[Fab Subtitler Pro 7
Elpidio Heart
Subtitlers make it possible for films to be enjoyed by audiences all over the world and by the deaf and hard of hearing. They translate all the dialogue, music and sound effects of a film into two-line written captions that appear on the screen, either in the language in which the film is made or in a foreign language.
After carefully watching and listening to the whole film, they write captions with accurate time codes that describe music and sound effects as well as the dialogue and voice-overs. The captions have to be punctuated and spelt correctly and should be on the screen long enough to be read easily. Translating subtitlers translate the dialogue and write subtitles in the language for a particular audience.
I have been working for the past three and a half years as a Hindi subtitler with over two dozen global agencies who provide subtitling for OTT platforms. It has been a great experience with its share of ups and downs. I have come across great linguists and empathetic project managers who inspired a shared vision and I have made some lifelong connections. In this second part of my OTT blog series, I will share some of the challenges and blessings Hindi subtitlers like me often encounter in this profession.
The vendors just want work done at the lowest cost. They get worried about the quality only when redeliveries occur. Newbies are willing to work for peanuts, just to get a break or gain some experience. So, the agencies get shows subtitled from them and then contact the experienced subtitlers for QA. Such files are full of errors and it is really time consuming to rewrite the dialogue without having to also change the tone of the entire file.
To deal with the growing demand for subtitling, many companies jumped on the bandwagon without setting up the necessary infrastructure. When I started subtitling in 2016, there were so many agencies who did not have clear-cut guidelines for subtitling into Hindi. The absence of guidelines often creates conflicts among translators and proofreaders.
There are many little nuances which are not paid heed to. Just the other day, I was reviewing a file and the numbers were written in Devnagri. Can you believe it? Just a handful of us Indians would be able to read those numbers. Besides, incorrect usage of nukta is pretty common. So, if such things are specified in guidelines, it will automatically improve the quality of subtitles.
Most agencies follow this workflow for subtitling: Translator works on the file; it goes for QA and then comes back to the translator for acceptance. In many cases the final decision lies with the translator and the advice or changes made by QA are often disregarded, causing the quality of work to suffer.
Just recently, I was reading on LinkedIn about an Indian company that had become the Netflix Preferred Vendor for Asia-Pacific. This was the same company that contacted me last year. I took a qualifying test for them, and when everything was finalized, I saw that the rates were not what I had agreed to. So, I informed them and that was the end of it. No one got back to me after that.
Some project managers used to send mass emails to translators whenever a project became available. The principle of first-come first-served was followed while allocating the project. No matter how experienced you are or what quality you deliver, it went to the one who replied first.
This practice still continues, but nowadays, some project managers do send emails to check your availability and projects are assigned one or two weeks in advance. So, this really helps the subtitler to plan ahead and deliver quality work.
Some agencies also wake up after a deep slumber and think of testing their translators. Imagine, being asked to qualify for a test after translating for the same agency for two years. I have decided not to do unpaid tests. The vendors who want to gauge my competence can see my translation work on my website (www.anuvaadika.com). And yes, I am getting work from new agencies. I would suggest that other subtitlers should also do the same.
A substantial volume of content is being localized from foreign languages like Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Lebanese-Arabic into Hindi and other local languages. In these cases, the dialogue is first translated from the foreign language into English and then into Hindi or any third language. This is what we call bridge translation.
Translating into an intermediate language often means that the subtitles cannot be perfect. Gender, pronouns, formality register, and cultural elements all are lost if we go through a different language or, at least, if we go through English. As we all know that in Hindi, we have grammatical gender, while English has semantic gender.
In this scene, the public prosecutor is sharing rape statistics in India. He says that 1.8 women out of one lakh (one hundred thousand) might suffer rape in their lifetime. You can see the subtitle for yourself, which is an utter distortion of facts.
This last picture is also from the same movie. Here, the public prosecutor is saying that 27.3 out of 100,000 women in the US might suffer rape in their lifetime. The subtitle seems to relay a totally different message here.
