Video Production/Workflow for translators helping video collectives with subtitle translations

How to translate a subtitle file and return it to the project
It is likely that the video translation will have a project page where you can download the video and the original language subtitle file and cont

The process is...

1) Download and look at the video file and the original language subtitle file to check you can translate it.

2) Email the translations project co-ordinator to check that someone isn't already translating it

2) Open it, translate it and save it (see below for instructions)

3) Email the subtitle file to the translation project co-ordinator

Opening Editing and Saving Subtitle Files from a Text Editor
Video creators and distributors are starting to create subtitle files for their videos. These are transcripts with timecodes included. They are very useful as they can be played on a computer linked with the appropriate video file, so that the subtitles are displayed. They can also be used to create subtitles for DVDs. These are very useful because the subtitles can be selected or not when opening the video file, and do not need to be 'burnt on' to the image as with traditional subtitling practice.

What video makers and distributors increasingly need are subtitle files (most frequently *.srt files) in as many languages as possible.

There are two main ways for translators to help the process of creating multiple versions of subtitle files in different languages.

a) Translator downloads the *.srt file and open it up in a text editor. Each subtitle will look like the section below.

9 00:00:48,105 --> 00:00:51,573 But on the other hand, if you say that there will be a screening

10 00:00:51,574 --> 00:00:56,656 it's a whole different thing and a lot more people come.

---///---

If there are mistakes and the files are saved in the wrong format, it's not a disaster. A subtitle project coordinator then take the word/text documents that are created by translators and convert them to *.srt files

There is a manual page for opening and saving a file called opening and editing subtitle files in a text editor

b) Translators use the appropriate subtitle programs - subtitle workshop (pc), miyu (mac), gnome subtitler (linux) - and open and save .srt files with these tools.

(The more translators get used to working with subtitle tools and files the better. As with subtitle tools, translators can also create subtitle files, and edit existing ones adjusting their line lengths if needed.)

There are manual pages for opening and saving subtitle files in the following programmes.

subtitle workshop(pc) - http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Making_subtitles_in_subtitle_workshop - needs to be modified for just editing miyu (mac) - to do gnome subtitler (linux) - to do