brightness of subtitles

An untechnical question, and not specific to FCP7, although I'm making the subtitles in FCP7.
How bright should burned-in white subtitles be?

There are some dark scenes where full white subtitles are really obnoxious, ruining the image. Making them 40% white is plenty adequate for legibility. Also there are some normal scenes having no full white in the image. Even here full white subtitles are a bit obnoxious. (We're using FCP7 outline-text, and will deal specially with shots where subtitle legibility is a problem.)

Are there conventions for setting the brightness of subtitles?
Is it terribly unconventional to vary subtitle brightness scene-to-scene?
If subtitle brightnesses do vary, is it more decent if they take a small number of values, like two or three, through the whole film?

I notice that the FCP7 subtitles aren't matted-in, so darkening them makes them semi-transparent. Is there a quick way to get around this in FCP7?

Dennis Couzin
Berlin, Germany

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Denis
Are there conventions for setting the brightness of subtitles?

Yes, they are generally consistently at a certain level.
i cant be exact on what that level is, but it's probably a bit under 100%
i would say, however, that they are always SOLID, not transparent

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Denis
Is it terribly unconventional to vary subtitle brightness scene-to-scene?

I'd say YES, but only because they are done as part of a bulk process that generally happens outside of the purview of the films creators, so they are (rightly) free from artistic interpretation.
HOWEVER, if you as a filmmaker WANT your subs to vary, i'd say go for it.
the main thing with subs is that should become "invisible" to the viewer, and not get in the way of the enjoyment of the film
and if varying the intensity makes them less jarring, then that is a good thing

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Denis
If subtitle brightnesses do vary, is it more decent if they take a small number of values, like two or three, through the whole film?

once you start doing these changes for aesthetic reasons then i'd say the gate is open for you to do whatever works,
as long as it is not distracting.

HOW AE YOU MONITORING????

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Denis
I notice that the FCP7 subtitles aren't matted-in, so darkening them makes them semi-transparent. Is there a quick way to get around this in FCP7?

altering the opacity is not the answer,
you need to alter the intensity of the white (or other chosen colour) in the text generator.

that's not so fast to do if you have a lot of them to modify,
but if you are in the creation process, then you can create a template that you re-use.

if you DO have to modify 100s of subs, then you can use Spherico Film-Tools TITLE EXCHANGE PRO, which bulk-moifies XML files,
OR you can try to edit the XMLs yourself


cheers,
nick

Generally, whites should not go over RGB 235 235 235, but this is really a reference for making titles in something like photoshop. If you are not monitoring on a broadcast monitor you won't be able to see if there is any damage to the image, but you can always turn on your range check to see if you're out of legal. If you're inside legal it usually doesn't jar.

Nick & Jude, thanks for your answers. Concerning the monitoring, it's not on a broadcast monitor but I'm 99% sure, after verifying calibration by a method described in this forum, that it's faithful to BT.709. I mean strict BT.709, with Y' between 16 and 235 and Cb,Cr between 16 and 240 (talking 8-bits), so {16,128,128} displays with the monitor's black and {235,128,128} displays with the monitor's white. I hear about "extended" monitorings which show super-whites, but mine doesn't. (I will clip the video to those legal ranges for Y',Cb,Cr, and pray whoever displays it doesn't apply an "extended" interpretation.)

The movie is about poor people whose electricity is cut off, so it's moody and dark through long sections. Some images may be ruined for viewers needing the subtitles, but I don't want them ruined for viewers not needing them.

Nick's hint to modify the brightness in the text generator is much appreciated. It's in the .xml as the textcolor parameter. It's decision time, maybe 500 little decisions.

Dennis Couzin
Berlin, Germany

I'm happy to report that the director decided to make the subtitles 50% bright in just a few scenes, and 75% bright in very many scenes. Will this fiddling appear pretentious? Hopefully it won't be noticed at all by the viewers who aren't reading the subtitles, and for those who need to read them it's sufficient that they're legible.

Deciding which subtitle would have which brightness was actually fun. You can't go by what's the lightest place in the frame, or by any simple rule. The impact of the bright subtitle on the shot and the legibility of the darkened subtitle are both complex judgements. Also there are places where the flow of the film requires decisions beyond the immediate shot. It's unlikely that a program can be written to do this job well, but it's simple and enjoyable for humans.

Dennis Couzin
Berlin, Germany

glad to hear it worked out.

nick