This blog would be incomplete if I do not take the opportunity to convey my thanks to those project managers and agencies who have placed their trust in my work. They are the ones who make this profession truly worth it, besides the fun of getting to watch Netflix and Amazon shows and movies for free before they are on TV. Their professionalism has been unparalleled to date. They are willing to accommodate deadlines, give me a raise when they felt I deserved it, always welcomed my suggestions for improving the quality of subtitles and giving feedback about my work. One such project coordinator gave me my first break and my biggest subtitling project (five seasons of a Netflix show) when I was pretty new to the world of freelance subtitling. But I had done a lot of subtitling as a volunteer before I decided to take it up as a profession.
I personally feel that vendors can play a significant role in not only improving the experience for the Indian audience, but also for those of us who work hard behind the scenes to increase viewership. In our next blog in this series, we shall bring to you some of the issues faced by these agencies and the steps they are taking to solve them.
In our next blog, we will examine subtitling and OTT challenges faced by vendors and subtitlers in India. Our first blog profiling The Evolving OTT Market in India provides insight into the subtitling and OTT market in India.
Upon my return to the U.S. after spending some years in Colombia, I decided that putting my Spanish skills to use would be a good way to earn extra income. In a metropolitan city like Chicago, where bilingual native Spanish speakers are abundant, I figured the competition for interpreters and translators would be fierce.
Also, I was coming from Colombia where the language combination from Spanish to English was more sought out in the market. In the U.S. on the other hand, English to Spanish was much more sought out. That was another small challenge I would have to get overcome to by honing in on my Spanish skill set.
My interest peaked immediately, as I was at the brink of giving up the search for assignments in translation and interpretation. In order to become a subtitler with Netflix, previous experience would be required, as there is a very challenging entrance exam to pass in order to be considered for the position. I started browsing websites and corresponding with friends that were working in post production and film companies in Spain and around Europe about training opportunities in subtitling.
I finally came across GoSub TV, an organization that offers intensive online courses in the art of subtitling and closed captions. After asking a lot of questions, I finally decided to sign up for the course.
The course ended up being self-paced, yet very intensive and hands on. My instructor was fantastic as she was very patient and quick in answering all my concerns and inquiries. I was able to complete the course and start paid training jobs roughly a week after I received my certificate.
User Guide
Creating Subtitles
Spotting
Handling Languages
Import
Export
Video Editing : Adobe Premiere Avid Media Composer, Symphony and Xpress Avid DS Final Cut Pro
DVD Authoring : DVD Studio Pro Sonic Producer Sonic Scenarist ffmpegX
Reference Guide
Document Window : Style section Export section Movie section Preview section Title list section Comments
Tools : Avid Helper Tool Export List Tool Full Screen Tool Import Tool Monitor Tool Preflight Tool Spotting Tool Style Tool
Preferences
Menu reference
Copyright and Disclaimer
History
Beta Versions Program to spot, edit and render subtitles for video editing, DVD authoring and digital cinema. Translators can spot directly with a QuickTime movie and translate precisely. The subtitles can then be imported to Avid Media Composer, Avid Xpress, Avid DS and Final Cut Pro 7 for editing.
The same subtitles can be sent also to Adobe Encore DVD, Apple DVD Studio Pro, Sonic Producer and Sonic Scenarist for authoring. The subtitles can also be used for live subtitling on Texas Instruments Digital Cinema projectors. Belle Nuit Subtitler frees the video editors from repetitive work and from typo errors.
29.3.2016 Belle Nuit Subtitler goes open source Belle Nuit Montage announces the immediate end of sale of our software Belle Nuit Subtitler. The last build of the software is now available as a free download and the source code of the program is released under the GNU Lesser General Public License. Users with current licenses will get email support until 31.3.2017.
26.5.2012: IndieWire: How Do You Subtitle a Movie at Cannes? Henri Behar Explains All
Excellent article on subtitling: "The subtitle can have maximum two lines and 40 characters -- less than one tweet."
-do-you-subtitle-a-movie-at-cannes-master-subtitler-henri-behar-explains-all?