Fundamentals of Subtitling into French

by Laurence Ibrahim Aibo, PhD

According to a report by Cisco, videos will represent over 82% of all consumer Internet traffic by 2022. More and more translators need to become familiar with the codes of audiovisual content to meet the expectations of their clients across all industries. In this session presented in French, with illustrations of English media subtitled in French, attendees learned how image, sound, and text interact and how these interactions help subtitlers condense information.

Attendees were introduced to the difference between visual and auditory perception, basic constraints of time, space, and synchronization as well as subtitling conventions for a French-speaking audience.

The presenter covered the different stages in the production of subtitles, from the creation of a source language (English) template to the creation of translated subtitles into French. Examples of proper line breaks and text distribution over lines to improve readability and media perception, as well as tips and tricks regarding the many ways to condense the message we shared.

Attendees were able to appreciate the creative work that is needed to create audience-friendly and meaningful subtitles—a task that goes beyond the many rules and conventions (and their exceptions based on a complex hierarchy of priorities) that need to be followed by subtitlers.

Laurence Jay-Rayon Ibrahim Aibo is a certified translator (Ordre des traducteurs terminologues et interprètes agréés du Québec) and a certified health care interpreter (Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters). She holds an MA and PhD in Translation Studies from Université de Montréal, Canada, and has been translating, teaching, and interpreting in the Americas, Europe, and Africa for the past 30 years. She teaches translation and interpreting at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and New York University, including audiovisual translation. She translates from English and German into European and Canadian French, mostly in the areas of academic content (including humanities and social sciences), human resources, medical content, culture, and subtitling. She is also the 2020–22 administrator of the ATA Educators Division.