Kinema Club Subtitling Consortium

[Aaron Gerow]

KineJapan members,

As Markus mentioned in his report on the recent Kinema Club Workshop, one 
of the items on the agenda for future action agreed upon by the 
participants was a coordinated effort to make and distribute English 
subtitled copies of Japanese films currently unavailable in that form.  
To get the ball rolling, I have put together a proposal for a consortium 
that will serve as the institutional basis for the subtitling.  Please 
read the following proposal and, if you are interested, contact me.  
Comments and questions can be referred either to me personally or to the 
list (I welcome open discussion of the consortium).

Aaron Gerow

***************

THE KINEMA CLUB SUBTITLING CONSORTIUM

One of the main difficulties in studying and teaching Japanese film is 
the availability of subtitled films.  Films by the masters such as Ozu, 
Kurosawa, and Mizoguchi are generally available on film, video, or even 
DVD, but few works outside of a limited canon can be found anywhere 
outside of Japan.  Even if one knows enough Japanese to use non-subtitled 
work in one's own research, those films can rarely be used in class and 
are not available for reference by non-Japanese film specialists who may 
be reading that research.

It is due to this situation that some of the members of Kinema Club, 
taking a hint from the many anime clubs that have subtitled Japanese 
animation for their own purposes, have decided to form a consortium to 
make and share English subtitled video copies of films currently 
unavailable, in order to further research and education on Japanese 
cinema.  We are looking for members willing to take part in the 
consortium.

THE STRUCTURE

While in an ideal world, it would be nice to cooperatively make subtitled 
copies and have them available to anyone interested, the unfortunate 
tendency is for many to take advantage of the work created by others 
without doing the hard work themselves needed to produce the films.  An 
incentive is needed in order to get members to participate in the 
subtitling.  That is why the subtitling consortium will restrict 
distribution of the created videos only to those who have produced an 
original subtitled work for the consortium.  Those who join, then, must 
have the will and the way to produce at least one subtitled video copy of 
a film.  Once that copy has been produced, the member can receive all the 
copies available at that time and in the future.  (However, once every 
member has produced at least one film, members must produce another 
subtitled film in order to receive the batch of second films.)

MEMBERSHIP

Membership is available to individuals and to institutions, with the 
stipulation that the resulting work will only be used for educational and 
research purposes.  Institutional membership will be limited to smaller 
insitutional entities, such as departments, not universities.  Any member 
who uses the films for commercial purposes will be immediately expelled 
and prohibited from using the consortium videos.  In order to 
participate, members must have the ability to translate a Japanese 
language film into English and to create subtitles on a video tape.  The 
former obviously requires Japanese language skills, and the second, video 
subtitling equipment (character generators) or computer film editing 
software such as Adobe Premiere.

FILM SELECTION

Members are free to choose, within limits, the film they wish to 
subtitle.  It should be a film for which no subtitled print readily 
exists (simply transferring subtitles of a print or video already in 
existence is not considered fulfillment of membership requirements).  
Hopefully, it should also be one that is important for research and 
education in Japanese cinema and which will interest other consortium 
members.  In order to subtitle a film, a good video, laser disc, DVD, or 
film copy without subtitles must be available.  It will also be easier 
for the subtitler if the film chosen has a printed screenplay available 
which can be referred to when subtitling.

There is the problem of copyright.  Copyright for films produced in Japan 
is currently in effect for 50 years after the date of release; everything 
released before that is technically public domain.  As many of us know, 
however, Japanese film studios often claim copyrights even when they have 
expired.  While we insist our creation of subtitled prints for research 
and educational use is protected by the fair use clause in copyright law, 
it is important that we treat this issue seriously and with care.  The 
following guidelines should thus be respected when selecting films:

1) For the time being, the selection should concentrate on films in the 
public domain.

2) If a member insists on doing a film for which copyright is still in 
effect, it is recommended that they obtain written approval from the 
copyright holder (usually the production company).

