Oops.

As you've no doubt noticed, I have been completely and utterly absent. My ideas of continuing with subtitling while at university, well, they were foolish. The workload is intense, to say the least, and I have been flung through my first term hardly knowing where I was. I've loved it, of course, but time has flown with nothing happening on the subtitling front. If you want to know what's going on in my life generally (and to work out how busy I really am!) then I'm adding a link to my personal blog in the menu bar above.

I had actually planned to do all of Marie Antoinette Act Two over the Christmas break but I plugged in my hard drive once I got back to England and it promptly broke. While this is not the end of the world as I do have a back up in the Netherlands, it does mean I can't really do anything during the Christmas break. Actually, I have two back ups in the Netherlands... I've been through the pain of lost files before. Here, however, well, I don't even have the video to work from. I'm starting to see the benefit of internet based file back ups.

Anyway, I am still thinking about it and working on it and will get a part uploaded as soon as is possible. Truly sorry about the delay.

Once Marie Antoinette is finished I do plan to continue translating and subtitling but I also plan to rethink how I go about doing that so that I don't leave you all waiting for months and months.

Practicing with French and a note about Marie

So, Marie's buried in one of my piles of stuff to move with me and ready to go. With that project on hold (only until about September, don't worry*) I've been having fun doing some subbing for friends. I've just about finished subbing Le Roi Soleil from French to English for Nené, who is a dear friend of mine. Although I'm not uploading it onto youtube, it was really exciting for me.

Well, the names were supposed to be in a straight line...

You may remember, back in the LiveJournal days, me moaning about my formatting going up the creek all of a sudden (see right) and I've been using work arounds ever since. After some experimentation, it seems that I've found a way of getting my subtitles to stay in the right position when I want them to and, touch wood, that will be helpful for the future!

The other problem arose when one of my programmes updated and, all of a sudden, my 'special characters', namely any accented letters, became a string of gobbledegook. Again, this may not work out, but it appears that I have solved that problem to. There's something about my programme saving in one text format while the next only accepts a different one and I have to get a different programme to convert... something like that! Anyway, I am so pleased that I got this sorted out because a lot of the French words and names in Marie Antoinette have had to be written without accents and now they can, once again, be written out properly. Exciting!

*I'm not 100% sure when I will upload the next part of Marie Antoinette as there are various factors at play. I'm moving to a new country so will need to spend time doing other things. I'm starting at a new university and will probably need to spend the early weeks focusing on that. I also, importantly, may be without internet for a while. I predict the next part should be uploaded in mid to late September. I guarantee nothing but will keep you updated :-)

General updates and Marie Antoinette Part Eight

Part Eight is finally complete!!!

It's been  hard part for me. The language wasn't any harder than normal but I've done this part probably five times now as, for some reason, files have been deleting themselves. Although it's only been stuff to do with subbing that's been affected, it's ended up with me losing translations and timings more times than I care to remember. I'll be honest, at this point, I am so fed up with this part that I feel I never want to see another video again!

This being the end of act one I am planning on taking a bit of a break. I am moving to the Netherlands this August and there is a lot going on because of that and I do need to focus my attention a little. I'm not saying there won't be an update until after the move but there is going to be a planned break. During this time I am going to focus on getting the Rebecca libretto done and uploaded. I also have a few almost finished translated librettos for Tanz der Vampire, Le Roi Soleil, and Roméo et Juliette, les enfants de Vérone which I am working on for friends. I'd like to get those finished at some point.

I am, of course, continuing with the Elisabeth fanbook project.


Onto the video!

This part features:
Cagliostro brewing a nasty concoction

Le Duc d'Orléans seting a plan in motion

Un veleno mortale - a deadly poison (Italian)

Affare publico - a public affair (Italian)

Alors, que faire. - Well, what to do.

Ah, bon - Ah good 

Très bien - Very good/very well (incidentally, written "trés" in the libretto which is apparently old French)

Renommé - rank 

 

Crowd Parts

I didn't subtitle the all the crowd parts because, with so many people/groups singing it would  have been uncomfortable to read. 

c.08:20-08:50 During Boehmer, the jeweller's, speech the crowd sing in French something that roughly translates to: "Good day ladies, gentlemen. What a day! What weather! Marvellous! Very good. Yes, yes! Good wine. The pie. The gosling. Divine!"

c. 09:20-10:00 This part is included in the subbing. Actually missing the first word because, ironically, I didn't hear it when subbing! The crowd is speaking in German and reacting to what the main characters say so it's a bit more important to have full context: "Listen! Look! Argument! Scandal! What? Brazen! She called him a liar. He can prove it."

c. 11:30-end You can see why I didn't sub this bit! They're saying: "Unheard of! Unbelievable! And you can say that you were there! Impertinent! Inconceivable! Unexpected! This day, without doubt, is a day that no-one will ever forget. Momentous and embarrassing. A Scandal!"

