The invention of films started without sound. And not so long after that, many efforts had done to convey the message of the actors to the audience. Their efforts were what we now call intertiles which were texts, drawn or printed on paper, filmed and placed between scenes of the film. The original titles were removed, translated, filmed and re-inserted and even a speaker was used to give a simultaneous interpretation with another language.

In 1909, a method of projectionist, using a scioption (somehow like a slide projector) that showed the subtitles on the screen was used. According to Gottlieb (2002), M.N. Topp registered a patent for this device for the rapid showing of titles for moving pictures. From 1927 onwards, sound films are invented, so the titles inserted between scenes were removed. The idea to make several languages versions aroused but the efforts are highly cost them.

So the attempts to make subtitle started with manual projection of slides with printed texts directly onto screen. A frame containing the title was kept in position while the film negative and positive print strip were fed forward and exposed. Then, the process was automatically done by inserting exposed ‘blank’ frames between the title frames and the title were fed forward by means of a counter to ensure subtitles were in right length and in right place.

But the films negative were difficult to be obtained plus large quantities of negative were needed to publish a large copy of films. Therefore, the titles were photographed onto separate film of same length as original, synchronize with the sound. The negative and the roll of titles were then copied and displayed simultaneously.

In 1930, a Norwegian inventor, Leif Eriksen registered a patent for method of stamping titles directly on to the images on film strip, followed by a Hungarian inventor, O.Turchanyi who used high temperature to melt away the emulsion on film, without the need for softening bath did by Eriksen, and then patented his method in 1935.

Laser subtitling, according to Ivarrson (2004), developed by Denis Auboyer is the latest development which involves the use of lasers to burn away or vaporizes the emulsion. This has been in commercial use since 1988. The titles themselves are computer typeset and can be showed on video display by means of time coding or frame counting. Laser subtitling is cheaper but requires costly investment in equipment.

LITERATURE REVIEW

THE FUNCTIONS OF SUBTITLES

Subtitles are textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. They can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a foreign language or a written rendering of the dialog in the same language, with or without added information. From the beginning of the existence of subtitles, it has been functioning in many ways.

Translated subtitles have been used in live broadcasted program. In order for viewers to understand foreign language live television program, translated subtitles are helpful. Also, the subtitles are important this type of program is just one time showing.

In addition, subtitles also functioned to translate foreign films. In the beginning of the 19th century, the spreading use of mass media increased the demand for foreign films and news. The translation fever started in the 1920s and 30s. In the era of talking pictures, Germany, Italy, France, and Spain were the first to decide on dubbing, while the other European countries had their movies subtitled.

Not only have that, subtitling too functioned to reduce the cost of the production. This is because of the high costs of dubbing. It is true that dubbed films distract viewers’ attention to a lesser extent, and dialogues are much more understandable. However, it is less favourable because many had complained that it is not natural to watch the movie with someone else talking for another person. To add to that, dubbing costs which are higher compared to subtitling is because they need to hire few people in order to use their voice in the process of dubbing. The process of dubbing requires a lot of time too.

The usage of subtitles also is to maintain the originality of the audio and the voices of the original and professional cast, actors and actresses. The subtitles which appear at the time for every lines said by the cast does not distract the viewers to listen to the real voice of the cast. Moreover, in dubbing, the people who are involved in this process sometimes did not done it with the correct intonation and rhythm like the original cast. This is quite distracting for the audience when they watch the movies because the environment in the movie does not suit with the incorrect intonation from the voice of those people.

THE POSITIVE EFFECTS OF SUBTITLES

Subtitles are mostly provided in various types of media such as television programmes, movies, and broadcasts. Subtitles help a lot as it brings many advantages to the audience. Subtitles may be in the same language with the media or may be translated into other languages which are mainly in specific mother tongue languages.

Subtitles assist the audience who are deaf and hard-of-hearing to follow the dialog. In addition, people who cannot understand the spoken language or having accent recognition problem could understand what they are watching with the aid of subtitles. Television teletext subtitles are hidden unless requested by the audience from a menu. This type of subtitles always comes with additional sound representations for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers. Furthermore, teletext subtitle language follows the original audio, except in multi-lingual countries where the broadcaster may provide subtitles in additional languages on other teletext pages.

In some East Asian countries, such as China, Korea and Japan, subtitling is common in some genres of television. In these languages, written text is less ambiguous than spoken text, so subtitling may offer a distinct advantage to aid comprehension. For example, although people in China generally speak Putonghua, the standard spoken language, and different speakers have different accents due to their native dialects and subtitles bridge this gap as most Chinese speakers understand the one standard form of written Chinese.

According to Van Der Kamp (2007), subtitled movies have been found to improve reading skills especially for children. Subtitled movies enable people to automatically and subconsciously read while watching. In order to comprehend subtitled movies, the audiences need to read the lines fast and accurately. Indirectly, this could improve the literacy skills.

One of the most important roles brought by subtitles is to help people who wants to learn language either the mother tongue language or the foreign languages. A research shows that, young people in Hungary watched subtitled movies to learn language!

People who are learning a foreign language may sometimes use same-language subtitles to better understand the dialog while not having to refer to a translation. For example, a person who is learning English language could boost up his/her language skills, by watching English movies with English subtitles. However, this way of learning only suits with beginners. This is because; the learners could not develop his or her language skills if they keep looking at the subtitles. Therefore, once they have improved, they are encouraged to watch movies without the aid of subtitles.

Besides, subtitles help a lot when it comes to the scene where the actor or actress need to speak with low tone such as the actor need to whisper. Audience usually cannot interpret the word that had been mentioned especially during the romantic scene of the movie or even worse, the background sounds are too loud (Anonymous, 2008). Therefore, reading subtitle was the alternative way for audience to understand the film and most important, to enjoy it.

In conclusion, subtitles bring many advantages to the audience in terms of language learning, reading and translating.