Subtitling

Subtitling is growing very fast mostly due to the advent of DVDs. Since you can fit numerous subtitling languages on a single DVD, the rush is on to subtitle not only all new releases but also old movies being prepped for DVD or Blu-Ray release.

In short, the process of subtitling involves preparing the timed/spotted script, translate it and encode/render the subtitles to either DVD-ready files or to a master video.

Through our skilled editors and a vast network of translators all over the world, we are able to prepare your production for a variety of markets, among which:

High-Definition Distribution

This is a new field and very few companies are able to provide quality subtitling on High-Definition formats like Blu-Ray or HD-CAM, HD-CAM SR, D5. Blue 105 can and will be happy to assist you in subtitling any project to high-definition.

Broadcast (Air, Cable, Satellite)

Showing on a TV channel near you, being that via airwaves, your local cable TV company or your satellite provider.

DVD Distribution

This is probably the most widely visible distribution, since it's going to show up at your nearest video store.

Video Distribution

Although ceding market share to DVD, video is still a major presence in video stores worldwide and some titles require subtitling presentations.

Airline Distribution

Subtitling productions for this market requires special attention to language and edited versions that may be required, since the audience includes adults and children alike.

Theatrical Distribution

Although we do not provide film-etching/printing subtitling, we are actively providing spotting/timing and translations for such market, and we provide complete processing on traditional digital video and high-definition media used in movie theaters.

Corporate

Either directly or through partnerships with major translation companies, we provide subtitling services for corporate communication, being for employee training, tradeshow showcase, mass mailings, or executive communications (shareholder videos, meetings, depositions, etc.)

Internet

Although still a premature medium, Internet distribution of movies is becoming a reality and we're ready to provide subtitling on all current and future standards including Flash Video, Window Media Video and QuickTime.

Captioning

Captioning differs from subtitling in many respects. For starters, captioning is targeted at the hearing impaired, therefore not only you need to transcribe the dialog, but it is necessary to include sound effects as well, so the viewer is able to understand who's talking at a particular moment or when music is playing. Another difference involves the fonts. While in subtitling we have control over how which font is used on screen and big it is, in captioning fonts are usually fixed width fonts (like Courier) setup in the TV set decoder.

Captioning can be divided into Open and Closed.

Closed Captions

This is the most common method of captioning. The captions are encoded into the video signal and are not visible on screen until you turn captioning ON on your TV set. This is how captioning is included in broadcasts, home videos and some DVDs.

Open Captions

As the word entails, open captions are not encoded into the video signals and are instead burned into the video (like subtitles for video), being visible all the time. The use for open captions spans from check cassettes when doing a captioning project to specific usage where a decoder is not available while the audience requires captioning.

Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired (SDH)

This is the method of choice for closed captioning on DVD. This allows more control over the look of the caption text and the captions are turned on via the DVD menu, like standard subtitles. The difference between standard DVD subtitling and SDH is the addition of special effect descriptions to the latter, to better describe the story/movie to the hearing impaired.

Blue 105 VES Software

Once upon a time, we shopped around for a subtitling and captioning software that would fulfill our requirements. Good fortune was not on our side: all commercial software reviewed fell short of our minimum necessities. At that point a decision was made to involve our software development team in a new project to develop our own cutting-edge software. Not only this proved to be the way to go to have a software that would fulfill all our expectations (many times good fortune is where you least expect it), but it also proved to be the key to be able to rapidly react to market changes and develop client-specific tools to help in the subtitling and captioning process.