Subtitling (or captioning) refers to displaying textual versions of the dialog in films and audio visual contents.
Subtitles are usually displayed at the bottom of the screen and usually closely follow the story line. Subtitles are used as a written form in the same language of the dialog or written form in a different language of a dialog (involves transcription, translation).
Subtitles are also used to help the hearing impaired or deaf audience.
At QIKtrad, the subtitles that are produced are intended to accurately capture and convey the film dialogue in the required language of the viewer, presented in a manner that can be effortlessly read and immediately understood.
Our primary objectives in subtitling are to:
Facilitate for the target viewer the same level of comprehension as that of viewers who directly understand the film dialogue
Maintain the film’s artistic integrity
The subtitling work is regulated by universally pre-established guidelines. Therefore, when QIKtrad’s team renders a subtitling service, the translation of the verbal speech into a written text is limited to standard conditions, such as minimum and maximum duration of a subtitle, in and out timing, quantity of characters, letter formatting in case of foreign terms, musical dialogues, among others.
At QIKtrad, we work with several video types, for instance: MOV, WMV, AVI, QT, MPEG, MPG, MPE, 3GP, MKV, MP4, RealMedia, etc.
Our team works in television series, movies and documentaries. Our constant monitoring of every stage of every subtitling job guarantees the quality of the final product.
Taking into consideration that not all subtitling cases are equal in what concerns their goals, techniques and limitations, we provide two kinds of solutions:
Interlinguistic subtitling
Subtitling for the deaf and the hard of hearing
RANGE OF SUBTITLING SOLUTIONS
INTERLINGUISTIC SUBTITLING
Interlinguistic subtitling displays the subtitles’ text in a language that is different from the one spoken in the dialogue, aiming to translate the speech into the viewer’s language.
That is the most usual kind of subtitling in Portugal, and it is directed to the general public. It refers to the subtitling of, for instance, movies and shows that we are used to watch on television, cinema, video and DVDs, and it is a tool to cross a language barrier, by providing a written translation of the dialogues and important elements thereof to an audience that does not understand the original language of the show. The subtitles may be already integrated in the audio-visual product or may be broadcasted with it to all viewers.
SUBTITLING FOR THE DEAF AND THE HARD OF HEARING
Subtitling for the deaf and the hard of hearing, also designated as intralinguistic subtitling, displays a text written in the same language as the oral text, so that people with hearing disabilities can understand it. Additionally, it may be used for educational purposes.
It is a type of subtitling solution that is growing as the awareness regarding communication obstacles grows, and it is broadcasted via teletext when the viewers activate it.
Subtitling for the deaf and the hard of hearing needs to comply with other terms and it has its own rules, including extralinguistic elements that are vital for understanding the storyline, such as inflexion, tone of voice or sounds – for example, door slamming or a telephone ringing.
