In order to create appropriate subtitles, aside from reading and translating the verbal content, the translator needs to see and hear everything that is happening on the screen. For the original message to have the same effect on the target audience, subtitles must be in line with both the visual and the sound sequence.
Culture, culture and more culture
Many videos, from commercials to full-meter films, include cultural references, realities and phenomena that can’t be directly passed to the translation, as the target audience is unfamiliar with them and just won’t get it. In order to make your viewer smile and cry at the right moments, the translator should have extensive knowledge not only of both languages, but also of both cultures.
Invisible rules, visible results
They say good subtitles are ones that you don’t notice. To distract the viewer from the film as little as possible, there are strict rules regarding the number of lines and characters that can appear on the screen at any given moment of time, and how long they can stay there. Just a bit too much or too little – and the subtitles end up being seen as more of an inconvenience than something useful. Sometimes you need to completely turn around a translation that was already good to fit into these restrictions.
Last, but not least
The subtitles are delivered to you in one of the most common subtitle formats of your choice and/or imbedded in the video and ready to be enjoyed by your audience.
In short, our subtitles:
- have perfect length and screen time
- come in easy-to-use subtitle formats
- make the viewers laugh and cry where the original did