On finding the best subtitling and audio description software for your stories

What is it that matters to you when you’re looking into what subtitling and audio description software to use?

Is it a particular feature?

Is it the latest AI capabilities?

Is it a list as long as your arm of available functionality?

I don’t think so. I certainly don’t hope so.

I think what you should be looking for when selecting your subtitling and audio description software is whichever software results in your stories getting told right, without breaking any budgets.

Now, the budget part – that’s boring. Literally, who wants to talk about that? The budget is what you care about the moment you’ve decided that you’ve found what you want, and you’re looking into whether or not you can make it work. So let’s skip that part. Budget's not a problem. Not for me, and certainly not for you.

Getting your story told right – that’s what I want to talk about.

I used to work as a freelance subtitle translator.

Sometimes the software I was told to work with would literally not work. I don’t mean that it was buggy or slow. I mean it just broke down. I don’t know why. I don’t know why the software wasn’t maintained, and I don’t know why software which wasn’t being maintained was the software of choice.

I just know that I would have a deadline, and was told to pick the video file up via email (cybersecurity what?) and then to mark the time-codes, transcriptions and translations down in an excel sheet. Yes, an excel sheet. And this wasn’t for an indie production which had run out of budget, this was a new release for a global streamer.

Of course, the end result was that I overcharged and underdelivered, in order to make the project even slightly worth my time. I was left with a badly paid job and a mark on my professional pride. The agency ran the project at a loss and the end-client was left with a sub-par delivery and a butchered story.

I have other stories about bad software resulting in bad subtitles. But let’s not focus on them, let’s focus on the solution – which is good software.

So what to look for in your subtitle and audio description software, in order to get your story told right?

First of all, look for software which works.

You remember back in the day when you had headphones with wires? Remember how, when you were perhaps in a rush, or worse, struggling to maintain your pace towards the end of your run, and then you accidentally tore them out? Remember the pure and simple, red-hot anger which would rush through you? That’s how frustrating it can be to rely on tech which isn’t working.

Ask yourself how much creative nuance you were able to summon up in those moments. Yeah, you don’t want your project managers, translators or voice actors feeling like that.

Second, look for software which is maintained and continually developed by people who care.

We all know how easy it is to consider something ‘done’ and to move on. That’s fine if you’re painting a picture, it was always meant to be a piece of art expressing a moment in time. But when it comes to software, the moment someone puts a tick on it and calls it done is the moment when that software peaked and started its descent into outdated.

Every day, everything and everyone gets better or worse at something. Make sure your software of choice is still getting better every day.

Third, look for software which makes you happy.

What does that matter? I hear you say. Well, you wouldn’t want project managers or creatives who aren’t happy, would you? You wouldn’t want them to be so disheartened that they decided good enough would have to do. Cause then you’d lose the heart of the story.

What does it matter that the heart of the story goes missing in a couple of bits of text at the bottom of the screen or added snippets of audio for context? The heart is already up there, we wrote it, we shot it, we conjured it up out of thin air like pure magic and delivered it to the audience.

Let me tell you, when ‘make-up sex’ becomes ‘cosmetics sex’, when ‘coating the pan’ becomes ‘fur-coat in a pan’, when ‘making it’ into college becomes ‘creating it’ into college –?then it matters.

The carefully shot scene, the attention to detail and the team-efforts of the crew, they’re all lost in a bad joke or pointless distraction. And that affects the bottom line. Whether it’s a late-night delirious translation by someone who feels as though it’s a thankless job anyway, or a missed error made by fancy AI –?disgruntled translators struggle to maintain the goodwill required to deliver a story with heart (on time).

Fourth, look for software which gives you all the automation and AI you need to run your business effectively and to operate within the margins of the big winners.

You’re not going to struggle here because every Tom, Dick and Harry is selling the dream (and the product) on that front. It’s not hard to automate a process when you know what’s going to happen at every single step of the way and you know the exact requirements and priorities of every single project which is ever going to run through the system.

But once you’ve gathered up some good options for the latest tech, then you need to make sure, absolutely make sure, that when you’re narrowing the options down you’re prioritising software which makes human intervention easy.

Look, automation’s great when we’re operating in a perfect world. Easy application of common sense is crucial when real life kicks in and the project still needs to make it across the finish line.

Finally, and most importantly, look for software which is simple to use.

Do you know why iPhones, Instagram and the wheel are all so successful? It’s because they’re pretty basic and intuitive from a user experience point of view.

When tools are simple and straightforward to use they don’t result in basic results – they result in tools getting out of your way and allowing you to get on with your work.

Linguists, script writer and voice actors – these are creatives. Let’s not demand that they show up with the technical skillset of an above average IT-worker. Because if that’s what they need, how are they ever going to find the time for developing the artistic and linguistic skillsets required to ensure that all the effort which went into a movie is not lost at the final hurdle of delivery?

Subtitles and audio descriptions, they’re not technical marvels, no one goes to the movies to be inspired by time-codes, frame rates or excellent cropping. People go to the movies to be entertained and to connect with a higher level of the human experience. The tech behind it all is necessary, vital even, but it’s not why people show. They show because they’re wanting to be told a story.

English graduates like me who know how to deliver a story to an audience shouldn’t need the technical skillset of an above average IT-worker to get their job done.

In the end though, I decided good enough wasn’t actually that, and developed (with the help of a very good developer indeed) a new solution focused on getting the tech out of creative people's way.

It’s called Zille. Happy place of subtitles and audio description.

www.zillemedia.com