Subtitles are usually the last job on an indie film, and the easiest place for a good screener to fall apart. Here are eight checks you can run yourself before you hit upload.
Picture the scene. The festival deadline is midnight, the grade is locked, the mix is done, and you are only now exporting the subtitles. It is a very common way to finish an indie film, and it is exactly why subtitles are where so many screeners go wrong.
A programmer watching your film with captions that drift two seconds late, or dialogue full of scrambled accents, is not watching your film at its best. The good news is that almost every subtitle problem can be caught with a few simple checks. None of them need special software. Run through this list before you upload.
Make sure the subtitles match the version you are submitting
Subtitles are often started on an earlier edit, perhaps while the picture was still being trimmed. If you have since tightened a scene, dropped a shot or added a title card, every subtitle after that point will be out of step.
Before you do anything else, confirm the subtitle file was timed against the exact export you are sending. If in doubt, check a few lines near the end of the film. Errors from an old cut tend to build up, so the end is where they show most clearly.
Check where the clock starts
Many editing timelines start at 01:00:00:00 rather than zero, a long-standing convention in post-production. A sidecar subtitle file, on the other hand, usually expects the film to begin at 00:00:00. If the subtitles were exported from a timeline that starts at one hour, but your screener file starts at zero, every line can end up exactly an hour out, so none of them appear when they should.
Look at the first subtitle’s timestamp and compare it with where that line is actually spoken in your exported file.
Check the frame rate
Frame-rate mismatches cause a different problem: drift. The film starts in sync, then slowly slides out. Converting between 23.976 and 24 frames per second changes the running speed by about 0.1%, which adds up to several seconds over a feature. Converting between 24 and 25 (common for European and UK delivery) changes the speed by around 4%, which is enormous.
Confirm the frame rate of your final export, and make sure your subtitles were timed or converted to match it.
Read the submission rules before you export
Festivals do not all ask for the same thing. Many ask for a separate sidecar file, often SRT. Some want subtitles burned into the picture for the screener. Others have their own technical spec, particularly for exhibition copies.
Read the specific festival’s requirements before you export, not after. The submission listing or the festival’s technical guidelines will usually say what they want. If the rules are unclear, email the festival and ask.
Save as UTF-8
If your film contains accented names, non-English dialogue or non-Latin scripts, encoding matters. A file saved in the wrong character encoding can turn “café” into a string of strange symbols, or make whole lines of Arabic, Hindi or Mandarin unreadable.
The safe choice is UTF-8. Most subtitle and text editors let you choose the encoding when you save. Open the finished file in a plain text editor and scan for any odd characters, especially around accents and punctuation such as curly quotes.
Keep each subtitle easy to read
Good subtitles are read without effort. A few widely used guidelines help:
- Two lines maximum per subtitle.
- Sensible line length. Many broadcasters and streaming style guides use a limit of around 42 characters per line.
- Enough time on screen. Many guides suggest a reading speed of roughly 17 to 20 characters per second for adult viewers. If a subtitle has more text than the time allows, shorten the wording or split it.
Where you break a line also matters. Try to keep phrases together rather than splitting an article from its noun or a name across two lines.
No overlaps, no flashes
Two subtitles should never overlap in time. Depending on the player, overlaps can stack text awkwardly on screen or cause a line to vanish. Look out too for subtitles that flash up for only a few frames, often the leftovers of a careless edit. Most guidance suggests leaving a small gap between consecutive subtitles so the eye registers a change.
Handle songs and credits on purpose
Decide whether song lyrics need subtitling, and if so, style them consistently. Make sure no stray subtitles run over the end credits unless you mean them to.
Keep names and terms the same throughout
When a translation has been worked on in several passes, or by more than one person, inconsistencies creep in. A character’s name might be spelt two ways, or a place name might switch between translated and original forms. Search the file for each main name and recurring term, and make them match.
Translate on-screen text where it matters
Signs, text messages, letters and captions that carry story information need translating too. If a viewer cannot follow a plot point because a key text message is in a language they do not read, the subtitles have not done their job.
Give the file a clear name
Name the file so a festival coordinator knows exactly what it is: for example, Title_ENG.srt. Follow any naming convention the festival specifies.
Watch the whole film once with subtitles on
This is the check that catches everything else. Load your exported film and the subtitle file into a different media player from your editing software Then watch the whole thing with subtitles on. Not the first five minutes, the whole film. Note any drift, odd characters or lines that disappear too quickly.
If you are short of time, this is the minimum to do before every submission:
- Confirm the subtitles match the exact cut and frame rate you are exporting.
- Check the first subtitle lands where the line is spoken, and spot-check a few near the end.
- Re-read the festival’s format and naming requirements.
- Open the file in a text editor and check it is UTF-8 with no garbled characters.
- Scrub through in a separate player, checking the start, middle and end.
Then, when time allows, sit down and watch the whole film with subtitles on.
Related
