The Top Eight Movies I Wish I’d Subtitled!

Hi, my name is Jodene Antoniou and I am a professional subtitler and closed caption creator. I’m also the Director of Capital Captions and today I’m going to talk a little bit about my favourite films that I wished I subtitled. Working with subtitles and video day in, day out can be a really fun job. No day and no video is the same, and you can come across a huge variety of different films, programmes and even adverts. Whilst transcribing, translating and subtitling movies can be fun at times, subtitlers don’t get to pick and choose the videos they work with. But if they did, these would have be my top ten!

8: When Harry Met Sally

When Harry Met Sally; one of the only romantic movies I can actually sit through from start to finish. Clever lines, a solid, believable storyline and memorable scenes of Christmas! Plus all long pauses for comedic timing always make subtitling an easy pleasure.

7: The Matrix

I remember first watching the Matrix on VHS when it came out. For me, it was a total surprise how good it was. Following the trailers, I had envisioned some cheesy nineties virtual reality shoot-em-up bore fest but when I saw it, I was absolutely blown away! Having said that, I’ll bet the transcriptionist involved on captioning the Matrix sequels had a hard time looking up references typing ‘ergo’, ‘vis-à-vis’ and ‘concordantly’ ten thousand times…

6: Lord of the Rings

So much action, so much emotion, so many subplots and so many fictitious languages! Any excuse to revisit the books – having to cross reference onscreen Elvish, Orcish and Dwarvish in order to caption Lord of the Rings must have been absolutely awesome.

5: Pretty Woman

The most intolerable, offensive movie I have ever seen… though I never did get around to watching The Human Caterpillar???  Personally, I have never managed to sit through the whole of Pretty Woman, but my dream job would definitely be some much needed ‘honest subtitles’ on this one.

4: The Martian

From subtitling lyrics for the absolutely awesome seventies soundtrack, and enjoying scenes with so much silence, transcribing and subtitling the Martian must have been 1) a doddle, and 2) a hell of a lot of disco fun.

3: Aliens

Thanks to Bill Paxton and Michael Biehn, Aliens is my favourite in the Alien trilogy. Yes, closed captioning Aliens would be tough. With outer space radio communication, speaker identifications would be frequent. Sound effects, growls, crashes and squelches would be a plenty… But it would all be worth it just to have a reason to watch Aliens a few more times whilst saying, “See those subs! They’re mine!”

2: Castaway

My fantasy Castaway subtitling job… 1. Type “Wilson!” 2. Time “Wilson!” 3. Translate, “Wilson!” Done.

1: Forrest Gump

My favourite movie of all time. The script to Forrest Gump is pretty straightforward – the odd few historical references and a whole lot of memorable quotes. Yes, caption work is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get.

So, as you can see, subtitling movies can be very fun but it can also be hard work depending on the film you are subtitling or captioning.

For a few examples of movies we have subtitled, check out Art is Dead or Anna and the Apocolypse…

If you would like to get more information on all of our subtitling services, subtitling languages or to see what else we offer, contact us today for more information.