ELOISE RESEARCH PROJECTS

PROJECT GOAL

"FAKEBASE" is a long-term research project founded and managed by Prof. Dr. Rainer M. Koeppl, Univ. of Vienna (Austria). From the start in 1997, its basic objective has been to investigate the mistranslation of movies, TV programs and related multimedia footage in the course of dubbing and re-editing. We collect evidence and background information, we analyze means, methods and motives of this practice of manipulation maintained to the present day. Although the main emphasis currently lies on productions from the U.S. and major national film industries in Europe, the project pertains to all relevant material, requiring extensive research efforts. Over the past five years, government funding was used to develop a new multimedia online database system, ELOISE, which allows different groups of users — students, experts and university educators — to contribute footage and, on the basis of an elaborate multimedia presentation tool, scholarly papers to the database. Using ELOISE, the project is on its way establishing an international scholarly community for exchanging footage and data related to this wide-spread phenomenon which appears in many forms throughout the world.

PRACTICE

More than 150 cases of mistranslations have already been documented, among which we find such prominent examples as Casablanca, Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious and the TV series Columbo. The compilation of an online database constitutes the core of the project. This database comprises mainly audio and video files of movies and TV programs that were affected by deliberate mistranslation. Our specially designed database system ELOISE! makes it possible for the first time to compare different versions of the same film or TV program in different languages online.

The project workflow is roughly organized as follows:

• Screening basic material for evidence
• Finding copies of different versions
• Verifying divergencies between versions
• Preparing media material to fit into the database: digitizing video and audio clips
• (Online) Uploading media objects
• (Online) Taking down film clips by dialogue and imagery, documenting changes between versions
• Identifying undeclared versions
• (Online) Collecting filmographic data
• Doing research on production and release history
• (Online) Documenting production and release history
• (Partially online) Preparing and participating in papers on single cases of mistranslated film or related media material, on national surveys on this topic, or about special problems concerning the topic, for publication online or in print.

While attending lectures or graduate studies, students may participate in any of these work steps.

EU-FUNDING

In order to give the EU application a specific profile, we focused our search for partners on Germany, Poland, Greece, and Spain. They all have, together with Austria,  suffered dictatorship during a period of the 20^th century, but given quite different political, social and cultural conditions and backgrounds, the practical manifestations of censorship and the oppression and manipulation of public opinion and the media are very different, too. Right now (June 2007) we are preparing partnerships in Germany, Poland and Greece, so what we are still looking for, is a partner from Spain, or Portugal.

According to our experience it is very important for a EU application to define exactly which job every partner is going to do for the project and what qualifies them for it. In the case of FAKEBASE, this is quite easy. We would like our partners to...

• give us a survey on the material available within their language area
• provide digital copies of relevant film and tv program titles
• connect us to local archives and institutions (in order to collect historical data and media material)
• share their practical know-how and historical knowledge about media translation and synchronisation with us
• contribute complete content entities (papers on selected topics, biographies, filmographies etc.) to the FAKEBASE network, as well

 In return, we can offer our partners...

• Participating in a project with good chances to be funded by the EU
• Our know-how about this research area
• To benefit from our research results already accomplished
• Working within the research network of Vienna University

Our international cooperation plans won't generally rest with EU funding, but realizing them on an lasting basis, as we intend to do, will largely depend on it. Thus we have to synchronize our efforts with the application schedules of current EU programs. If you are interesting in joining us, please contact our EU coordinator.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Deliberate mistranslation or altering of dialogue, plot, or characters, almost always indicates critical topics involving politics, society, religion, or the historical background of an audience in a specific country, for whom a localized version of a film, TV show or multimedia production is made. Out of various reasons such topics were considered inappropriate and unsuitable for the purpose the media products were meant to serve, just entertainment without giving it a second thought.

Typically, this mainly affects subjects providing a specific and colourful background for a plot rather than its vital breeding-ground. The editors of the first German version of Casablanca who considered the dramatic love story strong enough to cut off its Nazi surroundings, were obviously wrong; however, movies where the subject in question was the very source of the plot, like Ernst Lubitsch' To Be Or Not To Be, had to remain untouched. For Germany after 1945, it was argued that foreign media productions featuring the "Bad Nazi German" could be counterproductive in the German process of coming to terms with the past. But this argument has somewhat lost its point since manipulation of this kind, pertaining to other subjects and topics, is current practice still.

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Last update: 13.06.2007

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