3) Since copyright law exists in part to protect commercial interests, we 
must be careful that our distribution of tapes cannot be considered as 
hurting those interests.  Many films are now available commercially on 
video in Japan and thus we require that any member receiving a 
consortium-subtitled film buy the commercially released non-subtitled 
copy if it is still available.  That way we can say our tape distribution 
is not hurting sales (it is in fact increasing it).  This does not apply, 
of course, to films not currently available for sale on video.

SUBTITLING

Depending on the equipment available to a member, subtitles should be 
produced on video in a reasonable way that are accurate (both in terms of 
translation and timing) and easy to read (both in terms of visual 
readability and subtitle length).  The subtitles need not be of 
professional quality, but they should be usable; translation need not be 
of top literary style, but it should be done with the viewer in mind.  
Members may want to experiment with new subtitling techniques, but should 
keep in mind their duty to provide copies usable by all the members.

DISTRIBUTION

Once a member has produced a subtitled video copy, they should send a 
single copy to each member who has produced a copy before.  Efforts 
should be made to produce copies without too much of a degradation in 
sound and image.  When a member has produced a tape, the member will 
notify the others, who will then send a blank tape of the right length 
complete with a self-addressed, stamped envelope.  If a member can put 
subtitles directly on commercially produced video copies of the film, 
that might be the best option.  Those who can, should insert individual 
member numbers on the tapes they make for each member so that the tapes 
can be better managed and dubbing prevented.

It goes without saying that the consortium can only work if usage of the 
tapes is in general restricted to members of the consortium.  One of the 
duties of members will then include making sure that no one who is not a 
member will be using these tapes without permission.  Permitted uses 
includes showing the films in class and at conferences as a part of a 
research presentation, but members must refrain from lending copies to 
non-members.  If others want to use the tape, tell them to join the 
consortium.  This may seem restrictive, but the crucial issue is 
preventing unwanted distribution and dubbing.  Once you lend it to 
someone, they make a copy which then gets lent to someone else, and so 
on.  Not only does this threaten to undermine the consortium, it makes it 
easy for unscrupulous video retailers to get a hand on our work.  
Institutional members should take special care in restricting use of the 
videos to responsible people and in preventing all dubbing.  Libraries 
that are members must not lend the videos and must restrict use to 
responsible researchers.

Any member found distributing the films against the consortium rules will 
be expelled and prohibited from using the films.

If a noncommercial institution which is not a member is interested in 
using our subtitled copies on a one-time only basis, that can be approved 
by vote of the membership.  Any further use will demand such institutions 
join the consortium.

COPYRIGHT

Producing subtitles is producing copyright.  While some of those who 
disagree with the commodification of intellectual production may feel we 
should not copyright our subtitles, there are several reasons we should 
claim copyright for what we do: 1) It helps us, as a consortium, regulate 
the use of the videos among members, 2) It gives us means to prevent 
unscrupulous companies from trying to commercially sell our videos, 3) It 
helps protect us against film companies which, at a later date, may 
object to our activities, and 4) It may become a future source of revenue.

Basically, the subtitles produced by the consortium will collectively 
become the copyright of the consortium. If a company (a legitimate 
distributor or the original production company) is at a future date (or 
at the time of the subtitling) interested in using the subtitles 
commercially, the right to use the subtitles can be lent to the company 
for a fee decided through negotiation (the right to use the film itself 
must be negotiated with that copyright holder).  The funds accrued will 
be used by the consortium to further its activities, though further 
consultation among members will be needed in order to decide how to 
manage and use such funds.  Credits for the subtitling will be shared by 
the consortium and the individual(s) who did the actual subtitling.

ADJUDICATION

Any violations of the rules of the consortium, or any form of 
adjudication among members, will be determined by a three-member council 
initially made up of Abe Markus Nornes, Aaron Gerow, and Maureen Donovan. 
 The decisions of the council will be final.

COMMENTS

This is all still at the proposal stage.  We are looking not only for 
persons interested in membership, but also for comments and suggestions 
on the form and content of the consortium.  Once we have obtained both 
enough interested members and enough comments, we will write up an 
official set of membership regulations which members will be required to 
sign.

Interested persons should contact Aaron Gerow at gerow at ynu.ac.jp.