Iranian Amateur Subtitling Apparatus: a Qualitative Investigation1

Artículo recibido: 30/04/2019 Artículo aceptado: 30/06/2019

DOI: 10.27533/udea.mut.v12n2a08 ISSN 2011-799X

Iranian Amateur Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation1

Saeed Ameri [email protected] Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Masood Khoshsaligheh [email protected] Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Abstract The number of studies addressing non-professional or amateur subtitling or fansubbing has increasingly mul- tiplied over the past years, underlying its relevance in the present world. This is partly because a growing number of audiences worldwide now watch TV series and films with subtitles by amateur subtitlers, which are free- ly shared online, and Iranian viewers are certainly included. In Iran, to get around the “cultural gate-keeping” policy advocated and strictly enforced by the state in the national media system, from the early 2010s onward, numerous Persian-language websites have embarked on a new initiative whereby original, especially American tv series and films are made available for download together with their Persian subtitles. Despite the upsurge of this phenomenon in the Iranian context, there is limited literature and research on Persian non-professional subtitling. To fill this knowledge gap, this article aims to examine and analyze the different practices that are closely associated with Persian amateur subtitling. This includes building a profile of Iranian amateur subtitlers, along with an account of their working process, followed by a description of fansubbed products. The data are gathered using an open-ended questionnaire with a criterion sample of Iranian non-professional subtitlers, a survey of Iran-based video and subtitle sharing websites, and a close examination of the common features found in fansubbed Persian products, including reading speed and fansubbers’ experimentation with the original. Keywords: amateur subtitling, non-professional subtitling, fansubbing, fansubbers, Persian subtitling, Iran

El sistema de subtitulación aficionada iraní: Una investigación cualitativa

Resumen La cantidad de estudios que abordan la subtitulación no profesional o aficionada, o fansubbing, se ha multi- plicado en los últimos años, lo que subraya su relevancia en el mundo actual. Esto se debe en parte a que un número creciente de espectadores en todo el mundo ahora ve series de televisión y películas con subtítulos compartidos en línea por subtituladores no profesionales e Irán no es una excepción. Desde principios de 2010 en adelante, en Irán, numerosos sitios web en lengua persa se han embarcado en una nueva iniciativa para

1 This article has its basis on the project “An Empirical Investigation into Persian Non-professional Subtitling”, endorsed by the Faculty of Letters and Humanities at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. Saeed Ameri/Masood Khoshsaligheh

sortear la política de “filtrado cultural” —defendida y dirigida estrictamente por el Estado en el sistema de medios de comunicación nacional—, en la cual series y películas, especialmente estadounidenses, se comparten 434 para descargar con subtítulos en persa. A pesar del aumento de este fenómeno en el contexto iraní, existe poca literatura e investigación sobre la subtitulación persa no profesional. Para llenar este vacío, este artículo busca examinar y analizar las diferentes prácticas estrechamente asociadas a la subtitulación persa. Esto incluye cons- truir un perfil de los subtituladores no profesionales iraníes, junto a una descripción de su proceso de trabajo, seguida de una descripción de los productos subtitulados por aficionados. Los datos se recopilan mediante un cuestionario abierto con una muestra de criterios tomados de los subtituladores no profesionales iraníes, una revisión de los sitios web para compartir subtítulos y videos en Irán, y un examen detallado de las característi- cas comunes a los productos subtitulados por aficionados a la lengua persa, incluyendo la velocidad de lectura y la experimentación de los subtituladores aficionados con el original. Palabras clave: subtitulación no profesional, subtitulación aficionada, subtituladores aficionados, subtitula- ción persa, Irán

Dispositif de sous-titrage iranien non professionnel : une enquête qualitative

Résumé Le nombre d’études portant sur le fansubbing s’est multiplié ces dernières années, soulignant ainsi sa pertinen- ce dans le monde actuel. Ceci tient au nombre croissant de téléspectateurs qui regardent des séries télévisées et des films avec des sous-titres partagés en ligne par des sous-titreurs non professionnels, l’Iran n’y fait pas exception. En Iran, pour contourner la politique de « maintien de la culture » défendue et strictement dirigée par l’État, de nombreux sites Web en persan se sont lancés, à partir du début de l’année 2010, dans une nou- velle initiative dans laquelle les séries, en particulier les séries télévisées américaines, sont téléchargeables avec les sous-titres en persan. Malgré l’augmentation de ce phénomène dans le contexte iranien, il existe peu de littérature et de recherche sur le funsubbing en persan. Pour combler cette lacune, cet article vise à examiner et analyser les différentes formes de pratiques associées au sous-titrage en persan : le profil des sous-titreurs iraniens non professionnels, une description de leur processus de travail, suivi d’une description des produits sous-titrés par les fans. Les données sont collectées à l’aide d’un questionnaire ouvert comprenant un échan- tillon de critères provenant de sous-titreurs iraniens non professionnels, d’un sondage vidéo et de sites Web permettant de partager des sous-titres en Iran, ainsi qu’un examen détaillé des caractéristiques communes des produits sous-titrés par les fans, y compris la vitesse de lecture et les expériences de sous-titreurs amateurs avec l’original. Mots clés: sous-titrage non professionnel, fansubbing, fansubbers, profil, pratique, Iran

Iranian Non-professional Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation Iranian Amateur Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation

1. Introduction lation in the realm of avt. Most research on non-professional subtitling is derived from Iran traditionally uses dubbing for fictional a European and East Asian context (for ex- 435 programs, including tv shows and films, and ample see Orrego-Carmona & Lee, 2017b). voice-over for documentaries and news. In Given the fertile ground offered by this under- this context, foreign audiovisual programs explored phenomenon in Iran, this article is have a central position as opposed to the local intended to shed some light on this unautho- cinematic and television programs, and audio- rized and non-professional practice in Iran. visual translation (avt) constitutes a vital and What is worth exploring here is the profile of complex part of the translation sphere. When Iranian fansubbers and their working oper- it comes to the agents of avt, both profession- ations. This can be complemented by an ac- al and non-professional translators have pro- count of subtitles they have shared online. vided translation in the sphere of Persian avt. The former group accounts for those who are working for the state-run agencies, including 2. Literature review the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting 2.1. Non-professional subtitling (irib) or for countless small privately-owned dubbing companies. The latter group, whose To date, several scholars have attempted to of- existence dates back to two decades ago—ap- fer a comprehensive definition of translation proximately the late 1990s (Jalili, 2001; Nafi- by fans or non-professional translators, as well cy, 2012), has engaged in underground activ- as a generic term for it. Some examples in- ities wherein unauthorized copies of original clude “Abusive subtitling” in Nornes (1999), programs have been subtitled and distributed “Guerrilla translation” in (Dwyer, 2012a), online by taking advantage of readily avail- “non-professional translation” in Antonini able technology, and the Internet. In fact, and Bucaria (2015) and Antonini, Cirillo, Ros- “immediacy and enlarged distribution” could sato, and Torresi (2017b), and “cybersubtitles” be understood as two main features of am- in Diaz Cintas (2018). This implies that it has ateur subtitling (Orrego-Carmona & Richter, been very difficult to reach a consensus on a 2018, p. 64). In other words, fansubbers make fixed term. This is perhaps because no definite every effort to release subtitles for a given pro- and clear-cut lines have been drawn between gram at the earliest opportunity, and to reach the diverse types of subtitles that can be found an enthusiastic and larger audience. Addi- over the internet (Diaz Cintas, 2018). In de- tionally, two reasons have been ascribed to fining non-professional translation, Antonini, the popularity of non-professional subtitling; Cirillo, Rossato, and Torresi (2017a, pp. 6-8) audiences wish to access foreign audiovisual itemize these general characteristics: the lack programs within a shorter time period, and of proper training in translation, bilingualism they simply dislike dubbing (Orrego-Carmo- (or knowing the language pairs for the trans- na & Richter, 2018). lation), the lack of recruitment surrounding the work as this is done voluntarily, the lack Although the research has gradually shifted of any payment, and finally ignoring codes of from conventional translation types such as ethics or standards of the practice. For these dubbing and subtitling to new emerging mo- scholars, the above features are not always dalities, including fan translation, very little true and may vary in different situations. Ad- research has addressed Persian amateur trans- ditionally, Dwyer (2017) defines it as “an am-

Mutatis Mutandis. Vol. 12, N.° 2, 2019, julio-diciembre, pp. 433-453 Saeed Ameri/Masood Khoshsaligheh

ateur form of subtitling done by fans rather ferred. Dwyer (2017) links the amateur quality than professionals” (p. 135), while Pedersen of guerrilla translation to “the unintentional 436 (2019, p. 2) defines it as an activity character- by-product of lack […] of time, care, respon- ized by the voluntary and unpaid nature of sibility or expertise” (p. 126). The other differ- the practice, fansubbers’ lack of professional ence between fan and non-fan guerrilla screen training in translation, and the use of pirated translation lies in their use of technology and programs for subtitling. This blanket defini- the Internet; “the online labor and distribution tion is not always the case, as Antonini et al. networks” are hardly utilized by non-fans, (2017a, p. 7) stress. For Orrego-Carmona and as they largely prefer traditional approach- Lee (2017a), the nonprofit-driven nature is the es (Dwyer, 2012a, p. 128). Orrego-Carmona main feature of this phenomenon, as fansub- (2015) takes the issue further and introduces bers are not paid or remunerated for subtitles the binary classification of pro-am subtitling they produce. Considering the fact that in and creative subtitling. Pro-am subtitling every society translation may be understood closely follows professional subtitling norms, differently, and considering the blurry bound- regulations and expectations, whilst the lat- aries between non-professional subtitling and ter group attempts to defy professional norms professional subtitling in a country with no and experiment through varying fonts, colors established and fixed subtitling tradition, it is and layouts. reasonable to seek a definition that best fits the case of Iran, with its own geopolitical context In the late 1990s, pirated versions of origi- and translational peculiarities. nal programs, occasionally with Persian subtitles and in the form of dvds or cds, were Dwyer (2017) offers the broader term “guerril- sold on street corners or in media stores in la translation” which subsumes both fan trans- Iran (Khatib, 2014, May 8; Zeydabadi-Nejad, lation (fansubbing) and non-fan subtitling. 2016). In fact, subtitling in Iran started with Non-fan guerrilla types, at times found in pi- a very sporadic pattern. It began in the late rated dvds, abound with typos and mistrans- 1990s under the label of “Learning and Im- lations, resulting in dysfunctional subtitling. proving English.” In other words, films were They are intended to circumvent “media regu- unofficially subtitled and sold in media stores lation and censorship” (p. 123) and are consid- with the stipulated purpose of helping users ered to be profit-driven, as the pirated product to learn English. Nevertheless, this advertised is sold to users. Fan translation, on the other goal was merely an excuse to justify selling hand, is known as fansubbing in avt, as dis- unauthorized foreign cultural programs in the cussed earlier. Non-fan guerrilla subtitling dif- Iranian market (Jalili, 2001). Shajarikohan fers from fansubbing as the latter attempts to (2011) reports that the group subtitling.com im- break translation conventions and is popular ported a large volume of original films in dvd for its experimental nature and unconvention- format from Southeast Asia, with Persian sub- ality. Non-fan guerrilla subtitling, as suggest- titles. In fact, the subtitles of the movies were ed by Dwyer (2012a, p. 200), is the commer- prepared in Tehran, Iran. Then, these subti- cial bootlegging of subtitles that attempt to tles were sent to companies in Singapore and replicate and mimic “the conventions of avt Malaysia to be added to the duplicated dvds mainstream.” In other words, a conservative to be distributed in Iran. Seeing as it violated approach—rather than a norm-breaking ap- the distribution regulations of cultural multi- proach fairly common in fansubbing—is pre- media products, the activity of this group was

