This presentation was used in a seminar on translation (SPET) in 4.08.2014 in the Lenguas Vivas, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1. On Amateur Subtitling
Preliminary findings
Mariana Salgado
Media Lab, ARTS,Aalto University
Helsinki
4th August 2014

2. Television heritage
CC byVerbruggen & Pekel

3. EUscreen project
• EUscreen Best Practice Network
eContentplus programme
• 36 months (2009-12)
• Consortium
28 partners
17 EU member states (plus Switzerland)
Broadcasters, archives, technologists, academic partners and
educationalists
• Relationship to Europeana (TV aggregator)
• Access to 35,000 items of audiovisual ARCHIVE content

4. Europeana.eu is an internet portal that acts as an interface to millions of books,
paintings, films, museum objects and archival records that have been digitised
throughout Europe. (Wikipedia)
Screenshot from: http://www.europeana.eu/portal/

5. à 29m records from 2,200
European galleries,
museums, archives and
libraries
à Books, newspapers,
journals, letters, diaries,
archival papers
à Paintings, maps, drawings,
photographs
à Music, spoken word,
radio broadcasts
à Film, newsreels,
television
à Curated exhibitions
à 31 languages
Europe’s cultural heritage portal
CC byVerbruggen & Pekel

6. EUscreen results
www.euscreen.eu
• 40,000 items of content (1950s - )
• 15 European languages
• Content viewable on portal and Europeana
• Interoperable metadata (back & front end)
• Virtual Exhibitions
• VIEW e-journal
• Multi-lingual

8. The EUscreen project aims to promote the use of television content to explore
Europe's rich and diverse cultural history. It will create access to over 1M items of
programme content and information, and by developing a number of interactive
functionalities and dynamic links with Europeana it will prove valuable to the widest
range of cultural, educational and recreational users.
Screenshot from: http://www.euscreen.eu

10. http://www.euscreen.eu/exhibitions.html#.UnoUGCTudWc

12. EUscreenXL (2013-16)
Large consortium – 29 partners
• Broadcasters and archives (18)
• Education/research, designers and technologists
• 17 languages
AV content to Europeana
• ‘Quantity’ - Aggregation 1m+ items (basic metadata and stills/
thumbnails)
• ‘Quality’ - Core Collection (20K+ AV) full metadata
Other tasks
• user engagement, network building & sustainability

13. Partners
CC byVerbruggen & Pekel

14. Structure

15. Why to study amateur subtitling?
understand a community that might
engage in translating EUscreen content
inform the development of a tool that could be
used by fansubbers + professional translators
CC by Mariana Salgado

16. Done, so far…
Interviewed 2 fansubbers from DivX Finland
Reviewed work on Subtitling in Finland
(Polso, 2013) (Kallio, 2012)(Mäntylä, 2010)
Reviewed work on Fansubbing (Mizuko Ito, 2012)
Reviewed websites from the fansubbing communities
In relation to the study of amateur subtitling

17. Done, so far…
One International workshop with professional translators.
One Workshop with Content providers to plan the strategy for collaboration
in Pilot 1
Explore the possibility to integrate Amara to the project platform.
Draw a plan with 5 CP in relation to the Pilot.
Benchmark online tools for future
In relation to the Pilot 1

18. Lessons learnt
• On the practices
• On the tools
• On the vocabulary
• On the guidelines
CCbyFroussecartoninFlickr

19. In Finland

20. On
Amateur
translation
in Finland
• There are many groups. Each has its
dynamics and rules for organizing the
work.
• DivX Finland: they lived all around
Finland.They have strict rules to
organize their translations.They
prioritize quality vs speed. Some of
them spend a lot of time in this
(around 15hours a week)
Screenshotsfromhttp://www.divxfinland.org/index.html

21. On the vocabulary
Cause-driven
Collaboration
environments UGT
USER GENERATED
TRANSLATION
TEP
translate, edit,
proofread
digisubs
fandubbing
Not professional translation
COLLABORATIVE TRANSLATION
Scanlation
(also scanslation) is
the scanning,
translation and
editing of comics
from a language into
another language
DIGISUBBING
CROWDSOURCE TRANSLATION
Translation
hacking
Warez
(Warez are copyrighted works
distributed without fees or royalties, and
may be traded, in general violation of
copyright law.)
fandoms
Tsing
(typesetting)
QC

22. On the community
Southern and
Western Finland
Polso (2013)
Majority of men
IT + language interest
Young:
Age from 16
to 24 years

23. On the
practices
Distinctive features of fansubbing
1) the notes added to the screen (enrich
video by adding annotations),
2) not condensed text,
3) authorship (by the typography used and a
more personalized way),
4) well-defined set of guidelines for the
translation work.
http://www.divxfinland.org/index.html

24. On the practices
Motivation
1) The content (it might have good language
or it might be interesting).They love what
they translate and they want to see it in
their mother tongue. Promote “unknown/
new material”
2) Improving language skills in their
mother tongue and in the other. Creative
ways of using the language.
3) Be the first ones: they want to see the
movie asap.They received finished subtitles
first.
4) Be appreciated: ranking in the
community. Do sth. for others.
Screenshotsfromhttp://www.divxfinland.org/index.html

