Subtitles are texts that appear on the lower edge of a moving image to provide information or translate a card or dialogue. This resource is usually used to understand the story told in another language, to appreciate the voices of the original actors and to allow non-hearing people to follow the narrative of a film. The history of subtitles is important to understand the globalization of this tool and it also serves to identify the possibilities of inclusion it offers, as it brings together people of different nationalities to have fun with the same film.
In the early days of the seventh art, there was silent cinema, that is, films had no sound, the actors were extremely gestural and they often mimed a dialogue. The audience went to movie theaters curiously because they wanted to know what the characters were saying. The solution came when captions were created: cards with text that pointed out actions or deepened the dialogues of the film.
Later, a man named Herman G. Weinberg noticed the need to place different titles at the bottom of the film frames. The translation expert was not sure if the audience would move their heads to read the titles at the bottom of the screen while the film continued, but he did indeed find that the audience could read and watch the film at the same time.
With sound films, film subtitling emerged. The release of the film The Jazz Singer, which was a great success and was distributed in other countries, showed several scenes with dialogues and songs, so it was necessary to add subtitles for the viewers to follow the plot and appreciate other details typical of a musical. The Jazz Singer was the first sound film with subtitles.
Over the following decades, the history of this tool continued. Today, several platforms such as Submagic, Subtitle Editor or Subtitle Edit are used to translate the dialogue of a movie. There are also descriptive subtitles designed to improve accessibility for people with hearing impairment in the world of entertainment. Subtitles are here to stay!
Stay tuned for more information!