, and so positioning the subtitles here adds to the sense that the voice is not grounded anywhere. It finally establishes a recurring pattern of “the narrator’s subtitle is never in the default position”, which the audience can then use to identify his voice over that of a character who is not in frame.

As mentioned above, I mostly adjusted the default subtitles according to a particular scene. There are two scenes in the film in which I decided to change the colour of the subtitles to fit that particular scene, although the changes I made were for different reasons. The first case was scene (2)a) (c.f. annexe A), in which it became clear that the default subtitles had to be adapted for practical reasons. The style of this particular scene picks up and emphasises specific parts of the film’s general colour scheme, creating its own distinctive palette. In this case, the predominant colours are red, yellow and blue-green (see fig. 29), which can be seen in the setting, the props and the costumes.

It soon becomes clear that the red used for the default subtitles does not contrast well enough to be sufficiently legible over multiple shots. Much of the scene is based on a conversation at the table in the kitchen, which is covered with a red tablecloth. Using the default aesthetic design, the subtitles get lost in the red of the tablecloth and the sleeve of Madeleine’s dress when the camera cuts to face her (see fig. 30).

Figure 29

Figure 27 Figure 28

Figure 25 Figure 26

There were two possible solutions to this issue. The first is consistently re-positioning the subtitles to a space where there the subtitle contrasts sufficiently with the background. However, that would not have been appropriate here. There is not enough space on the right-hand side of the frame to fit the whole subtitle comfortably, lest it look squeezed-in and not a harmonious part of the composition. What’s more, part of the subtitle is still lost in the flowery pattern of the dress (see fig. 31).

Alternatively, the subtitles could be moved to the right, to fit on the back of Amélie’s head, for example. The high-contrast of red-on-black would definitely be legible (see fig. 32). However, the catch with this option is the editing. As mentioned above, throughout the film, shots frequently cut back and forth between two characters, including in the middle of a subtitle. For many of the subtitles in scene (2)a), the shot cuts back to Amélie several times to focus on how she reacts to Madeleine’s monologue. This means that the subtitle may be in an empty part of the frame with sufficient contrast in one shot, but it covers Amélie’s face in the next (or requires it to be covering her face when the subtitle appears and before the shot cuts back to Madeleine, see fig. 33). Re-adjusting the subtitles’ position with every cut back and forth would not be possible. A consistent solution that can be used throughout the

Figure 30

Figure 31

whole scene needed to be found to avoid the subtitles becoming confusing and irritating, break the overall coherence, and look unprofessional.

The second option is to change the colour of the subtitles to contrast better with the setting. But this colour, as per criteria (4) for Amélie’s aesthetic subtitles, still had to be taken from the colour palette of the scene. As such, I chose to take the pale yellow of scene (2)a)’s palette (see fig. 34). It is naturally lighter than the blue, contrasts better with the red, and also picks up on parts of the setting. The colour was also used consistently throughout the scene, as constantly changing the colour of the subtitles would break the cohesion between the subtitles for this scene, and become irritating in the way that constantly changing the position would. This way, consistency is established by the subtitles staying in their default position as much as possible and the colour of the subtitles being constant throughout the scene.

The second case in which the colour of the subtitles was changed throughout a whole scene was scene (8)c). But, unlike the case of scene (2)c), the reason was not practical, but stylistic. The scene is a flashback filmed entirely in black-and-white (although with the slight green tinge emblematic of the film). This choice reinforces the idea that the images are memories and mimics the era in which they took place, which is suggested to be some point in the 1950s (fig. 35 and 36).

Figure 32 Figure 33

Figure 34.

As a result, this was a good opportunity to use the design of the subtitles to also reinforce this part of the narrative. While the original red that is used as the default colour contrasts well, it seems to make the subtitles stick out too much against the black and white of scene (8)c). Thus, some of the cohesion between the subtitles and the design of the film is lost and the subtitles become obtrusive.

So, for stylistic reasons, the colour was changed to a pale grey (see figs. 39 and 40). The light colour stands out without sticking out or being unreadable. It also makes the subtitles more harmonious with the overall composition and in doing so, contributes to the illusion of being more invisible by blending in more with the film. However, the change in style means that the subtitles also adopt a diegetic function. This is simply by association with the change in style of the image, which itself was chosen to have a diegetic function and reinforce the narrative in that particular scene. By changing to black and white, the subtitles now reflect the concepts of the past and memory too.

The fact that the design of the subtitles could be said to have a diegetic and a stylistic function supports the idea that the two functions are not mutually exclusive — a change in design of a particular set of subtitles could have multiple functions. That said, I would argue that the design choice made in scene (8)c) was primarily stylistic to mimic the change to black and white, and it happens that they also take on a diegetic function.

