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Dubbing pain in Spain

Dubbing pain in Spain
Catalonia pushes studios for subtitled prints
By JOHN HOPEWELL, EMILIO MAYORGA

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118000810.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

Madrid-- Hollywood's studios have a new headache in Spain.
Catalonia, one of Spain's wealthiest regions, is threatening regulations to push U.S. majors to release movies in subtitled prints rather than dubbing them.
To encourage take-up, the region will tax movies that are dubbed and it will demand that 50% of all those prints be dubbed into Catalan.
The tax and quotas are among 50 points in a wide-ranging Film in Catalonia draft law.
The Catalan government regards them as a question of modernization -- countries Catalans admire, such as Denmark, subtitle rather than dub films -- and of principle.
Most people in Catalonia speak both Spanish and Catalan but only 2% of movies are screened in Catalan.
The new regulations allow Catalans to choose the language in which they watch movies, Culture Minister Joan Manuel Tresserras argued Tuesday.
The regulations leave Hollywood in a quandary.
Subtitling is far cheaper than dubbing , which costs e50,000 ($63,000) or more per film, while a print from the dubbed film costs $1,300. But subtitled films attract much smaller audiences. Local film fans, as in Germany, prefer their blockbusters dubbed.
Boasting Barcelona as its capital, Catalonia repped 21% of Spain's film market in 2008.
According to one U.S. distributor, Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" took a five-times better print average screened in Spanish vs.Catalan.
Catalan exhibitors oppose the new regulations. "Box office will fall 70% at cinemas showing Catalan-language prints," one said.
The Catalan government attempted to force through 50% dubbing quotas in 1998, but backed down after the studios threatened to boycott distribution in Catalonia.
Another possible outcome is that the studios and the Catalan government will end up partnering on the digitalization of Catalonia's theaters, said one source.
Digital cinemas would facilitate movie screenings in subtitled versions, or dubbed into Catalan or Spanish.

TV subtitles for hearing-impaired viewers inefficient

TV subtitles for hearing-impaired viewers inefficient

http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_09_01_23_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=9753

A team of researchers in Spain have discovered that both the speed at which subtitles appear on television and the actual translation of the dialogues impact the level of understanding of subtitled programmes by teens and children suffering from deafness. The research is due to be published in The American Annals of the Deaf.

While subtitles in TV programmes have been used for nearly two decades, questions remained as to how well deaf people comprehend what they're reading on screens and how they understand the messages transmitted through the images. The researchers from the UAB Research Centre on Hearing Impairment and Language Acquisition (GISTAL) aimed to shed light on this issue.With respect to the teenagers participating in the research, the sample consisted of 20 students aged between 12 and 19 years with profound or severe deafness. It should be noted that all of the participants attended schools with children who are not hearing impaired, and use lip-reading and auditory prostheses to communicate with their peers.

The researchers used visual, audio, oral and written information to assess the participants' level of understanding. The students were asked to explain what was happening in a segment of the 'El cor de la ciutat' (The Heart of the City) Catalan TV soap opera.

The first viewing was conducted without sound, the second with sound, and the third with sound and subtitles.The first viewing showed that 30% of the students had a global understanding of what had happened in the segment by only watching the images. For the second and third viewings, which included sound and then subtitles, 40% understood what was shown on the TV screen.

According to the researchers, the data showed that current subtitles are insufficient for teenagers with hearing impairments. They also explained that the speed at which these subtitles appeared and the actual translation of the dialogues failed to give the students enough time to look at the images and gain an overall understanding of what was taking place on the screen.

For the younger participants, the researchers conducted two studies: the first assessed 7 children aged 6 and 7 years, and the other evaluated 16 children aged between 7 and 10 years. A segment of the animation 'Shin-Chan' was shown to them. The researchers chose to show the second group the animation with subtitles they created by using new speed and text-selection criteria. The data showed that only 2% of the participants in group 1 (with the regular subtitles) understood what the animation was about, while 65.5% of the second group (with the augmented subtitles) gained an overall understanding of the segment.

Based on the results, the researchers said currently used criteria must be reviewed and new parameters must be defined when hearing impairment assessments are made. These changes should consider the information offered by the spoken language, sound in general, images, and the language skills of deaf viewers.

The professors said two general criteria should be followed. Firstly, the need to respect the heterogeneity of the hearing impaired, and the possibility to select from more than one type of subtitle (different degrees of language complexity should be available), and secondly, subtitling only essential information that cannot be deduced by the images. The latter, they said, would particularly benefit children's programmes.According to the researchers, another important factor to consider is that subtitles should be adapted for deaf children because they are in the process of learning to read, and subtitles can help encourage them to strengthen their reading skills.Through their research, the professors will develop teaching and learning material for teachers and parents of children with hearing impairments. The research was supported by the Audiovisual Council of Catalonia (CAC) and the Spanish Ministry for Education and Science (MEC).

