I am returning to the subject of subtitles with this third post, as they are essential for international distribution and yet remain largely unknown—for instance, the formats they use. This might seem somewhat obvious, but as with all digital files, each has its own format; let’s look at some examples:
If I write a letter, I will use a word processor like Word or LibreOffice, and the final document will have a .doc or .odt extension. If, on the other hand, I want to create a budget, Word is not the best format; for that, I will use a spreadsheet like Excel. If I have a photograph, it will be in jpg, tiff, or png, and I will use Photoshop or GIMP to work with it. The same applies to video, which will have its own file type such as .mov, .mp4, or .mkv, and so on and so forth…
Well, it seems that each file type does indeed have its own format. Although I could create a budget or insert a photo using Word, this program is not the best option. I would create the photo in an “image editor” and the budget in a “spreadsheet,” primarily because the specific programs for each format have tools to facilitate the work. I think it is clear: if someone asks me for a photo, I will send them a jpg, not a .doc or an .xls. While I could use Word and Excel to do it, it wouldn’t make much sense, would it?
So… why are there so many festivals and technicians requesting subtitles in .doc or .pdf, which are not subtitle formats? Furthermore, I come across festival forms that allow you to upload subtitles in every possible text format except for actual subtitle formats. In other words, it is similar to requesting a photo in .doc but not being able to send it in .jpg.
I believe this issue warrants reflection by film festivals, as a list of subtitles in .doc or .pdf cannot be imported into a “subtitle editor.” Moreover, they cannot be worked with, and to top it off, subtitle editors are usually free.
What are the subtitle formats? There are several, such as SRT, TXT, STL, ASS/SSA, etc. The best known is SRT, and as we have already seen in a previous post, this format allows subtitles to be viewed in any player and is compatible with multimedia hard drives. It can be opened with any subtitle editor and with the native text programs of all operating systems: Notepad in Windows, TextEdit on Mac, and gedit in Linux (included by default in Ubuntu). The more one knows about this format, the less one understands why it is not systematically used by festivals.
What are the best subtitle editors? I believe that, without a doubt, one of the best is Subtitle Edit for PC and Gnome Subtitles for Linux. For Mac, a good option is Jubler, and we cannot forget Aegisub, a program for editing subtitles in ASS/SSA that is also compatible with SRT and is cross-platform—meaning it can be used on PC, Mac, and Linux.
The most common tools in these programs are:
- Importing and exporting in various subtitle formats
- Importing videos to work with
- Translation tools
- Synchronizing and adjusting subtitles
- and so on and so forth…
Ultimately, these programs have the necessary tools to work with subtitles, they are free, and they offer the possibility of exporting them to various formats.