Comments on: Subtitle Your Fucking Movie

By: distracted spunk

distracted spunk — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:29:01 +0000

Amen. Also; subtitle your fucking special features or commentaries. If you want to show off all the cool stuff you did to everyone, and you’re not an actor, subtitle that too.

By: Josh Renaud

Josh Renaud — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:30:06 +0000

It’s not just the deaf. My wife is Bolivian. She speaks English very well, but at times she still has trouble understanding other people when they are talking in English. So we watch all our movies with subs… it just makes it easy for her to be certain she’s following everything that’s going on.

And I find that I like being able to read the subs, too!

By: djpmom

djpmom — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 09:35:16 +0000

I love it when you flex your claws in a good cause “But these folks have trouble with overlapping dialogue or weird audio effects on voices or echoes or any of a bunch of other stuff that you thought made your film better.” describes me pretty well (too many Grateful Dead concerts), and movies without subtitles are becoming unwatchable. Thanks!

By: Flack

Flack — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:36:29 +0000

Chalk up another fan of subtitles. I watch a lot of movies late at night while the kiddos are sleeping. I don’t mute the sound, but I do turn it down so low that it’s really hard to make out what people are saying. It’s either subtitles or headphones, and headphones get old after a while.

And, like LateBit mentioned, my ears also tend to garble movie dialogue, especially things that are whispered. I wish movie theaters had subtitles. Actually, I wish real life had subtitles.

By: UKNOW HOO

UKNOW HOO — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:39:54 +0000

I used to say — I used to say Cheryl it’s not about the money, it’s
about the mail.

By: LateBlt

LateBlt — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 03:47:20 +0000

I have never been diagnosed as hard-of-hearing. In fact, in terms of just hearing sounds, my hearing is excellent; I can hear especially quiet sounds or especially high-pitched sounds which some people don’t hear very well. But, for some reason, I just can’t understand what people are saying. Spoken words get garbled in my ears. “Here’s looking at you, kid” becomes “You’re looking at two skids.” So when DVDs started becoming common and subtitles came along with them, it was great for someone like me. I actually started watching more movies, because subtitles gave me a way to actually know what was being said. So, yes, as one of an apparent minority of people with some weird speech-perception condition, I have to agree with Jason: SUBTITLE YOUR FUCKING MOVIE.

I also have to agree with Michael Kohne. Some movies use “paraphrased” subtitles, such that the actor might say “Okay, I’ll see you later, then,” but the subtitle might just say “Okay, see you.” That is NOT THE SAME FUCKING THING. Besides possibly detracting from the nuances of the dialogue by cutting out or changing words, this also makes the movie incredibly annoying to watch for someone who’s both listening to the dialogue and reading the subtitles. Please, *DO* make sure the subtitles match what’s actually being said.

By: Josef

Josef — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:06:24 +0000

Am I the only one who actually enjoys subtitling video? I did tend to get a bit carried away with DVD Architect’s built in subtitler though and ended up trying to make a secret new subtitle track with a representation of the scene in ASCII art style over the top, needless to say this ended up somewhere between failed and semi-completed-and-never-to-be-looked-back-on.

By: zestypete

zestypete — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:42:10 +0000

Genius. For the first year of my daughter’s life, my wife and I were forced to watched everything with subtitles for fear of waking her up (she was an unbelievably light sleeper). This meant watching DVDs of films for the most part (TV in the UK is pretty lousy for subtitles).

Now that she’s nearly 2 years old, we have the luxury of turning the volume up, but still tend to turn on the subtitles because we’ve grown used to it and because she’s still a light sleeper. We don’t miss any dialogue and we don’t have to worry about explosions on screen followed by cries from upstairs.

So when I come across DVDs without subtitles, I can’t be bothered watching them now. It’s that bad.

Well done – it needed to be said. Filmmakers take note, please.

By: Finite

Finite — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:23:46 +0000

Excellent post! Except for the suggestion of software, which appears to require Windows. Have you tried Aegisub? I haven't (ever edited subtitles), but from the looks of their subtitling software comparison I get the impression that it might be worth checking out (also, it is licensed under the GPL and can run on Windows, Linux, OS X, and FreeBSD).

By: Michael Kohne

Michael Kohne — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:05:05 +0000

Two things are important:
1) Make sure that the bloody sub-titles line up with the scene. Check it again when you are done. Please. There’s nothing wierder than getting the subs 30-60 seconds later.

2) Make sure that the words typed are in fact the words spoken – don’t just dump in the script and hope, and don’t let someone without clues do the job! Oh, and don’t just paste the script in – your actors probably said some things differently than the script, so be careful.

I watch a good bit of regular TV, and we leave the subtitles on all time, in the hopes that it will help the kids learn to read. I can’t begin to tell you how positively bad some of the subtitles are. They come up late. They have gross mis-spellings. They use the wrong word entirely. It’s just evil. Don’t be like that.

You can be better! Just think – you can be better than people who get paid to do this!

Please, Jason has shown you the way – now do it!