Routledge Accessible Filmmaking: Integrating translation and accessibility into the filmmaking process

Translation, accessibility and the viewing experience of foreign, deaf and blind audiences has long been a neglected area of research within film studies. The same applies to the film industry, where current distribution strategies and exhibition platforms severely underestimate the audience that exists for foreign and accessible cinema. Translated and accessible versions are usually produced with limited time, for little remuneration, and traditionally involving zero contact with the creative team. Against this background, this book presents accessible filmmaking as an alternative approach, integrating translation and accessibility into the filmmaking process through collaboration between translators and filmmakers. The book introduces a wide notion of media accessibility and the concepts of the global version, the dubbing effect and subtitling blindness. It presents scientific evidence showing how translation and accessibility can impact the nature and reception of a film by foreign and sensory-impaired audiences, often changing the film in a way that filmmakers are not always aware of. The book includes clips from the award-winning film Notes on Blindness on the Routledge Translation Studies Portal, testimonies from filmmakers who have adopted this approach, and a presentation of the accessible filmmaking workflow and a new professional figure: the director of accessibility and translation. This is an essential resource for advanced students and scholars working in film, audiovisual translation and media accessibility, as well as for those (accessible) filmmakers who are not only concerned about their original viewers, but also about those of the foreign and accessible versions of their films, who are often left behind. Review "Making films accessible across the world, and to those who have difficulty seeing or hearing, is something we should take seriously. Accessible filmmaking is clearly a very important subject that will give us a lot to think about. This book will make a valuable contribution to this and I wish it well." - Ken Loach, Film Director "Up to date, methodical, insightful, innovative and masterly interdisciplinary, this book extends the frontiers of our discipline and is destined to become a seminal contribution to both Film Studies and Translation Studies. Pablo’s arresting way of communicating ideas confirms his reputation as one of the finest scholars in translation today. A must-read, must-have book!" - Jorge Díaz Cintas, University College London, UK "This wonderfully wide-ranging and thoroughly researched book demonstrates in fascinating detail the extent to which the use (and too frequent abuse) of subtitles, voice overs and different national dubbing practices continue to significantly mediate our experience of watching films on television and in the cinema. Accessible Filmmaking should be read by every kind of practising filmmaker and critic, as well as by media studies lecturers, students, international film distributors and all TV executives." - Mike Dibb, Bafta- and Emmy-winning director of Ways of Seeing (1972) and The Miles Davis Story (2001) "In a ground-breaking book, Pablo Romero-Fresco considers why accessibility has been overlooked in film production. He also convincingly proposes strategies for its integration both in the film-making process and in the discipline of Film Studies. Written in a clear style and covering a wide range of interrelated issues concerning production and reception, this timely, clear and thought-provoking book will be essential reading for practitioners, teachers and students interested in the accessibility of films." - Peter William Evans, Queen Mary University of London, UK "Accessible Filmmaking: Integrating translation and accessibility into the filmmaking process has arrived just in time. Written by a scholar with a practical and scientific background in Film (Studies), (Audiovisual)Translation and Media Accessibility,