Subtitles

I f you are a narrator in Japan,  you will inevitably find yourself doing narration for a video with subtitles.

You will probably notice English subtitles in Japanese productions:

1)       Are  too long

2)      They extend from the left margin of the screen right as on a printed page

3)      The characters are often too small to read easily

4)      They include grammatical or usage errors

However, in  English subtitles are supposed to be:

1)       Short

2)      Centered

3)      Use characters large enough to read easily

4)      Grammatical and error free (except when reproducing the vernacular)

The reason for legibility should be obvious – after all, why have subtitles at all if you can’t read them?

Every medium enforces a set of perceptual habits.  Look at a video screen and the brain automatically selects a set of muscular rules.  Centering?  Repeat after me! --video screens are not print pages . The eye is conditioned to focus on the central 35 % -- not the left margin.  

So, with video and left margin subtitles, the eyes are continually trying to focus on the center of the screen – while at the same time forced by the line of type in a different direction -- which is tiring and distracting. 

In addition, left margin subtitle done by Japaneses often result in a single of type right across the screen --from edge to edge -- with tiny characters that are hard to see, much less read. This usually because Japanese characters are so much more economical of space – but directors don’t get that with English and lot more characters, the layout ils going to have to change. 

Simply put, many Japanese directors – and of course their foreign translators – regard “versioning” a Japanese language video as just a matter of translating words mechanically.  They are not thinking of how their audiences will react.  And they don’t understand that different media imply  different perceptual  dynamics and also different parameters and rules. 

Since the client knows even less about this -- doesn’t know what constitutes quality in a foreign language –and rarely gets any feedback about whether a given PR vehicle actually does what it is supposed to,  the bar gets lower and lower.

Curiously directors and  clients will obsess endlessly about the most meaningless details.

And they are very demanding about quality in the case of their Japanese language productions.

So, what do you do?

Narrators – at least the few  who actually know what they are doing -- will understand how a given  medium works-– whether it is  a PR video or a movie trailer of a TV CM or a radio commercial  or web page. 

Now if you are in the studio and the Client is there and you criticize the subtitles, you may cause the director to lose face. Not good if you want another job from him..  In addition, correcting the titles takes time and extra work, which means some extra expense.  The production company isn’t going to thank you.  

Consider also that the director has probably turned out the same shit time after time with nary a “claim”.  After all, promotion videos don’t get reviewed on IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes. By and large, they are things shown to captive audiences before they can get at the canapés and the drinks.  A sort of ritual like religious floggings to show your faith.

So, no,  don’t volunteer gratuitious advice.

But (there is always a “but”), if the client asks you to comment on the subtitles – or anything else that might improve the video—that is a different matter.

Still, here you must tread carefully because, by and large, narrators are paid by the production company – and not by the client.  In other words, the “client” is not your client.  So, before you shoot off your mouth, ask the director first how to respond.  Just look the Client in the eye – and deflect – as in , “Let me just talk to the director for a moment”.  Then talk to him privately. Whisper in his ear if necessary.  Make  him choose.

Some directors know what they are doing.  They actually see here an opportunity to impress the client – especially if it was the client who did the translation and otherwise interfered in the production process. They may give you free rein.  Of course, this may take time – and you should be clear that time is not free! 

In any case, always be professional.

The King's Speech

 

Recently I watched the King’s Speech. One of the more interesting part is right at the beginning where Logue asks “Bertie”, the King-to-be, to read Hamlet’s famous speech.  Impossible says the king, can’t do it.  Yes you can says Logue Put on these headphones.  So the King reads Hamlet while the headphones blare out music so he can’t hear his own voice.  He reads beautifully without a hint of a stammer.There is a lesson in this for all would be voice over artists. Don’t rely on the “cans” headphone or earphone feedback when you read.   The brain doesn’t like doing too many things at the same time.