The Affair of the Diamond Necklace

The following part is spoiler ridden (but only for this part) and discusses the history behind the section, in particular the necklace that is discussed.

Cagliostro talks about a necklace and a couple of lovers and is brushing upon one of the great stories in French history, of which there are many! I'm kinda doing this from memory (the period of history around the last three Kings of France is my favourite) so this isn't going to be perfect but it's still a good story!

The necklace he mentions was made for the last mistress of Louis XV and was made up of large diamonds. When Louis XV died and his mistress was banished Louis XIV offered the necklace to his wife but it was rejected (rejected because the money could be better used, because she didn't want something made for someone else, or because Louis withdrew the offer - there are different stories). However, the jeweller really needed to sell this necklace as the cost of materials had pushed him to bankruptcy. Sadly, he couldn't find anyone able to afford it.

Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy, or "Comtesse de la Motte" was born of a illegitimate son of Henry II (I think) and grew up in relative poverty. She was eventually given some money because of her royal linage and was sent to boarding school before marrying Marc Antoine-Nicolas de la Motte and, despite the family having tenuous links to nobility, they assumed the title of Count and Countess. 

It wasn't until she became the mistress of Cardinal Louis de Rohan that things got really interesting. Rohan had offended the Queen, I think through sending reports of her bad behaviour to her mother (!), and was desperate to regain favour. Jeanne was quick to pick up on this and claimed that she was a close friend of the Queen and initiated a correspondence between the Cardinal and "Queen" although the letters from the Queen were forgeries. I think that Jeanne even set up a meeting between the Cardinal and the "Queen", played by a prostitute who looked like Marie Antoinette... suddenly we see where the whole plot of this musical came from ;-)

Eventually, the letters suggested that Marie really wanted the necklace but that Louis refused to buy it because of the financial climate. She therefore asked that Rohan loaned her the money and made the purchase for her. Jeanne took the necklace and it went off to England where it was broken up and the jewels and gold were sold.

However, the affair came to light when the jeweller wasn't paid. A public trial was held and Rohan was acquitted, Jeanne was sentenced to imprisonment although she later escaped to London, and several other parties were involved (I think Cagliostro was imprisoned and then exiled). Although justice was done, the people were quick to jump on the scandal and it further fanned the flames of hatred for the monarchy and was one of the triggering factors for the revolution. 

An Update

Sorry for my absence with regard to the whole subtitling on youtube. Life, as usual, has been pretty hectic. In fact, the last couple of months have been me doing an interview for, and getting into, a university in Amsterdam. The problem with this is that the 'moving process' will see me pretty busy until I start in August... and pretty busy after that too. Oh well, nothing new there!

Anyway, you're not reading this to find out about my chaotic life!

Marie Antoinette

I'm going to sit down and do some work on the next part now. I'm making no promises about  when it will actually be uploaded but I'm working on it! Also worth noting that I have done absolutely no work on this part at all so I am starting from scratch.

Elisabeth

A few things here. As a few people, including Yagami Xeus, have requested I continue with the updated Elisabeth subs, I will be uploading the remainder of the first act over the next period. I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to do this (as youtube hasn't got a feature to replace videos while maintaining comments I don't really want to delete the original versions). Anyway, once I've made up my mind about this, I will upload the updated versions.

Also, please see the fanbook project!

Elisabeth Fanbook Project

This post aims to explain the project and  answer some questions. If you want any more information, or have any other questions please feel free to contact Allumerlesoir or myself (Havanah) through tumblr, email, or however :-)

What is it?

A project, coordinated by Allumerlesoir and Havanah, with the aim of thanking the fan-favourite cast members of Elisabeth. Both of us have come across fans of the musical from around the world, united by a love of the brilliant work, and often wanting to say ‘thank you’ in some form. This was what we came up with.

We are planning on collecting various items of fan mail and collecting them in books to send to members of Elisabeth casts past and present. More details below!

Even if you aren't taking part personally, please do feel free to share information with anyone you think might be interested. However, please try to avoid official pages as it would be great (if a little idealistic) if the books were a surprise for the recipients :-)

Who are we making books for?

We asked people to suggest the artists they would most like to create books for and formed this list based on those suggestions. Each artist will have their own, unique, book.

