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We had the film subtitled in French for Télé-Québec. They originally wanted a dubbed version of the film but my preference was to subtitle it. It’s more cost effective and less obtrusive.

The film is called Bonne fête ! in French. (One of the things I learned while subtitling the film is the use of a space between letters and punctuation marks.)

I didn’t realise that film translation is completely different from other forms of translation. Not only is the translator responsible for being faithful to the language, tone and sensibility of the film but they have to do it within the confines of a very precise formula. Film subtitling involves video/audio coordination, timing, choice of words so that the timing can be respected, all done with a strict number of characters per line (I think it’s between 35-40) and very few seconds that you are allowed per line (lines per second).

It just so happens that my aunt is a retired translator and did the subtitling for us. We worked through a couple of drafts to make sure that the subtleties in the humour came across and that it read they way kids speak.

She created a text document with corresponding time codes which was then given to Vision Globale. They in turn used a machine called the Symphonie to generate the subtitles. We used this machine so that we could create white subtitles with a drop shadow.

Everything worked out great in the end. I love being able to watch the film in another language.

Now I have to find out when it will air on Télé-Québec.