Subtitles — The Ultimate Guide to Movie Subtitling Format, Style & Etiquette

I'm surprised that there weren't any Into the/Across the Spider Verse clip

I am someone who needs closed captions to follow dialogue. I want to make clear that closed captions need to be able to substitute for the soundtrack. Not every sound in the whole soundscape is important, but unless the only consequence to hearing people being without the sound would be awkward silence, it needs to be indicated in the closed captions. If there's a crackling fire for ambiance, you can probably skip it. If the characters turn to look at an off-screen explosion, the captions need to say "(explosion)". This criterion means that essentially all dialogue needs to be in the closed captions. If a character's specific pronunciation of a word is important, use a pronunciation respelling. Unusual emphasis can be indicated by combining hyphens and italics

For closed captions, I very much disagree with the "If a line is repeated or obvious in context, there is no need to write it out". What is obvious to the captioner or to the majority of viewers will not be obvious to everyone, and for those people, the captions will fail to fulfill their purpose. If repetition is not actually indicated, a non-hearing viewer may believe the line was said only once, and may believe a different line was said but was missing from the captions. If repetition is back-to-back, a parenthetical can be added to the second iteration to show that it is another line that just happens to be identical.

There is also a common problem of captions missing the dialogue of characters who speak a "foreign" language. There are plenty of reasons a director may decide dialogue should not be translated. However, if a hearing viewer knows the language, they would be able to understand the dialogue without the translation. Even if a hearing viewer doesn't understand the language, they can notice things like repetitive phrasing or which sentences are exclaimed. So for closed captions to actually substitute the dialogue, a non-hearing viewer who knows the language also needs to be able to understand the dialogue. That is, if the dialogue is not translated in the closed captions, it must instead be transcribed. If an English movie has a plot point of someone saying "Meine Eule ist im Restaurant!" and the main characters not understanding, then there shouldn't be a translation, but the closed captions should say "Meine Eule ist im Restaurant!". It is not appropriate for the captions to just say "(speaking German)". The only time "(speaking language)" is an appropriate language is when it's not actually a language. I'm not referring to constructed languages. Transcribe your Klingon if you aren't translating it. I mean stuff like the gibberish of the transformer at 11:46. When dialogue is translated, the closed captions should make that clear. When there's no significance to the specific language the dialogue is originally in, the translation is often indicated by making the captions italic, but I would much prefer that captioners always use a parenthetical which says which specific language the actual dialogue was in. Italics can still be used to make clear when the translated section ends, and to avoid repeating the parenthetical when there is back-and-forth between the movie language and the same "foreign" language.

And lastly, if the captions are separate data instead of being baked into the image, don't skip the captions when baked subtitles are used for other purposes. Caption data can be used by software of the viewer's choice to make the experience as accessible for them as possible. It can be as simple as just being able to set the size and position of the captions. Skipping the caption data when baked subtitles are present prevents the viewer from being able to use those resources, and it can be very jarring to have their captions suddenly vanish in favor of, for them, inferior ones. This is especially important when the baked subtitles are being "used creatively" as shown in a few points in the video, since this creativity can interfere with a viewers ability to readily interpret it.

To be clear, most of the things I have mentioned are things which have personally caused issues with the viewing experience for me.

Thing that trips me up is in some movies like The Covenant by Riche, there is no hardcoded subtitles for the terrorist scenes by default. I have watched on a couple formats and there is no english subtitle options where characters don't speak english. There is a few other movies that does this I can't think of right now. I don't understand this choice to not hardcode subtitles for a EN movie with non-EN dialogue. Can anyone explain why some movies don't hardcode when 99% of the time subtitles are hardcoded when characters speak in different languages?

