L’épreuve d’entrée écrite pour les formations T2M et TA2M aura lieu samedi 4 avril, entièrement en ligne. Les horaires seront confirmés pendant les prochaines semaines et les personnes autorisées à composer recevront une convocation une fois le dépôt des candidatures terminé.

Comme chaque année, notre équipe publiera ici et sur ses réseaux sociaux des exercices d’entraînement  et d’autres informations utiles pour préparer son dossier de candidature et, les épreuves écrites et les auditions.

Les annales des épreuves des années passées sont disponibles sur la page : https://blog.ube.fr/mastert2m/examens-blancs/

Pour aujourd’hui, un premier exercice d’entraînement, pour aider à préparer l’épreuve écrite mais aussi à réfléchir aux compétences à mettre en avant au moment de préparer son dossier MonMaster.

Practice exercise: translation and accessibility of a vertical video

This video is hosted on the dog-centric YouTube channel Cedric & Edith and can also be viewed using the link https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3mrOiBOAJOU

The video is a collaboration with Malaysian comedian Nigel Ng’s character Uncle Roger, who has built a following by reacting to videos about Asian cooking produced mainly by Western professional and amateur chefs. Known for his orange polo shirt, Uncle Roger has attracted some controversy due to his stereotyped Cantonese accent and use non-standard English grammar and syntax.

Watch the video, then answer the following questions. For your real entrance exam, you will be asked to produce a transcription and translation of a text of about the same length, but should remember that we are just as interested in the process and in your explanations as we are in the final product.

Translation questions:

• How many possible translation problems can you identify in this video, and what strategies could you use to solve them? Try to categorise them into:
  • language-related problems
  • localisation problems, including cultural references
  • references that rely on viewers’ familiarity with one or both the YouTube channels collaborating here.
• If you were employed to translate this video, would you recommend subtitling, dubbing or some other technique? How might the vertical format and the editing of the video affect this?
• Based on what you can find out about Ungle Roger, how would you attempt to render the effect of his accent, syntax, grammar and other features of English use? How would you explain to your future client the need to balance acceptable translation practice with humour? What questions might you need to ask?
• Now watch the video with YouTube’s automated French dubbing activated. How well does the automated dubbing render the meaning and humour of the original? If you notice any errors, can you explain what may have caused them?

Accessibility questions:

• Comment on the burned-in captions and other visual elements in the video:
  • how easy would it be for a person with no hearing difficulties to follow the video and appreciate all its nuances without access to the soundrack?
  • how easy would it be for a Deaf, deaf or hard-of-hearing person to follow the video and appreciate all its nuances?
  • what can you find out about the use of burned-in captions on social media by Deaf, deaf or hard-of-hearing viewers?
• Imagine that you have been employed to produce an audiodescription (and possibly an audio-introduction) to the video for the benefit of blind or low-vision users:
  • what do you think would be the main challenges involved in producing an audiodescription and how would you attempt to address them?
  • if you were asked to create an audiodescription following the Guide de l’audiodescription published by the French audiovisual regulator ARCOM, where would you begin? Which aspects of this guide seem more or less applicable to this video?
  • what challenges do you see for the audiodescrption of short-format videos from social media in particular?
  • in what context would it be most appropriate to attempt to describe the video as objectively as possible and in what context would it be most appropriate to offer a more creative description, arguably resulting in the creation of a new text? To help answer this question, try looking for recent research on audiodescription and the concept of creative media accessibility, in recent issues of the open-access Journal of Audiovisual Translation and anywhere else you can find.