Line Breaks and Splitting (I): Guideline for Good Subtitle Blocks
The easiest and straightforward way is to go along with speech flow, that is to say any pauses the speaker makes. These should always be respected, so the viewer reading the subtitles does not receive any information before it is due. Let’s not betray a secret before the build-up tense silence is over, spoiling the feeling of suspense…
Also, if the performer decided to make a pause, it is most likely for a reason: It may be to show the character’s state of mind or their intentions. It may very well be a pause to let us know the character chooses their words carefully, to hide their intentions or just to protect the other person; or they might be demonstrating their intellectual status or their level of stress. This is all valuable information that helps us understand and appreciate the scene, even when we are unaware of perceiving it.
It is true that hearing viewers will notice the pause in speech while reading, but they won’t know before which word in the target language it should go. Depending on the placement, that pause may signify hesitation, prejudice…
Of course, some use ellipses (…) to transcribe the pause, but we mustn’t use ellipses lightly while subtitling. First, they take up very precious space; and secondly, because they are often used as a continuity sign for sentences carried on to the following subtitle block; not to mention their traditional use as a marker for interrupted incomplete sentences. Three distinct uses that may pack your subtitles full of little dots and make you waste reading time wondering what they are there for.
Unfortunately for the subtitle maker, there usually aren’t nearly enough of these pauses. There will always be characters speaking long and relentlessly: The monologues some can pull! Not me, don’t look at me. Anyway, we have to make segments, trim them and all that while respecting reading speed and maximum characters per line limits.
Where shall we make the next incision, doctor? The simplest way is to go with punctuation. Periods and comas, sure thing! And then… Well, at last we’ll be putting old grammar lessons to good use. Make sure to keep meaning units together, that is to say groups of interrelated words with full meaning and a common function within the sentence. It is hideous to see the article apart from the noun it determines: «The / bartender.» Follow syntactic rules, keep together the whole subject of the sentence, for example, whenever possible. Do not split thoughtlessly and you’ll greatly improve long sentence comprehension when they take up several blocks without risking your viewers forgetting what was said in the beginning.
It is advisable as well to keep prepositions together with the words they precede: keep together prepositional phrases, because the initial proposition will remind us the relationship of that phrase to others in the same sentence. This has an exemption in English, phrasal verbs. In the case of phrasal verbs, the proposition must stay together with the verbal group to avoid misleading viewers, because they would have to reinterpret the verb when they get to read the proposition. In any other case, when we read the proposition at the start of the subtitle block, it works as a reference to the previous block and this help us thread it all. The same applies to nexus words (and, but, because….): They are superb places to make a little cut but keep them with the second of the two resulting groups of words, as I said before, to help us remember what has just disappeared.
Lastly, though I’ll resume this humble lesson on subtitle splitting very soon, I’d like to warn you against going overboard with the scissors. More than anything else, we should try and fit in the subtitle as much of each sentence as possible. You don’t want to push the brain too much: Why go remembering whatever text was on screen a moment ago when you could have left it all together? Keep in mind the image of a string of sausages and make sure each one has as much filling as possible. Just don’t go ahead of the action either. Remember I already told you this at the beginning? Well then.
There’s still more to it, like cuts, but for starters this is plenty. Next time, I won’t write on an empty stomach and that will spare you all butchery imagery.
SUBTiTULiTiS 