Various Kinds of Activities are Used in Subtitle Translation

Various Kinds of Activities are Used in Subtitle Translation Subtitling is a type of audio-visual translation that has its own rules and specifications; thus, it is a translation that has restrictions and also has certain criteria or activities which directly affect the final result.

Limitations You Have In Process Of Subtitling Timing is very important. A subtitle has a minimum duration of about a second and a maximum duration of 6 to 7 seconds on screen. There are also the reading speed parameters; reading speed is the relation between the time duration of the subtitle and the number of characters that it contains so that it can be read.

The subtitles should always appear as the characters start speaking his/her dialogue and should disappear when they stop, so that they are synchronized with the audio well. Also, the shot changes have to be taken into account.

The space in which we have our translation is limited to 2 lines of subtitles. And each line contains 35 to 42 characters (depending upon the specifications). This also includes spaces and the subtitle is formed by two lines.

The ideal result would be that the subtitles are attune with the audio, in such a way that they sound natural and also fluent, so much so that the viewer is undisturbed by the subtitles on the screen and almost is unaware that they are even reading.

Phases In The Process Of Subtitling The process of subtitling mainly consists of the following phases: Spotting: It is the process of defining the in and out times of the individual subtitles so that they are synchronized with the audio, and adhere to the minimum and maximum duration of times, taking the shot changes into consideration.

Translation: Translating the dialogues from the source language to localizing and adapting it while accommodating the characters is permitted according to the criteria.

Correction: The sentence structure, comprehension and the overall flow of the dialogue. The text must be a natural text that flows with the same punctuation, spelling rules and also language conventions. The subtitles must be split in such a way that the viewers can easily understand them. Above all, the subtitles must not distract the viewer.

Some of the basic principle criteria are; line breaks, hyphens, punctuation, ellipsis and italics.

Simulation: After the process of spotting, translation and correction, the film or video must be reviewed in a simulation session; and a screening with the subtitles on the video screen just the same way they will appear on the final product. Modifications of the text and timing can be made during the simulation.

In subtitling, it is a given, but you would be surprised at how easy it is for typos to creep into the most diligent subtitle’s work. After editing for grammar and style, it is really worth doing a pass to make sure the facts, figures and names in a subtitle file so that it match up with what is in the primary source.

CHL Localization can render your subtitles onto your master video so that they are always visible, or embed them into the video so that they are visible only when selected in the player. As one of the leading subtitling services in Chennai, their experienced technicians create video subtitles using state of the art equipment and can transcript your master video to any specifications required.