“Let’s Demystify Subtitles”
While watching any video, movie or serial, be it online or on traditional broadcasting channels. Like television, sometimes we come across written texts that are translated of what the actors are saying or the exact sentences they are speaking in their original language. These written texts are known as subtitles. In a recent study, it was found that 80% of viewers are more likely to finish video content with subtitles.
After getting a brief idea of subtitles, it is completely natural to ask questions like “How do subtitles work?” or “How does subtitling work?”. This article has answers to all the queries readers may have.
Types of subtitles:
There are three main types of subtitles namely:
- Open captions
- Closed captions
- SDH (Subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing)
Let us understand in detail about these three.
1. Open captions:
This type of subtitle comes along with the video. They are always present at the bottom of the screen and they cannot be turned off by the user.
They are an excellent platform to be used by users who are not that tech savvy. As this type of subtitle does not require the user’s technical expertise to display them. There is another form of captions called real-time subtitles in which a captioning expert creates subtitles for live events.
2. Closed captions:
This type of subtitle can be said to be the manual subtitle version. Here, the users have the flexibility to turn subtitles on and off. It gives freedom to the users as some may prefer to watch videos without subtitles.
3. SDH ( Subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing):
This is a special type of subtitle which originated in the United States. As the name suggests, it is mainly for deaf people. It provides the audience with subtitle text along with other added elements like background noises, sound effects and character names to name a few.
How to create and add subtitles to a video file?
Before moving into the steps involved in the process of creating subtitles, let us first understand the format of a subtitle file. There are various formats of subtitles like .srt, .ass, .dfxp, etc., Mostly used subtitle file format is SRT format which stands for SubRip subtitles.
Subtitlers create subtitle files by creating timestamps as per guidelines and then place subtitles that are apt to video and quality check the file and export the file in the required file format.
Let us now look at the steps involved in creating subtitles:
1. Choosing subtitle software/tool:
There are multiple freeware as well as subscription-based subtitle softwares. Freeware softwares include Subtitle Edit, Aegis Sub etc and subscription softwares include Ez titles, OOOna, and Limecraft etc., Subtitle edit is the most preferred software while working in offline mode.
Subtitle Edit is an open source subtitling editor. It is quite easy to use as it has a simple interface. This software is useful to correct a few lines and also to adjust the timestamp if the texts and the video are out of sync. Apart from these, Subtitle Edit also has some other functions.
The most important ones are listed below:
- Convert between SubRib, MicroDVD, Advanced Sub Station Alpha, Sub Station Alpha, D-Cinema, SAMI, youtube sbv, and many more (200+ different formats)
- Change casing using names dictionary.
- Remove text for hearing impaired (HI)
- Merge/split subtitles.
- Multiple search and replace.
2. Creating timestamps:
Time stamps/timecodes are created using subtitle softwares where the video is uploaded and stamps are created following the TTSG – time text style guide which provides details about frame rate, CPS(characters per second) and a few other factors. These timecodes help us to make dialogue visible on screen at the precise timing of dialogue delivery.
It is really important to adjust the timestamp according to the video because if the video and the subtitles are out of sync,the content may look unprofessional. Apart from this ,viewers may not be able to relate what the actors are speaking in the video with the text that is being displayed at the bottom of the screen.
Review the video file: Before writing subtitles for a video file, you should have the video with you. Open the file and plan accordingly how you want to create the subtitle. You should be very accurate while creating the timestamp as these times indicate when the subtitles appear on the screen. Make sure the subtitles match the audio on the content.
3. Entering captions as per video:
Once time coded template is ready subtitlers create captions as per the video, again here TTSG gives guidelines on CPL- characters per line and the rest of the guidelines for creating subtitles. In general, there are two major TTSG formats. The gold standard is Netflix TTSG and Amazon TTSG.
Until January 2022 in Indian languages we have only TTSG for Hindi. Following Hindi TTSG for the rest of Indian languages is merely impossible as the character per line cannot be implemented same in all languages.
Naarg with our subtitling experts, linguists, and media researchers supported Netflix in creating time text style guides for Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada languages.
When two speakers are speaking in the same frame, the hyphen is placed before the dialogue, when a dialogue is continuing to the next frame ellipses (…) are placed at the end of the dialogue and the beginning of the next dialogue. These are a few guidelines for subtitle creation.
4. Translating text based on requirement:
Based on target regions subtitles are localized into target languages again there are few parameters that need to be followed while localizing subtitles. Dialogue has to be localized considering tone, scene, style of video.
5. Quality check:
Post this there are two steps: Technical QC and linguistic QC. In technical QC technical aspects’ life frame rate, CPS, CPL and whether captions are properly placed are checked and in linguistic QC localized captions’ quality in grammar wise, context, cultural aspects, and dialect are checked.
Review your subtitles: It is always recommended to review subtitles before publishing them. Make sure the timestamps are accurate. Also, check for any typing or grammatical errors in the subtitles. Reviewing and making the subtitles correct ensures that the users get a good experience.
6. Export in required file format:
Post-quality check files are saved and exported in the required file format.
7. Save and upload your subtitle file:
After creating a subtitle file make sure that you upload it using the correct extension After choosing the desired extension of the subtitle file you may upload it to the video platform of your choice.
8. Make necessary edits in the subtitle file if required:
After uploading the subtitle file, make sure you Quality check to ensure that the timestamps and the sentences are in sync with video.
How do subtitles help users?
After discussing subtitles, let us understand how subtitles work and how they can help users. Subtitles are generally shown at the bottom screen of a video file. They are very beneficial as some users may not understand the language in which the video is made as some of the video content is in a foreign language and adding the translated version of the texts provides users with a better understanding of the content.
Apart from using the translated subtitles, some subtitles are also made in the original language of the video content as some users may not be able to understand the accent in the video file. This can be very beneficial as the users will get a crystal clear understanding of the content. As discussed above, using SDH ( Subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing) is a good option as you can target the people who cannot hear.
I believe this has given you an idea how subtitles are created and the power of subtitles in reaching a wider audience. It is suggested that almost all video files have subtitles in them to make it more engaging and engaging. There are certain parameters that need to be followed while creating subtitles. All countries have their own set of rules and regulations that need to be adhered to.
For example
In Spain it is clearly mentioned that the maximum speed for pre-recorded programs should be 15 characters per second whereas in France, colour standards are given much more priority. The regulation mentions white for speakers visible on the screen and yellow for speakers not on the screen; cyan for thoughts of a character, red for sound effects; magenta for music and lyrics and green for people speaking a foreign language.
In the case of Germany, they do not have a regulated standard that applies to all channels but public broadcasters ZDF and ARD have some standards. ZDFs word speed is 15 characters per second for adult programmes and for ARD it is 12 characters per second.
The UK, US, India and various countries have mandates for subtitles availability.
Still have concerns and queries on subtitling?
Feel free to contact us at info@naargmedia.com. We will guide you very smoothly to make sure you are not left behind in the journey of subtitle creation.