Iranian Non-professional Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation Iranian Amateur Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation

halted and those in charge were arrested. In young American audience (Dwyer, 2019; another report, Jalili (2001) adds that Persian Leonard, 2005). Today, fansubbing is rife ev- subtitling began in the late 1990s with the sale erywhere—thanks to the widespread avail- 437 of commercially successful American feature ability of free user-friendly software (Bogucki, films such as Face/Off (Woo, 1997), The Ma- 2016; Diaz Cintas, 2015)—and includes not trix (Wachowski & Wachowski, 1999) and only Japanese animation but also programs The Man in the Iron Mask (Wallace, 1998) produced elsewhere (Dwyer (2017, p. 138). in Iran. These films were sold in the form of Drawing on previous research on non-pro- cds or vhs tapes, and the scenes that were in- fessional subtitling (Diaz Cintas & Muñoz appropriate according to Iranian culture were Sánchez, 2006; Massidda, 2015; Orrego-Car- removed or blurred to legalize their sales. This mona, 2015; Pérez-González, 2014), Peder- new approach to the distribution of foreign sen (2019) enumerates several features that films with Persian subtitles was widely wel- could be linked to these products: they tend comed by Iranian audiences. The report adds to ignore target norms, they are creative, and that the chief executive of Video Production lean more towards the original idiosyncrasy. Companies in Iran—which is in charge of au- However, according to Jiménez-Crespo (2017, thorizing distribution by media companies— p. 181), current fansubbers tend to “comply denied granting any sort of license for the to the highest possible degree with profes- subtitling and selling foreign films, declaring sional subtitling norms.” Still, in the Iranian that that these products—even with the label context, Khoshsaligheh and Ameri (2017b) of “Learning and Improving English” were and Khoshsaligheh and Fazeli Haghpanah not legal according to Iranian cinematic reg- (2016) have pointed out that Persian amateur ulations (Jalili, 2001). Present-day Iran is now subtitling does not comply with professional characterized by the flow of diverse technolo- subtitling regulations, and mistranslations are gies, including open source or cracked/pirated frequent in these products. software programs, and social networks that have unleashed a vast proliferation of online Another interesting issue pertaining to amateur subtitling practices. These have been non-professional subtitling is fansubbers’ ex- strongly entrenched despite the government’s perimenting with the original. Diaz Cintas repeated attempts to shut down such activi- and Muñoz Sánchez (2006) talk of subtitling ties. Film piracy has garnered much acclaim as “hybrid” and Nornes (1999) as “abusive.” among Iranian viewers because the dubbing Both share the claim that fansubbers are ex- industry—due to strict official media regu- perimenting with the original program. For lations in Iran—does not dub every original example, subtitlers experiment with the lin- program; the industry’s tight budget is another guistic or visual codes of the original (Nornes, factor (Khoshsaligheh & Ameri, 2016). 1999). This may include the incorporation of notes and glosses (Diaz Cintas & Muñoz Sánchez, 2006; Khoshsaligheh & Ameri, 2.2. Characteristics of non-professional 2017b; Pérez-González, 2007b); or the use subtitling practices of a wide array of techniques, involving “co- Fansubbing was born in the United States in lours, typefaces, typography, variable length the 1980s, when broadcasting Japanese an- of subtitle text […] and novel uses of notes ime products had been canceled because the and glosses” (Guillot, 2019, p. 37). This can content was not deemed appropriate for the also include inserting sarcastic and humorous

Mutatis Mutandis. Vol. 12, N.° 2, 2019, julio-diciembre, pp. 433-453 Saeed Ameri/Masood Khoshsaligheh

comments about characters, the plot and so on ample, research suggests that in the Turkish (Josephy-Hernández, 2017; Khoshsaligheh & non-professional system, fansubbers are main- 438 Ameri, 2017b; Massidda & Casarini, 2017). ly female and less than 30 years old (Duraner, Tunali, & Koçak, 2017). In the Croatian con- Other relevant features may involve typeset- text, however, fansubbing has been found to ting, such as using different fonts and colors, be a male-oriented practice mainly involving as well as the delivery of subtitles on the screen people in their 30s (Cemerin & Toth, 2017). including the number of lines, reading speed, Other relevant investigations (Luczaj, Ho- and the position of subtitles on the screen ly-Luczaj, & Cwiek-Rogalska, 2014) suggest- (Pérez-González, 2014, p. 81).This is perhaps ed that fansubbers in Poland and the Czech because the fansubbers tend to foreignize their Republic were mainly male (ca. 60%) and translation to highlight the otherness of the largely in their 20s. Another interesting detail original (Dwyer, 2017; Nornes, 1999; Pérez- was the educational background of fansub- González, 2014), or simply because they tend bers, who were mainly students, and only a to stay close to the source text and produce small portion of them studying language-re- a word-for-word rendering (Gambier, 2013, lated majors. When it comes to the Persian p. 54), which may demand a higher read- context, research shows that fansubbers of ing speed (Chaume, 2013, p. 114). Khosh- Korean programs are mainly in their 20s with saligheh, Ameri, and Mehdizadkhani (2018), an educational background in humanities and for instance, showed that Iranian amateur sub- engineering (Khoshsaligheh & Fazeli Hagh- titlers directly translate the original’s taboos panah, 2016). into Persian, while the Persian professional avt tends to censor these items. Such uncon- As to the motivations driving people toward ventional strategies in fansubbing have been non-professional subtitling, Luczaj and Ho- linked to the creativity of the fansubbers (Dw- ly-Luczaj (2017) list the following: yer, 2012b; Wang, 2017). Fansubbers’ preference for a source-oriented approach could be • Robin Hood motivation: providing access to attributed to the declared demands of viewers, new programs for other people by subtitling who are seeking more authentic products and them; calling for “a revolution in the niche area of • Mission: promoting a special genre or pro- the subtitling of tv shows” (Massidda, 2015, gram, such as anime, within a given country p. 62). This source-oriented approach is not al- by subtitling those programs; ways the case of fansubbing. Recent research • Fun: enjoying subtitling the genre or pro- (Chang, 2017) suggests the opposite trend, as gram one is interested in; some fansubbers domesticate the original con- • Prestige-seeking: subtitling a given program tent using target cultural elements, and opt for with a view to pursuing reputation and fame self-censorship under the influence of official among viewers; regulations. This suggests that the fansubbing • Do It Yourself: subtitling programs without apparatus varies in different countries. receiving any aid from the authorities; • Language learning: developing language competency and proficiency, for example in 2.3. Non-professional subtitlers’ profiles English, when one is engaged in subtitling a As to the profile of fansubbers, the existing program. research suggests that they are young. For ex-

Iranian Non-professional Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation Iranian Amateur Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation

In their empirical study of the possible motives analysis were used to collect and analyze data behind fansubbing practices, Cemerin and Toth to understand the phenomenon of Persian (2017) found that fansubbers do not subtitle non-professional subtitling. The open-ended 439 with the aim of exploring new experiences or questionnaire helps to profile fansubbers, and alleviating boredom; they subtitle to promote the analysis of fansubbers’ products sheds “social activism,” which means making the light on their practice and complements the viewers’ preferred content accessible to them. questionnaire data. These researchers also highlighted language learning and development as a possible motive 3.1. Opened-ended questionnaires for pursuing fansubbing practices. Likewise, Luczaj et al. (2014) concluded that honing lan- Given that the study is exploratory in nature guage skills appeared to be the main motive for and that the phenomenon of Persian non-pro- Polish and Czech fansubbers. In a similar vein, fessional subtitling is relatively underexplored, Khoshsaligheh and Ameri (2017b) found that a qualitative research design was adopted language learning is the main reason for Per- (Chaume, 2018). An open-ended question- sian amateur subtitling or fansubbing, while for naire was chosen over interviews for two rea- fansubbers of Korean programs, fun and mis- sons. First, Persian fansubbing is a geograph- sions are the main drivers (Fazeli Haghpanah ically dispersed activity, and it is practically & Khoshsaligheh, 2018). impossible to have in-person interviews with fansubbers. Second, it was important to re- In light of the literature reviewed so far, there spect the personal privacy of the fansubbers as are few studies on Persian amateur subtitling some fansubbers were unwilling or hesitant to (Fazeli Haghpanah & Khoshsaligheh, 2018; be interviewed by telephone or Skype, and re- Khoshsaligheh & Ameri, 2017b; Khosh- quested that the questions be emailed to them. saligheh et al., 2018). The focus of these stud- Considering these factors, the open-ended ies has been on the subtitling of Korean pro- questionnaire was chosen. The questions in grams or English video games. Therefore, the the questionnaire reflect the objectives of the present study focuses on understanding the study, and include seven questions covering amateur subtitling apparatus in Iran, and fea- demographic information, years of experi- tures that could be associated with this prac- ences in subtitling, the fansubbing process, tice. Three research questions are explored in software programs used for fansubbing, moti- this paper: vations for fansubbing, and the problems and challenges of fansubbing. The questionnaire 1. What is the demographic information on was in Persian, matching the language of the Iranian fansubbers? respondents. Through convenience and snow- 2. What are Iranian fansubbers’ motivations ball sampling, the fansubbers received invites for carrying out amateur subtitling? via https://subscene.com, which is a main hub 3. What are the main features of Persian ama- for Iranian fansubbers and their work. About teur subtitling practice? 100 fansubbers were invited to participate in the study, but only 42 accepted the invitation 3. Method and contributed. A total of 42 questionnaires were sent to the volunteers, of which 30 ques- This study was conducted in two phases, and tionnaires were returned completed. There- both open-ended questionnaires and textual fore, the analysis is based on 30 responses.

Mutatis Mutandis. Vol. 12, N.° 2, 2019, julio-diciembre, pp. 433-453 Saeed Ameri/Masood Khoshsaligheh

3.2. Textual analysis 4.1. Profiling Iranian fansubbers 440 The second phase of the study focused on describing the output of Iranian fansubbers. 4.1.1. Demographic information At its core, this text-based stage examines the Thirty amateur subtitlers answered the ques- translation of nine films which were subtitled tionnaire, forming the research sample through into Persian by fansubbers. Because profes- convenience and snowball sampling. The vast sional subtitling for fiction is almost absent in majority of the respondents were male as only Iran, it is not possible to compare fansubbed four female respondents participated. This works with professional versions. The exist- could suggest that Persian fansubbing is a ing literature on professional subtitling will be male-oriented field. Furthermore, the fansub- the suitable gauge of data analysis. The main bers were not of the same age; the youngest re- aspect of the analysis at this stage is norm spondent was 17, while the oldest was 39; the adherence, given that fansubbers are called overall average age was 25.31. Most fansub- norm-breakers. The analysis includes a com- bers were in their mid-20s; nevertheless, seven parison between the original and the trans- of the thirty fansubbers were in their 30s. As lation made by the fansubbers. The analysis to the amount of time involved in fansubbing of several aspects, including subtitle reading activity, their experiences ranged from 1.5 speed and subtitle length, should be under- years to 13 years. Regarding the fansubbers’ taken with the help of a subtitling program; location, they were from different parts of therefore, we used Subtitle Edit (Version 3.5.9). Iran, and it is very difficult to claim that they This stage does not allow for any quantitative were only from big cities. Tehran, Iran’s cap- analysis but can result in emergent categories ital, was the most representative city as nine and theories. Qualitative research, says Chau- fansubbers were living there. The analysis of me, offers “insights […], and entices the de- fansubbers’ educational background suggests velopment of ideas or hypotheses for poten- that several were students of language majors. tial quantitative research” (Chaume, 2018, p. Specifically, four fansubbers were students or 51). The films chosen for this phase include graduates of the translation discipline, and one Before Sunrise (Linklater, 1995), Ice Age 1 was an English literature major. The rest came (Wedge, 2002), 300 (Snyder, 2006), Spider-Man from other disciplines, including mechanical 3 (Raimi, 2007), Final Destination 5 (Quale, engineering, computer engineering, graphics, 2011), Ted (MacFarlane, 2012), Brake (Torres, cinema, biology, physics, and so forth. It is 2012), The Imitation Game (Tyldum, 2014) and noteworthy that a significant number of the Deadpool (Miller, 2016). These have been se- respondents (five fansubbers) were students or lected from a wide range of genres—science graduates of computer sciences. Concerning fiction, fantasy, drama, horror, and action— the subtitling software that fansubbers may and over several years, to ensure that the re- use, it was found that Subtitle Edit and Sub- sults transcend a certain genre or time period. title Workshop, along with Aegisub are widely used; these are free and easy-to-use subtitling 4. Results programs. Oddly, two respondents mentioned that they did not use any software. They ex- We will first present the results from the ques- plained that they only carried out translations tionnaires, and subsequently, the textual anal- using the original srt file—which can be edit- ysis of fansubbed products. ed using Notepad—and replaced the original

Iranian Non-professional Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation Iranian Amateur Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation

dialogue in the original the srt file with their 4.1.2. Motivations own translations. Interestingly, one fansubber One of the questions in the questionnaire 441 mentioned Subtrans (https://appist.ir/soft- aimed to explore the factors motivating ama- ware/subtrans); an Iranian subtitling software teur subtitlers to undertake subtitling. Table 1 program developed by a group of Iranian fan- illustrates the types of motivations mentioned subbers with the collaboration of several soft- by the respondents. ware developers. A female fansubber also indicated that she uses Easy Subtitles—developed It is of importance to look at motivations more for Android—for her fansubbing work. critically. The lack of a monetary reward or

Table 1. Motivations for doing non-professional subtitling. Created by the authors.

