Subtitling Tips for LSPs

LSP的字幕提示

2023-01-17 19:25 GALA

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As reported by Nimdzi, 71.3% of the language service providers (LSPs) who took the 2022 Nimdzi 100 survey listed subtitling as one of their services, and 60.5% dubbing. Even more interestingly, most of these LSPs do not specialize in entertainment, which is a telling sign about the increase in video localization services in other verticals such as education and e-learning, as well as corporate and institutional work. This comes as no surprise as video has been shown to be consumers’ favorite type of content and it is by now common knowledge that the internet is loaded with video traffic. If you are an LSP, chances are you have already been asked by your customers to add video localization to your roster of services. If this has not been your area of expertise until now, you have either opted to subcontract the service to a third party or tried to handle it internally thinking it cannot differ much from the rest of your localization work, especially when the content is of the same specialized nature as the rest of your work. After all, there are tools available online to perform simple subtitling tasks – and everyone already does that on YouTube, right? Not if you expect to provide your client with the same level of quality as the rest of the services you offer. Subtitles aren’t any good if you can’t read them Subtitles are typically two lines of text at the foot of a screen, timed to appear and disappear in sync with the audio. As a result, such texts are governed by spatiotemporal constraints, which means the length of the text is limited to the number of characters a person is able to read in the time allotted for the subtitle to appear on the screen. This typically implies that significant editing is involved in the subtitle translation process, as we can speak and hear more words than we can read in the same amount of time. Having trained many translators in subtitling, I have noticed that the hardest thing for experienced translators specializing in other fields who embark in subtitling is editing. While accuracy and completeness of the translation is of paramount importance in legal or medical translations, editing text down (or out) is a key translation strategy in subtitling. If your translators have never worked with subtitles before, you might well find yourself with subtitles that may be too wordy or fast to be read comfortably by the viewers, no matter how perfect translation-wise. Subtitle timing is not to be underestimated Half the work in subtitling is related to the spotting and cueing of the subtitles, in other words segmenting the text that will be displayed in each subtitle block in a way that readability and viewer comprehension are enhanced, and timing it in a frame-accurate manner. If you would like your subtitles to be of high quality in terms of timing, you need to select a tool that provides such functionality. Features like audio scrubbing, shot-change detection and keyboard shortcuts for timing controls are a sine qua non in professional subtitling editors and can make the timing task extremely cumbersome when not available. Such features are often lacking in most of the freeware available online, or even in traditional CAT tools that have added video capabilities in their interface for users to be able to work with more than just text. My advice? If you want your subtitlers to deliver the high-quality subtitles your clients expect, make sure you provide them with the right tool to do the work. Cloud-based solutions ‘Which tool?’ I hear you ask. There are tens of tools in the market to choose from – desktop, online or hybrid – and it can be daunting to select the right one. Some high-end tools include functionality that might be too advanced for the average subtitle project and overwhelming for the users. An intuitive user interface is of paramount importance in any scenario, even more so when subtitling is an occasional activity rather than the core of your business. Cloud-based solutions offer ease of deployment that is hard to match and are best suited for distributed workforces who can work from anywhere, on any operating system, without the need to download or install anything. As such, they have become the norm in media localization, just like migration to the cloud has become the norm in most other industries over the past decade. They are the preferred option for all major media localizers for one additional reason: security. Working with streaming video and DRM on any browser allows you to satisfy even the most demanding clients who require the utmost level of security for their projects. The OOONA toolkit is a great example that offers all of the above and additionally boasts certification by leading streaming platforms. As such, it is the platform of choice for many LSPs tasked with working on high-profile releases for major studios. Pay as you go Pricing is of course an all-important factor in the choice of tool and can range from zero for freeware to a few thousand euros for perpetual licenses of high-end professional tools. In the noughties, pure-play media localizers would invest in such perpetual licenses coupled with an annual maintenance fee for upgrades and support. The trend has changed in the past decade with software developers trending to a monthly, weekly or even daily fee where software is licensed as a service on a subscription basis. This makes for a more flexible model, better suited to a scenario where the seasonality of the workload fluctuates. Such pricing typically varies on the basis of the functionality that is part of the package. If you are not sure of the amount of video content you will be asked to work on, or the functionality you may need, this is probably the best solution for you. Ready to start browsing? Visit the OOONA Shop for a solution tailored to your specific needs. Want to find out more about the subtleties of subtitling as compared to other types of translation work? Register for the sponsored webinar by OOONA on 25th January and hear from subtitle trainer Dr. Stavroula Sokoli.
根据Nimdzi的报告,参加2022年Nimdzi 100调查的语言服务提供商(LSP)中有71.3%将字幕列为他们的服务之一,60.5%将配音列为服务之一。更有趣的是,这些LSP中的大多数并不专注于娱乐,这是一个明显的迹象,表明教育和电子学习等其他垂直行业以及企业和机构工作中的视频本地化服务正在增加。这并不令人惊讶,因为视频已经被证明是消费者最喜欢的内容类型,而且现在众所周知,互联网上充斥着视频流量。 如果您是LSP,很可能您的客户已经要求您将视频本地化添加到您的服务列表中。如果到目前为止这还不是您的专业领域,您要么选择将服务分包给第三方,要么试图在内部处理它,认为它不会与您的其他本地化工作有太大区别,特别是当内容与您的其他工作具有相同的专业性质时。毕竟,网上有工具可以完成简单的字幕任务——而且每个人都已经在YouTube上这么做了,对吗?如果你希望为你的客户提供与你提供的其他服务相同的质量水平,那就不是了。 如果你看不懂字幕,字幕就没什么用了 字幕通常是屏幕底部的两行文本,与音频同步出现和消失。因此,这种文本受到时空约束的控制,这意味着文本的长度被限制在一个人在分配给字幕出现在屏幕上的时间内能够阅读的字符数。 这通常意味着在字幕翻译过程中需要进行大量的编辑,因为在同样的时间内,我们可以说和听更多的单词,而不是阅读更多的单词。在培训了许多字幕翻译人员后,我注意到,对于从事字幕翻译的其他领域的有经验的翻译人员来说,最难的事情是编辑。虽然翻译的准确性和完整性在法律或医学翻译中至关重要,但删减文本是字幕翻译的一个关键策略。如果你的翻译以前从未处理过字幕,你很可能会发现自己的字幕可能太罗嗦或太快,让观众无法舒服地阅读,无论翻译得多么完美。 字幕时机不可低估 字幕的一半工作与字幕的定位和提示有关,换句话说,以增强可读性和观众理解的方式分割将在每个字幕块中显示的文本,并以帧精确的方式对其进行计时。如果你想让你的字幕在时间上有高质量,你需要选择一个提供这种功能的工具。音频清理、镜头变化检测和定时控制的键盘快捷键等功能是专业字幕编辑器的必要条件,当不可用时,会使定时任务变得极其繁琐。这些功能在大多数在线免费软件中往往是缺乏的,甚至在传统的CAT工具中也是如此,这些工具在其界面中添加了视频功能,使用户能够处理的不仅仅是文本。我的建议?如果你想让你的字幕员提供你的客户期望的高质量字幕,确保你为他们提供了合适的工具来完成这项工作。 基于云的解决方案 “哪种工具?”我听到你问。市场上有数十种工具可供选择——桌面、在线或混合——选择正确的工具可能会令人望而生畏。一些高端工具包含的功能对于一般的字幕项目来说可能太高级了,对于用户来说可能是压倒性的。直观的用户界面在任何情况下都是至关重要的,尤其是当字幕是一项偶然的活动而不是你业务的核心时。 基于云的解决方案提供了难以匹敌的部署便利性,最适合分散的工作人员,他们可以在任何地方、任何操作系统上工作,无需下载或安装任何东西。因此,它们已经成为媒体本地化的规范,就像过去十年向云的迁移已经成为大多数其他行业的规范一样。它们是所有主要媒体本地化程序的首选,还有一个原因:安全性。在任何浏览器上使用流式视频和DRM都可以满足最苛刻的客户,他们要求项目具有最高级别的安全性。 OOONA工具包是一个很好的例子,它提供了上述所有功能,并获得了领先流媒体平台的认证。因此,它是许多负责为主要工作室制作高调版本的LSP的首选平台。 现收现付 定价当然是选择工具的一个非常重要的因素,从免费软件的零到高端专业工具的永久许可的几千欧元不等。在本世纪初,纯粹的媒体本地化者会投资这种永久许可证,并为升级和支持支付年度维护费。在过去的十年中,这种趋势已经发生了变化,软件开发商倾向于按月、按周甚至按日收费,在这种情况下,软件是在订阅的基础上作为服务获得许可的。这就形成了一个更加灵活的模型,更适合于工作量季节性波动的情况。这种定价通常根据作为软件包一部分的功能而变化。如果你不确定你将被要求处理的视频内容的数量,或者你可能需要的功能,这可能是你最好的解决方案。 准备好开始浏览了吗?访问OOONA商店,寻找适合您特定需求的解决方案。 想了解更多关于字幕与其他类型翻译工作相比的微妙之处吗?注册参加1月25日由OOONA赞助的网络研讨会,聆听字幕培训师Stavroula Sokoli博士的演讲。

以上中文文本为机器翻译,存在不同程度偏差和错误,请理解并参考英文原文阅读。

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