Subtitling and Translation of Films and TV Shows - WordPar International

Subtitling movies, series, TV shows, in a nutshell, is translating oral (rarely written) text and displaying it in writing, mostly at the bottom of the screen.

WordPar International is one of India’s leading subtitling agencies. Based in India, WordPar offers translation services in Europe, Asia and the Americas. WordPar is also a leading provider of localization services that serves multinational companies investing in India with precise, high quality, and professional standards.

Who is it for and why?

There are many who prefer subtitled programs to synchronized programs. For example, for those who know the original language of the show, or who are just learning it, it’s a great practice opportunity to understand the text you hear, where the caption provides a kind of crutch if something isn’t clear after all.

And for the deaf and hard of hearing, subtitling is downright vital to comprehension.

Captioning Rules

The translation and subtitling of foreign language programs have their own rules and criteria.

A caption can be on the screen for a minimum of one and a maximum of six to seven seconds. By implication, the longer a caption, the longer it must be on the screen — obviously within the time allowed — to be readable and interpretable. Thus, the length of the subtitle and the reading speed must be taken into account, while the subtitle must also be adapted to the scene, i.e. the given subtitle should appear on the screen when the character starts speaking and should disappear when s-he stops speaking. What is said on the screen and what is written in the captions must therefore be consistent.

A caption can have a maximum of two lines, and a line can contain a maximum of 35-42 characters, including spaces.

If the inscription consists of two lines, care should be taken to ensure that, as far as possible, the organically related structures are not separated from each other, such as nouns and pronouns, adjectives and signified words, consecutive subjects and verb predications (e.g. “my wife calls”), date parts , surname and first name, numeral and related noun, etc.

It is also important that the line does not begin with a conjunction, in the case of several clause sentences, the line break is ideally at the comma.

Visually, too, it is good if the two rows are roughly the same length. Of course, this does not always work out if we want to follow all the other rules at the same time. Sometimes it is necessary to translate not only speech, but also shorter captions that appear in the film (for example, the name of the institution on the facade of a building, or a few lines of letters that the character is currently reading and shown by the camera, etc.). Translations of written texts are usually in italics in the caption.

The translation should be natural, as easy as the live speech itself. If the translator has done a good job, the viewer will hardly notice that he is even reading while watching a movie.

The Process of Subtitling

In the subtitling software or on the client’s online platform, the translator usually receives the text to be translated in a pre-structured form. After the first raw translation of the text provided, each caption needs to be refined according to the given criteria, adjusted to a time frame and often compressed.

Once we’re done with the translation and timing, we need to double-check our work and look through and read the show through the eyes of an average viewer and, where necessary, correct the timing and any translation, stylistic, typing errors.

Often, because of the character limit — sometimes more or less — we have to compress what we have to say, which is often no small challenge, such as in a scene where the characters speak in a hurry. Despite the compression, both the content and the style must be returned.

Tricky & Minute Details

Here, too, the translation rule to follow is that we translate meaning, not words. During the translation and localization of the text, the speech style, vocabulary and personality of the given character must be taken into account. What s-he has to say must be transferred to the target language accordingly. No matter how much vocabulary a translator has in both languages, it is often necessary to look up the meaning of a term, as well as researching a native thesaurus to find the perfect, appropriate word or phrase, especially for movies and series where slang is common.

There may also be special terms and contexts that are used and understood only by the residents of a given community or settlement. In this case – after the research work – we do not simply translate, but localize, i.e. we return the content to the target language audience in such a way that they understand what would not be understandable and interpretable in a “plain” translation.

In the same way, when a saying or proverb is uttered, it is obviously not translated literally, we have to find an equivalent idiom that expresses the same idea in other words, in a similar analogy or in a different metaphor.

Summary

In summary, the translation, localization and subtitling of a foreign language program is a rather complex task, where the translator has to pay attention to many rules and minute details and reproduce what is said as creatively, naturally and accurately as possible, both in terms of content and style. So subtitling is a really creative and exciting translation job – especially if the translator interested in the topic of the show itself. 

If you are looking for best Subtitling and Translation Company in India, Feel free to reach out to us at info@wordpar.com  or visit us on  https://www.wordpar.com/subtitling-and-translation-of-films-and-tv-shows/