Subtitles

Conception of the project was born of authors’ interest in translation the practical use of subtitles into the area of artistic language. Subtitles as a part of image can visually enrich it and give it some new meanings.

SUBTITLES – captions in film, which report to characters’ words, contain explanatory texts or fix important sounds (for example, “ominous rattle”). Subtitles help to understand something that can’t be substituted by doing voice-over. They’re used in cases when translation of titles in shot or in speech is inappropriate, or if authors need amateurish translation which you can switch on, switch off or switch over. High variability in subtitles’ uses – as autonomous shots in any part of screen, in any moment of viewing, – looks like a flexible tool for making a series of images, not only dynamic, but also static ones. Synthesis of texts with images often gives quite unexpected results, if it’s not on the way to comics, in which narrative and visual action are integrated. Differences between text and the meaning of image evoke in viewers the sense of uncertainty, and delicate adjustment of text and image can change impression drastically. Visible subtitles, as well as hidden ones, give authors chance to capture attention of viewers – they just can select necessary titles or switch them off.