I feel like there is a broad division only mentioned in passing here. There are subtitles like the examples shown for Scott Pilgrim, Avatar, Inglorious Bastards or Austin Powers where the use of subtitles is a specific choice required in the screenplay. All final cuts of the movie will still have those subtitles, and in many cases removing the subtitles would end up losing key pieces of information for the story. Either because the subtitles are used for an artistic style (as in the case of Scott Pilgrim or Austin Powers) or because critical plot points are conveyed through dialogue that is in multiple languages in-universe, either real languages (as in Inglorious Bastards) or fictional (as in Avatar).

But other movies have subtitles as an optional setting that is only included at the viewer's discretion, either for international audience or for the hard of hearing. These subtitles would not add anything critically necessary to the movie, and in many cases are produced by an outside source only loosely connected with the production team (except in some cases like the example given for Parasite). In the era of VHS, subtitles would be added as a separate pieces of film that could be overlaid by a mechanical switch.

I'll be interested to know how professional translators view sites like Viki (which has subtitles provided by fans)? As someone who watches content on Viki (and occasionally illegally downloads) and doesn't speak any language, they seem just as good. They also contextualise certain words in a way pro translates don't.

Also, watching Korean movies, many translators translate Oppa as a character's name - which doesn't really capture the context of how that word is used. It's interesting, for sure, about how to translate that word and capture its meaning.

Plz guys make series on complete post- production... How to go Step By step Post-production plz make series on this topic.... U guys are doing very great work I really like your work and and I had learn lot of things from you.... Love you guys and well done👏👏👏🙏🙏🙏

Omg with this narrator 😑

I used to work in subtitling company. Aaron Sorkin was the worst. He would take 3 pages to say what others need 2 pages to say. So much extra fluff.

I subtitle all my videos and this video is a godsend! Thankyou :)

"Traduttore, traditore" : Translator, traitor.

This is an amazing video! I could watch another 2 hours of this, growing up in a foreign country as a non native speaker subtitles were essential and seeing the art behind them definitely enhances their worth!

The Jazz Singer really needs a soft reboot.

Thank you for this video, it was very insightful! I have auditory processing disorder and subtitles are such a blessing. I know English well enough that I don't need subtitles in my native language anymore. I sometimes struggle to process what people are saying, but my hearing is absolutely fine; I don't need audio descriptions, but usually they are the only forms available for English subtitles. I get used to them after a while, thankfully, and sometimes they genuinely help because they often indicate who is speaking and I just cannot distinguish voices sometimes lol. I really appreciate subtitles, especially when they aren't just there to accomodate us, but also get more creative to include us.

I do have to say, one thing I don't like about them, is that they sometimes spoil things. Sometimes it's like "No, I am your father", so I have already read the plottwist, but the spoken line isn't finished yet, or when watching Ninja Warrior and the contestant is still hanging in the air but the subtitle already says "He made it!". ESPECIALLY when the character's line ends with a dash, so you already know they're going to be interrupted and something is going to happen. Even if it's about seconds, it still sometimes spoils the shock a little. But it's just this little pet peeve; I will still use subtitles every time I get the chance.

As a translator myself with auditory processing disorder, in a country that broadcasts a lot of American content and heavily prefers subs over dubs, I have grown to really appreciate the people who subtitle. Even though they tend to be very underpaid, I really like it when I can see them getting creative, for example when translating puns, songs, or making dialogue more culturally relatable or relevant. My favourite example is in Shang-Chi, where the character says "I'll vemno you for that" which got translated to "Ik stuur wel een Tikkie". Tikkie - the Dutch Vemno - is used a lot here and has become a big part of Dutch culture, I'd argue, to the point where the term Tikkie has become interchangable with a payment request. Plus the phrase is something many Dutch people actually would say nowadays. My family and I had a good laugh about the line because of the translation. It goes to show that subtitles are not inferior to the material, and can actually elevate it.

Please make a video of how to pitch an idea or script and how to find producers

The big problem is the wrong translation. The sound misguides the translator who produce a hilarious situation with the wrong word. Wonder what the editor is doing.blind eye or blind spot.words have nuances.this is the biggest flaw in sub titling