Logic and American Commercials

   Back in high school literature class, you were probably taught to write compositions this way: 

a)      First,  a theme – an proposition that you must prove   Say, “This poem is about how  love never works out”.   

b)      Then – the “argument” – the proof.   A few  examples from the text of the poem, that make your point.

c)       Then you the conclusion  “ See,  the poet shows us why we shouldn’t expect anything but sorrow from love”.    

This form of “inductive-deductive” logic – while basic-- is often not taught much in the Japanese school system –perhaps reflecting an implicit bias against  discursive or critical thinking.   The Japanese like harmony and hierarchy – and argument tends to subvert such values since it is – among other things –often an adversarial  tool.

 Our www.cars.com  CM assumes a more critical audience – and in terms of logic takes us back to high school—well, American high school. 

The proposition is presented in the first few seconds .

if you want to survive,  learn from other’s experiences.  Then we get reasons -- three dramatic  illustrations – each against the backdrop of an implied “backstory”, which is a more than familiar dramatic cliché.  There is the Tudor king who, despite the raucous party, remembers to use his Food Taster . The Food Taster dies, the king lives. Ah yes, we all know about poison and Renaissance nastiness.   .  Then, there is the SciFi situation where researchers are trying to perform teleportation, resulting in catastrophic transformation of their subject. In SciFi, scientists are almost always mad and the results eve madder. .   Finally,  there are the cowboys, looking out for Indians. The hero asks his sidekick to stand up and look to see if it’s clear.  The sidekick gets 3 arrows in the chest.  Whoops.     

 The final scene has a logical conclusion.  Go to www. cars.com and you can learn from others experience (ie mistakes) and you not only survive – but achieve a successful buy. It’s smart.  That’s the punchline.

So, we have an emotively compelling logical template in place.

People don’t usually things because it’s rational in any rigorously philosophical sense.  If so,, George W Bush would never have been elected – certainly not for the second time .  Nor would the Tea Party be dominating Republican politics. Nor would the Japanese have built nuclear reactors on their shaky little islands   Such idiocies could only be justified in terms of certain contexts.   Context defines the rules.

What I just referred to as  a logical “template” is also a context – an  aesthetic frame for a set of emotional and emotive modalities. 

As we’ve seen, this CM is hilarious.  What is a smile but an inverted grimace?  Humor has tremendous power because it often attaches to unpleasant realities – in this case death.  In a matter of seconds, three people die – and we laugh?   Oh, it’s not real you say. Hmmmm…..Food tasters did die – as do research subjects and, course, cowboys.  Yes, the coward’s way – letting someone else go first – often does give us a better chance of survival.  Like pain, fear is protective.   We are just loath to admit it.  And satire gives us distance. 

Cognitive dissonance?   No really --  emotive dissonance here that engages the lower brain – the animal brain – the seat of our deepest feelings.  

So, when we get to the conclusion. – visit www. cars.com we are primed.  Yes, we will go there.

“Low attention” media like TV CMs work indirectly.  The nature of such a medium demands subtlety.  But that does not make it any less effective.

Low Cal Slut

   

Let’s compare TV commercial styles, keeping in mind that generalizations are hard to make – and that if they apply more than 25% of the time, you’re doing really well!

I’m going to break this review into two parts --  two posts.

The first CM is for Asaha Slut…er….Asahi “Slat” (pronounced “slut”) in Japanese, a low calorie canned cocktail aimed at young women.

It’s “typical” insofar as :

a.)    It is very short

b.)    It uses a popular “talent” for “face” value

c.)     There is no dramatic action – no  “story”

d.)    It has limited (if any) intellectual content.

e.)    It is designed around a single image

f.)     The voiceover is excited, a little high pitched,  a kind of rah-rah banzai announcer thing .

Our second CM is the one we downloaded earlier.

a)      It is a big longer

b)      It does not uses a celebrity for “face value”

c)       It has dramatic action – a “story” (or stories)

d)      There is a theme, a  clear concept, a “twist”

e)      It is designed around a single concept with multiple images

f)       The voice over is familiar, natural, persuasive

g)      It’s funny.

