Subtitling is a very recent form of translation. Written text was introduced five thousand years ago, and translations to other languages have been made almost as long, but talking films have only existed for about eighty years.

Subtitling is part of a broader field of audiovisual translation which includes dubbing, voice-over and audio-description. The subtitler’s task is difficult because subtitles are so limited in space (about 37 characters per line, and a maximum of two lines) and time (subtitles should not stay on the screen longer than six seconds). The result is that the content of the dialogue has to be cut down to fit in the subtitles. Not only that, but the content has to be translated, and the subtitles also have to be ‘spotted’ or timed carefully to match the dialogue.

At OOQ Translations, we work with one of the most international businesses in digital cinema post production services since 2012. We offer script translations from English into Spanish (Spain).