Motivations Examples from the questionnaire Language “Our aim is to learn English and to keep our English up-to-date.” learning “My aim is to learn English. The only benefit of doing it [fansubbing] is language learning. When I can learn it by myself why should I waste my money on language classes.” “As I mentioned above, it is important to have constant exposure to English. As you know, you may forget the language very easily if you fail to use it. So I do subtitling to learn new things and not to forget what I learnt before.”

Leisure “In fact, I do film andtv series subtitling for learning and fulfilling my own interests and I’m more interesting in watching films than reading books.” “I’m into films and cinema. I love subtitling and it’s very interesting to me when I see thousands of people watch a film with the subtitles I made.” Offering a “[…] After a while, I watched The Devil’s Advocate [1997] again with Persian subtitles because more quality I watched it with English subtitles long before. The Persian subtitling was very bad and entailed translation for many mistakes. Therefore, I retranslated it even though that was arduous as it had mainly a previously- dialogues—over 3000 subtitle lines (this is twice as much as a regular film). It was well worth the subtitled effort, however.” program Popularizing a “I always want to get new fans to watch and hear my favorite idols’ and artists’ video clips and specific genre interviews.” or artist “What I do is a cultural activity and I like to lionize the works of artists who work hard to produce a quality program.” Prestige-seeking “It’s pretty cool when I see how many viewers are very impressed with my works when they say my subtitle was the best translation, I feel more confident in my life and work.” Gaining profits “Sometimes I receive some little money from sponsors and some generous viewers!” “A number of subtitlers are now working for websites and they are being paid absolutely little. I don’t think so this can be a motive for the work, at least not for me.” “Translating and subtitling is a free activity which is done for our people. Yet, some receive some financial help for translations they make. To me, translation is a free work we do it just to make people happy.” “I don’t do any subtitling for free. Free subtitling only happens for a few films that I like a lot.” Helping viewers “I would like to help Iranian viewers and users enjoy watching their favorite film with my subtitles.” “I like to deliver the translation very quickly to others to watch the tv series with minimal delay.” “It’s interesting that people watch programs with our works and enjoy. The praise and encouragement we receive from the viewers make us feel energized.”

Job “I had translated countless films andtv series for free. After some online subtitling, I received an opportunities email from a dvd seller that requested the translation of several films of the 1950s and 1960s. Some months later, I received a translation request from the manager of a famous dubbing company who was looking for a translator for their documentaries. Although I still do some free subtitling, my preference is working for companies or individuals who pay for the translations they ask for.”

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payment appears to be an important feature of A while back, I used to work for King [an Iranian non-professional subtitling by definition (Or- unauthorized film website]. After some time, I deci- 442 rego-Carmona & Lee, 2017a; Pedersen, 2019); ded to give up the work as their payment was almost therefore, fansubbers carry out an unpaid activ- nothing. ity. This is also the case for many Iranian ama- Overall, it appears that in addition to teur subtitlers, as explicitly mentioned by some non-monetary motivations such as language in their responses. Nevertheless, cases in which learning and having fun, people are attracted non-professional subtitling is used as a source to fansubbing to gain some monetary benefits of revenue are not rare. Additionally, the analy- too. Some fansubbers are independent and do sis of the questionnaire responses suggests that their translation voluntarily, while some are while translators may not receive any sort of paid by illegal pirate film websites. monetary rewards from viewers, as they share their works on a number of subtitling websites at no cost, they make some profits another way. 4.1.3. Collaboration Some subtitlers add advertisements into the srt Teamwork and collaboration are high among files they share online. They advertise the name amateur subtitlers, but some of the respondents of film-sharing websites or websites sharing mentioned that they prefer to work alone. The news about films, etc. Nonetheless, the time and collaboration among Iranian non-professional effort they put into subtitling are not commen- subtitlers differs, to some extent, from what surate with the profits they make from such ad- has been found to be the case with anime fan- vertisements. Some amateur subtitlers are now subbing. In the latter, a large number of peo- working in the translation teams of illegal web- ple are involved in the process—raw providers, sites that share the pirated versions of original editors, synchronizers, and typesetters, among programs. Iranian authorities have tried hard to other agents—and there is a steep hierarchal crack down on these websites due to their unli- structure (Diaz Cintas & Muñoz Sánchez, censed activities and the content that they share, 2006; Hu, 2010; Massidda, 2015; Zhang & which is deemed indecent and immoral accord- Cassany, 2017). The Iranian case has a sim- ing to Iranian culture. It should be stated these pler composition, and at times, the whole pro- film websites do not make any profits directly cess is carried out by one single individual. from subtitles, as the srt files are shared free This is also reflected in the comments of two of any charge. Two of these websites are Diba fansubbers: Movies and film2movie, which also have an ex- clusive Telegram Channel and Subscene account Yes, we team up with our friends and each person is for sharing their subtitled works. These websites responsible for the translation, spotting and editing sell spaces for advertisements; therefore, they of his/her part. monetize the activities of fansubbers, and the profits they make are reported to be substan- I only have one co-subtitler and we have translated tial. However, the money given to fansubbers more than 10 films and he has always been respon- is nowhere near what professionals get for their sible for revising the subtitles. work. Two fansubbers mention that: We also found that the collaboration is con- Unfortunately, this [fansubbing] cannot be regarded fined to the area of translation, by which the as a job, the money they pay is not comparable to translation duties of a single film or season of our time and efforts. a Netflix original tv series, are divided among

