Do you know how translation of subtitles for films and TV shows works?
Have you ever noticed that the word of a movie’s character doesn’t always match with the subtitles? Why? Which are the main criteria for translating subtitles?
A good translation guarantees a good understanding of the scene.
A good translation guarantees a good understanding of the scene.
Sometimes it is essential to change expressions to transmit the meaning to a viewer.
Making a video or a movie is an expensive process. It it expensive for the reason that in order to make a capturing scene that matches the idea of its creator, he needs to spend long man hours and implement his best skills he has learned in various fields.
The translation must keep this in mind so that a good video or film does not become a failure due to poor, not adapted translation of subtitles.
For example, if you translate the English expression “piece of cake” into other languages literally, people would not understand what you want to say.
But there are some rules how it should be done.
Therefore, the five basic rules for good subtitle translation are:
1. Translation of subtitles and the space.
The rule is:
subtitles must not exceed two lines
each of them must contain no more than 37 characters
The translator should take this into account and “adjust” the subtitles depending on the alphabet of the target language.
- The text should be centered, the top line is always the shorter one to less disturb the image.
- The most used font for subtitles is Arial with 32 pixel. Tahoma and Verdana are also used a lot.
- Italic is used for spoken words or to emphasize a word or title.
2. Translation of subtitles and the time.
The rule explains proper timing frames to make subtitles matching:
- duration;
- sinchronization;
- a scene-matching
Duration of subtitles.
They start at the same time as the character start speaking and disappear when he stops.
Sinchronization.
When translating subtitles, not only context is important, but also timeliness. With the professional work a subtitle translator, the viewer always understands what and WHEN is being said on the screen.
Scene-matching. The subtitles dissapear when the new scene is started. So every cut works a s a limit for subtitles.
3. Subtitles and pauses.
The translator should take into account the pauses between subtitles. This short break makes viewer to know that a new overlay is being displayed.
Reading time: this is always a problem with fast speakers. In this case, the spoken word should be shortened to convey information in a shorter period of time.
4. Translation of subtitles and the 6-second rule.
It states that the viewer needs six seconds to read a line with 37 characters. This is your maximum insertion time, but it should at least be displayed for one second.
5. Subtitles and time-codes.
The generated time codes for each scene help to find them later in the movie or TV series and make “navigation” through the story comfortable.
