(Scholarship #3)

Subtitles are transcriptions of what is said during a movie. It helps the deaf, deafblind, and HOH (hard of hearing). It also allows children who are learning to develop their English language abilities such as in cases of ESL, kids with auditory processing disorders, Down Syndrome, and Dyslexia, etc. Subtitles also benefit the film industry because it breaks down the barrier previously restricting them to the language they were made in. They translate films and TV from one language into another. In the beginning of the subtitles, during the silent film period, they were called ‘intertitles’. They were used instead of speech to explain complicated storylines where title cards were put between video frames. For in-depth analysis I found this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_l1pbSzGZs&ab_channel=MarcGoodman quite useful! Today, when it comes to creating subtitles for films and TV shows, translators first create digital files of these. Next, the subtitles are evaluated by the editorial staff. That staff is made up of individuals who are knowledgeable about the country and language this film will be shown in. Not all subtitles are made equally since the quality can vary. High-quality subtitles add value to the film and must account for cultural and linguistic differences in a language. Things like jokes or slang would not make sense in direct translations, and sometimes words in one language do not even exist in the other! This is something that has generated many jobs within the industry for so many people and has allowed them to increase revenue in their marketing as well. Personally, my family has English as a second language and Spanish as our first. We use subtitles in movies of either language. Although we can speak both, the different dialects of those languages are sometimes hard to understand. Spanish from Spain for example, is vastly different from any other dialect, and their slang, like much of the language, is very region-specific. When my grandparents who only speak Spanish come to visit, there are some shows and movies that only have English audio available. We turn on Spanish subtitles and then we are both able to watch the show so they can share that moment with us. It is things like this that can bridge gaps and bring people together. There is a cultural component to subtitles, which are created with skill to express important ideas in those entertainment-magic moments. There are many more applications today like XRAI Glasses shown (in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik79Sh5M-Bs&ab_channel=euronews) which are AR glasses with subtitles that appear when someone talks to you. The implications of this kind of technology are revolutionary! The subtitles are shown in real-time and in real life. Subtitles technology is incredible!