Introduction to Dubbing

Translation Unit - Imperial College London

Introduction to Dubbing

Saturday 2^nd March 2013

There are still places available for the Introduction to Dubbing workshop being held by the Translation Unit at Imperial College.
This is open to professionals as well as students.

Course Content

After a definition of dubbing, the interaction between text and images will be discussed and  you will learn about the technical issues that constrain dubbing in terms of time and space. We will then take a look at the different conventions applied in what is considered standard practice in  translation for dubbing: take segmentation, dubbing symbols, lip-syncing and the emulation of oral discourse. All these concepts will be illustrated with examples and clips of dubbings into English, French, German, Spanish and Italian.

During this practical workshop, you will work with clips and will carry out some of the tasks pertaining to  dubbing, like  take segmentation (i.e.  segmenting the translation according to different national conventions), insertion of dubbing symbols for voice talents, as well as the omnipresent lip-sync according to the constraints imposed by the medium. Windows Movie Maker will help us make a simulated dubbing in the class, so that you can experience the technical and professional dimensions of dubbing.

An insight into the working environment will also be presented and some time will be left at the end for questions. A list of useful websites and other sources of information will be given to all the participants.

Course Trainer: Prof. Frederic Chaume
Standard fee: £115
Student fee: £65

For more information visit www.imperial.ac.uk/humanities/translationgroup/translationtechnologycourses  

To apply for a place, please fill in the booking form and send it to r.banos-pinero@imperial.ac.uk  

SAVE TRANSLATION AT IMPERIAL: http://chn.ge/VN225L

Dr Rocío Baños Piñero

Practical Translation Coordinator

Translation Studies Unit

Imperial College London

Sherfield Building, Room S310
South Kensington Campus

London SW7 2AZ

www.imperial.ac.uk/humanities/translationgroup

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/r.banos-pinero

Imperial College is a partner of the EU project ClipFlair

www.clipflair.net

Imperial TSU transtech series 201213

This year as well the Translation Studies Unit at Imperial College hosts several events, labelled the Translation Technology series.

On 6 February, Yves Champollion, of Wordfast renown, will be talking to students and delegates from the ITI about latest translation technology developments. A fee applies for non-students. The seminar takes place 2-4pm in the Royal School of Mines (access through Prince Consort Road), room RSM 1.47.

On 27 February, John Hutchins, one of the godfathers of machine translation, will be talking to students and delegates from the ITI about the latest developments in the field language technology applied to translation technology. A fee applies for non-students. The seminar takes place 2-4pm in the Royal School of Mines (access through Prince Consort Road), room RSM 1.47.

On 5 March, Lucinda Brook, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, will be talking about The Business Aspects of Using CAT Tools. The talk is scheduled from 4 to 5pm, room tbc. No fee applies.

On 19 March, Philippe Koehn, University of Edinburgh and statistical machine translation guru, talks about New Tools for Translators. The talk is scheduled from 4 to 5pm, room tbc. No fee applies.

Dear visitor to this blog,

We need to inform you of some very serious and troubling news concerning the Translation Studies Unit (TSU) at Imperial College London.

The Management Board has informed us that the activities carried out by the TSU are not considered core to the College strategy and that, if possible, the Unit should be transferred to another institution. If this solution proves not to be feasible, consideration will be given to discontinuing translation studies at Imperial from 1^st October 2013 onwards.

We believe that the Management Board’s view is a deeply mistaken one and that the work of the TSU is indeed fully in line with all the College’s strategic aims. We consider that the relevance to the College Strategy of the activities carried out by the TSU is clear in that:

·      we are engaged in teaching and researching the communication of science, technology and medicine across languages and cultures in a manner that involves the intensive use of technology;

·        ours is the only Masters programme in translation, in the UK and possibly worldwide, that focuses so clearly on translation within the scientific, technical and medical subject areas;

·        our research emphasises specialised types of translation, such as audiovisual, scientific and medical, and also the use of translation technology;

·       With a track record of 12 years of large-scale MSc teaching and PhD provision, the TSU has established itself as a strong player within the College, with very healthy recruitment, particularly of overseas students, at both MSc and PhD levels, and a strong provision of further complementary activities (all of which makes us very cost-effective). 