Please make it clear who your submissions are for when sending. If you want to submit to more than one book then that’s fine :-)

The list is as follows:

·         Uwe Kröger

·         Pia Douwes

·         Maya Hakvoort

·         Máté Kamarás

·         Serkan Kaya

·         Annemieke van Dam

·         Mark Seibert

·         Oliver Arno

·         Kurosch Abbasi

·         Dolhai Attila

·         Szabó P. Szilveszter
·         Janza Kata

Joining in

What can be submitted?

Anything that isn’t creepy, can fit in an A4 (210x297mm or 8.2x11.6 inches) book and is flat. Seriously, anything that fits within those boundaries goes. A letter to the recipient of the book, a photo of you meeting them after a show, a piece of fan art, a photo of the Elisabeth themed birthday cake you made… anything! Try to keep the items one sided so that they can be stuck into a book. Also, it may be wise to leave a small border on things so that the main content of the submission is slightly smaller than A4 (to make for neater sticking!) 

The other thing, if you want to write a couple of lines to one person and nothing else then that’s fine. If you want to send several page’s worth to each person then that is also fine. The amount you do is totally up to you and no submission is too big or small (as long as it fits in the book)!

 

What language should I write in?

We’re going on the concept that English is probably most accessible and expect most submissions to be in English. If the person has been a member of the German cast then German would be fine. If they’re a member of the Hungarian cast then Hungarian would be great. If you know that the person speaks another language (because of their own nationality etc.) then please feel free to use that.

 

How to submit?

Submissions will be accepted through email or through snail-mail post.

Guidelines for postal submissions:

Email Havanah (b.chadburn@yahoo.co.uk) for a postal address. Note that this address will be in the U.K. (or if you leave it later to join in, The Netherlands as she is moving) so be aware that it might cost a bit extra if you’re sending from another part of the world. You can send whatever you want to submit here.

Guidelines for email submissions:

Please send all email submissions to Havanah (b.chadburn@yahoo.co.uk). There are, however, some extra limitations for email submissions. If you have scanned a letter or line drawing then please ensure that it is in black and white. Ink intensive pieces or colour cannot be printed because of cost. If you have written a word document letter (etc.) and have used a non-standard font, it might be best to save as a PDF to ensure this transfers properly.

If you want to submit a photo or a piece of art via email then Havanah will pay to have some pieces printed at 6x4 inches, photograph style.

If there are any questions about what can be accepted by email then please do not hesitate to contact either of us :-)

 

When’s the deadline for submissions?

There is no set deadline at the moment.

 

How is it being funded? (a.k.a. do I have to pay to join in?)

If you are posting your submission then you have to pay for your own postage. Other than that, this is being funded by Havanah and therefore it’s free to participate. It’s completely free if you email.

 

Do I have to give any personal information?

Basically, no. You don’t have to give anything you’re not happy giving. While it would be nice to include your name and country/state in your submission this isn’t compulsory. The only information that you need to share is an email address when submitting (as you’ll have to email Havanah) but this will be kept 100% private.

 

After they’re finished

Will I be able to see the finished fan books?

The aim is to photograph the submissions and create a photo gallery online somewhere, probably on the facebook page. If you do not want your submission photographed and uploaded then please state this when submitting – it’s not a problem but obviously we need to know!

Also, please state if you want anything blurred out in the photographs. Addresses and email addresses (if included) will be blurred as a matter of course.  Names and countries/states will be left visible unless you request otherwise.

How are you going to get the books to the people?

In order of preference: Hand delivered at stage door, posted to theatre where they are currently working, posted to a dedicated fan-mail address, posted to an agent. With the postal options we’ll check in advance that the institution is happy to forward to the relevant performer. We’ve managed to locate an address for all performers except for Máté but he’s still actively working so something should come up. Obviously, we can’t guarantee that the person will receive the work as other factors may come into play (like rubbish postal systems) but every effort will be made from our end!

Subbing process

Because I tend to say what stage I'm at when someone asks me when the next part of something will be uploaded I thought it would be worth doing a quick post about the stages of subbing, as I do it. Everyone will be different but this is my list ;-)

Translating

This is the bare bones of the piece. Generally I do quite a loose, clunky translation and then go through it again to make it more elegant sounding, if possible. I will always give priority to the gist and atmosphere over literal translation but attempt to get that balance. If possible, I try to read my translation over a few days to check my English is okay (because your brain starts reading what it thinks is there) but I rarely get a chance to do this. Sometimes I'll do the timing before the translating but it's usually in this order.

