Skip to main content

Thoughts Regarding the Use of Subtitles in Videos

 

Videos are a great way of getting Bible stories out to people, including children. If the audience is literate, it is often a good idea to include subtitles with videos. Even if they are functionally illiterate, it might make sense to include them, so as to encourage growth in literacy amongst the group. In YouTube it is possible to add these later in YouTube Studio. You can also allow others to add subtitles for their language, if you wish. For social media platforms like Facebook it is often better to hardcode the subtitles onto the video. If you are using a program like Shotcut this is not possible. You have to download another program that has this option e.g. Filmora (though this needs to be paid for) and Kdenlive (free and open source). If you want a program that is easy to use, go for Filmora over Kdenlive, as the former has a really nice user interface.

The reason we want to include subtitles is that people sitting on a bus, or in a waiting room, or somewhere like that, want to watch short videos on YouTube and other platforms without having to listen to the audio. There is usually an option to turn sound off within the program, and many users have this set to no audio by default. If they get really interested in a video, they might plug in their ear buds and turn on the sound. Might. 

The received wisdom on length of videos is that longer ones need to go on YouTube. If you only have short videos, other platforms are fine. You can put them on YouTube as well.

It is possible to create the subtitles in YouTube, by copying and pasting from Paratext or similar Bible program, then editing them to get rid of punctuation marks. Videos with quote marks and so on are not popular with viewers. It is possible to download the subtitles and timings in a settings file such as an .srt file. This can then be imported into Kdenlive or Filmora to create a video with hardcoded subtitles. The reason to use YouTube is that Studio is a really convenient subtitle editor - much better than the ones you'll find in Filmora or Kdenlive. Shotcut doesn't allow subtitles, unfortunately.

The really useful feature in YouTube is that viewers can turn subtitles on and off at will, change the language, and even speed up the video, whether or not they are reading the subtitles or listening to the audio. This can probably be done in other programs but I haven't tried it myself.

All in all, try and make the videos appropriate for the chosen (target) audience. It's no good going to all the work of creating subtitles when 99% of your audience can't read.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Flow Chart for Bible Translation (a Relevance Theory Approach)

One of the current theories behind modern translation work is Relevance Theory. [1] Here is a flow chart that explains the process often used to produce a draft when using such an approach: *Make sure your translation committee makes the decision as to what kind of translation they want. A domesticated translation is one that submits to dominant values in the target language [2] whereas a foreignized translation is one that is happy to import foreign terms and ideas from Hebrew, Greek, or the language of wider communication such as the Greek term baptizo . The chart looks something like this: Text                                   Communicated Ideas                  Context A sower went out to sow  A farmer went out to sow grain   People scattered/threw seed etc. The text has very little information, but behind i...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Plea Regarding Footnotes in Bible Translation

Recently I was giving input to a team who had worked on Psalms. I noticed that in several places they had included footnotes referring to the New Testament use of those Psalms. One example was a footnote in Ps 34:20 'not one of [his bones] will be broken' that referred to John 19:32, 33, 36 where this prophecy is fulfilled. Now, obviously this is a useful link for readers, but it is better to put it in John's gospel referring back to Psalms. Why? Because the New Testament is (to some extent) a commentary on the Hebrew Bible, whereas the reverse is not true (the Hebrew Bible never refers to the New Testament). There are often two possible ways of reading a Psalm: In its original context, and  As interpreted by the New Testament writers. This is quite important, as the Hebrew Bible belongs to two faith communities, the Jews and the Christians. (Muslims too, to some extent, though they refer to the Torah and the Psalms only). If we translate the Bible in such a way that it onl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Integral Mission vs. Holistic Mission - What's the Difference?

 A lot of people are talking about integral mission these days, whereas the idea of holistic mission seems to have fallen by the wayside. What's the difference? Holistic mission is mission to the whole person, taking into account their physical as well as spiritual needs. Evangelism is combined with social action. Unfortunately, this term has been used for some years now, and much mission that was labelled 'holistic' was mainly social action. Integral mission has more focus on communities and their felt needs. What issues of poverty and (lack of) justice are there? How can a given community begin to address these issues? What input do they need from outsiders as they do so? How can they define kingdom goals that will bring them out of their physical and spiritual poverty? Lausanne defines it here . The fact is that the neediest communities are often ones that lack the Bible, and lack a clear orthography (alphabet corresponding to the phonemic system of the language, and tha...
Post a Comment
Read more