On Monday 14th June, we invited subtitlers to join us for an online event, Share Your Story. The idea for the event arose from our very first debriefing event back in March, in which it emerged that subtitlers have such diverse backgrounds, experiences, clients, etc, that they really just wanted the chance to talk through these different ways of working, and their various routes into the profession.
After a very brief introduction, in which we launched the new website, we moved participants into breakout rooms, where they could spend 30 minutes chatting in small groups of around four or five. During this time, each participant had the chance to introduce themselves and explain where they were based and the kind of subtitling work they do. The discussion then moved on to themes arising from these introductions. After the time spent in smaller groups, we came back together to see how subtitlers had found the event, and it seemed to be a resounding success! Subtitlers talked of the value of networking, and of how interesting it was to hear of others’ experiences, especially where subtitlers were working in different countries, for example. We also discussed some of the various AVT organisations operating nationally and internationally – feel free to add links to websites for these in the comments below. What’s more, those who had more recently entered the profession benefitted from the experience of translators who have been subtitling for more than 20 years, and these experienced subtitlers enjoyed having the opportunity to share this wealth of knowledge with newer translators.
The discussion doesn’t stop there, though! We are continuing the introductions over on our forum, so whether you were able to make the event or not, please do share a little about yourself and get to know some of the other members of our community. It’s early days yet, but it looks like #subtitlerswhocraft might end up trending on Instagram!
