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From: minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow)
Newsgroups: net.movies,net.video
Subject: Re: Dubbing/Sub Titles for foreign films
Message-ID: <110@decvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Sep-85 21:55:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: decvax.110
Posted: Tue Sep  3 21:55:47 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Sep-85 06:36:28 EDT
References: <1975@amdahl.UUCP>
Reply-To: minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin minow)
Distribution: net
Organization: DEC - ULTRIX Engineering Group
Lines: 26
Xref: watmath net.movies:7588 net.video:1459

In 1968, I translated/subtitled two Swedish films (together with
a Swedish acquaintence, Jenny Bohman).  We worked from a copy of
the final script that had footage indicated in the margin, and
were told "12 letters per 'footage' count"  This was usually
sufficient, but was a problem in a few places with people shouting
back and forth.  In one of the films -- that was probably never
released in the US -- we were told not to use any obscenities.
(That film, "They Call Us Mods," was about two Swedish hippies
and, by cutting out the unpermissible words, didn't have too
much dialog left.  It was being subtitled to be shown at an
international festival and the producers didn't want more
controversy than they could handle.)

After we finished a draft, we watched the films a few times,
checking that the dialog read correctly, and was properly
synchronized with the picture.  When vip's were in Stockholm,
Jenny would attend private showings to whisper the dialog.

In almost all circumstances, the subtitles accuratly reflect
the dialog itself.  Sometimes the translators can't handle puns
(and sometimes they improve on the original), and, as noted,
sometimes the producers avoid censorship problems.  Some early
Bergman films were slightly blowderized, for example.

Martin Minow
decvax!minow