Our client did not have the means to embed subtitles in a film that they wanted to publish. Such a project requires not just the appropriate software but also the related expertise. Whilst running software, such as Handbrake or Movavi, might be simple, there are lots of settings that need attention in order to ensure that the end result is just as intended.
Having broadly discussed their intentions and the desired outcome, our client provided us with their videos in the form of files downloadable from Vimeo, together with the subtitles.
For this kind of project, download and upload times can be substantial even with fast internet speeds, due to the sheer size and number of the video files. Vimeo nevertheless provides an easy way to share the videos. Just like Youtube, Vimeo allows for video links to be shared, and the videos can be viewed directly from the browser. Password protection is also available.
Our client needed their videos in several resolutions. Smaller files are best for mobile viewers while the largest resolutions are appropriate for larger screens, in this case smart TVs. The larger the resolution, the larger the file, assuming the file format is the same.
In our case, each video had six different resolutions and thus six individual files.
File formats for these videos also varied. Some of the videos were in a .mp4 file format, and others were .mov. Both of these are popular and widely used file formats. MOV is the native format for Apple’s QuickTime.
The subtitles came as UTF-8 encoded files in the .srt format.
Srt or subrip is a simple and widely-used file format for subtitles. It contains the text and also the time stamps for each line of text shown on the screen. It can handle line breaks for multiline subtitles (this results in better readability). It can also contain formatting information such as bold or italic texts.
Proper encoding in this case was very important, considering that the text contained non-English characters that had to look exactly like they would on the client’s computers in their home country.
UTF-8 is the most frequently used encoding for international characters in various text files, such as .srt. It is recognised by most applications.
Nevertheless, there are typefaces which do not support certain local characters and therefore it is important to keep an eye out for details of how the result appears within the video.
Once we reviewed the files and assessed how much work it would take to process them (including the time it takes to download and upload the files), we prepared a set of questions for the client to better understand their preferences:
Which font typeface do they want to use? Do they have any colour preferences (including the background and the colours of the font)? Do they have a specific letter size in mind?
It turned out that they had no preference.
To proceed, we decided to use a subtitle position, look & feel that resembles the way subtitles appear on Netflix, considering this is a solution familiar to a large number of viewers.
The next question was whether we should make the subtitle display optional or to be shown at all times.
Our client requested that the subtitles be shown all the time, i.e. to be burnt into the videos. This is convenient if their audience does not have the option to select or turn on the subtitle whilst watching the movie. It would of course also be possible to keep the subtitle optional or even to offer several subtitles in multiple languages for the same video.
Once we had clarified all the answers to the questions, we had to transfer the files to our partner performing the actual embedding. We achieved this using a cloud-based file sharing solution that we also used to receive the completed files at the end.
Together with the files we also sent a screenshot of how the local characters should look, just in case. Of course, MS Windows handles international characters perfectly in most cases, but we wanted to be sure.
We kept the client in the loop for the entire process, considering that they might decide on the look of the subtitle once they had seen it. To make this easy, we only prepared the smallest file at first. This is the quickest to process and the easiest to send. We returned it to the client so that they could provide feedback on the end result. A screenshot is of course also suitable for this purpose.
Our client was happy with what they saw and therefore we proceeded to burn in the subtitles into the rest of the files.
Once our video editor had completed their job, they returned the files to us. We checked each of the videos just to be sure that everything was in order. Afterwards we proceeded to upload the files to the client’s remote server which they had specified in their project brief.
At the end of the project the clients were very happy with the service and provided us with positive feedback.