With this strongly technical and scientific profile, we believe that Imperial College is indeed our most natural home. The fact that the College is making such plans indicates that it is uninformed about the vital role played by translation in disseminating its own ground-breaking scientific work throughout the worldwide research community.

If you would like to register your concerns about Imperial College extremely worrying plans, then you are invited to add your signature to the on-line petition.

We would be most grateful if you could help disseminate this message as widely as possible.

Many thanks for your support,

the TSU @ Imperial

Follow us on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ImperialTSU

Languages and the Media 2012: Imperial College contributions

Members of the Translation Unit at Imperial College attended last week's Languages & the Media conference in Berlin. 

Titled Translating in MultilingualCommunities, the event brought together academics, industry professionals and other interested parties from across the range of audiovisual translation. Attending from Imperial were Lindsay Bywood, Jorge Díaz-Cintas, Arista Kuo, Emmanouela Patiniotaki and Adriana Tortoriello.

Jorge Díaz-Cintas chaired several panels, including one entitled The Client Side: Localisation, International Broadcasters and Content Distributors. 

Three PhD students presented papers:

Lindsay Bywood, along with Yota Georgakopoulou, presented the results of the first evaluation of the Sumat system, a statistical machine translation system for subtitles.

Arista Kuo spoke on Myths and Realities of Working as a Subtitler: Survey Results on Subtitlers’ Working Conditions.

Emmanouela Patiniotaki presented a paper on Access to Online AV Educational Material.

(Lindsay Bywood)

Translation Technology Workshop - Introduction to Subtitling - 8 December

Translation Unit - Imperial College London

Introduction to Subtitling

Saturday 8 December 2012

There are still places available for the Introduction to Subtitling workshop being held by the Translation Unit at Imperial College on the 8^th December 2012.
This is open to professionals as well as students.

Course Content

After a definition and  a survey of the different types of subtitles, the interaction between text and images will be discussed and  you will learn about the technical issues that constrain subtitling in terms of time and space. We will then take a look at the different conventions applied in what is considered standard practice in interlingual subtitling, and examples of strategies such as  segmentation, condensation and reformulation will be offered.

During this practical workshop, you will work with clips and will carry out some of the tasks pertaining to subtitling, like the spotting or cueing (i.e. deciding the in and out times of the different subtitles) as well as the actual translation of the clip following the appropriate limitations imposed by the medium. WinCAPS, a state-of-the-art professional subtitling program, will be demonstrated so that  you can experience the technical and technological dimensions of subtitling.

An insight into the working environment will also be presented and some time will be left at the end for questions. A list of useful websites and other sources of information will be given to all the participants.

Course Trainer: Adriana Tortoriello
Standard fee: £115
Student fee: £65

For more information visit www.imperial.ac.uk/humanities/translationgroup/translationtechnologycourses  

To apply for a place, please fill in the following form: www.surveymonkey.com/s/TranslationTechnologyCourses

Dr Rocío Baños Piñero

Practical Translation Coordinator

Translation Studies Unit

Imperial College London

Sherfield Building, Room S310
South Kensington Campus

London SW7 2AZ

www.imperial.ac.uk/humanities/translationgroup

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/r.banos-pinero

Imperial College is a partner of the EU project ClipFlair

www.clipflair.net

Lawrence Venuti at UCL, 13 December

Imperial College London's Translation Unit has a longstanding working relationship with the MA in Translation at UCL. UCL students can take one module at the MScTrans, either 'Language and Translation' or 'Translation Technology'.

UCL will be hosting Lawrence Venuti, professor of English at Temple University, Philadelphia on 13 December, 6pm. 

The lecture is entitled
Genealogies of Translation Theory: Schleiermacher

Address:
Anatomy JZ Young Lecture Theatre (entrance opposite 131 Gower Street)
University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT

The lecture contrasts instrumental and hermeneutic models of language and translation, and the translation commentary they generate. The instrumental model views translation as the reproduction of an invariant form, meaning or effect. The hermeneutic model treats translation as an interpretation of a source text that remains subject to transformation during translation. 

The analysis of Friedrich Schleiermacher’s lecture “On the Different Methods of Translating” (1813) which follows, suggests that Schleiermacher’s hermeneutic approach to translation is pre-empted by a residual empiricism that detaches the interpretive act from its context while privileging the values of a cultural elite in the service of Prussian nationalism. 