Basic timing

This is where I put the subtitles into the video. I try to time the subtitles roughly by listening to cadence of voice and natural gaps. It may be that when I start to put the words in some of my subtitle timings need to be changed but this is usually a fair way to start.

Adding in the words

This is where the subtitles become subtitles. I transfer across the words from the translated libretto. Some lines need shortening and simplifying to make them easier to read. Some timings might need to be adjusted.

Overlapping bits

Whenever there is more than one person speaking at the same time I subtitle the main person and then go back to do the others later. It's easier to do this when there's actual text in place.

Formatting

Although I use a basic template which includes size, font, colours etc there are usually additional tweeks that need to be done, particularly when you have various overlapping dialogues. This can be really quick and easy or it can drive me completely batty.

Convert video type

The program I use to turn the subtitles into hard subs (attached to the video) doesn't use the same video format as my subtitling program so I have to convert the raw video at this stage.

Add subs to video

Self explanatory. However, this is, more often than not, a seemingly endless cycle of proof watching and tweaking of the timings of subs and the formatting, in particular. This is where things tend to go really wrong.

Compress the subbed video

You have no idea how huge these video files like to save themselves. I've had files 100x the size of the original for some mad, mad reason.

Upload

Marie Antoinette Part Seven

This part features:

• Marie Antoinette and Axel's secret meeting in one of the gardens of Versailles
• Axel attempting to bring their relationship to an end
• A harsh warning for Marie

I really like this scene. It wasn't too tricky to translate (for once!) and, like the last scene, really allows us to get to know one of the key women. It's probably the first time that we really see Marie's vulnerability and lack of comprehension of anything outside of her own happiness. It also really gives us an insight into the relationship between Axel and Marie. He obviously really loves her but does she actually love him?

During the farewell song, Gefül und Verstand, which starts at around 3:30, I been overly flexible with one word in particular. "Gefül" translates as "feelings" or "emotions" but, in this context, it translates much more naturally as  "heart" and this is what I chose to use. Obviously, the meaning isn't actually changed (in this context) but the translation is not literal as the literal translation felt a bit clunky.

There's also some icky layout with the overlapping singing. Although I've found a way to get around the layout problems I was having this work around doesn't allow me to fine tune quite as much so we have a bit of ickiness. Technical terms here!

Anyway, the next part, part eight, will be the last part of Act One. I can also reveal that, although I haven't split the Act Two video I have worked out where each split will happen and there will be 16 parts in total.

Marie Antoinette Part Six

This part features:

• Blatant foreshadowing that makes Marie unhappy
• The people expressing their distaste for the Queen
• Madame Lapin discovery of the perils of her job
• The people really expressing their distaste for the Queen
• More bad late night translation and subbing, of course

The part between 5 minutes and 7 minutes features some violence which, while crucial to the plot, might be a bit upsetting for some people.

This one was obviously delayed again, firstly due to me struggling with the mummer's song and secondly because I lost my libretto again. I'm not the most organised person ever!

The main difficulty, translation wise was the song performed by the citizens and mummers. It's bawdy and that always makes life hard, I think! I've no doubt that I've made mistakes in this but it's not crucial to the plot so, if I'm honest, I'm not too worried. I'm more worried that my brain went fuzzy because of this and I made error later in the thing but blegh!

There are also some really annoying moments where they're using words that just don't feel right when translated into English. One example is when Margrid calls Madame Lapin her "protectress". Genuine translation. Something like "patron" would feel more natural but change the meaning too much, I guess.

The main song in this part is "Ich weine nicht mehr" and it is really powerful and lovely in a desperate, dark way so :-) 

Of course, technical problems happened along the way... it just wouldn't be me without technical problems! That said, I think I've managed to work out how to solve a lot of the new formatting issues I'd been having. It's involved me having to actually learn some of the subtitle coding but oh well. As long as nothing changes with the programs I use (it was an update that triggered the problems) I should hopefully not have as many problems in future. Yay!

I'll start on part seven a.s.a.p. and it will focus on Marie and Axel... remember them?


Are you a fan of Elisabeth too? If so, please click here for information on a current fan project :-)

Fanbook Project

Chatting to friends and Elisabeth fans I've come across quite a few people who have wanted to send their thanks to the creators and artists behind the musical. Allumerlesoir and I were discussing this a few days back and came up with the idea of creating fan books for the creative team and 'favourite performers'. 

The idea is to create several books to send to members of global Elisabeth shows, past and present - the people who we as fans particularly appreciate and admire. These books would be artist specific (i.e. a book sent to Uwe Kröger would have letters to/pictures to/etc Uwe and would be unique to him). 

