Martin Cornwell, Subtitler
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- Опубликовано: 20 мар 2013
- Martin Cornwell is a Subtitler who works on all manner of BBC programmes. You might imagine that it's his keyboard that does the talking but when it comes to subtitles, Martin's voice is the most important tool of trade.
Brilliantly informative video. It deserves to be updated and with professionally produced subtitles.
I have huge respect for these people
(video's transcript) Hello my name is Martin Cornwell and I am a subtitler. As a subtitler, we work on pre-recorded programmes, everything from _Bargain Hunt_ to _Question Time_ , and also on a lots of live output, such as the BBC News channel.
(RESPEAKING) Also we have invested in new road project in and around the area, comma, which have been called for four years, full stop.
Most people think subtitlers do a lot of typing, whereas actually we produce subtitles using voice-recognition software and a technique that we call re-speaking, where I will have an audio feed of what is coming on through the TV, and I will speak along with that input, repeating it.
(RESPEAKING) We need to make sure that whatever changes we make have children - posmac - rights at the heart.
It doesn’t sound much like normal spoken English. We have to speak in this monotone way, giving equal weight to each syllable we speak.
(RESPEAKING) So, comma, you now how the game works, full stop. Let’s meet the usual suspects, full stop.
This is because the computer can’t understand a lot of the intonation of normal speech. Today I’m starting off doing a piece of pre-recorded television. It’s a BBC game show, so I’ll have a chance - cos it’s pre-recorded - to speak in all of the subtitles.
(RESPEAKING) Behind this screen are four contestants who will be hoping their knowledge is flawless, comma.
And then to go back and tidy it all up, correcting any spelling mistakes and making sure it’s 100% grammatically accurate as well.
This afternoon I’m going to be live on air, doing BBC Parliament. Where this differs from the pre-recorded stuff is that I have to, before I go on air, research all the words that the computer might not recognise, and teach these to the computer beforehand.
(RESPEAKING) Moody’s, comma, Moody’s, comma, the UK has been downgraded by the Moody’s, full stop.
So then when I go live, I should be able to produce some fairly accurate live subtitles.
One of the most important qualities a subtitler should have really is the ability to concentrate for long periods.
(RESPEAKING) And for many families involved, comma, the process can be drawn out and emotionally draining, full stop.
We are on air for 15 minutes at a time, so we're 15 minutes on, 15 minutes off, but that could be over the course of two and a half hours. So you need to be able to maintain your concentration the whole time, making sure you’re hearing everything that's being said by all of the speakers and recreating it accurately.
It's very satisfying to think that we’re helping people, hard of hearing, to enjoy TV in the way that they might not have done in the past. Obviously, they have a right to expect a very high standard, and when we can provide that, it feels good.
* _posmac_ command is a command that should, if I remember correct, insert a apostrophe mark after the spoken word in WinCAPS subtitling programme when you're re-speaking via Dragon speech recognition software. But I may be wrong, so don't judge me so harsh.
now that's a great job, right there.
ok so a video on how subtitles are made - with.... NO subtitles...
Very informative video. It would be fantastic if BBC Careers could add subtitles to this you tube video so that the very people who use a subtitlers service can follow this video and understand the process behind the service that they are using. Thanks.
best comment I've seen this year
This was great! I've been looking for something showing a modern subtitler in action ike this. Could be an interesting career :D
Nice job!
thats cool
Interesting
How do you add them to a RUclips video ?
Is that why the subtitles are way behind?
Rohan K Live subtitles are behind by about 10, sometimes even 15 seconds. It’d be impossible to do this in absolute real time live. Sometimes you can see the subtitler “backspace” mistakes as well in the actual captions. It makes you realize there is a human behind this. I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of concentration this takes (thus explaining the 15 mins on/15 mins off)