Figure 35 Figure 36

Figure 37 Figure 38

However, adapting the style of the subtitles does not have to apply to a whole set of subtitles. Done effectively, it can just apply to one for particular impact. For example, as the film travels (literally) between scenes (6)a) and (6)b), there is a shot of Amélie on the metro, and as she sits, the distorted voice of the driver begins an announcement to the passengers. The camerawork in this scene is incredibly shaky, to the point where it is impossible to clearly make out the picture and understand the driver. It is a more impressionistic way to shoot the scene. The sudden change between the clarity of the previous scene and the unexpected distortion of this one is quite unsettling. In the original, commercially produced subtitles, their lack of ambiguity clashes with the sudden unsettling atmosphere. They are conspicuous and provide a clear translation for the driver’s words, despite the fact that it takes some effort to decipher what he is saying even in French. In this case, the aesthetic subtitles can enhance the target audience’s experience, making it closer to that of a source language speaker, by not jeopardising the atmosphere of a scene, and in fact reinforcing it.

The way this was done was by both darkening the subtitles and increasing their transparency, as seen in figure 41. As the colour of the subtitles darkens, the contrast between them and the image decreases, and so they are harder to make out against the background. Furthermore, increasing the transparency makes it harder to make out the subtitles in general. The aim is to reflect the fuzzy, undistinguishable voice coming from the speakers in the train, and thus the subtitles take on a diegetic function. This

Figure 39 Figure 40

is an example of deliberately making a subtitle difficult and uncomfortable to read, but precisely because the filming style used in that scene is also uncomfortable.

Another potentially interesting way that the subtitles could be made to appear unclear in this scene is animating them. As the metro carriage jolts and lurches, the subtitle could jolt and lurch with it, anchored to a particular point in the shot. Unfortunately, this was not possible due to the limitations of the subtitling software, and the awareness that animating the subtitles in such a way, especially while maintaining professional standard, will be a very sophisticated and complex procedure.

The subtitle in fig. 41 is also positioned to look as if it is coming from behind Amélie.

Coming from off screen, the driver’s voice seems to meld into the background, especially as Amélie is so heavily foregrounded, taking up most of the right-hand half of the frame. So, the subtitle is positioned behind her to mimic the direction of the voice. There are some other moments in which I decided to replicate the direction or the source of a voice (excluding the narrator). One is in scene (6)b) when Amélie meets the second Dominique Bredoteau.

As Amélie steps out of the elevator, she is greeted with “Hello, kitten” from Dominique. As the focus remains on Amélie, the rest of the frame blurred, it is unclear where the voice is coming from. The only clue the audience has is the hint of movement on the left of the frame. As the subtitle appears, supposedly behind Amélie, it confirms

Figure 42 Figure 43

Figure 44

and imitates the source of the voice, creating a link with the blurry figure of Dominique (see figs. 42 and 43). The illusion of the subtitle appearing behind Amélie is achieved by positioning it over her shoulder in the left half of the frame, while she is facing toward the right. The illusion is reinforced by the fact that she moves towards the camera, more into the right-hand half of the frame and further away from the source that remains anchored in the distance on the left. The subtitle also has a diegetic function in the way that it foreshadows the change in focus. The large space left on the left-hand side of the frame, its blurriness and the obvious alarm on Amélie’s face, create suspense and foreshadow the reveal of the figure in the background (fig. 44).

Finally, there were some one-off instances where I chose to use cumulative subtitles.

Cumulative subtitles could be considered a type of animation in the way that the subtitle builds up bit by bit, instead of appearing all at once. They were mainly used in ‘Bretodeau’s Box’ to mimic the pronunciation and intonation of a character, especially if they had some dramatic significance. In scene (7)a), Dufayel pronounces each syllable of Bretodeau’s name deliberately and clearly when he opens the door, heavily emphasising the final “-deau”. In doing so, he highlights where Amélie has been going wrong — she mixed up the ‘d’ and the ‘t’ in Bretodeau’s name. Cueing in the subtitle one syllable at a time is a visual representation of the actor’s delivery, and therefore it reflects the emotion put into the line (see figs. 45–47). Incidentally, the size of the final syllable was also increased to mimic the intonation, with an accent being

Figure 45 Figure 46

Figure 47

placed on the last syllable (fig. 47). Just as Dufayel’s pronunciation forces the source language viewer to pay attention to one syllable at a time and draws particular attention to the final one, so the staggered entrance of the subtitle forces the target language audience to focus on one syllable at a time, and the font size draws attention to the final one. Imitating the pronunciation in this way could also be helpful for a foreign audience, who is not necessarily used to French pronunciation, by making the nuance more obvious.

