The author behind the subtitles for Stranger Things has admitted to ‘trolling a little bit’ when it came to writing captions for the show.
For those of you who flicked the subtitles on to settle in and blast through season four, you may have spotted that some of them lean heavily on the descriptive words – at various points in the show we had ‘tentacles undulating moistly’, ‘wet footsteps squelch’ and also some ‘dissonant gurgling’.
Now, in an interview with Vulture, subtitle author Jeff T and subtitle QA editor Karli Witkowska, opened up about what it was like to work on the show.
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During the interview Jeff was asked if he had seen any memes of his handiwork shared online, to which he replied: “Honestly, ‘tentacles undulating moistly’ I’ve seen a lot.
“I will admit I was trolling a little bit with that. Also, in the past year or two, I’ve been watching ASMR streams to figure out which words elicit that kind of response in people, so I’ll grab them and put them in my word bank. ‘Moistly’ pops up a lot in those ASMR streams.”
The self-professed ‘word nerd’ also admitted to sneaking a few Dungeon and Dragons references in there for fans.
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But the duo were quick to point out that it’s not just a way to have a bit of fun while working on the show, explaining that using more emotive or descriptive language helped the deaf audience form a better connection.
Witkowska said: “When it comes to a show like Stranger Things where you have something so fun and upbeat like when they’re riding along in the pizza van, and then all of a sudden, something completely different happens, it’s our job that the deaf community can still understand that complete switch of atmosphere and tone. If we aren’t doing that, we aren’t doing our jobs correctly.”
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She added: “The deaf and hard-of-hearing community isn’t just people who have been deaf from birth; it’s also people who have lost their hearing or have partial hearing, so it’s important to strike a balance of creating descriptors that describe the sounds but also evoke the emotion, so they can relate to these shows too.”
The pair also revealed that despite working on Stranger Things they hadn’t met with creators the Duffer brothers – but that their ‘DMs were open’ if they ever fancied a chat.
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Topics: Stranger Things, Netflix, Film and TV
Claire Reid