Corrientes que consideran la cultura de la organización como factor

In the past three years, I encountered these interviewees in different academic contexts, such as international conferences, study workshops and internships. The different scholars and practitioners expressed different viewpoints. In the following chapters on data analysis, I will describe these useful encounters where there is relevance to one of the specific hypotheses.

Before comparing the length difference between the Chinese translated subtitle and the corresponding original English dialogue, the ideal length of any kind of language subtitles should be evaluated based on the effectiveness of the subtitles. It is obvious that Chinese subtitles and English subtitles will have different length standards because of their different natures.

From the point of view of film producing, theorists and practitioners have varied criteria when it comes to the ideal length of subtitles. For example, as in the previous chapter of literature review mentioned, similar with Zhang and Wang’s recommendation of “no more than 14 Chinese characters per line” (2012:139), Xiang pointed out that the number of Chinese characters in each film subtitle line should be

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14-15 (with spaces and punctuations); however, the number of English characters is 40 (with spaces and punctuations) (2014: 306). According to the knowledge of “character”, one Chinese word equates to one character, while different words of English will be composed of a different number of letters. Therefore, when calculating the number of English subtitles, it is not possible to calculate by the unit of words, but by the unit of letters. In other words, 40 characters may involve a different number of English words, but a certain number of letters. However, some practitioners with different working experiences had different ideas concerning a standard number for the ideal length of single-lined subtitles. He in her answer of “How many Chinese characters in one line in a film subtitle is suitable for an audience to read?”:

The acceptable and readable length should be around 18 to 23 characters on each frame of a film. Then, if divided into lines, no more than 18 characters in a single line. However, when the subtitle is over 18 Chinese characters long, the subtitler needs to create a line and a half to put in the whole content. Furthermore, the maximum number of subtitle lines on one frame should be no more than two.

Another practitioner, Liu is the Associate President of the Shanghai Translated Film Studio. In one of his interviews, he recommended that subtitlers make a single-line subtitle within a limit of 13 Chinese characters, since this length of a subtitle will make the audience feel ‘comfortable’. As well as the investigation into the ideal length of Chinese subtitles, the researcher also reviewed the ideal length of English subtitles in order to make an effective comparison and reference. When the original English is translated into Chinese, the original length can help the subtitler to estimate the length of the translation, such that it is obvious that a smaller difference in length from the original text will be more acceptable. Thus, for the theory of the standard length of English subtitles, besides the idea proposed by Xiang, I interviewed two practitioners in the study of producing animation works in the UK.

Bunny Martin trains young people in making animation films as part of their school vocations. During the talk with Martin, I asked the question about the ideal length of a single-line subtitle in English, Martin replying that it should be “no more than 40

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characters (with spaces and punctuations)”. This is completely in line with the theory presented by Xiang in his (2014) book《实用电影摄制手册》 (Practical Film- making Handbook). Moreover, she also gave her own estimation of a single-lined number of English words as around 15 as its maximum. The ideal number of words she gave is the same as Yang (2012, cited in Yang 2014: 174): “the perfect length for a single-line subtitle is no more than 15 English words and no more than two lines on one frame”. However, she emphasized that her estimation should only be a reference to experienced subtitlers, who may judge its validity visually according to their own experience; otherwise, subtitlers need to follow the regulation of 40 English characters in each single line strictly. Another practitioner is Martin’s colleague, Roy Loveday, when taking the age of the audience in animation films into account, advised the ideal length of a single-line English subtitle to be within 11 words.

To sum up,the general opinions about the first hypothesis concerning the ideal length of a single-line subtitle in English and in Chinese are two-fold:

1) Some interviewees insist on acting in accordance with the corresponding theories, for examples, Xiang (2014), Zhang and Wang (2012). As they think this is the best way to guarantee that the subtitles meet the mechanical requirements as a key component of film products, whether or not the film is English language, Chinese language or translated. Furthermore, different kinds of language versions should have differing ideal numbers of words or characters according to their different language peculiarities. Besides, while some of them emphasized that one frame of a film should have, at most, two-line subtitles, subtitlers should consider making a longer subtitle into one and a half lines or two short lines in a frame, otherwise, the subtitles will not be fully read or understood by the audience.

2) Some practitioners’ ideas may differ from the above interviewees as well as differ among themselves. Their views on ideal length are as follows: 18-25 Chinese characters in a single line, 13 Chinese characters at the most, 15 characters would be fine. For English words, their ideals are similar: around 15 words. They all agree that, because of the characteristics of animation films, the dialogues in the films are always simple and brief, such that the expected English original text should generally be short. The estimation concerning the Chinese translated subtitles is that they should not be too long, but the length of a Chinese translated subtitle might be greater than the

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corresponding original text in English, when considering many other kinds of factors, such as cultural differences, language family differences and oral expression differences.

Different scholars and practitioners in varied working situations stated different understandings on the ideal length of subtitles in English and in Chinese. According to the interviewees’ answers, the ideal length of a Chinese subtitle is between 13 and 25 characters; the ideal length of an English subtitle is 13-15 words. It can therefore be said that Chinese subtitles are normally greater than English subtitles in their original difference of word formations. With this in mind, in the following section, I will estimate the possible lengths of Chinese translated subtitles and the corresponding English original subtitles in animation films, after which I will test whether the former subtitles are generally greater than the latter ones. If yes, what is the average length difference between them according to the data? If not, what are the factors that inhibit the estimation? Moreover, in order to inform the future practice of subtitle translation work on animation films, what is the ideal length of Chinese translated subtitles that I can suggest to other practitioners?