Iranian Non-professional Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation Iranian Amateur Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation

several people so that the subtitle files are pre- be a source of inaccuracy in translations, and pared more quickly. For example, The 88th researchers could choose to examine this issue Academy Awards was subtitled by a group of in the future. 443 ten fansubbers, as each person was responsible for one section of the program, and one per- 4.2. The fansubbed products son—the main translator—uploaded the srt file on his Subscene page. This section examines the results of the textual analysis of Persian fansubbed products. Currently, Persian non-professional subtitles 4.1.4. Challenges of subtitling are mainly released in the form of soft sub- When it comes to the challenges of subti- titles (srt files) as far as American films and tling, fansubbers referred to the translation tv series are concerned. The present analysis of culture-specific elements, humor, idi- includes reading speed, spatial and temporal oms, and slang, among other things. Three constraints, readability and creativity. It is non-professional subtitlers share the following worthy of note that the aim of this analysis is observations: not to criticize the amateur subtitling practice but to offer a general account of the fansub- One of the challenges is translating idioms and bing scene in Iran. Therefore, we do not judge humorous elements which do not appear to have the appropriateness of fansubbing practices, straightforward equivalents in Persian, especially but we recommend experimental reception puns or idioms that are culture-specific and require studies in this sphere (Abdi & Khoshsaligheh, the knowledge of some presuppositions. Transla- 2018; Khoshsaligheh, Ameri, Khajepour, & ting these items is very demanding and this is where Shokoohmand, forthcoming). It should not be creativity in translation should be tapped. ignored that lay viewers may understand qual- It’s very difficult to find a good Persian equivalent ity quite differently from translators or other for contemporary American idioms and slang. Gi- professional agents (Orrego-Carmona, 2018). ven my high proficiency in Persian grammar and my interest in Persian literature, I have been capable of finding suitable Persian proverbs and idioms. 4.2.1. Reading speed To examine how much Iranian fansubbers The big challenge is facing strange idioms and slang attempt to stay close to the source text and which do not have any ready-made equivalent in Persian. The Venture Bros, for example, had only retain the original content, we use the con- 400 lines of subtitles for translation; yet, the time I cept of subtitling reading speed—defined as devoted to its translation was equal to a 4000-sub- “the speed with which the reader is expected title film. to read a subtitle” (Pedersen, 2011, p. 130)— which is closely linked to reductive or editing The translation challenges indicated by the techniques, and can be measured in characters respondents are quite in line with those com- per second (Szarkowska, Krejtz, Pilipczuk, monly heard in the professional industry— Dutka, & Kruger, 2016). Therefore, to adhere linguistic and cultural mismatches (Guillot, to a standard reading speed—say 15 cps— the 2019; Pedersen, 2011), humor (Perego, 2014), content of programs at times demands reduc- or idioms and slang (Diaz Cintas & Remael, tion and condensation (Diaz Cintas & Rema- 2007). One conclusion that can be reached el, 2007). Yet, according to Pedersen (2011), here is that these linguistic challenges could subtitles in dubbing countries, including Iran

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tend to display less condensation and stay al settings is the six-second rule, which stip- closer to the original. This is also the case with ulates that the maximum time for keeping a 444 Persian Iranian fansubbers, who tend to stay full two-liner on the screen should not exceed close to the original; therefore; in fast-paced six seconds. This is because viewers may start and dialogue-heavy films or scenes, the read- rereading them (Diaz Cintas & Remael, 2007; ing speed is typically high. As is evident in Karamitroglou, 1998). As shown in the exam- Table 2, the reading speed of the subtitles is ples presented in Table 3, Persian fansubbing often over 20 cps, which goes beyond the rec- usually violates spatial constraints, and subti- ommended standard (Netflix, 2018; Pedersen, tles with more than 40 characters per line are 2017). This is because fansubbers intend to very frequent. The violation of the six-second “convey ‘everything’ belonging to the original rule standard is also common, as can be seen dialogues” (Massidda, 2015, p. 59). in Table 4.

4.2.2. Spatial and temporal constraints 4.2.3. Readability The number of characters in each subtitle line, Readability is another important issue in the otherwise known as line length, is generally subtitling industry, and encompasses issues 36–40 maximum including spaces and punc- such as punctuation and segmentation (Guil- tuation, while the maximum number of lines lot, 2019). Segmentation is concerned with allowed is two, which are typically projected how to correctly break a subtitle into two lines at the bottom of the screen (Guillot, 2019). “in such a way that they are semantically and The other standard available in profession- syntactically self-contained” (Diaz Cintas &

Table 2. Reading speed. Created by the authors.

Original Subtitles [Back-translation] tcr (Duration) Reading Film speed (cps) But what was that “I am learning” 00.38.18.321 22.92 Before bullshit? 00.38.20.590 Sunrise (2.269) [But what was that he said that I’m still learning silly talks] Men are lucky we don’t bite off their 01:02:02.869 26.30 Before head after mating. 01:02:05.074 Sunrise (2.205) [Men are lucky that we don’t bite off their head after mating] Can’t have one of your own, so you 00:21:44.485 26.30 Ice Age 1 want to adopt. 00:21:46.690 (2.205) [So you don’t approve of each other, so you want to adopt it] Why are we talking about it? 01:00:21.591 29.77 Ted -You’re talking about it. I’m just 01:00:24.513 saying, let them in. (2.922)

[Why are we talking about it? - You’re talking about it. I’m just saying, lets’ let them in.]

Iranian Non-professional Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation Iranian Amateur Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation

Table 3. Characters per line Original Subtitles [Back-translation] Number Characters Film 445 of lines per line I’ll return you. We 1 74 Ice Age 1 don’t need that meany-weeny mammoth, do we? [I’ll return you. We don’t need insignificant mammoth do we?] Somebody had to 3 63/52/38 Ted go Joan Crawford on that kid.

[Sorry, but somebody had to treat this kid like “Joan Crawford” (The cinema, theater and television star who is said to have sexually assaulted her own children)] Wait a minute. We kill 2 49/49 Final someone, we get Destination their life? Is that what 5 you’re telling me?

[Wait a minute. Do you mean we killed someone, we got their life so that we can live?]

