subtitling movies

[Abe-Nornes]

I'm glad some discussion finally picked up on the subtitling consortium. I
think it's important to indicate that the silence probably has more to do
with summer than lack of interest. I am positive that there is a core of
people out there that will make this a reality. Certain. 

And once a seductive collection of subtitled, rare films becomes available
those of you who think it's impossible will work to sort it all out.

>I will let others speak about the 
>specific technology, but members of the consortium would of course work 
>on exchanging information on how to do the subtitling.  

As we actually do it, we should probably keep track of the possibilities
and have a document that helps people start out. In particular, it would be
useful to know the right questions to ask technical support people, for
those of us working in institutions. 

In the most general terms, there are a couple methods readily available.
For those in academic institutions, a little searching should uncover both
somewhere in the school. 

---character generators: this is the older method, and was typically the
way that words were put on video. Put simply the image gets piped through a
machine that punches out a space for the characters, which appear to be
overlaid as subtitles. Each subtitle is input as a "card" which has a
specific in and out point on the tape....or you just sit and watch the tape
and press a button every time you want to pop a subtitle in. Some machines
may not be able to handle all the subtitles needed for an entire film,
necessitating an edit or two in the film (you would do it in parts and then
edit them together for a master tape). NOTE: this is the method used by
most anime subtitling collectives, which began doing this on the old,
graphics-friendly Amiga. These groups have hacked software for both Amiga
and PC, the latter is what is being used by most groups (I believe they all
require LDs as a source because a time code is included with the image).
The software, by the way, is public-domain. I am trying to collect more
info on this for later.

---computer: as Gavin notes, the computer renders the subtitles as part of
the image and that takes time. For this route, you would digitize the
entire film (assuming you have access to a hard drive big enough). The in
and out points for each subtitle would be easy to gauge; you would
basically set it up, and then walk away while the computer renders the
titles, and then output it to tape. This could be done at home, if you have
the software and fast enough computer. Schools of every size are now
purchasing editing set-ups (usually Mac). Unless you wanted to do some kind
of special effects with the subs, even the most basic software package
would do---my students start editing on this one after a 45 minute on-line
tutorial, even without in-class training.

If you work at a university, you should be able to use either kind of
equipment free; if you are outside the academy, you might consider hooking
up with an anime collective around you. Subtitling groups are everywhere. 

>The next issue is image quality.  

We can do nothing except keep the copy generations to a minimum. It's the
least of the problems.

>Copy protection

If you use the digitizing route on computer, the copy protection on video
tapes does not work. It only affects dubbing to tape.

>We do need to  make a list of what is commercially available (Markus's list of
>16mm 
>films is a start).

The list I made is horribly out of date, and intentionally so. I just
collected all the data I could. However, the Center for Japanese Studies is
starting a decent list on their website (and it includes films in Japan).
The link is on Kinema Club.

>Another issue people addressed is finding screenplays.  Again, the best 
>source is Tanikawa's _Shinario bunken_ (which will refer you to where 
>scripts are published), but those in Japan can also reference Waseda's 
>huge script collection.

In the United States, you can get a hold of Tanikawa's book through
interlibrary loan; all editions of it are at the University of Michigan
Asia Library. 

Peter writes:

>the technical details--especially as outlined by
>Gavin--are quite daunting. 

That's one reason I started writing the stuff above on methods. A document
laying out the possbilities step by step will also help, as will as an
internet list devoted to the consortium. For the document and other
information, we can use Kinema Club. For the internet mailing list, we
already have a second listserve for Kinema Club. If others agree with this
idea, we can move the discussion over to there. However, we should keep it
on KineJapan for a little longer at least. 

>Does the work on one single film need to be done
>by one person only? How possible would it be to have a translator produce
>the text for the subtitles and then hand the baton to someone with access to
>the needed equipment?
>And would this indeed save time and effort? Maybe it _is_ easier for one
>subtitler to oversee the entire process than it would be to massage someone
>else's output

We need to consider this kind of collaborative work. We are talking about
time-intensive work, depending on the film. In commercial subtitling, it's
always collaborative; many translators don't get close to the nitty gritty
of timing. Sometimes, this can take as much time as the translation itself.
At the same time, we would want to be fair to those who do do it all
themselves. Perhaps a group should tackle one tape per person. 

Sybil mentions the possibility of approaching foundations. This is a
possibility, but not necessarily a precondition. I could imagine
approaching a foundation more for converting one or more of the projects
into a professional quality tape/DVD for commercial release through a
distributor. The same kind of grant could be used to add more tapes to the
pool with a minimal amount of work. Indeed, if someone could produce a
translation and some hard cash, it would probably be quite easy to "hire"
one of the subtitling groups to do the actually subbing. I don't see any
reason why people would need to be in the same place for this if the anime
collective was competent. 

Let's keep up the discussion. 

Markus