Main Future Archive Dropped Guideline Subbing Sub-Formats
Ceded Experimental Feedback Download Misc Voiceover Links

2007.02.24

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Subtitling in Teams.
The first thing to do: DON'T PANIC.
This is what I prefer. Just use it as a start-off. For questions or suggestions use the feedback. Make sure your team gets to discuss this before you start work. You can - of course - change or dismiss any point you want.

Be prepared!

Make sure you have your towel with you.
It is a good thing, if all team members use the same tools for the same purposes.
(I found Visual Subsync a nearly perfect program for subtitling. Forget about the rest. It helps a lot for timers, translators and editors to work with this one. Further steps can use other programs, better suited for karaoke or formatting).
(Subtitle Workshop sets the last 2 digits of the times to zero, even when there was a more precise timing before.)
Choose a project-manager. His decisions regarding this project are final.
Will you include cultural information? What level? Get this straight.
I'd suggest 3 levels:
n00b-level: starting (what d'you think?)
kohai-level: no more -san, -chan, -sama explanation.
senpai-level: explain idioms, like that "jumping-from-the-temple-roof"-thingy.
sensei-level: explain, why there are two ways of writing the 'kao-kanji', and who envented it in what period. Or explain the Iroha Kana Sequence.
What Level? It might be nice to youngsters explaining the meaning of 'itadakimasu' in "Hana Yori Dango 1" to them. But it makes no sense explaining it again in the second season. If you want to include such informations, make sure you know what you are talking about.
Tools, video-files, information-files should be delivered first. Assigning tasks and scheduling might come in handy...

Timing first.

Starting off the project, you make your peakfile and the sub-file in srt-format.
Why srt? It is plain text. You can work on it even with your cellphone. And you don't need formatting at this point.
Make your timing: No overlapping. One after another. If necessary, the translator (or editor) can adjust it by joining. Just fill in any placeholder. No need for descriptions.
Don't use these: < >
Forward Project-file, Peak-file and Sub-file to translator. Make an Archive called 'backup.timing' with your preferred packer. Distribute to ALL members. Just in case...

Translating.

While translating:
- Use a minus, then a blank for starting 1st and 2nd line of twoliners.
Example:
- Good morning!
- Good morning?

blah...      A discontinued sentence ends like this.(3dots)
blah..       If a sentence continues in the next time-slot.(2dots)
..blah       continuing a sentence started in earlier timeslot.(2dots)
'  '            Quoting
"  "           Special Words
@ @      Marking Voiceover, Signs, etc; (if necessary)
*  *         Notes from the translator; untranslated items. (all regarding working on subtitles) # #          Marking cultural notes

Don't use these: [ ] 

IF there are untranslated lines, THEN the files should be sent to the spot-translator.
ELSE Forward all files to editor. Make an Archive called 'backup.translate' with your preferred packer. Distribute to ALL members. Just in case...

Editing.

While timing and translating are self-explaining - what does an editor do?
He has to check for punctuation, spelling, and - if possible - for wrong/missing translation.

This is something I found quite interesting. It is not my idea, I'm gonna find the credit later:(*)
Use [][][] for editing. First bracket: for the mistake; second bracket: for the correction. third bracket: for your comment. Always use 3 brackets, even if they are left blank.
If there is a lot of text because you wanna include a detailed explanation why you changed it, use it as described in line 635 of the example. Why use those brackets? Because: If you dare just overwriting - who will know? Not even you - the day after tomorrow.
And it is a hell of a work - comparing line per line.
Example: 
631
00:41:58,423 --> 00:42:00,863
Give [tis][this][] to Maki.

632
00:42:00,864 --> 00:42:03,988
She [liked][wanted][what a nonsense] to see this.

633
00:42:03,989 --> 00:42:07,593
Ticket to New York.

634
00:42:07,594 --> 00:42:09,589
I've changed it to your name.

635
00:42:09,590 --> 00:42:13,323
[When][][] you get in trouble, "Easy English Conversation".[][If][Using
 it this way, when making a very long comment, you make sure that 
 there won't be some words missing, when the text is changed and your 
 comment is removed.]

636
00:42:13,324 --> 00:42:17,320
Go after him.

Deep Thought
Attention please: You might dislike using those brackets. You could, I'm aware of that, use 'windiff' to find the changes. In this case you should definitely not split or merge subtitles while editing the translation.

Now send all files back to the translator to make the changes. Or, if your team is that big, send a copy to the translator for reference and proceed to applying changes, retiming and line-splitting.
Make an Archive called 'backup.edit' with your preferred packer. Distribute to ALL members. Just in case...

Quality Controlling.

This is basically watching and taking care of missed corrections.
After this, your softsubs can be released.

Typesetting.Karaoke.Encoding for Hardsubs.

Actually, I have no idea, what this is about. Someone up to the task?





2007.02.25

(*) Footnotes, Corresponding Links

The Bracket-Thingy