Table 4. The exposure time of subtitles

Original Subtitles [Back-translation] tcr (Duration) Film I don’t think it’s for us to say... whether a person 01:13:10.961 Spider-Man 3 deserves to live or die. 01:13:17.270 (6.309) [I don’t think it’s for us to say who deserves to die or live.] Its chemistry is not unlike the chondritic 01:33:01.028 Spider-Man 3 meteorites of the ‘70s. 01:33:08.449 (7.421) [Its chemistry is not unlike the meteorites of 70] ...none of us deserve to die, then why is it... 01:17:05.274 Final Destination 5 01:17:11.407 (6.133) [none of us deserve to die, then why…]

Remael, 2007, p. 172). For example, adjectives arbitrary and poor segmentations which may and nouns should not be separated, and articles hamper the comprehension of the subtitles. should always come with their nouns. Addi- tionally, in sentences with subordinated or co- ordinated clauses, each subtitle line should dis- 4.2.4. Commentaries and creativity play one clause (Diaz Cintas & Remael, 2007; Research has documented that fansubbers have Karamitroglou, 1998; Perego, 2008). As the ex- challenged the concept of so-called subtitler’s amples in Table 5 show, Persian subtitles have invisibility by voicing their opinions in subtitles

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Table 5. Readability

446 Original Subtitles [Back-translation] tcr (Duration) Film It’s funny that I only ever see two of you. 00:45:22.521 Deadpool 00:45:25.208 (2.687) [It’s funny that I only ever see you two.] You may have heard already 00:52:26.059 Brake they’re unconfirmed reports 00:52:29.411 explosion from inside the facility (3.352)

[As I heard before the explosion occurred in this facility was unconfirmed] You’re trying to break the German 00:10:46,745 The Imitation Enigma machine. 00:10:50,249 Game (3.504) [You’re trying to solve the German “Enigma” machine mystery] We’re going to break an unbreakable 00:31:59.083 The Imitation Nazi code and win the war. 00:32:01.319 Game (2.236) [We’re going to break an unbreakable Nazi code]

or by offering commentaries concerning the called “discussion bands” by Jiménez-Crespo names, titles, or cultural elements in the transla- (2017, p. 191). This is also present in Persian tion (Diaz Cintas, 2018; Diaz Cintas & Muñoz fansubbing—in the examples presented in Ta- Sánchez, 2006; Khoshsaligheh & Ameri, ble 6, taken from Ted (MacFarlane, 2012), Ted 2017b; Massidda & Casarini, 2017; Wang, says “back off Susan Boyle” to an overweight 2017). In professional terms, “subtitles should child in the original, as both the child and Su- attract as little attention as possible” (Guillot, san Boyle are overweight in appearance. To 2019, p. 37) but reception studies suggest that make this more understandable to Iranian au- these commentaries could advance viewers’ dience—who are supposedly unfamiliar with comprehension of the original, at the expense Susan Boyle—the fansubber used the name of of missing some subtitles (Caffrey, 2009). For female Iranian actress Rabe’e Oskouie—who is example, allusions are abundantly used in Dead- also overweight. As well as the change of ref- pool (Miller, 2016), and its Persian fansubber erence, the fansubber inserted some more per- has offered plenty of explanatory comments sonal comments, stating in two parentheses that in order to facilitate the comprehension and they did not want to offend Rabe’e Oskouie. It understanding of the dialogue for the Iranian is worth mentioning that these commentaries viewers who are supposedly not familiar with do not always offer accurate information. In certain concepts. Such an experiment with the the same film, there is a mention of Joan Craw- original, at times, goes beyond just offering ford—the American film and television actress. commentaries about what is heard and seen on To make the scene more understandable to the screen. Fansubbers may add hilarious or sarcas- Iranian audience, the subtitler inserted informa- tic comments in the translations about the main tion about Joan Crawford in their subtitles. The plot, or a given character (Josephy-Hernández, information that she sexually assaulted her chil- 2017; Massidda & Casarini, 2017); these are dren, however, is ostensibly erroneous, while

Iranian Non-professional Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation Iranian Amateur Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation

Joan Crawford herself was sexually abused by tled programs and clips shared on Instagram— her stepfather (Table 6). very short videos on entertainment issues—are very creative seeing as different colors, fonts or 447 In the film 300 (Snyder, 2006)—which is said layouts are used by the producers. To conclude, to be an anti-Iranian Hollywood film and an- Persian amateur subtitling is neither pro-am gered many in Iran—the Persian fansubber nor creative as per the terms of Orrego-Carmo- took a further step and warned the viewer of na (2015), it is somewhere between the two. false facts presented in the film in the very first subtitle line (Table 7). 5. Discussion and conclusion

Finally but importantly, Persian non-pro- This research provides a glimpse into amateur fessional subtitling appears to be compara- subtitling in Iran and offers some interesting tively less creative than in other languages. insights. Regarding the profile of amateur sub- Jiménez-Crespo (2017) defines creativity in titlers who participated in this survey, the find- fansubbing through the lens of “the position- ings seem to show that Persian fansubbing is ing, layout and font of subtitles” (p. 190). This a male-oriented activity and is popular among is a key feature of anime subtitling (Diaz Cin- youths; in line with fansubbing in other coun- tas & Muñoz Sánchez, 2006; Pérez-González, tries (Cemerin & Toth, 2017; Duraner et al., 2007a). Iranian fansubbers generally release 2017; Luczaj & Holy-Luczaj, 2017; Luczaj et both hard and soft subtitles. Nevertheless, soft al., 2014). Additionally, the results reveal that subtitles in the form of srt files are by far the translation and computer-related studies were most common form for films and tv series. By the most representative disciplines among consequence, Persian subtitles are not creative, fansubbers. This makes sense considering seeing as srt files do not contain any kind of the nature of subtitling, which requires good formatting in terms of font, color or position- knowledge relating to translation and com- ing of subtitles, as is also the case with Swedish puters. More importantly, the motivations for fansubbing (Pedersen, 2019). However, subti- subtitling ranged from language learning and

Table 6. Hilarious commentaries in subtitles

Original Subtitles Back-translation tcr (Duration) Film back off Susan Back off, Rabe’e Oskouie 01:31:18.564 Ted Boyle (No intended offense to her!) 01:31:20.033 (The name of a fat actor had to be (1.469) mentioned!)

