Subtitle Question

I have a quick question and thank you for your help in advance. I am editing a film with subtitles in fcp. What does anyone think is the best way to make the subtitle more readable? I was thinking of using the drop shadow in the motion tab. I am using Arial font, size 22, tracking 1. Any other ideas about the font or sizes etc...? Am I on the right track?

Make sure you're not using just FCP's Text tool -- use Boris Title 3D, which has built-in Drop Shadow as well as outline. I tend to prefer Helvetica Bold to Arial, but any fat, clean font with no serifs should work fine. Make sure your Tracking isn't set too high; when the letters are too far apart, the text work looks amateurish. And use either white or yellow.

Depending on the image underneath, you may need to put a bit of darkening matte behind the text.


www.derekmok.com

my opinion is that subtitles are gruelling work,
and anything you can do to make them easier is essential.

to that end i'd recommend NOT using Title 3D,
which needs many more clicks to use,
and cant be accesed easily
i also don't think XML's can reach it: and that makes it a big no-no, as XML's make light work of subtitling.

there are some specific subtitling generators out there.

they have all sorts of "visibility enhancers":
such as drop shadow, translucent box, outline.
(i prefer outline to drop shadow, i think)

they also come with a feature you'll love in no tie flat:
BOTTOM justified.
let's face it, some sublttles will be one line, some will be two.

so what are these magical thngs?
check out:
Title Exchange

this is an XML app that will let you:
A create subtitles in FCP using markers
B batch alter text generators (oops - you now want yellow, not white on 200 titles? easy)
C comes with a freee subtitling generator.

DH Subtitle
a subtitle generator.

SubBits
Another subtitling app that comes with a free subtitling generator.


oh, yes,
Ariel's a good subtitle font, as is Helvetica
pure white is dificult in FCP at the best of times,
you'll want to drop it down to 85% white or thereabouts.
and what happens when it goes over a white bg?
(that's when a translucent box comes n handy)


good luck,
nick

I personally wouldn't use Boris if you have to handle many subtitles as Boris makes it harder when it comes to changes. And the quality isn't that much better than a "good adjusted Apple generator", though you got more options.
A good advice is not to start to do subtitles within FCP as changes or adding additional languages can take a serious amount of time.

If you decide to do, you can use my "TextUp" generator. It offers both a box or a drop shadow. Text can have an outline as well and it easily lines up from the bottom. And currently it's free of charge.

Also DH-Subtitle is good choice. There are also generators from CHV.
Depending on the setup of your subtitles you can also use Motion (templates) or some of the plugins from noiseindustries
All of these allows to make changes to a bigger amount of subtitles using FCP's XML format.

All non "serif" fonts should fine. If you choose a "bold" version of a font, tracking should be not too tight as consumer CRTs often do have a bad resolution and then the text would tend to "melt". Also look at the "a", "e", "g" etc. characters of a font and check "how big the holes are". If you are working for film this will be less important.

Andreas

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]

Nick was bit faster than I was.
And it was good to mention SubBits this is a great tool with a lot of flexibility. Bouke is a great guy and he really knows about how things have to be done.

Another thing to mention (as Nick mentioned my app already) is that my TitleExchange comes with TitleCleaner which will allow to spell check your subtitles.


Andreas

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]

Another program I've used is inqScribe, from [www.inqscribe.com]. It allows you to export into FCP XML. Very smooth. I'd suggest using that with TextUp from Spherico.

----
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www.FCPTutorials.com - One source for all Final Cut Tutorials

Thanks guys! I think I figured out what's best for me to do:
I'm using Arial, size 23, leading 1.5, with a tiny drop shadow, and an outline of width 10 or so (The values for width are 1-100, not in pixels though). It looks great but I just wanted to make sure that it won't appear jittery or unclear when I finally output it.

Should I make sure that nothing goes below the title safe line. For example, the bottom part of a "g" or "y" go a little below the title safe line. I can change the vertical offset so it touches the line, would that be a better option?

Thank you all!

Brandon

Quote

Should I make sure that nothing goes below the title safe line. For example, the bottom part of a "g" or "y"

great question, wish i knew the answer.
nothing below the line is playing it safe.


nick

> Should I make sure that nothing goes below the title safe line. For example, the bottom part of a
> "g" or "y"

I'd say yes, you should make sure. While most people can read the Gs and Ys without that bottom loop, there's still the annoyance factor and appearing careless whenever anything pokes out the bottom of any screen.


www.derekmok.com

but this is title safe, no action safe.
the loops will definitely be on the screen.

the only real roblem is the strictnes of some stations technical requirements.
as far as that goes, you can never be sure,
so playing it safe is probably the best.

(although i'm doing subtitles in my show, and prefer them sitting on the title safe line)


nick

Yeah, I sit mine on the title safe line, because usually in the course of the program, there will be one big face closeup that means your titles are right over the person's mouth, which is annoying. Like the guys say, it's safer to keep everything inside the line, but in general I don't get picked up for loops below the line, and it helps on certain shots to get as low as you possibly can.

Has anyone used TitleCleaner? I can't figure out what's going on. I keep getting these random error messages and was wondering if anyone else has dealt with this.

the variable windowTitle is not defined (-2753)

can't make contentof default entry "textWindow" into type reference (-1700)

Thanks!!!