Subtitled Lyrics?

The Wired Knight · Post by **The Wired Knight** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 5:16 pm

I was recently planning my next video in the drama catagory when I realized something. The song I am planning to use is in japanese, plain and simple, though the song relies on the lyrics to better convey what the theme of the video is. Thus the only way to get across the story I'm attempting to would be to subtitle my AMV and thus have the translated lyrics on the bottom. Now I've seen this done before but only in the context of comedy AMVs so I was wondering, do you think adding those subtitles would help or hinder a romance AMV when it comes to the audience perception of it? (I'm not implying just a contest audience but really just anybody in general who watches the video without knowing any japanese).

Castor Troy · Post by **Castor Troy** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 5:28 pm

The story should be told by the editing and pace.

Kitsuner · Post by **Kitsuner** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 5:28 pm

Well, from what I've seen done before, you could make 2 versions: one subbed, one clean. Another possiblity would be to encode in .ogm format, so that subtitles are an option, but I don't know much about that one.

The Wired Knight · Post by **The Wired Knight** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 5:46 pm

Castor Troy wrote:The story should be told by the editing and pace.

True, I think it can be told that way but after planning out the video I think it is in fact better if you have an idea what the lyrics are. Some videos you can get away without the subs like Rythm Generation because the pacing of the video is fast and it has people's attention, but when it's slow like a drama video I'm not so sure if people have an attention for that without knowing what' sbeing said. Though at the same time I can see it dividing their attention too much and you wind up paying more attention to the subtitles than the editing.

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 5:49 pm

Subtitles in the container would probably be the way to go.

This isn't an option for conventions, but luckily at anime conventions there's really only two types of people:

(1) those who know Japanese cold
(2) those who think all the Japanese say is "sugoi! kawaii neko! *giggle*"

So you can partition the set of anime con-goers into those who will get the story and those who won't get it even if it were written in fanboy English. Problem solved.

staces · Post by **staces** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:55 pm

one way to go, rather than subtitle the whole thing, it to put pieces of the lyrics up in a nice font (not standard subtitle font) during the instrumental parts, or the beginning and end. That way everyone wins. =)

Orwell · Post by **Orwell** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:50 pm

If you want to add subtitles, but want to leave it in AVI format, I'd recommend creating a .srt file that's hosted elsewhere. That way, anyone can see it easily, and choose whether they want to have subtitles or not.

The Wired Knight · Post by **The Wired Knight** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:55 pm

Orwell wrote:If you want to add subtitles, but want to leave it in AVI format, I'd recommend creating a .srt file that's hosted elsewhere. That way, anyone can see it easily, and choose whether they want to have subtitles or not.

That probably sounds like the best idea, that makes it easy to host and I don't have to try to upload two seperate AVIs. That only leaves the choice of which version is best to send to cons.

Tormentor · Post by **Tormentor** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 2:03 am

Hi there!
I used subs in a drama video, that took part in a contest. The reason, why I subtitled the lyrics was that it was a song with growl-vocal use. I put the subs above a cropping, so that they are good to read. BTW I won the contest

Here is the link, if you want to get an impression.
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... hp?v=89433

FurryCurry · Post by **FurryCurry** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 8:29 pm

I've given this issue some thought, and decided that at least having the option of subs is a good idea, whether it's done by making two diferent versions available, downloadable softsubs, or in-place softsubs by using a container like .mkv or .ogm

For a con submission, I think I'd choose to send the unsubbed version, or discuss the matter with the person running the contest/submissions.

Don't forget to put them in a title-safe area!