Ask me anything about subtitling

Max Deryagin wrote:

Hi Banshun,

I think in your case the easiest two ways to find a subtitler would be ProZ Find and Upwork Search. Both offer a wide selection of specialists and many filtering options, though finding someone who can provide decent quality at an affordable rate might be tricky, so you'll have to use your best judgement.

You could also try to find enthusiast fansubbers willing to help you out, but then the quality is very much hit or miss (mostly miss). Some of them take requests, and where to look will depend on the target and source languages of your project. I don't recommend this approach, because it can ruin your impression of the films.

As far as legality, you shouldn't have any issues if you don't disseminate the translations. Otherwise you might get in trouble because of the Berne Convention.

Michel Virasolvy wrote:

Translation can be a hobby, just type "fansub" and "scanlation" in a search bar to notice it. Now, if you're really not willing to compensate a professional for the time they spend on your source materials, I don't think you'll find many pros at your doorstep.

Michel Virasolvy wrote:

Set yourself a budget for the whole batch, or a rate fitting to the level of quality you really wish to invest in (even if it takes a bit longer than you anticipated at first).

Michel Virasolvy wrote:
If you're not in a hurry, maybe we can tweak deadlines to better match your budget? After that you can just post that as a job offer on the ProZ job listing with all the good informations and… well, pick the most fitting subtitler for your intended language pair(s).

Banshun wrote:

Max and Michel, what would you say is a typical price quote for services per minute of film?
A quick search yielded some results for me @ $5 per minute, $6 per minute.
I think I would be comfortable with paying something more like $2 per minute, maybe $3 per minute max.

Torres A wrote:

Dear Max, I have read this thread entirely and I have to say thanks so much for sharing your knowledge, it is something that sadly it is not common sometimes in this discipline or any other.

I have been subtitling since 2014, I have read some of the comments and feel I have been in those same situations, from looking for clients, finding agencies, working with not that fun material (I swear, If I subtitle another Venezuelan soup-opera I will jump out of the window) and then finding the material and clients I really love to work with.

It is not always great, you face frustration along the way, but in the end, I can say I really love doing this.

I just wanted to ask you about the EZTitles, you have mentioned you work with EZ and it is expensive but worthy. I have been mostly working with WincapsQ4 and now I'm testing the SubtitleNext demo.

Soon I will start working on SDH for some films (intralingual subs with SDH conventions) based on the Spanish UNE 153010 norms.

My question is, first, which version of EZ are you using, and if that version provides all the formats you need. I may need to invest in software soon and I want to see all the perspectives before selling any kidney.

Thanks again!

Torres A wrote:

Dear Max,

As always, thanks so much for the information!

Just wanted to ask you about subtitles for DCP (Digital Cinema Package). Are you familiar with those?
Can be created in any subtitling software?
Fas as I know, they are a type of xml file that may be created in Wincaps and EZTitles and the like, but I would like to hear about your experiencies.

Spaciba!

Nasriddin Klichev wrote:

Dear Max,

I would like to get advice from you. What CAT tools are best for translating SRT files? So far, I tried MATECAT, it did not help: it translated the caption groups separately from the context. And SMARTCAT, which was almost there merging several caption groups into one segment, BUT one has to insert the line break tags to the target manually, which creates much of routine work. To conclude, I need something like SMARTCAT but with tags autoinsertion function.

Valter Miranda wrote:

Dear Max
I am struggling to position a few subtitle lines on the very top of a blu-ray video by editing the subtitle in the ass format and exporting it as sup format. The best I can get is them being positioned in the middle of the video. I've been trying several settings like top/center, vertical margin and none of them worked. Would appreciate any help. Thanks

Max Deryagin wrote:

Hi Valter,

My apology for the late reply; I was at a conference in Stockholm with no access to my ProZ account.

Could you please confirm that you set the bottom margin to a high value (e.g. 80%) in File > Export > Blu-ray sup and it didn't work?

Valter Miranda wrote:



Hi Max,

My subtitle has a total 18 lines of which 13 with default style and 5 with top style. When editing srt, all settings are available however, in srt, each setting applies to all lines. The bottom margin is ok (for the lines I want to be positioned on the bottom). My problem is the ones I want to position on the top. When exporting from ass to sup all settings are greyed out except video resol, 3d, frame rate and line height. I tried different settings of line height (up to 500 maximum) but it has no effect on the final result. I'm still getting the lines I want to be on top somewhere on the middle of the video. Either they appear on the middle or they don't appear at all.

Max Deryagin wrote:

Hello fellow ProZians,

In this topic I (and hopefully my colleagues that frequent this subforum) will try to answer all your questions about subtitling that you always wanted to ask but thought it didn't warrant a whole new topic.

Ask away!