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.

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