(Sub)titles in cinematic virtual reality: a descriptive study

Abstract

Virtual reality has attracted the attention of industry and researchers. Its applications for entertainment and audiovisual content creation are endless. Filmmakers are experimenting with different techniques to create immersive stories. Also, subtitle creators and researchers are finding new ways to implement (sub)titles in this new medium. In this article, the state-of-the-art of cinematic virtual reality content is presented and the current challenges faced by filmmakers when dealing with this medium and the impact of immersive content on subtitling practices are discussed. Moreover, the different studies on subtitles in 360º videos carried out so far and the obtained results are reviewed. Finally, the results of a corpus analysis are presented in order to illustrate the current subtitle practices by The New York Times and the BBC. The results have shed some light on issues such as position, innovative graphic strategies or the different functions, challenging current subtitling standard practices in 2D content.