Somebody Sorry, but somebody had to treat this kid like 01:33:40,013 Ted had to go Joan “Joan Crawford” 01:33:43,130 Crawford on (The cinema, theater and television star who (3.117) that kid. is said to have sexually assaulted her own children)

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Table 7. Critical commentaries in subtitles

448 Original Subtitles Back-translation tcr (Duration) Film --- This should be mentioned that: 00:00:06,000 300 all the facts mentioned in this film have been 00:00:11,000 produced by a bunch of crazy people who want (5.00) to say that democracy is always the winner and Iranians are a wild and uncivilized nation.

leisure, to receiving monetary incentives from (2017) maintains that communities “milked pirate streaming sites, to sharing the enjoy- their fans and generated a revenue stream by ment of watching a film with others (Luczaj selling space for advertisements and deriva- & Holy-Luczaj, 2017). Teamwork and collab- tive merchandise” (p. 136). oration among fansubbers seem to work in some specific cases, such as Netflix original tv As with professional subtitling and dubbing, in series for which all episodes of a season are which the translation of culture-specific items, released at once, or for important events like idioms or slang are of difficulty and require the Academy Awards, where the translation a vast knowledge of both source and target of the program is expected to be released very languages (Pedersen, 2011; Ranzato, 2016), quickly. It should be noted that the timing of fansubbers also mentioned challenges in these releasing subtitles highly depends on the pop- areas. It is noteworthy that previous studies ularity of the program as well as the numer- on Persian fansubbing have shown that trans- ous and repeated requests made by users on lations carried out by non-professional subti- film websites. Although fansubbing workflow tlers suffer from low quality; and translation in general appears to be complex and engages mistakes and the violation of technical issues many people (Diaz Cintas & Muñoz Sánchez, are frequent (Khoshsaligheh & Ameri, 2017b; 2006; Jiménez-Crespo, 2017; Massidda, 2015; Khoshsaligheh & Fazeli Haghpanah, 2016). Orrego-Carmona, 2015), the Persian case ap- The issue of quality in amateur subtitling can pears to be simpler, and collaboration is re- be an opportunity for further research, espe- duced to the translation phase. cially if the analysis is equipped with a robust model (See Pedersen, 2017). It was also found that subtitle files are not sold to viewers to generate profits for the fan- As far as the practice of amateur subtitling is subbers; however, the main source of revenue concerned, it was found that Iranian fansub- for some fansubbers has come from includ- bers do not seem to be Pro-Ams, which is “a ing advertisements in their srt files. Given new social hybrid where a person pursues an the fact that most Iranian unauthorized film activity as amateur, mainly for no other reason websites are not based on pay-per-view and than the love of it, but follows professional subscription models, one of the revenues for standards” (Orrego-Carmona, 2015, p. 217). these websites is selling advertising space op- Jiménez-Crespo (2017, p. 181) is of the view portunities, as it seems that a large number of that 21st-century fansubbers imitate profes- people regularly visit these websites to down- sional subtitling rules and norms. Iranian fan- load their favorite programs and subtitles. Wu subbers do not follow professional norms sim-

Iranian Non-professional Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation Iranian Amateur Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation

ply because they are not aware of such rules Antonini, R., & Bucaria, C. (Eds.). (2015). and regulations. Iran has no subtitling tradition Non-professional interpreting and translation and to the best our knowledge, no prescriptive in the media. Wien, Austria: Peter Lang. 449 norms for Persian subtitling can be found on- Antonini, R., Cirillo, L., Rossato, L., & Torre- line. Therefore, when there are no norms or si, I. (2017a). Introducing npit studies. In guidelines to consult, fansubbers mainly trans- R. Antonini, L. Cirillo, L. Rossato, & I. late and subtitle by instinct. A number of the Torresi (Eds.), Non-professional interpreting fansubbers were students or graduates of the and translation: State of the art and future of translation discipline and one could speculate an emerging field of research (pp. 2 – 26). Am- as to whether or not they have learned any sterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins. subtitling norms from their university train- Antonini, R., Cirillo, L., Rossato, L., & Torre- ing. avt translation is, however, offered only si, I. (Eds.). (2017b). Non-professional Inter- in one course at ba level in Iran, and research preting and Translation: State of the art and suggests that this course is not systematically future of an emerging field of research. Am- taught at Iranian universities (Khoshsaligheh sterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins. & Ameri, 2017a) because trainers are not very Bogucki, Ł. (2016). Areas and methods of audio- familiar with the technical know-how of subti- visual translation research (2nd ed.). Frank- tling. Another point worth mentioning is that furt, Germany: Peter Lang. fansubbers may simply imitate and follow the Caffrey, C. (2009). Relevant abuse? Investigating norms—such as three dots to indicate a pause, the effects of an abusive subtitling procedure on or a hyphen to indicate two persons speaking the perception of tv anime using eye tracker simultaneously—that can be found in interna- and questionnaire. (Unpublished doctoral tional subtitling templates, because they trans- dissertation), Dublin City University, Du- late from pre-cued subtitles. blin, Ireland. Cemerin, V., & Toth, M. (2017). An explora- The findings of this study, gathered from a tion of motives for fansubbing based on small select group of fansubbers and a small several croatian fansubbing communities. corpus of amateur subtitles, cannot be ex- In D. Orrego-Carmona & Y. Lee (Eds.), trapolated to the whole population of Iranian Non-professional subtitling (pp. 199-234): fansubbers. The results may be overturned or Cambridge Scholars Publishing. supported in light of future evidence collected Chang, P.-l. (2017). Chinese fansubbing of us from quantitative or mixed-methods studies. tv show “The Big Bang Theory”: From The analysis was also restricted to amateur ideological perspectives. In D. Orre- subtitling of western products; future research go-Carmona & Y. Lee (Eds.), Non-profes- could therefore analyze the fansubbing of sional subtitling (pp. 235-260). Newcastle, non-western products. All in all, non-profes- England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. sional subtitling is an unchartered area that Chaume, F. (2013). The turn of audiovisual awaits more empirical research. translation: New audiences and new tech- nologies. Translation Spaces, 2(1), 105-123. doi:10.1075/ts.2.06cha References Chaume, F. (2018). An overview of audiovi- Abdi, Z., & Khoshsaligheh, M. (2018). Appl- sual translation: Four methodological tur- ying multimodal transcription to Persian ns in a mature discipline. Journal of Audio- subtitling. Studies About Languages, 32, 21-38. visual Translation, 1(1), 40-63.

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Mutatis Mutandis. Vol. 12, N.° 2, 2019, julio-diciembre, pp. 433-453