Subtitles Do Not Guarantee Hearing-impaired Viewers

Subtitles Do Not Guarantee Hearing-impaired
Viewers A Total Comprehension Of Television Messages
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081202133230.htm

Researchers have studied the level of comprehension of subtitled television programs by groups of students who have a severe or profound hearing impairment. The results demonstrate that deaf children and adolescents have difficulties in following subtitles and images together, due to the speed at which the subtitles appear and the literal transcription of the dialogues.

After almost twenty years since the first television subtitles were used, professors Cristina Cambra, Núria Silvestre and Aurora Leal, members of the UAB Research Centre on Hearing Impairment and Language Acquisition (GISTAL), were interested in discovering whether deaf viewers - the main users of this service - actually can understand the programmes, find it easy to read subtitles and understand the messages transmitted through the images.
Research work was carried out with the support of the Audiovisual Council of Catalonia (CAC) and the Spanish Ministry for Education and Science (MEC). Participants included students with hearing impairment of different ages and the research focused on the role played by visual, audio, and oral and written information on the screen. Twenty adolescents aged 12 to 19 participated in this study. All of them suffer from either severe or profound hearing impairment, went to municipal schools of the Barcelona province with children who had no hearing impairments, and communicated with others using spoken language with the help of auditory prostheses and by learning how to lip-read.
Participants were asked to explain what was happening in a fragment of the Catalan TV series "El cor de la ciutat". The first viewing was done with no sound, the second with sound and the third with sound and subtitles.
At the end of the first viewing, 30% of participants had a global understanding of what had happened by only watching the images. The percentage increased to 40% after turning on the sound and after adding the subtitles.
According to researchers these figures indicate that for teenagers with hearing impairments, subtitles as they are currently presented are not a good enough resource in helping them understand what a television programme is about. More specifically, researchers verified that the speed at which they appeared and a literal transcription of the dialogues did not give participants time to view the images and reach an overall understanding.
Two more studies were carried out with younger participants: one consisted in a pilot study with seven kids aged 6 and 7, while the other was formed by 16 children aged 7 to 10. Both groups viewed a fragment of the cartoon "Shin-Chan", but the second group was shown the cartoon with subtitles created by the professors themselves (using new speed and text selection criteria). In the first group, only 2% of participants understood what the cartoon was about. In the second group, overall understanding of the fragment reached 65.5%.
These studies show that there is a need to review currently used criteria and define new parameters which take into account information offered by the images, sound and spoken language, as well as the language skills of deaf people. According to research results, two general criteria which should be followed are: firstly, respect for the heterogeneity of the hearing impaired and the possibility to choose from more than one type of subtitle, offering different degrees of language complexity so that each viewer can choose the level that best fits their case. Secondly, and especially in the case of children programmes, it would be advisable to subtitle only essential information that cannot be deduced by the images. In contrast, when the images are explicit enough, e.g. emotional states of the characters, viewers should be able to deduce this information themselves. Therefore, the time spent reading the subtitles can be combined with the time needed to view the images.
According to researchers, an adaptation in subtitles is particularly necessary in the case of deaf children, since they are in the process of learning to read and this is a stage in which subtitles can help to boost their motivation.
They also highlight the fact that television programmes which offer subtitles can be used as an additional educational resource in schools when teaching children to read. It would help both kids with hearing impairments and those without, who may find written language a support tool which helps them understand spoken language. The research carried out by professors Cambra, Silvestre and Leal aims to create teaching and learning material for teachers and parents of deaf children.

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EU to Mandate TV Subtitles

EU to Mandate TV Subtitles
Author: Leo Cendrowicz
April 9, २००८
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/international/news/e3idb58027fd52dd3205f0dc8b690ae2a12
BRUSSELS -- All public-service television programs in the European Union must be subtitled, the European Parliament said Wednesday.
Meeting in Brussels, the Parliament said that subtitles -- or closed captioning -- ensure all viewers, including deaf and hard-of-hearing people, have full access to programs। The Parliament vote, in the form of a written declaration, added that subtitles also help with foreign-language learning.
Polish Socialist member Lidia Joanna Geringer De Oedenberg, who initiated the vote, said that partial or complete loss of hearing is a condition that affects more than 83 million people in the EU and, given the aging of the European population, this problem will continue to grow. She called on the European Commission to put forward legislation obliging public-service broadcasters to insert subtitles as soon as possible.
The declaration points out that public-service television has a mission to inform and educate viewers, and that subtitles are a simple way of fulfilling that obligation.
Subtitles are common in Europe for films and imported programs. Subtitles for the hard-of-hearing -- or closed captioning -- tend to be a transcription rather than a translation, and usually contain descriptions of important nondialogue audio as well such as "sighs" or "door creaks."
The Parliament's vote said that today's technology enables television programs -- including live broadcasts -- to be subtitled as they go out. For example, the BBC this month moved to subtitle all its programs.