We’ll deal with this one in our second post -- next time.

Now –  the “Slut” CM – which to many Westerners will look like a waste of money as far as persuading any budding ...uh....slattern to buy the product.   

It’s easy to dismiss both the product and the advertising at one go – and Japanese branding and marketing in general.  Keep in mind that Americans are always so savvy .  There are lots and lots of really bad TV commercials in the US.  And branding?  Think of Holiday Inn’s logo “Think again” (I definitely will!) or the Hilton’s “Travel takes you places”  (Duhhh….).

But I digress.

This Slut CM actually works.

It’s going to catch the eye, if not the ear,  of many young Japanese women who spend a lot of time not only looking the mirror but obsessing about beautiful “talento” with perfect makeup. And it makes a simple association between beauty and health   – beautiful girl “mirrored”, that is times two -- and the grapefruit juice in the chuhai  and low calories.  Want to be “in”?  Drink Slut/Slat. Want to be beautiful?  Drink Slut/Slat.

 

Who wants to be “in”?  Everybody.  Who wants to be beautiful? . Everybody.

Who wants applause --as with the dreadful voice-over?  Everybody.

Keep in mind that TV CM are “low attention” vehicles.  We generally don’t want to “think” about them --  they're a necessary evil although they provide time to go to the fridge.

The Japanese strategy is to keep CM short (less expensive anyway) and “embed” an emotive or performative image in the consumer’s mind before she/he notices it.  Hit and run.

OK… the messages are minimalist. Take a look at your Facebook page.  What are people mostly talking about?  Simple, day to day to stuff.    The philosopher Heidigger once wrote  -- with disdain – that the second fall of man is the quotidian.  Of course, he was right – but he also wasn’t happy.

Next time… western TV CM.

The Medium is the Maker. Letter to Julian...

Dear Julian,

The Medium is the Maker --yes, in the simplest terms, TV commercials are propaganda. 

 Back in the 1928, Edward Bernays wrote 

“We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”  

A little over the top?  Not really.   Bernays and his ideas caught on.  They permitted marketers to convince American society that a woman could not be a real woman unless she smoked.  A few years before a cigarette dangling from her lips would have marked a woman as a whore  --but  suddenly it was a mark of education and sophistication.  And this “triumph of advertising” was accomplished without television or the internet!

On the other hand, it could not have been achieved without advances in photography, printing, paper making – and of course – radio.  The combination of photographic images and voice provided an illusion of immediacy that had huge emotional – and emotive – impact.

Impact is the key. It aint what you think – it’s what you feel.  

Marketers know that you are an animal before you are “human”.  “Thought”  is a recent addition to the cortex – in computer terms – a kind of buggy add-on to the browser we call a brain, most of whose mechanisms we don’t understand.  Logic, reason, and the like constitute a kind of interface.  It all changes with a bit of fiddling with the operating code.

That’s why people in the US and Canada and elsewhere routinely elect governments that act against their real interests.  Logically – it’s crazy.  But the Medium is not just a Maker -- it is the Maker – which means your Maker –or maybe your Re-Maker.  Technological marketing  (aka propaganda) programs and re-programs your codes -- your "self"  using emotion as energy.

Ah, but I can choose you say!  

So often you will hear :  “You choose” or “you decide”.    But how do you choose?  On what basis?

 Oh information?  There is so much of that out there . Then,   which is correct?  Ah…a feeling?  You believe x, y, z?  

 

Descartes wrote, cogito ergo sum – “I think there I am”

But the French philosopher Merleau Ponty is more up to date. “I see, there I think there I am”. Americans like to say (proudly), "what you see is what you get".  Exactly.  And the Mass Media determine what you see.

Julian -- we are all in deep shit.

A comment by The Oracle