Subtitles and Captions

Translating with rhythm, brevity and the right technical knowledge

 

Don’t let your next project become a fansub disaster like this one (Source: English subs for a Chinese bootleg DVD of “Revenge of the Sith”).

Adding French subtitles involves more than meets the eye. You have to fit in many ideas in just a couple of very short lines AND make sure that these are in sync with what’s happening on screen.

 

Not to brag, but translating subtitles is almost another full-time profession since it requires many unique skills:

 

  • Mastering the main subtitle software and juggling with a plethora of arcane formats.
  • Being able to visualize sequences and put in subtitles at the right time and the right pace.
  • Synthesis – even though talking heads may babble on at the speed of light (186,000 mi/sec, not taking into account any restroom stops), everything must come down to between 14 and 16 words on two lines. And all this for 6 second

 

You can provide our document to us in the following formats:

 

  • SRT ;
  • WebVTT ( HTML5 media players) ;
  • Closed captioning and SCC;
  • STL (Spruce) ;
  • DFXP (Flash) ;
  • SMPTE-TT ( broadcast) ;
  • QT (QuickTime) ;
  • CAP (nonlinear editing) ;
  • SAMI (Windows Media Player)