Finnish subtitling conventions compared to Netflix‟s subtitling conventions

audiovisual translation set certain necessities in regards of timing, space and readability.

Many of those requirements, such as the need to compress, can be regarded as globally universal in subtitling. However, as Finland has a long tradition of translating foreign content for television (Luova 2010), some of these conventions can be more accurately specified in the Finnish context. Additionally, due to the long traditions and studies showing that subtitling constitutes of a large portion of the texts Finns read daily (Mäkisalo 2006: 254), it could be argued that Finns definitely have certain expectations when it comes to subtitling.

For that reason, the observance and reactions of laymen when it comes to the quality of subtitling come as no surprise when the expectations are not met, especially with relative newcomers such as Netflix. Therefore, it is important to study whether the critique is caused by Netflix‟s own, revised instructions, or if the problem lies deeper in the subtitling production process. To study this, it must first be examined what guidelines Netflix adheres to

14 or sets for the subtitling of its content and if they differ from the guidelines and conventions traditionally adhered to when subtitling content for Finnish viewers. If the guidelines differ on important aspects set to ensure the readability of subtitling and their general purpose, it could be assumed that the problem would lie in Netflix. However, if the answer is not found in Netflix‟s guidelines, further scrutiny should be focused on the overall process of audiovisual translation production to examine, if the problem can be discovered from there. This subsection discusses how the Finnish conventions and traditions are linked to the expectations Finnish viewers might have regarding subtitling quality, and the conventions commonly adhered to in Yle‟s subtitling and how and if Netflix‟s own subtitling guidelines differ from them.

As mentioned, the practice of translating foreign content has been long used in Finland, starting as early as the end of 1950s (Luova 2010). Finland being officially a bilingual country, the need of subtitling is not only limited to translating foreign content into Finnish, but translating content to both Finnish and Swedish, especially in Yle‟s channels that are publicly funded. Nowadays, the need for audiovisual translation seems to be continuously growing, as subtitling is not only restricted to translating foreign content to another language, but also taking into account the viewer‟s other restrictions, with audio description (verbal narration for the visually impaired), and closed captioning and sign language interpretation for the hearing impaired (Yle 2015).

The most commonly used practice for audiovisual translation in Finland still remains subtitling (Tuominen 2007: 295, Vertanen 2007b: 149–150). Subtitles also constitute a large portion of both the translations as well as other texts Finns read daily, as discussed by Mäkisalo (2006: 254) and further studied by Salmi (2010: 7), and as the average Finn spends triple the time watching television as they do reading books or newspapers, Lång (2013: 52) further argues that subtitling may well be one of the most commonly read forms of Finnish.

Therefore, as Jääskeläinen (2007: 117) argues, the quality of subtitling is not indifferent, and as Vertanen (2007b: 149) further explains that as Finnish children are internationally successful in studies testing reading comprehension, the quality of subtitling should be set to a high standard. Therefore, the conventions of Finnish subtitling as well as the production process are important to study, in order to ensure that instead of deteriorating the Finnish language, subtitling restores it – and evolves with it.

Due to the long traditions and prevalence of subtitling, it is a well-established practice in Finland. In his article, Vertanen (2007b) introduces Yle‟s conventions that are commonly adhered to in Finland. The universally applicable main guideline appears to be the

15 idea that captions are not meant to form a coherent text that can be understood on its own, but instead, the subtitling is supposed to operate as an aid, so that the viewer is able to follow the plot of the show without paying too much attention to the subtitling. Therefore it is important that the caption appears on screen at exactly the right time, and stays there long enough that the viewer has time to read it and is able to take in its context, i.e. can compare the caption to what is happening on the screen (Vertanen 2007b: 150–151). In other words, the caption should appear on screen at the same time the original line is being uttered. Nevertheless, as explained above and further supported by Immonen (2005: 166), subtitling should still be adequate Finnish that follows the linguistic conventions, established patterns in speaking, writing and grammar. In addition, as Immonen (ibid.) mentions, the subtitling should represent the style of the speaker, i.e. create an impression of how the person speaks.

Vertanen (2007b: 150) explains that subtitling should stay true to the original and aim to convey the style and tone as well as possible. In brief, as mentioned before, the most important thing when it comes to translating subtitles is that the viewing experience of a viewer using subtitles is as similar as possible to that of someone watching the same show without them. In addition to these general guidelines, Vertanen‟s report of Yle‟s conventions include more specified instructions on what should and should not be included in the subtitling. The more specified instructions collected from Vertanen‟s (2007b: 149–170) article are listed in Table 1.

