Vimeo links are now essential for festival distribution. Their usage rate is enormous, far exceeding other options such as YouTube, Dropbox, or Google Drive. On Vimeo, it is very easy to create a password, the quality is excellent, and most festival programmers are very accustomed to using it.
About three years ago, they launched the new version of their player, which was written from scratch using the new HTML5 standard instead of Flash; this allowed for the possibility of adding subtitle tracks in SRT format and selecting the language directly from the player.
This change has been very important for distribution, much more so than it might seem at first glance:
- Previously, it was necessary to have one file on Vimeo for each language, and another in the original version, clean of subtitles. If we had subtitles in English, French, and Italian, this limitation forced us to have four different links to send to each festival, instead of just one.
- Having these links for each language also forced us to create different records for each version on the various submission platforms.
- If during the distribution process we had a new dialogue list, we had to create a new video (taking up more space); however, with the current system, it is as easy as uploading a new SRT file.
- Vimeo statistics, which help us track views, were divided among four different videos; the advantage now is that they are all concentrated in the same one.
The greatest advantage of all is having only one link for the film, with all languages included, which can be sent to all programmers; it is convenient, agile, and view tracking is much more effective. We must not forget that one of the advantages of the DVD format was precisely this: adding subtitle tracks. This new Vimeo option corrects the step backward that the use of screening links initially represented.
Despite these advantages, there are still few who use this option, and I often encounter programmers who do not know they can select subtitles. It does not make much sense, especially considering that the process of uploading dialogues is truly simple and is available in the free version of Vimeo.
Let’s take a look at this process:
First, we go to the video Settings, then to the Advanced option, where we will see the options to create and upload subtitles.
There are three different options:
- Upload the file directly in SRT format.
- Create subtitles directly with an online editor.
- Hire translation and subtitling services from an external company.
I have always used the first option and it is the one I recommend; it is convenient to have an SRT already prepared not only for Vimeo, but also for sending to festivals and potential international sales.
To view the subtitles, simply select the file, upload it, mark it as active, and choose the language. Once uploaded, open the player and you will now see the CC button, which allows you to select from the previously uploaded languages. In principle, we can upload all the SRTs we have; there is no limit.
Despite the improvements and the progress this represents, more options are missed, such as being able to modify the colors and font size, and especially removing the box that surrounds them:
For distribution, we must be a little careful. There are festivals that request the download option be enabled for Vimeo links (especially for short films) as they do not watch the films via streaming, but rather download them. In these cases, we have a problem since the subtitles are not embedded and are not visible in the video once downloaded. To solve this, we must have an alternative link to download the video with embedded subtitles.
Despite these issues, using screening links with different language options is a huge advantage that I believe we must take advantage of, as it greatly facilitates distribution and sending to programmers.