A Brief History of Multilingual Subtitling

If you’ve ever binge-watched Netflix, you’re probably already aware of how popular subtitles have become. Today multilingual subtitling services not only helps learners of a new language but also other people who cannot comprehend different accents or tongues with ease. Regardless of the reason for using them, they do a great job of conveying the precise dialogues of actors. You may also have heard them referred to as closed captioning services. Moreover, subtitle translation give more depth and detail to the videos, films, and television programs that we’ve all grown to love so much.

Interested in learning more about multilingual subtitling and how they’ve expanded over the years? Read on to find out everything you need to know. We’ll also talk about inter-titles, subtitle translation and closed captioning services and how they continue to add value to cinema and video marketing materials.

The History of Subtitles

Inter-titles were the very first means of closed captioning services that added value to film and cinema. It was a still image of the text inserted into the videography to provide context to silent movies. In addition, the very first inter-titles emerged in 1903 for the short drama produced for Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Edwin S. Porter.

The transition from inter-titles to dubbing to multilingual subtitling is a very interesting story. First, it was relatively easy to cater to audiences of different languages because linguists used inter-titles at the time of silent films. Then, the inter-titles were simply removed, translated, and reinserted into the film to make perfect sense and be intelligible to a completely different audience by subtitle translation. Dubbing and subtitles, on the other hand, are not independent clips. Dubbing attempts to replace new audio with the existing videography. Subtitling services – also known as closed captioning services are the text below the continuously playing video. Thus, inserting newly translated text was not as simple as the former inter-titling method.

With the introduction of films with sound, catering to audiences that spoke different languages became more challenging. Dubbing came in handy as a solution. However, the option wasn’t proving to be cost-effective and had many problems associated with it. The timing of the audio to the video portrayal was a constant challenge. It was, at this time, that multilingual subtitling started becoming popular, especially for regions where dubbing didn’t make much sense and subtitle translation was much more cost-effective.

Renaissance Translations’ Multilingual Subtitling Services 

Although there are several different ways to incorporate multilingual subtitling, efforts will be in vain if the process is inaccurate. Therefore, it is vital that you always utilize a professional translation agency for your video subtitling and all closed captioning services needs.

To guarantee a professional linguist is always available, we have pooled talented native translators internationally. Your partnership with us comes with professional memberships such as ATC and a guarantee to meet any tight deadlines. If you want to discuss your subtitling project, please send us an email at [email protected] or call us on 0161 3940408.