In short:
Control chars – ()[]\*\* –: fewer are better
Content: if applicable word for word
These guidelines are the result of long discussions that included a sign language interpreter who also does subtitles and also a deaf person using subtitles. Also, I used this (german): https://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/service/untertitel/Untertitel-Standards,untertitelstandards102.html
The following was our common result:
Full names are only useful when first using them. After that please use a form of abbreviation. If you use first names or family names is up to you (different might be appropriate from talk to talk), but the principle is always: the shorter the better!
Constanze Kurz: Welcome! *applause* Kurz: Nice to have you here! Frank Rieger: Also a warm welcome from me! Rieger: …
Laura: Hi Alice! Hi Bob! B: Hi Laura, how're you? A: Hi! L: I'm fine, thanks!
- Hey, everything's fine? - yes, how about you? - all done and dusted - then we'll see each other tomorrow!
“Ehm”s, stumbling or words that were said twice can be omitted, but not if they're important (e.g. for a joke)
This excludes things that are visible in the video (e.g. *Points to slides*)
Unfortunately there is a bug in amara which uses the * for italic. Just ignore it we will fix that with a script in the textfiles.
*applause* *laughing* *loud laughing* *boo* *disquietness* *phone ringing*
Well, yes, thank you very much for your talk (linebreak) *standing ovation*
New! Additional Infos Jan 2019
In general subtitles can be easily read, if a line is not more than around 42 chars. Since we use and format the transcripts from the etherpads you don't have to take care of linebreaks. Please insert as few linebreaks as possible. Please only insert linebreaks for speaker changes or sounds and when the etherpad forces you to.
In short: Fewer linebreaks is better.
If you are working on a subtitle in amara during the quality control phase, please do not change the double lines with a maximum line length of 42 characters. The subtitles are formatted as a continous text intentionally. This creates text blocks which are visible for a as long as possible period of time. This improves the readability of the subtitles, especially for fast tech talks.
The video intro for the talks as well as the credits can also be experienced acustically. As we'd like to have all subtitles have a minimum of corporate identity, we suggest you use for these:
*33C3 preroll music* *postroll music*
for German respectively:
*33C3 Vorspannmusik* *Abspannmusik*
in the Q&A part you can do it like that. Name at first appearence the Angel with “Angel:” or “XY Angel” if you want to specify the type of angel, questions with “Question:”, answers as “Answer:”. Later abbreviate to eather only the type of angel, e.g. “Audio:”, “Signal:”, “Herald:” or “Angel:” and abbreviate question and answer to “Q:” and “A:” for shortness.
Herald Angel: We welcome to this talk Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, *raging applause* Herald: … Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. *cautios applause* Herald: And now have fun with the talk: "How does good software look like?" Torvalds: Good evening *applause* Stallmann: Evening *applause* Gates: Good evening *applause* Jobs: Evening *applause* Stallman: Software must be free. That's the highest principle! Gates: And how does the programmer make a living of it? Air and love? Torvalds: My software is used on a huge bunch of devices and programmers are paid to develop that software, when it should be used on new devices. Jobs: And what about the UI design? Only if it looks good software is also used! Stallman: I want to use the CLI! Gates: To send users back to the hell of text, after they got to know graphical user interfaces … Jobs: … which YOU stole from US! There's still a court decision pending! Stallman: Good concepts are always copied and further developed, just like with the code. Torvalds: That reminds me of a specific line of code that was actually copied from Linux to Windows: "if OPEN BRACKET …
Afterwards there can be a whole translation to english and german and whatever.