If you are a video producer today, chances are that sooner or later you’ll be asked to deliver subtitled content.

Whether you’re a filmmaker submitting to international festivals or a branded-content producer with clients who do business globally, it’s important to understand the basics of the subtitling process.

Why? In 2020, subtitles are everywhere – on everything from the winner of the Best Picture Oscar, to viral YouTube clips. And of course on virtually all the content on Netflix, Amazon Prime, iTunes, etc.

So over the next couple of posts, we’ll tell you what you need to know to make sure your subtitles are on point, and that you don’t waste your money on shoddy work or inefficient practices.

 

Let’s start with the basics.

How subtitles are created in a professional environment
  1. We take your video and transcript, and load it into subtitling software.
  1. The subtitler breaks up the transcript into short segments that are precisely timed to the dialogue, taking into account content and rhythm. This can become a template for translation into any language.
  1. The subtitler then translates the dialogue segment by segment, adjusting the template as needed to suit the new language, and condensing the text. Subtitles are almost never a word-for-word translation of the spoken dialogue; they’re a condensed version because they have to fit the time and space available. Otherwise, the viewer will be struggling to keep up with the text and miss the action on screen.
  1. The subtitler takes care not to go over the maximum number of characters per line. (This can vary from as few as 24 for clips made for mobile and as many as 43 for corporate video. The Netflix limit is 42.) She or he is also watching the reading speed to make sure the viewer has enough time to read the text. (Reading speed is measured in characters per second (CPS) – the number of characters in a subtitle divided by the number of seconds it’s on screen.)
  1. A QC person goes over the subtitles, checking against the original language, proofing for typos and making sure the translations are correct.
  1. Once the subtitles are created, proofed and approved by the client, we export them in any format required – from a simple SRT for online use; to TTML for Netflix, iTunes and other VOD platforms; to a QuickTime with alpha channel that can be imported into your editing system and laid over the video.

And there you go. Audiences around the world can see your content as you intended it. 

NEXT: What NOT to do when creating subtitles for your video content.

Want great subtitles for your project? Give us a shout.