Subtitles and title cards have been a part of movies and videos from the very dawn of cinema. Either summarising the action or speaking the words of the actors, subtitles are an invaluable asset in an increasingly shrinking world and global market place. They are also what can set your video apart.

Can your audience hear you?

As an immediate benefit, subtitles on your video will open your script’s message to the deaf or hard of hearing. With hearing standards set to drop as the Walkman and iPod generations get progressively older, subtitles will come increasingly to the fore.

Already a standard feature on most streaming services like Netflix and Amazon, subtitles are not only for those with poor hearing but also relied upon to get a video’s full meaning.

It’s a Smaller World

With the Internet shrinking the geographical and cultural gap between different cultures, video is now being consumed by a global audience, irrespective of its origin. As a first step towards making your story/message more accessible, subtitles can open up both markets and customers on an international scale. 

With this in mind, we offer an in-house translation service that can take the finished dialogue and narration of your video and translate it into a variety of European languages. (More languages are available upon request through our regular translation partners).

Where will your video be seen?

Quite often we imagine videos will be seen in perfect locations or circumstances but increasingly that is not the case. Nowadays videos are watched more and more on mobile devices like phones and tablets on commuter trains or open-plan offices.

The ability to turn on subtitles will give your video the better likelihood of being watched than saved to ‘watch later’ (which in itself, rarely happens).

Hard and soft subtitles

Subtitles essentially can be broken down into two categories; hard or soft subtitles. Some video applications like iTunes, Apple Quicktime, Netflix and Amazon can display multi-lingual, ’soft’ subtitles embedded in your video file. In others, hard they are physically ‘burnt-in’ into each frame of your video, making them a permanently visible feature.

There are advantages to both and depending on your end-use and distribution of your video, we can advise you on the best route.