164. Sound-track, dub, subtitles, translation

The sound-track (фонограмма) is the recording of all the sounds in a film: dialogue, background noises, sound effects, music. The person responsible for this recording is the sound mixer (звукооператор) but this term is used only in professional and technical conversations.

Foreign films may be dubbed (дублироваться), that is, the original sound-track is replaced by a new one with dialogue in the language of the country where it is to be shown. Dub is used in such sentences as:

a. Is the film dubbed?

b. It’s an American film but it's dubbed in Russian.

Instead of being dubbed, a foreign film may be given subtitles (титры).

a. It’s not dubbed, but it's got (Russian) subtitles.

b. I couldn’t always read the subtitles.

The system sometimes practised in this country, whereby the original sound-track is left and one voice translates the gist of the dialogue, does not exist in Britain, and therefore translation in this context is not clear. A short description is needed, at least when talking to English people, for example, the one given above, or:

A simultaneous translation superimposed on the original sound-track

165. Silent films, talkies

Films made before the invention of sound recording are called silent films. Talky was used when talking films were first made, but it is now used only in connection with the history of the cinema.

Credit Titles

166. The credit titles, or credits (титры) as they are usually called in non-formal situations, are the names, shown on the screen, of the director, producer, actors, cameraman, sound operator and others responsible for some aspect of the work on the film. Credit is used in such sentences as:

a. The credits were at the beginning/end.

b. - Who played the father?

- I don't know. I missed the credits.

Types of Film

167. Firstly we may distinguish between: feature films, documentaries, cartoons.

feature films

In Britain the expression feature film is confined mainly to professional conversations. The ordinary cinema-goer sees mainly feature films, and therefore calls them simply films. He is generally more interested in what kind of feature films. Here most of the words for different types of play given in unit 113 are applicable, viz.:

tragedy

comedy (or: comedy film)

farce

drama

historical film

thriller детектив (see unit 43)

musical

In practice this is used less often of films. Instead we may simply say a serious film.

In addition to those listed above, the following categories are used:

war film

a film about war, often the Second World War

epic

a film depicting heroic events of the past on a grand scale, often with vast crowd scenes, battle scenes, etc.

horror film

a film especially intended to arouse fear and horror

Length of Films

168. Most feature films last about one and a half hours. We may call these full-length films. Films lasting only 15-30 minutes are called shorts in professional language (a short) and simply short films by the general public.

Translating серия

There is no English equivalent for this word as applied to films. English films are not classified in this way, although some are naturally longer than others.

Series should on no account be used, as this means several, a succession.

Part is better, but not entirely satisfactory, as it suggests that each серия has a certain artistic unity, like an act in a play or opera. It is not associated primarily with time, and a part may be any length.

There is no solution but to say, for example:

e.g. a. – How long is it? Сколько серий?

- The usual length/average length. (1 серия)

Or: - Longer than usual/average. 2 серии.

b. It’s a long film.

Long-drawn-out is used in the sense of растянутый.

e.g. It’s a very long-drawn-out film.