Translation of burned-in subtitles/caption Thread poster: Federica Melchior
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Hello,
Recently I've been asked for a subtitle translation with some burned-in sentences/words. It's my first experience with these so I don't know how to translate them or which program/software to use (a separate one from the subtitling software probably?).
I've asked before on the wrong place in this site and the question has been removed so I couldn't read and save the answer, I'm sorry.
Thank you for your help!
| | | | bebee_lut 
Czech Republic
Local time: 15:35
English to Czech
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| Depends what it says... Plot pertinent or not? Needs translation or not? | May 3, 2023 |
Usually it depends if the burned-in captions are plot-pertinent or not and what is actually being said.
For example when I have an English movie, suddenly there's someone speaking French and the burned-in text is an English translation, then sure, I should translate it (= it's a part of the dialogue, the audience should know what's being said).
If it's burned-in captions/text for example for a date/time/place, I caption it only when it needs translation - for example if the caption s... See more Usually it depends if the burned-in captions are plot-pertinent or not and what is actually being said.
For example when I have an English movie, suddenly there's someone speaking French and the burned-in text is an English translation, then sure, I should translate it (= it's a part of the dialogue, the audience should know what's being said).
If it's burned-in captions/text for example for a date/time/place, I caption it only when it needs translation - for example if the caption says 04.05.2023, I ignore it, but if it says "Thursday 04.05.2023" I include it and translate it to my language.
But only if there's space - someone might be talking and it's more important to include dialogue than what date/day it is.
And I include the translation in the subtitle software between dialogue subtitles.
I mean that's in the case I'm the one creating the subtitles from scratch (= there is no template of the original language). Because today (when you just translate), they often don't want you to change the time-codes and subtitle numbers (= no deleting, no inserting subtitles). There are other people translating to 100+ other languages, so the company needs to later adjust all the subtitles at once.
In that case (=there are burned-in captions missing from the template and they are important for the plot) I message the project manager. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 15:35
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| I know nothing | May 4, 2023 |
Federica Melchior wrote:
Recently I've been asked for a subtitle translation with some burned-in sentences/words. It's my first experience with these so I don't know how to translate them or which program/software to use (a separate one from the subtitling software probably?).
When you say that you "translate" subtitles, do you mean that (a) your source text is subtitles in the source language, or do you mean that (b) you listen to the audio in the source language and then type the translation in the target language?
If you do the first, then I'm just guessing, but I would imagine that translating burnt-in subtitles would require a similar approach as for translating an image or an unedited PDF file: first, you create the source text yourself by manually typing the source text, and then you translate the typed source text by overwriting. So, in this case, you'd use a program that is meant for *creating* subtitles, and then when you have a version of the subtitles in the original language, then you translate the subtitles in a program that is meant for *translating* subtitles.
Which program do you normally use for creating and/or translating subtitles?
When you say "a separate one from the subtitling software probably", what is the name of the program that are you referring to when you say "the subtitling software"? And what would the separate software likely do, in your opinion?
| | | | Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
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Barbora Lutovska wrote:
Usually it depends if the burned-in captions are plot-pertinent or not and what is actually being said.
For example when I have an English movie, suddenly there's someone speaking French and the burned-in text is an English translation, then sure, I should translate it (= it's a part of the dialogue, the audience should know what's being said).
If it's burned-in captions/text for example for a date/time/place, I caption it only when it needs translation - for example if the caption says 04.05.2023, I ignore it, but if it says "Thursday 04.05.2023" I include it and translate it to my language.
But only if there's space - someone might be talking and it's more important to include dialogue than what date/day it is.
And I include the translation in the subtitle software between dialogue subtitles.
I mean that's in the case I'm the one creating the subtitles from scratch (= there is no template of the original language). Because today (when you just translate), they often don't want you to change the time-codes and subtitle numbers (= no deleting, no inserting subtitles). There are other people translating to 100+ other languages, so the company needs to later adjust all the subtitles at once.
In that case (=there are burned-in captions missing from the template and they are important for the plot) I message the project manager.
Thank you very much for your useful explanation! They asked me to translate a Word template that is missing some content (that will pop-up on the screen) and to time-code everything from scratch so I'll be quite free to manage that part.
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