Subtitling doubts - quotation marks
Thread poster: Joana Polonia
Joana Polonia
Joana Polonia  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 15:51
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Feb 9, 2017

Hi everyone,

I have a doubt regarding subtitling.
When, for example, someone is trying to imitate another person or trying to make someone else's voice, would you put that text in quotes or would you leave it just as normal text?

Because, I provide subtitling services and sometimes I find this really difficult. I have some subtitling norms PDFs here in my computer but none refers this particular case.

Thanks in advance.


 
Somnath Dey
Somnath Dey  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 21:21
Member (2014)
English to Bengali
+ ...
Texts should be Italics, in this case Feb 9, 2017

Hey Joana,

I have faced such situation before where the character was making someone else's voice and since the original character was not present at the background at that moment so I made it italic and it went well to the client.

Btw, I'd really appreciate if you can share those Subtitling norms pdf/s

Somnath

[Edited at 2017-02-09 04:17 GMT]


 
Joana Polonia
Joana Polonia  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 15:51
English to Portuguese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks Feb 9, 2017

Hi,

Me, I usually put quotation marks.
No complaints so far, but note that I translate into Portuguese. In other countries might be different, that's what I want to know.

I could send you the norms, but I translate into Portuguese and the norms are for portuguese TV and broadcast.
Do you understand portuguese?

Thanks for your help.


 
Georgie Scott
Georgie Scott  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 16:51
French to English
+ ...
Either or Feb 9, 2017

Either use quotation marks or italics, with quotation marks being slightly more common.

I believe this is the convention in English, at least.


 
Jan Truper
Jan Truper  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 16:51
Member (2016)
English to German
quotes / norms Feb 9, 2017

Joana Polonia wrote:
When, for example, someone is trying to imitate another person or trying to make someone else's voice, would you put that text in quotes or would you leave it just as normal text?


I would use quotation marks.


Somnath Dey wrote:
Btw, I'd really appreciate if you can share those Subtitling norms pdf/s


Here (under "Timed Text Style Guides") you find Netflix' norms for various languages:
https://backlothelp.netflix.com/hc/en-us/categories/202282037-SPECIFICATIONS-GUIDES

Different end clients (film studios, DVD producers, streaming services, etc.) can have different norms, so when in doubt, you should just ask your client.

[Edited at 2017-02-09 08:43 GMT]


 
Slobodan Kozarčić
Slobodan Kozarčić  Identity Verified
Serbia
Local time: 16:51
Member (2016)
English to Serbian
+ ...
It's not that simple Feb 9, 2017

Somnath Dey wrote:

Hey Joana,

I have faced such situation before where the character was making someone else's voice and since the original character was not present at the background at that moment so I made it italic and it went well to the client.

Btw, I'd really appreciate if you can share those Subtitling norms pdf/s

Somnath

[Edited at 2017-02-09 04:17 GMT]



I always put in italics everything that wasn't spoken directly into the camera (news from TV or radio and text spoken by a person from another room, or quoted or sung words), but the Serbian public service ignores it, because they are the smartest ones. So I regularly do two translation options: one with and one without the italics.


 


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Subtitling doubts - quotation marks







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