I’ve been having some fun this week! I’ve stepped out of the transcription world for a spell and have entered the subtitling world. The television program we’re currently working on has a lot of footage from Brazil where, of course, Portuguese is the predominant language. Since we have moved to more of a documentary style of storytelling this year the producers decided that instead of employing English voice over we would use English subtitling as the Portuguese language is so beautiful. This is a new thing for us. Fortunately, we found someone in-house who speaks Portuguese, and we saved tons of money in translation of the original footage. However, my boss saw a rough cut of the program last week and said, “We’ve got to have you edit the subtitling, because the style, punctuation, and spelling on the subtitles is horrible.” Editors had done the initial subtitling. Our editors are some of the best in the business, but subtitling is not their forte nor should it be.
So, I spent Tuesday afternoon with an editor editing subtitling, and it was fun! (Yes, I’m easily amused) Granted, I only had to edit about 15 minutes worth of footage, but it made for an interesting afternoon. It also stirred my creative side, because one thing you want to do while subtitling emotional stories is to subtitle in way to add dramatic effect to the story being told and, of course, make sure things are being stated in an understandable way. I did not edit for content, because I don’t speak Portuguese, but doing this yet again fanned the flames of my love for language.
It was also God’s way of helping me make a decision that would impact my career. If I had gone one way with the decision it would’ve pretty much taken me in a direction away from using my skills with language. This project solidified the fact that I need to stay right where I am as my language skills are truly needed by my department, and I have a passion for the message my department/organization is trying to convey.
I pray I get a chance to subtitle again soon!
