Title
“Accessibility” in early films of the twentieth century
Conference name
9th International conference Media for all
City
Country
Spain
Modalities
Date
27/01/2021-29/01/2021
Abstract
The access and support afforded to information appearing on screen harks back to the early stages of cinema, the silent era and the unusual nature of the film explainer. In the early twentieth century, illiteracy was high in large cities, and even higher in rural areas (Gubern, 1993). Intertitles were difficult to deal with and for this reason this “film talker” (Sánchez Salas, 2011), or commentator, proved to be key in linking the audience with films (Fuentes Luque, 2019). Cinemas were able to project something prodigiously real and plausible, generating a creative space (Letamendi and Seguín, 1998) where viewers identified with the reality projected, and the explainer contributed to the mutual understanding between the films and the audience.
This was the origin of a new collaborative approach towards the needs of the audience where content creation and consumption were shared by the spectators through the assistance provided by the film explainer. If we understand accessibility with the principal aim of removing barriers to communication due to problems with access to linguistic reasons or content, (not including sensory reasons), technologies or languages, the explainer’s skills can be considered as the first steps in accessibility in audiovisual translation. Their support was a means of accessibility for uninformed viewers. The explainer displayed many features, qualities and abilities that helped in understanding the product exhibited to the public. This is similar in nature to the blind man in Spanish culture and literature who was responsible for the composition and reciting of stories (Sánchez Salas, 2008a). The explainer’s oral discourse announced the show, emphasised the tone of the actors in silent movies, commented on the scene and even sang. He improvised and included local expressions, irrespective of the origin of the motion pictures (Sánchez Salas, 2004). He also employed tools like pointers and megaphones, all for the audience’s understanding and perception. Therefore, we believe there to be a link between accessibility and the old movies of the early twentieth century, from silent films to the first talkies and multilingual versions.
In this paper, we analyse what we consider an “accessible” collaboration in the stages of early cinema in Spain between the audience and the celluloid. We explore extracts from different “explicadores”, such as Tomás Borrás and Ramos Castro, the latter included in the “castizo” (vocabulary and terminology from Madrid) expressions of his narration, which in a way, domesticate the product by including local expressions (Sánchez Salas, 2008b). This “Spanish-isation”, which in translation studies is called domestication, helped the audience to understand these soundless movies. The production and distribution of films in the countries where they were to be consumed was the practice for the films of the 1930s. English was unacceptable to the Spanish-speaking public and this resulted in Spanish-speaking productions based in Joinville-le-Pont, Paris. Latin American and Spanish professionals were hired to create multilingual versions, without taking into account the actors’ mix of national accents.
The conclusions we have drawn are that the film explainer contributed to audiovisual understanding in the early stages of cinema history, to the presentation of different realities, and to the translation of feelings; they were, without doubt, a tool that contributed to inclusion.
This was the origin of a new collaborative approach towards the needs of the audience where content creation and consumption were shared by the spectators through the assistance provided by the film explainer. If we understand accessibility with the principal aim of removing barriers to communication due to problems with access to linguistic reasons or content, (not including sensory reasons), technologies or languages, the explainer’s skills can be considered as the first steps in accessibility in audiovisual translation. Their support was a means of accessibility for uninformed viewers. The explainer displayed many features, qualities and abilities that helped in understanding the product exhibited to the public. This is similar in nature to the blind man in Spanish culture and literature who was responsible for the composition and reciting of stories (Sánchez Salas, 2008a). The explainer’s oral discourse announced the show, emphasised the tone of the actors in silent movies, commented on the scene and even sang. He improvised and included local expressions, irrespective of the origin of the motion pictures (Sánchez Salas, 2004). He also employed tools like pointers and megaphones, all for the audience’s understanding and perception. Therefore, we believe there to be a link between accessibility and the old movies of the early twentieth century, from silent films to the first talkies and multilingual versions.
In this paper, we analyse what we consider an “accessible” collaboration in the stages of early cinema in Spain between the audience and the celluloid. We explore extracts from different “explicadores”, such as Tomás Borrás and Ramos Castro, the latter included in the “castizo” (vocabulary and terminology from Madrid) expressions of his narration, which in a way, domesticate the product by including local expressions (Sánchez Salas, 2008b). This “Spanish-isation”, which in translation studies is called domestication, helped the audience to understand these soundless movies. The production and distribution of films in the countries where they were to be consumed was the practice for the films of the 1930s. English was unacceptable to the Spanish-speaking public and this resulted in Spanish-speaking productions based in Joinville-le-Pont, Paris. Latin American and Spanish professionals were hired to create multilingual versions, without taking into account the actors’ mix of national accents.
The conclusions we have drawn are that the film explainer contributed to audiovisual understanding in the early stages of cinema history, to the presentation of different realities, and to the translation of feelings; they were, without doubt, a tool that contributed to inclusion.