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[OT] Best use of subtitles ever.




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beelzebozo



Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 308
Location: Aurora, Colorado
PostPosted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 1:57 am Reply with quote
Heya,

I put the OT on the subject because the movie I'm referencing is live action: Night Watch or "Nochnoi Dozor"

It's the first of a Russian horror film trilogy about the struggles between light and dark forces. The film is in Russian, except for a couple parts, and is subtitled throughout.

What is amazing is the subtitling job. Rather than static words at the bottom of the screen, these subtitles are practically part of the film. They move in and out, appear from behind fixtures, change color, drop out and reappear again, get brushed out of the way, etc.

I left the theater with two thoughts in my head. One was that I can't wait for the rest of the series and that if anime companies did this type of subtitling job, you'd have more people switching to the Japanese track.

Oh yeah, and best use of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" I've seen yet. Laughing
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Anthony P



Joined: 27 Oct 2005
Posts: 227
Location: Phoenix, Arizona, US
PostPosted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:35 am Reply with quote
Subtitles of that sort might be neat for a less serious type of show. But with movies and series that are dramatic and/or mysterious, subtitles like that would likely become a nuisance.
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beelzebozo



Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 308
Location: Aurora, Colorado
PostPosted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:05 pm Reply with quote
The movie was fairly serious.
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outlawwolf



Joined: 25 Dec 2004
Posts: 645
PostPosted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 5:39 pm Reply with quote
I've seen subtitling like that from a few fansubs. But sometimes they get in the way and are more of a distraction than anything. Though there are times when it was cleverly done and made so it didn't interfere with the action that was going on.
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 6897
Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 11:24 pm Reply with quote
One clever use of subtitles in an R1 DVD is ADV's Ghost Stories--if you watch the "other" subtitle track (not the Japanese translation, and not the song/signs only track) by selecting "English with subtitles for the hearing impaired" in the menu, you'll get the subtitle track that matches the English comedy dub. That's not all that impressive on its own, but where it shines is with various sounds and effects, like [ENORMOUS CRAPPING] or [gibberish!] or [Keiichirou sob (tm)]...or in episode 11, when phones ring repeatedly, it has a progression of

[ring]

[ring][ring]

[ring][ring][ring]

[ring][ring]
[ring][ring]

(continues adding more)

[ring][ring][ring]
[ring][ring][ring]
[ring][ring][ring]

I've watched the DVDs in English and in Japanese, both times with the "faithful" subtitles on, but when I watch it again, I'll have to watch it with the "dubtitles" to get more comedy out of it.
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Ohoni



Joined: 10 Jun 2003
Posts: 3421
PostPosted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:37 am Reply with quote
I think in limited use it could be interesting, but in practice it'd be fairly annoying and distracting in most series.
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 6897
Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 4:45 am Reply with quote
beelzebozo wrote:
What is amazing is the subtitling job. Rather than static words at the bottom of the screen, these subtitles are practically part of the film. They move in and out, appear from behind fixtures, change color, drop out and reappear again, get brushed out of the way, etc.

I left the theater with two thoughts in my head. One was that I can't wait for the rest of the series and that if anime companies did this type of subtitling job, you'd have more people switching to the Japanese track.


I've seen these kinds of effects in fansubs, and they can be pretty neat...karaoke in songs, signs that match the style of the Japanese signs, color-coded subtitles for different characters (reallyuseful for something like Mai-Hime), and signs that disappear when someone walks past them. I've heard that DVD technology isn't advanced enough to do all those effects, though some of those things should be possible. Still, I think the companies are focusing more on the dubbing than on the subtitling job, since that's what the mainstream/larger audience is watching.
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Digital Dreamer



Joined: 21 Dec 2005
Posts: 287
Location: Sydney, Australia
PostPosted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:21 pm Reply with quote
Nightwatch had very clever subtitles. Big change from your standard yellow writing on the bottem of the screen. And it really did had to what was going on.
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