Wherever a video originates from, the accent is unfamiliar to people from other parts of the world. So, it seems like a no-brainer that having subtitles would enhance the appeal of the video because more people would understand the video. I see it on the lines of optimizing a website so it works well across all the major browsers IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari etc. Why do so few YouTube videos have subtitles then? Their automatic subtitles are ridiculous. Is there any technical limitation or restriction on YouTube that makes people reluctant to include them in their videos?
Why are subtitles so uncommon on YouTube?
- Thread starter Vic5
- Start date
Mostly because it's a pain the butt, I'd say.
Allan Black
Veteran
No subs beacuse many producers think sub titles spoil their pictures. That's how we convinced clients to record ethnic versions of their English voice tracks.
For a production to go to the East in multiple versions, when the client said, "We'll do subtitles, not Asian language conversions thanks"
Our answer was always, "ah what a pity, while they're reading your subtitles, the audience is not paying attention to the pictures
you spent thousands of dollars on" Worked every time.
Cheers.
For a production to go to the East in multiple versions, when the client said, "We'll do subtitles, not Asian language conversions thanks"
Our answer was always, "ah what a pity, while they're reading your subtitles, the audience is not paying attention to the pictures
you spent thousands of dollars on" Worked every time.
Cheers.
I really doubt any of that is much of a concern for most people who post on YouTube.
Allan Black
Veteran
True, but it might assist other studios who visit here.
O/T not so much in the US I guess, but Asian marketing versions of OZ and NZ product videos is huge business here.
Building an Asian language conversion procedure which worked took time, but once we got a healthy reputation for doing it right without bad or wrong translations, we even got biz from companies in the EU, especially from technical outfits.
Doing the DVD copies for the Asians alone was great business, often way more than the English one.
Cheers.
O/T not so much in the US I guess, but Asian marketing versions of OZ and NZ product videos is huge business here.
Building an Asian language conversion procedure which worked took time, but once we got a healthy reputation for doing it right without bad or wrong translations, we even got biz from companies in the EU, especially from technical outfits.
Doing the DVD copies for the Asians alone was great business, often way more than the English one.
Cheers.
Andrius Simutis
Veteran
We do a lot of production for Japan here, and we've had the opposite reaction. Since a lot of our stuff is lifestyle and cultural, the customers want to hear the native English, but also want to know what's being said. For a product video it would be a different story since it's important to pay attention to the demonstration, but for our market they definitely hate when things are dubbed and won't buy them.
Yes, that's what I meant. There's the American, British, Kiwi, Scandinavian, Russian, French, Indian, Asian accent etc etc.
A lot of people have a hard time understanding foreign accents when they are watching a video in English. Providing subtitles in English could potentially double your audience. Many educated, well read people would rather read a book of fiction or watch a DVD at home than watch an English movie in the theater because most English movies exhibited in the theater don't have subtitles in English while DVDs do. You could just hire a student or an intern part time to do the grunt work for your YouTube videos. Where you have the shooting script, half the work is done already. What have you got to lose? There are advertisers all over the world waiting to pour dollars into YouTube. You're expanding your audience with insignificant expense.