Subtitling a series, a movie or a video is a surgeon’s job. Neglecting the smallest detail can generate chaos. This is what Max experienced when the second season of Game of Thrones was released. Apparently, the person in charge of subtitling one of the subscription TV network’s star products forgot the synchrony between the image and the words appearing below on the screen can´t distract the viewer. Unfortunately, this was the case. From the first scene of the two gladiators fighting, users saw the subtitles appear before the dialogues. And so continued for the rest of the episode.
It was impossible to concentrate. The millimeter error triggered an escalation of criticism, memes, jokes, and complaints in social media Usually, on-screen subtitles last between 1 and 7 seconds and reach up to 42 characters, although they are often standardized at 40, the on-screen duration will depend on whether it is one or two lines.
Therefore, subtitles that enter even a second before will cause that the reading and image run unsynchronized, without the timing required for this type of audiovisual experience. A second is a universe in this ultra-meticulous work. Aware of these minimum details, at eSteno all subtitling processes are carried out manually, in order to guarantee quality and fidelity of the text against the video received, operating with the hands of a surgeon.
Specialists in an unstoppable industry
On-demand television has boosted the need of subtitles and dubbing. Platforms such as Netflix, Max, Prime Video, Disney+, AppleTV, among others, attract millions of consumers, which has made the world of content localization grow. A recent study conducted by Nimdzi, a consulting and research company, shows this area represents 14% of the total turnover of the translation industry.
Although this year it has reduced its users by 200 thousand, Netflix alone has 221.64 million subscribers worldwide, resulting in a high demand for subtitling and dubbing work.
The YouTube giant is on an even faster road. It is available in more than 100 countries, covering more than 80 languages, it has more than 2 billion monthly active users, the majority of whom are between the ages of 25 and 44, who represent the audience that consumes subtitles the most.
Because of these stratospheric figures, it really makes a difference who writes the characters on the screen. The need to generate subtitles, whose cost is much lower compared to dubbing, which requires hiring actors, sound technicians and recording studios, often causes problems. We see it every day on many of these platforms with poor subtitles that impoverish the experience.
Hiring the services of eSteno, which complies with the requirements of the Federal Communications Commission of the United States of America (FCC) and the Federal Telecommunications Institute of Mexico (IFT) ensures a quality standard and the supervision of experts who will work professionally in the creation of subtitles so that this product increases its reproductions around the globe, and the translation of this audiovisual material does not become a headache for the user and claims against the platform.
The French know all about subtitles
If film and TV producers considered only 25.6% of people in the world speak English, they would understand subtitling their work is essential. Almost the same proportion speaks Mandarin Chinese, while 13.9% of the planet speaks Hindi. Spanish accounts for 12% of the world’s population. Now, those who really think the audiovisual business from this perspective are the French. Aware that they are a minority language in the world, they have always included subtitles as an unavoidable item in their productions. This is why the whole world mourned the departure of Jean-Luc Godard, because he was known all over the world.
French cinema is an export good, and Sabine de Andria, a translator who lives in Paris and has been subtitling for more than 20 years, knows it well. “The producers of French films know they have to export their films and most of the times they take this into account from the very beginning,”
she says, adding that “globalization has a positive side: it has shown that dubbing and subtitling are
essential and must be done correctly”.
Subtitles are also an ally of Google, since the search engine indexes those added to videos by hand, but does not with those that are automatically generated, like captioned YouTube, videos for instance.
In short, subtitling means expanding the business and being universal. It is a must. Argentina, 1985, the film by Santiago Mitre, starring Ricardo Darin, experienced it, and received applause at festivals in different languages before even being released in theaters in its own country.