The lecture argues that translation research and practice should replace empiricist-based instrumentalism with an understanding of translation that employs a more sophisticated version of the hermeneutic model. It conceives of translation as an interpretive act that potentially initiates a mutual interrogation – of the source text and culture and of the translation and its cultural situation. This approach is illustrated through a reading of Susan Bernofsky’s 2004 English translation of Schleiermacher’s lecture.

Speaking Cypriot in Cyprus and Beyond

With the support of the Centre for Hellenic Studies of King's College London and SOAS, and in partnership with Imperial College London,  the European Commission Representation in the UK is holding two fantastic events,  under the Cypriot Presidency of the EU,  to highlight the language and culture of this Mediterranean paradise:

1. 'Speaking Cypriot in Cyprus and Beyond', on 21 November 2012 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm
2. 'Cypriot identities in Literature: At a crossroads between East and West', on 12 December from 6:00 to 9:00

The events will take place at the premises of the European Commission's Representation in London and will be followed by a reception with a cypriot twist!

Participation is free but you need to register by sending an email to the addresss included in the invitation:
joanna.zywotko@ext.ec.europa.eu

Translation Technology Workshop - Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing

Translation Unit - Imperial College London

Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing

Saturday 17 November 2012

There are still places available for the Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing workshop being held by the Translation Unit at Imperial College on the 17th November 2012. This is open to professionals as well as students.

Course Content

The course will start with an introduction to deafness aimed at becoming familiar with the audience. The specific requirements of subtitling for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (SDH) – textual, tone of voice, speaker identification, sound effects – will be highlighted. The conventions and norms in place will be discussed. 

An insight into subtitling for deaf children will be presented and issues related to subtitling for young audiences will be discussed.

A state-of-the-art professional subtitling program, WinCAPS, will be used by the participants to carry out subtitling tasks on clips provided by the trainer. This practical part is aimed at introducing technical aspects of subtitling and at gaining an understanding of the potential offered by subtitling programs.

A list of useful websites and other sources of information will be given to all the participants.

Course Trainer: Soledad Zárate
Standard fee: £115
Student fee: £65

For more information visit www.imperial.ac.uk/humanities/translationgroup/translationtechnologycourses  

To apply for a place, please fill in the following form: www.surveymonkey.com/s/TranslationTechnologyCourses

Europe House event on subtitling

Imperial College Translation Unit was proud to co-host a seminar entitled An introduction to subtitling: bridging the language and culture divide together with the European Commission Representation in the UK, and the VSI Group. The day-long event took place at Europe House on 26^th October, 2012 and also featured invited guests from the industry.

The seminar examined some of the most significant changes to have taken place recently in the subtitling field and included talks on the audiovisual industry and language-specific subtitling workshops, followed by an early-evening panel discussion attended by over 70 participants. 

Taking part from Imperial were Jorge Díaz-Cintas, Lindsay Bywood, Adriana Tortoriello and Emmanouela Patiniotaki. Feedback from the event was excellent, and there are plans to repeat it in future. (Lindsay Bywood)

Guest speakers Autumn Term

After a successful visit from Dr ZoË Pettit, University of Greenwich, who spoke about ‘Audiovisual Translation and Multilingual Films: A South African Perspective’, Imperial College’s Translation Unit continues its guest speakers programme.

For the Autumn term the Translation Unit is happy to welcome

Prof. Anthony Briggs, Birmingham University and Visiting Fellow at Bristol University, UK. He will talk about From Syllable to Sentence: The Shifting Challenge of Literary Translation on 30 October 2012

Dr Carol O'Sullivan, University of Portsmouth, UK. Her topic on 13 November 2012 covers Access All Areas? Localization and the Textual Problems of Verbal Visual Codes

Prof. Raquel Merino, Universidad del País Vasco, Vitoria, Spain. The talk on 27 November 2012 will cover Translation, Literature and Audiovisual Media: The Case of Censored Musicals in Franco's Spain

Seminars are free and open to everyone.
Venue: Huxley Building, South Kensington Campus, Lecture Theatre 144 (easiest access via Queen’s Gate)

Time: 4-5pm

More information can be obtained via the Translation Unit website.