As for what the fanbooks would contain: anything that's not creepy and can fit within a book (dimensions to be confirmed but probably A4 which is approx. 210x297mm or 8.3x11.7inches). It would be great if people wrote/made their own things but if people wanted to email letters or messages which could then be printed off that would be fine - I'll only be able to do black and white text printing through because I can't afford to print full colour or ink dense things en mass. I have a (UK) postal address which I can give out to receive submissions and I will then assemble the project and send it on via agents, theatres, or where possible hand deliver to the stage door. More information on the project itself (etc.) when we get things going properly!

At the moment we've spoken to people and worked out that there's some general interest but would like to ask who people would like to send things to. We will create a fanbook for anyone linked to Elisabeth as long as there is enough demand for that person and it is possible to find some way to get the book to them. So, if you would personally be interested, or have any questions, please do contact myself or Allumerlesoir and tell us who you think we should all write to!


Where to contact me:
Through the contact form below
Through tumblr
Facebook
Twitter 
Youtube
Or leave a comment :-)

How's the subbing going then?

Oh yes, that.

Well, life is taking over once again, in oh so many ways. I have a personal blog to talk about all that though so I wont harp on too much. Things aren't likely to get any easier though as I'm still refurbishing a house and, to top it all off, will be traveling out to the Netherlands for a university interview. Okay, I'm not complaining about the latter ;-)

I am, however, going to be making an active effort to sit down and subtitle. This probably means more late night subbing full of typos but it's better than nothing, I suppose. I'm sure that people will quickly point out any mistakes!

I desperately want to get Marie Antoinette finished before the end of June because, come the summer, I will definitely have other things to focus on!

New Elisabeth Tour 2014-15

So, this appeared on the internet a couple of days ago:

The musical "Elisabeth" by Sylvester Levay (music) and Michael Kunze (libretto and lyrics) is expected to tour in Germany again in autumn 2014. This emerges after an audition call from the production company La Belle. The auditions take place in February in Berlin and in March in Vienna.  According to the casting call, the tour should last until at least June 2015. The exact dates and tour locations are not yet known.

-translated from thatsMusical

This was posted on the sixth of this month and I have been trying to get onto the website of La Belle since, to see if there's any more information. It refused to load - I assume there's been too many people trying to view the site and that this has caused problems. Anyway, I just managed and this is what they have to say:

A La Belle touring production, directed by Harry Kupfer and choreographed by Dennis Callahan.

By Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay

Audition

on Monday 24.02.2014 in 12161 Berlin

on Monday 10.03.2014 in 1010 Vienna

Elisabeth (Empress of Austria)
Aged 25-40 years, strong personality with exceptional musical and acting skills.

Belt/Soprano with ab'

Der Tod

Aged 25-40 years, charismatic, seductive, must be able to move well.

High Pop-Baritone/Tenor to b'

Luigi Lucheni

Aged 25-40 years, very good actor with excellent singing voice, high Pop-Baritone/Tenor to b'

Emperor Franz Joseph

Elisabeth's husband, very good singer, aged 25-40 years, baritone to g'

Archduchess Sophie

Elisabeth's mother-in-law, good actress with a strong singing voice, authoritarian presentation.

Aged 40-55 years, Alto/Mezzo

Crown Prince Rudolf

Elisabeth's son, fragile character, stage age of 25 years old, must be able to move very well.

Pop-tenor to b'

Duke Max

Elisabeth's father, actor with very good singing skills, age 40-60 years, Bass-Baritone (classical)

Ludovica/Frau Wolf

Elisabeth's mother/madame, accomplished actress with a strong singing voice, age 30-40, Alto/Mezzo

First-class ensemble, fully trained musical singers of all voice types (classical and rock), must be able to dance too!

Accent free German is required.

Please  prepare at least one ballad and one up-tempo number in German (from Elisabeth, if possible). Bring sheet music glued and in the correct order. And please don't forget dance clothes.

Rehearsals begin the beginning of October 2014 (Minimum contract period to June 2015)

Applications with CV and photo (preferably by email) to casting@labellemusical.de or by post to

La Belle Tournee GmbH, Hackhausen 1, 42697 Solingen

We will notify of appointment scheduling.

-translated from La Belle Musical

The above translations are a bit rushed as it's late and I've had a really long difficult day but all the same, isn't this exciting! I don't know what's meant by Elisabeth's vocal range of Ab' and I might not have translated it properly (maybe the 's' signifies sharp or something, I don't know) but my technical musical vocab is limited in English and pretty much non existent in German ;-)

It's great that Elisabeth's not going to be gone for long and it'll be exciting to see who's cast!