The other instance of a cumulative subtitle is in scene (8)b). As the narrator speaks the line “... cette cabine téléphonique là”, the actor pauses before, and puts an accent on, the

“là”. Like “Bre-to-deau”, the pause and the accent on “là” draws attention to that particular word for the listener and in a way gives even more importance to the telephone booth in the foreground. The delivery also gives the line a dramatic flourish.

Given that the phone booth is the setting of the climactic scene that the narrative arc has been building up to, it especially makes sense that the audience’s attention is drawn to it. Through the subtitle mimicking the narrator’s delivery, including the pause, it too can finish with a flourish (see figs. 48 and 49). Again, this may also have practical advantages for the target language audience. Withholding the final word

does not ‘spoil’ the completion of the full sense of the line, and so the target language audience may feel they have experienced visually what the source language audience experienced aurally. In other words, it could go a way to reinforcing the “contract of illusion” between the audience and the subtitles, that what is written is exactly what is being said (Pedersen, 2010).

Figure 48 Figure 49

Conclusion

Could aesthetic subtitles become a new norm in audiovisual translation? McClarty admits that to believe aesthetic subtitling could completely replace traditional subtitling is to be idealistic, and she is likely right. As the experience of subtitling Amélie has proved, aesthetic subtitling requires a lot more time for thinking and trial and error, and a lot more effort to edit the small details of a specific subtitle to get it

‘just right’. Furthermore, not all available subtitling programs have a wide enough or sophisticated enough range of features to produce well-designed, professional-looking aesthetic subtitles. As it currently stands, to produce more complex designs, subtitling software would probably have to be used in conjunction with film editing software.

But, as I hope this commentary has demonstrated, aesthetic subtitles do have potential.

Embracing the design of the film, especially its typographic design, can create a greater coherence between the subtitles and the film itself. The subtitles are not only more respectful of the film’s art, but are also more invisible through generating the illusion that they were there the whole time. This experiment has also aimed to demonstrate that it is not merely one design factor at a time that can or needs to be changed when customising aesthetic subtitles. Sometimes multiple aspects can come together to make truly effective aesthetic subtitles.

Standards such as The Code of Good Subtitling Practice have served a very useful purpose over the years, but their dogmatic and singular approach may not be relevant any more. Perhaps it is time The Code was treated more like guidelines rather than actual rules. The modular guidelines developed by Fox and used in this dissertation are just one alternative. In particular, they have the advantage of enabling and giving structure to a more analytical process. That means the aesthetic subtitler can reflect not just on how the art of the film is important, but also on what is appropriate and relevant for the audience. It also means the subtitler can reflect on the value that The Code and subsequent guides do still have, especially when it comes to advice on technical aspects and translation issues.

This is still just the beginning of exploring practice for aesthetic subtitling, especially when it comes to multidisciplinarity. Film studies, typography and translation studies

can still be looked at in more detail to fully understand their relevance and the contributions that could be made. There may even be more disciplines that could provide insight for aesthetic subtitlers. The many eye-tracking studies in subtitling research hint at elements of cognitive psychology and reading processes, which may also be useful. It would also be interesting to see how aesthetic subtitles would work for the duration of a feature film, rather just a short clip. There are still many paths to explore to establish aesthetic subtitling as valid practice.

References and Bibliography

Ambrose, G., & Harris, P. (2008). Typographie. Paris: Pyramyd.

Austin, G. (1996). Contemporary French Cinema: An Introduction. Manchester University Press.

Bekmambetov, T. (2004). Night Watch [Fantasy]. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Boase-Beier, J. (2011). Stylistics and Translation. In K. Malmkjær & K. Windle (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Translation Studies. Retrieved from

https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199239306.001.0001/oxford hb-9780199239306-e-006

Bogucki, Ł. (2015). Areas and Methods of Audiovisual Translation Research (2nd revised ed). Frankfurt am Main: Lang, Peter Frankfurt.

Bordwell, D., & Thompson, K. (2013). Film Art: An Introduction (10th ed.). New York:

McGraw-Hill.

Boyle, D. (2008). Slumdog Millionaire [DVD]. Pathé.

Caffrey, C. (2009). Relevant abuse?: investigating the effects of an abusive subtitling procedure on the perception of TV anime using eye tracker and questionnaire (Dublin City University. School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies). Retrieved from

http://doras.dcu.ie/14835/

Chandler, D., & Munday, R. (2016a). Kerning. In A Dictionary of Media and Communication.

Retrieved from

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Chandler, D., & Munday, R. (2016b). Leading. In A Dictionary of Media and Communication. Retrieved from

Chandler, D., & Munday, R. (2016b). Leading. In A Dictionary of Media and Communication. Retrieved from