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workflow with subtitles – HD video on laptop
I am making a documentary.
It is set in a non-English speaking community.
I have had all the clips translated into English but I have not matched the translations to the unedited clips, at the moment they are simply stored in a word file with beginning and end times noted.
The problem is that I cannot edit the film unless I know what the people are talking about, which means I need to see the translations when I view the clips.One idea is to hard code the subtitles to every clip that they are needed in. So that I will have an entirely new set of clips. But it would be very time-consuming since there are 200 clips.
I think that maybe there is a more efficient way way of working with subtitles?.
Should I at least start by making srt files for each clip?Just so I don’t waste anybody’s time, I do know about importing srt and other subtitle files using plugins for hard-coding and using the native program too (this has been covered in detail in other posts and I recognize that).
I would appreciate some suggestions about workflow.
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2 Replies
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I do this all the time but I never bother subtitling all of the rushes. I work out the structure on paper (well, using a word processor, but you know what I mean), then place each section that I want on the timeline and put the subtitles on it (copy & paste from the translation into the title tool). I don’t “burn in” the subtitling to a copy of the rushes.
I will probably then remove a third or a half of what I’ve assembled as I refine the cut, but it saves the time of subtitling a lot of material that wouldn’t make the cut.
Now, I’m invariably working with interviews where I will only use in the region of one to five minutes out of half an hour or an hour of recording and it works well for that. It would be less than ideal for assessing the subtle differences between alternative takes of a performance, but to do that you’d need a good understanding of the language anyway.
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Thanks Andrew.
I take the point about not wasting time subtitling clips that won’t make the final cut.
But I think I will have to make srt files for a lot of the clips, probably all the ones that I can’t definitely rule out before I start the “paper work” I am not one of those who can hold chess moves in his head!
It would save time on hard coding and rendering copies of the clips and the subtitles wouldn’t have to be perfectly accurate, at least not until the final cut.Of course it all depends on adopting your work method. But it is time I got more professional anyway.
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