European Union Commission urged to promote language learning

European Day of Languages : European Union Commission urged to promote language learning

The event was open to the public and saw a number of events take place in and around the Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters, including an exhibition of language projects, music and singing in different languages and multilingual games. 26 September has been designated European Day of Languages by the Council of Europe and the Commission since 2001’s Year of Languages.

The Commission set up a High Level Group on Multilingualism in 2005, which also presented its report.

Issues:
The recommendation, from the report of High Level Group on Multilingualism, came as the EU executive used its special languages day to announce the launch of an online ‘Have Your Say’ external corner and consultationexternal on multilingualism.
The launch represents the beginning of a new phase in the Commission’s consultation process in this area, with the focus switching from governments, experts and companies to other stakeholders, including the general public.
Multilingualism Commissioner Leonard Orban said that the EU executive “has a clear role in promoting multilingualism”, adding that it has to know the needs and expectations of citizens, stakeholders, companies and member states in order to “define the best way forward”.
“Our aim is to give the Union a new generation of multilingual citizens,” he added.
The latest consultation process will run until 15 November 2007, with the results made available in early 2008. It will lead to a policy statement in the form of a Communication on Multilingualism in May 2008, Orban added.

Meanwhile, the High Level Group’s reportl recommends:
* Launching information campaigns among parents, young people, educational and cultural organisations and decision-makers to raise awareness of language learning.
* Including language in sports and extra-curricular activities for young people as a way of increasing motivation to learn – as well as more television programmes encouraging language learning, particularly through subtitles.
* Creating pan-European benchmarks to professionalise the training of third-country languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Hindi and Russian.
* Developing masters and higher education programmes in specialised areas of translation and interpretation such as the legal sphere.

Multilingualism Commissioner Leonard Orban described the recommendations as “very valuable”.

Positions:
Multilingualism Commissioner Leonard Orban, referring to the High Level Group’s report, said: “This report can inspire concrete projects, for instance, research into aspects of multilingualism where there are currently gaps in our knowledge.” He cited the promotion of language learning outside formal education settings, encouraging language learning at an older age and the integration of linguistic minorities as areas requiring more attention.”
He added: “My strong belief is that, in order to be effective, language learning should meet at least three criteria. It should be attractive, it should start at an early age, and it should continue during one’s whole life.”
An afternoon seminar presented members of the High Level Group with illustrations of how the media can play a role in encouraging people to learn foreign languages.

Steven Fawkes, former education officer at the BBC, said that the issue was “bigger than education”, as language learning goes beyond the classroom to become a key element in other social activities such as sport. He commended the BBC’s efforts to promote languages via multilingual programmes on TV, radio and the internet but noted that the issue of fees was always going to come back on the agenda. “Why pay the BBC fee if I don’t watch it?” is the recurring question in Britain, he said.

Claire Doutriaux, a producer at Arte TV, showed an episode of her Karambolage external flagship programme, which seeks to entertain viewers with Franco-German cultural subtleties. Like all other programmes at Arte, Karambolage is bilingual but the difficulty lies in finding a story-telling “drama” that works for both language versions. “We have to juggle with languages, images and translation to make it happen,” she explained.

Jaana Sormunen, executive producer at Finnish broadcasting company YLE, presented an educational and entertainment programme, La Casa en España, which, for the second year running, has attracted numerous viewers in Finland. The TV game saw competitors study Spanish at home for three months and then take speaking exams in the studio and during weekend trips to Spain. The show is part of YLE’s language-learning drive, which includes a virtual language school, The Language Gateexternal , in which users can practice languages with interactive exercises using audio, video and text.

Frédéric Simon, managing editor at EurActiv.com, presented EurActiv’s unique approach to EU political news coverage with the launch in 2004 of several partner websites in central and eastern Europe, each covering EU affairs in their own language. The CrossLingual Network, Simon said, aimed to meet demand for independent information on European policies in those countries where the democratic deficit with the EU elites in Brussels is made worse as a result of the language barrier. He then presented the two most recent additions to the network, with the launch of EurActiv Franceexternal in May and EurActiv Turkey in September.

Debate centred on the issue of TV subtitling versus dubbing with one participant pointing out that subtitled programmes do not score high audience levels in France.
He was contradicted by Jaana Sormunen, who said that viewers in Finland massively protested when the American TV series The Bold and the Beautiful was presented in a dubbed version. Conference moderator Wim De Wielder, from the Dutch-speaking Belgian television channel VRT confirmed this, saying that Flemish viewers are accustomed to subtitling and have found it a useful way to learn English.

Latest & next steps:
* 25 Sept. 2007: Commission adopted report on the implementation of the Action Plan 2004-2006 Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity.
* 26 Sept. 2007: Commission held European Day of Languages and launched online ‘Have Your Say’ corner and consultation on multilingualism.
* 26 Sept. 2007: High Level Group on Multilingualism presented its report.
* 15 Nov. 2007: Latest Commission consultation process ends.
* Nov. 2007: Business Forum on Multilingualism in Lisbon.
* May 2008: Commission releases Communication on Multilingualism.