--- On Mon, 11/3/08, CAROL OSULLIVAN <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear colleagues,
> Still working on my project on screen
> 'translations' and translation, I have come across
> some examples of the use of a translating dissolve, i.e. we
> are shown a sign, or letter, and via a dissolve we see the
> same message only in the audience's language. It comes
> across as an interestingly specific kind of POV shot. The
> examples I have are all from the early 1930s so far, and I
> am wondering how much this device was actually used, and
> until how late.
Hello,
this was fairly common for (English) versions for a German audience. Out of the blue, I automatically imagine black and white films (30s-50s).
Very often, not a dissolve, but an insert is used (with the translated version superimposed but not covering the entire screen like the movie title in the credits, mostly for letters or newspaper articles, sometimes with the addition of a voice over which is not a characterīs voice. As always a serious, male voice, of course).
If you want to track down these version, possibly you have to look for the respective video tapes or television airings, because the DVD versions worldwide mostly use the English master for their transfers.
In more recent years, the practice has changed, one factor being the marketing / corporate design: even if a title for a Harry Potter movie is translated, they use the same font for the credits and donīt mess with the actual footage. Which certainly has to do with the digital aspect of title generating. And the money aspect: German versions of B-movies / television films in the 80s very often have a splash of a white rectangle with the new title on it.
There are always exceptions: the Futurama series added a narratorīs voice to translate the original signs (like a sign reading "Pizza Delivery Service").
You mention the early 30s, at that time a lot of alternate versions were shot in Europe with the actorīs being cast mainly on their ability to do the scenes in up to (?) 6 or seven different languages.
(Thereīs a German study about it, the title unfortunately slipped my mind.)
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