A Lecture By Jonathan M. Hall (JVTA)
Once by definition peripheral, subtitles used to give Japanese visual media their supplementary, overseas audiences. But, in the last twenty-five years, subtitles, along with cinema itself, have undergone a digital transformation, becoming more central to the production process and a more integrated part of the completed work. These shifts in subtitles have also paralleled new relations to images, as global consumers are spending more and more time with small screens. In short, screens are shrinking while “titles” get bigger. In this talk, we look at many visual examples clipped from recent narrative films, documentaries, music videos, and TV programs, as well as user-generated content, to think about recent trends in “media textuality.”
