Audiovisual Adaptation Workshops - English

Teacher(s)

Rivas Ginel Maria Isabel;

Language

French
> English-friendly

Main themes

Interlingual subtitling of films, series, cartoons, documentaries, interviews, programmes, informative or promotional documents. 

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

Contribution of teaching unit to learning outcomes assigned to programme  This unit contributes to the acquisition and development of the following learning outcomes, as assigned to the Master's degree in translation:  analyse a source document, identify potential textual and cognitive difficulties and assess the strategies and resources needed to reformulate it in line with communicative needs (1 – Translation);  translate general and domain-specific material in one or several fields from one or several source languages into their target language(s), producing a ‘fit for purpose’ translation (6 – Translation);  translate different types of material on and for different kinds of media and target audiences, using appropriate tools and techniques (7 – Translation);  check, review, revise and evaluate their own work and that of others according to standard or work-specific quality objectives and assess the appropriateness of using tools for the work at hand (11 – Translation);  use the most relevant IT applications, including the full range of office software, and adapt rapidly to new tools and IT resources having critically assessed their relevance and the impact of change on their work practices (15 – Technology);  pre-process, process and manage files and other media/sources as part of the translation workflow, e.g., web and multimedia files (17 – Technology);  manage workload, cognitive load, stress and critical professional situations (22 – Personal and Interpersonal).  Specific learning outcomes on completion of teaching unit  On completing this unit the student is able to:  transcribe, check or correct the script dialogue-list for the source material;  subtitle, from English into French, audiovisual productions in miscellaneous domains and genres;  supply marketable productions, whether working independently or in a team.

Content

The course Audiovisual Adaptation Workshops – English focuses on subtitling practice in conditions that reflect professional workflows. As part of their participation in the Brussels Short Film Festival (BSFF), students will work in groups of two or three to produce subtitles for short films. They will prepare the source materials by transcribing, checking or correcting dialogue lists (scripts), before subtitling audiovisual works from a variety of genres. The aim is to produce subtitles that meet the technical, linguistic and translation requirements of professional practice.
Group work will allow students to develop their collaboration, revision and translation decision-making skills while consolidating their technical proficiency in subtitling from English into French. Practical activities will be carried out mainly using EZTitles© and will receive collective and personalised feedback throughout the semester.
 

Teaching methods

In-person classes in a computer lab equipped with EZTitles© software.
Attendance is compulsory.
Work in groups of two or three, complemented by collective and personalised feedback.
 

Evaluation methods

For the June examination session, the summative assessment is organised during the semester. Working in groups of two or three, students produce and submit subtitles for short films as part of their participation in the Brussels Short Film Festival (BSFF). Assessment focuses on the quality of the final output and its compliance with the technical, linguistic and translation requirements covered during the course.
Collective and personalised feedback is provided throughout the semester to support the completion of the project.
In the event of failure, the September examination session will consist of an individual practical subtitling assignment.
Attendance is compulsory.
Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), if used, must be used responsibly and in accordance with the principles of academic and scientific integrity. Since scientific integrity requires sources to be acknowledged, any use of GenAI must always be reported precisely and in detail. GenAI uses that comply with academic standards are defined in the institutional document “Utilisation des Intelligences Artificielles Génératives. Note à l’attention des étudiantes et étudiants de l’UCLouvain”.
Whether disclosed or not, the use of GenAI tools will be considered inconsistent with academic standards when it leads, in particular, to citing bibliographical sources that have not been consulted or to including references whose validity has not been verified or that do not exist. Where inappropriate use of GenAI is suspected, the course holder may verify the authenticity of the submitted work and, pursuant to Article 148 of the RGEE and with the agreement of the examination board, require an additional assessment. Any unauthorised use of GenAI may be considered an irregularity within the meaning of Article 107 of the UCLouvain RGEE.
Rules on plagiarism: in assessed work, students must strictly comply with academic referencing rules. In particular, they must not copy text without quotation marks and/or acknowledgement of the source; reproduce graphs, data or illustrations without acknowledging the source; reformulate or summarise an author’s original idea without acknowledging the source; translate a source, in whole or in part, without referencing it; present another person’s work as their own; or purchase work. Failure to comply with these rules may result in the sanctions provided for by the RGEE where an irregularity or plagiarism is established by the examination board.
 

Other information

Course materials will be available on Moodle.

Online resources

Glossary of Professional Audiovisual Translation: https://www.ataa.fr/documents/ET-HS2-complet.pdf
Charter on the Quality of Subtitling for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing People (2011): https://www.arcom.fr/se-documenter/espace-juridique/textes-juridiques/charte-relative-la-qualite-du-sous-titrage-destination-des-personnes-sourdes-ou-malentendantes-decembre-2011
International Guidelines and Policies on Audiovisual Translation (ESIST – European Association for Studies in Screen Translation): https://esist.org/resources/avt-guidelines-and-policies/
ADLAB – Best Practice Guide and Learning Manual in Audio Description (with Exercises): http://www.adlabproject.eu/Docs/adlab%20book/
Current Trends in Audiovisual Translation Research: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0907676X.2022.2069226#d1e247
 

Bibliography

1. Baños, Rocío & Dallı, Harun & Diaz-Cintas, Jorge. (2025). Pivot subtitling workflows in the age of streaming platforms. The International Journal of Translation and Interpreting Research. 17. 16-37. http://dx.doi.org/10.12807/ti.117202.2025.a02 
2. Baños, Rocío & Diaz-Cintas, Jorge. (2023). Exploring new forms of audiovisual translation in the age of digital media: cybersubtitling and cyberdubbing. The Translator. 29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13556509.2023.2274119  
3. Bolaños García-Escribano, Alejandro & Diaz-Cintas, Jorge & Massidda, Serenella. (2021). Subtitlers on the Cloud: The Use of Professional Web-based Systems in Subtitling Practice and Training. Tradumàtica tecnologies de la traducció. 19. 1-21. http://dx.doi.org/10.5565/rev/tradumatica.276  
4. Gambier, Yves. (2019). Audiovisual translation and reception. Slovo.ru: Baltic accent. http://dx.doi.org/10.5922/2225-5346-2019-1-4 

Teaching materials

• Les supports de cours seront disponibles sur Moodle.

Faculty or entity

> LSTI