• Theoretical teachings

1. Fundamentals of Sociolinguisticswith a special focus on audiovisuals, dialogues, the word-image pair, and related storytelling and adaptation (Dr. Stefano Vassere)
2. Languages and multimodal transmission(Dr. Ralph Pacinotti)

2) Teachings of a practical-professional nature.

Module 1. Dialogue adaptation for dubbing (Dr. Matteo Amandola)

The module aims to provide

• know and understand in detail the role of the dialogue adapter within the dubbing supply chain;
• learn how to set up and draft a script for the dubbing room;
• acquire useful techniques and tools for the purposes of line processing and interpretation;
• learn characteristics, limitations and critical issues related to various audiovisual products with respect to dialogue adaptation for dubbing;
• learn how to manage relationships with clients and delivery times.

Two dialogue adaptation techniques will be considered in the module:

• the sync or lip-sync (Dr. Matteo Amandola);
• the simil-sync or non-labial synchronism (Dr. Silvia Alexakis).

It will conclude with a brief overview of taxation and copyright.

Also speaking will be Federico Nobili (dubbing director, dialog adapter and sole director of the

Febbi Film), Sonia Scotti (actress, voice actor and dubbing director) and Flora Staglianò (translator and dialog adapter).

Module 2. Interlingual Subtitling (Dr. Valeria Cervetti).

The module aims to provide master’s students with a well-rounded preparation on the discipline to launch them into the profession according to the current market demands in line with both the needs of direct clients and streaming platforms.

The module is divided into two parts:

• theory: theoretical aspects and basic rules of audiovisual translation and subtitling, learning and use of professional subtitling software (EZTitles) will be addressed;
• practice: under the guidance of the lecturer, pupils will measure themselves with exercises on real working materials (languages of series, cartoon, film, documentary, “industrial” video) to put into practice what they have learned in the theoretical part.

EZTitles, the subtitling software used during the master’s program, is supported exclusively by the Windows operating system and will be provided free of charge to all students and installed on their computers for the duration of the subtitling module. Therefore, a fairly powerful pc with sufficient RAM is required.

For students with a Mac, installation of a virtual machine is recommended.

Module 3. Audiodescription and accessibility of audiovisual products and cultural heritage (Dr. Ralph Pacinotti)

• Audiodescription as a medium towards full social inclusion: the module aims to get the basic language and concepts related to accessibility of media and cultural heritage.
• The thousand faces of visual impairment: learn about the specific needs of the target audience, overcoming stereotypes about blindness and low vision.
• Intersemiotic translation: acquire the most suitable method and strategies for making images accessible through verbal language; develop an in-depth knowledge of the discipline of audiodescription as a service and as a special language through the analysis of best practices developed by research and the professional field.
• Audiodescription as a profession: learn about the audiodescription market and the most typical scenarios in which the professional descriptor moves.
• Same practice, different forms: recognizing the commonalities and specifics that distinguish different areas of audiodescription application, with particular reference to screen products and cultural heritage.

Viviana Merola, audiodescriber and accessibility expert, will also speak during the lectures.

Editor in the official Rai lists, she works permanently for Mediaset, Apple TV+, Amazon, and other international clients and national TV channels. Since 2015, she has been a second-level editor for the Italian editions of Netflix.

She has worked for years in television and film production and distribution.

She is affiliated with AIDAC (Associazione Italiana Dialoghisti e Adattatori Cinetelevisivi), ATA (American Translators Association), ESIST (European Association for Studies in Screen Translation), SUBTLE (The Subtitlers’ Association), as Italian delegate she is part of the Council of AVTE (Audiovisual Translators Europe) and is a member of the scientific committee of Casa delle Traduzioni in Rome.

Family background in the field, he approached the world of acting and dubbing thanks to his father, actor, dubbing and adaptor Vittorio Amendola. He flanked his profession as a dialogue adapter with studies in Legal Sciences, devoting particular attention to the role of the IMAIE. Active since 2008, he has worked on, among others, the adaptation of “Game of Thrones – The Iron Throne”, “Mare of Eastown”, “Dark”, “Inventing Anna”, “Little Women”, “The Lincoln Lawyer”, “AIR – The Great Leap”. Thanks to his collaboration with several dubbing companies including Iyuno-SDI Group, Studioemme, CDC-Sefit Group and VSI Italia, he has supervised projects for, among others, Netflix, Amazon, HBO, Sony, Warner Bros. In 2017 he won the “Voices in the Shadows” award as best adapter of a TV serial product for the dialogues of “The Iron Throne”.

Born in Terni to an Italian mother and a Greek father, she has cultivated a keen interest in foreign languages and cultures since childhood. After a 5-month cultural exchange with the City University of New York in 2007, in 2008 she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in International Communication at the University for Foreigners of Perugia and, in 2011, a Bachelor’s degree in Interpreting and Translation at the Institute of Language Mediation of Perugia (English and Spanish). In the same year she obtained a first-level Master’s degree in Audiovisual Translation for Dubbing and Subtitling at the University of Roma Tre and began working with various dubbing and subtitling studios as a translator/adapter. Active in the field of non-language synchronization since 2012, she gradually entered the world of sync in 2015. To date, she regularly collaborates with Iyuno-SDI Group, CDC-Sefit Group and BBdub, with whom she follows projects for Netflix, Sony, Warner Bros-Discovery, AppleTV and Amazon. She has worked on the adaptation of “The Fall of the House of Usher” (series that won the Audience Award for Best Dubbing at Romics 2024), “The Imperfects,” “Final Space,” “Doraemon,” “The buccaneers,” “The Gospel According to Clarence,” and “The Act,” among others.

Lecturer in Audiovisual Translation at SSML Carlo Bo (Bologna campus). Since 2018, he has held specialised seminars on Audio Description at the University of Udine and in 2019 he participated as a speaker in the fifth edition of the International Conference on Audio Visual Translation – Intermedia with a paper on AD in museums. Since 2020, he has collaborated with the Instituto Superior de Estudios Lingüísticos y Traducción (ISTRAD) as part of the specialisation course “Expert in accessibility of communication and cultural content” as a lecturer of module 5, “Accessibility of cultural heritage and goods”, as well as a reviewer of Master’s theses related to audiovisual translation.

He studied at the University of Zurich where he received his doctorate in linguistics. He was in charge of the linguistic work “Repertorio toponomastico ticinese,” an activity he carried out as part of the eponymous service of the State Archives of Canton Ticino. He has been director of the Ticino Library System since 1.1.2013. He has been and is active in university teaching in Zurich and Milan. Since 1997, he has been an adjunct professor of Linguistics, Language Theory and Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Processes at the University of Milan.