Subtitling
Subtitling is a form of translation which aims to produce captions on a cinema or television screen, in particular to translate the dialogue of a film, television show, etc.
This form of translation is performed under constraints due to the nature of subtitles and dialogues.
When a film is subtitled, the original dialogue is presented to the translator in writing, who will either manually, or by using a computer synchronised with a VCR, generate the subtitles in the target language. No matter how long the original dialogue is, the translated subtitle must not exceed the length and duration of the time that is available (for example, the number of frames). There must also be enough time fo the viewer to be able to read the subtitles.
A few basic rules can be followed:
- three seconds are needed to read a line,
- a single subtitle showing should not exceed two lines, and
- a line of subtitles should not exceed twenty-five characters.
Formerly, subtitles were manually prepared and alligned with the start and end points of a counter mechanism. These data were then input into a special machine that would burn the subtiltes onto the rolls of film to be projected in the cinema.
