Discover ways to get quality subtitles and exceed customer expectations!!!
Every audiovisual content requires a unique translation. Whether it’s entertainment, corporate videos, e-learning, etc., the quality of your subtitles impacts the engagement of the viewer in the other language.
By prioritizing quality, you can have more accessible and appropriate subtitles. And you won’t risk having translations that don’t reflect the original content.
Here are 4 tips to get quality subtitles:
1. Build consistency
There are many things you can do to build consistency.
First, define a process. When you have a defined process, you can repeat the steps and see clearly what is working and what is not, and therefore, with the people involved, make the necessary improvements.
Second, work with a consistent team of linguists or, at least, with the same translator. Working with a different translator on every project can have varying results. Instead, working consistently with a reliable one allows the professional to specialise in your brand and know your preferences well. You can always expand the team according to your needs.
Third, provide glossaries (guides to the company’s vocabulary). These can include existing translations of titles, names of characters, specific terminology, etc. Translating audiovisual content takes a lot of time and work. Glossaries reduce research time, which means linguists can work faster and more consistently.
Likewise, you can provide a style guide, script, and any further specific instructions.
2. Achieve synchrony
In audiovisual translation, context is key. You need to achieve synchrony to keep the appropriate context.
A few things to keep in mind:
Quality subtitles are synchronized with oral dialogue as best as possible (and with on-screen text).
More than just having the dialogue translated, the subtitles need to be in accordance with the image as well. You won’t want a subtitle contradicting what is on the screen or remaining during a scene/shot change when the dialogue is not.
Or the opposite, a very long dialogue translated with just a few words.
You need to be accurate to reach customer satisfaction!
When there’s no synchrony, there’s also a risk of giving a spoiler (when a subtitle appears before the speech or image) or having unwanted overlaps.
Besides synchronization, a professional subtitler leaves a minimum gap between subtitles to avoid such overlaps; always ensuring the audience has a comfortable viewing experience.
3. Prioritize the viewer experience
For the audience to have the best experience possible, your subtitles, at the very least, should provide the same engagement to the viewer in their language.
In many ways, quality subtitles can improve the experience. For example, they are clarifying and accessible in the case of:
- Inaudible dialogue due to poor quality recording or any background noise.
- Deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences (subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH) containing nonspeech information).
- Immigrants who are still learning the country’s language.
- Sound-sensitive environments.
- Language learning in general.
To improve the viewer experience, the creation of subtitles involves some techniques by a professional audiovisual translator, such as proper segmentation/line breaks, number of lines, font colour in on-screen text, localisation (e.g. Fahrenheit to Celsius), subtitle duration, reading speed, number of character-per-line, etc.
Also, considering text length differences and the fact that spoken language tends to be quicker than written, the professional can properly condense the dialogue wherever needed, while keeping results coherent.
I would recommend you work with a professional translator as they will prioritise the experience for your viewer.
4. Choose human translation
Finally, one sure way to get quality subtitles is by choosing human translation over machine translation (MT).
Machine translation can be suitable for certain types of materials, such as repetitive ones.
But for video translations, including highly creative content such as films, TV series, and so on, human audiovisual translation is always the best approach.
Only the professional can properly translate cultural references, humour and expressions, plus adapt the content prioritizing what is essential to keep the subtitles dynamic.
To learn more about the limitations of Machine Translation for audiovisual content you can also check out the Machine Translation Manifesto published in 2021 by AVTE (Audiovisual Translators Europe).
Feel free to contact me if you need quality subtitles (English to Brazilian Portuguese) or leave a comment below.