On-screen Text

Text that appears onscreen and that is meant to be understood by the viewer- that is part of the narrative- should be translated or explained with Forced Narrative (FN) subtitles. These should be on a separate timed subtitle track and not interfere with any close-captioning, so that the viewer may still see them even when the subtitles are turned off.

With some current streaming services Forced Narrative is rare, and reflects new standards of acceptability in the media industry. We could probably infer that with the volume of films and other materials subbed for streaming being so large, the guidelines and their stringency has been reduced.

Fig.1 & 2 below provide an example of the aforementioned lack of Forced Narrative.

The two shots (Figs. 1& 2) above are separated by a low-angle fixed shot of the protagonist sitting at a café table reading the newspaper and eating a snack. The ad catches his attention, and as and he peers into the newspaper to read in more detail, the sequence cuts to the third shot (Fig.2); of the protagonist now cutting the ad out of the newspaper with a pair of scissors. The information in the ad, in the source language French, is relevant to the plot and referred to during the interview for the job in the advertisement. The viewer will guess the content of the on-screen text by the formatting of the written material; which is typical of an ad for a job in a newspaper, though with newspapers becoming more and more obsolete, it might be necessary to provide Forced Narrative in the future.

Filmography and Webography

Voxtab TM. Forced Narrative Subtitles Explained. (2018, June 1). Retrieved from: https://www.voxtab.com/transcription-blog/forced-narrative-subtitles-explained/ on 22nd February 2019.

Eric Lavaine(Director). (2011). Bienvenue à bord. [Motion Picture] France: Pathé. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/B00R22ETS8/ref=atv_yvl_list_pr_1 on 22.02.2019.