Netflix already has a vast number of movies and shows in its service, and new content is being constantly added, and thus, the need for subtitling is constant. Therefore, it is understandable that as an enormous client for companies providing audiovisual translations, Netflix has its own set of guidelines to try and regulate the quality of subtitling on its content (Netflix2). The guidelines Netflix provides are divided into two: a general requirements guide (Netflix2) and a style guide specified for Finnish subtitling (Netflix3). The general requirements guide consists of 14 sections of general instructions for universal use and the guide specified for Finnish subtitling consists of 22 sections. Many of the guidelines follow the general rules of subtitling discussed in Vertanen (2007b) and Díaz Cintas (2010), but there are also some that are specific to Netflix. The Table 1 below will present the Netflix subtitling guidelines that are linked to Vertanen‟s (2007b) guidelines.

16 Table 1. Yle’s subtitling conventions presented by Vertanen compared to Netflix’s subtitling

guidelines

Yle’s guidelines Netflix’s guidelines

Screen time should be related to the length of a caption.

 A caption that is full two lines should stay on screen for 4 to 5 seconds.

 A caption that is the length of a full one line should stay on screen for 2 to 3 seconds.

 The minimum time a caption should stay on screen is 1 second while the maximum time is 30 seconds.

 Over 10 seconds is normally too long for a caption to stay on screen.

Screen time is related to the length of a caption.

 The reading speed for adults is

The length of a caption should be in a correct relation to the original line.

Names are not necessary to be repeated in the subtitling as often as they are mentioned in original speech.

 American conversations they are constantly repeated in a way that is culturally appropriate in that context, yet in the Finnish the repetition is not common or idiomatic. However, a captions, certain guidelines should be followed.

 If multiple sentences uttered by the same speaker must be divided into multiple captions, each caption should include full sentence. If a sentence must be divided into multiple captions, those captions should not include sections of other sentences.

 If a sentence is divided into two or more captions, a hyphen is included at the end

If a sentence is divided into two or more captions, certain instructions should be followed.

 No mention how the sentence should be divided into two separate captions.

However, there are instructions on how to divide a sentence into two lines of a same caption. It could be assumed that these instructions (never separate names, noun phrases, verb from subject, negation etc.) would be applied to separating a sentence

17

 A caption should never include the end of a speaker‟s line and the beginning of another speaker‟s line if those lines are sentences should be divided between captions.

A sentence always ends in a period. Never omit punctuation.

Italics should be used in moderation.

 Italics should be used when the speaker is not on screen.

 When translating non-verbal elements (signs, text messages etc.) visible on

 When translating non-verbal elements (signs, text messages etc.) visible on screen, the caption should be centralized and capitalized, except for long passages (epilogues, dialogues).

 Captions should be positioned in a way to avoid overlap with onscreen text.

As can been seen from the guidelines above, both sets of guidelines mostly focus on the layout of the subtitling, aiming to improve the readability and clarity, thus ensuring that the subtitling is easy and fast to understand. Thereby the subtitling in Netflix would appear to follow and adhere to similar conventions as Yle, attempting to improve the viewing experience and ensure that the subtitling fulfills its purpose of working as an aid for the viewer and not drawing unnecessary attention to the subtitling itself. When Yle‟s guidelines are compared to Netflix‟s guidelines it is apparent that they discuss similar aspects of the layout in very similar ways. However, there are some differences in minor technical aspects, such as whether or not there should be a space between a line and a hyphen, when the speaker changes in a single caption, yet overall the guidelines appear very similar to each other. This would suggest that at least in terms of general conventions, Netflix‟s subtitling would adhere to the Finnish conventions relatively well.

18 In addition to the general subtitling guidelines, Netflix also provides some further guidelines in the Finnish context. Many of those guidelines, such as on abbreviating titles, adhere to the Finnish grammatical rules, and in guideline number 22 it is even mentioned that any language-related issue not covered by the guide should be verified from the Institute for the Languages in Finland (Netflix3). Therefore, it could be concluded that Immonen‟s (2005: 166) call for grammatical correctness and linguistic conventions are required from subtitling in Netflix. How the guidelines set by Netflix are adhered to or enforced in the subtitling production process, however, remains unclear.

2.1.3. Production process of audiovisual translation and its relation to quality