25. On the practices
Community: they know each other and care
for their reputation within the community.
They have a strict hierarchy within members, a
leader board, and a system for the rights to
the different roles.
Roles (member, apprentice, candidate, insider,
mentor, mentors, moderator, lecturer and
administrator) do not connect with the prizes.
Challenge: phrases and sayings that have not
Finnish translation, fast dialogues and technical
issues
Rewards & sanctions: the ones that have
participated received the subtitles earlier than
others. Sanctions could be get if members do
not keep the time.
http://www.divxfinland.org/index.html

26. On the practices
Wishlist: Someone presents the project and if there are enough people the
project starts. Ideally, it has to be 10 persons for project. Project manager subdivide
the work in 100 lines per person.The person that present a wish will participate in
translating but might not be the project manager.
No real time collaboration.The translation work happens off-line.TEAMWORK
100 line package takes aprox. 90minutes from English to Finnish
Style: They do not use notes/ comments.They tried to be non-invasive.They are
very precise and might not prioritize/summarize as much as professionals
Feedback: translators get feedback from the proof readers.This is a motivation
factor because it helps the fansubber to improve the work. Expectations are
different from professional translators results & the community give positive
feedback to amateur translators (Polso, 2013)
Languages: from English or French to Finnish and Swedish. Mostly English
Time adjusting: it is time consuming (half the time is used on this) and it is a
challenge because fansubbers do not enjoy this part of the work.
On the audiovisual materials: short films, films,TV series
Content Selection: Poor subtitles or there is no subtitles in Finnish
Process: Translate- Proofreading and time control phases happens after translating

27. On the tools
Many of the features that the
translators considered important in
the tool, are used by fansubbers:
a) Own profile
b) Badges and prizes
c) Roles
d) Forums for discussion
They used 2 different softwares +
IRC channel+ wiki page + Word
(for checking the spelling) +
dictionaries
One discussion forum for each
project + general discussion on IRC
http://www.divxfinland.org/index.html

28. On the tools
Aegisub: for getting a more
accurate time for the subtitles.
You can open the video file as an
audio file.You can check the exact
moment that someone starts to talk.
Subtitle workshop: for writing the
translation and adjusting the time.
Error check system- there are
subtitles parameters. Before sending
the subtitles you have to do this
check (too long or too short, or
extra spaces).
Aegisub + Subtitle workshop

29. On the tools
Suggestions
Integrate dictionaries.They copy and
paste the subtitles ready in a Word
file to check the spelling.
The audio wave is not in Subtitle
workshop software and it could be
included.
A red line to see where the subtitle
starts is a key thing.
Structure of the sites: personal
pages, archives, discussion forums
and guidelines.
Aegisub + Subtitle workshop

30. On Fansubbing
FromtheAnimeFansubdocumentary
Provides a twist on the discussion on intelectual property, peer to peer distribution and
noncommercial appropriation of digital content.
Motives: demand for high-quality localized content, a desire to contribute to the
international fandom, and opportunities for learning, being up-dated, and for recognition.
”All fansubbers bring to their work multiple motivations that are altruistic, personal, and
social in nature”
Mizuko Ito, 2012

31. On Fansubbing
FromtheAnimeFansubdocumentary
”Sharing economies and amateur production foreground incentives and motivations that
center on learning, self actualization, and reputation rather than financial rewards”
”Fansubbing aroise to fill an unmet consumer demand not being served by commercial
industries”
”Fan culture begins with the love of professional media content”. Strong desire to support
animé industry.
Mizuko Ito, 2012

32. On Leechers
Leeching (downloading and viewing fansubs).
”Leechers and fansubbers alike acknowledge that high quality fansubs are more
accurate, better executed, and truer to the original Japanese source. ”
Mizuko Ito.
FromtheAnimeFansubdocumentary

33. On Leechers
Contributors and leechers are two co-dependent groups.
They justified their leeching because of the ineffectiveness of professional
localization efforts, or because of their lack of financial resources to get the
episodes.
Mizuko Ito.
FromtheAnimeFansubdocumentary

34. Hybrid Public Culture
As a way of arguing for an enriching public life that
values diverse forms of contribution.
Mizuko Ito.
FromtheAnimeFansubdocumentary

35. Collaboration?
http://about.amara.org/volunteer/

36. http://www.ted.com/OpenTranslationProject

37. http://translations.ted.org/wiki/Main_Page
On the guidelines

38. Future steps
CC by dalbera in Flickr

39. References
• Kallio, Markus Oskari (2012) The effects of broken subtitles norms on the quality
of subtitles .A reception study
• Mäntylä,Teemu (2010). Piracy or productivity. Unlawful practices in Animé
Fansubbing.Aalto University
• Polso, Mervi (2013).Amateur Subtitling in Finland.A Grounded Theory Study. MA
Thesis, University of Turku
• Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a connected world. Editors: Ito, Okabe and
Tsuji.Yale University Press, London.
More on amateur translation
Interview with a fansubber:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2008-03-11
DivX Finland
• http://www.divxfinland.org/index.html
Collaborative translation patterns
http://collaborative-translation-patterns.wiki4us.com/tiki-index.php

40. Software
Aegisub: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegisub
Software use for fansubbing in various languages
Sub Station Alpha (commonly referred to as SSA)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SubStation_Alpha#Software_support
Sabbu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbu
Amara: http://www.amara.org/en/
JacoSub: http://unicorn.us.com/jacosub/
For delivering subtitles:
http://www.bittorrent.com/

41. Thanks!!!
mariana.salgado@aalto.fi