Subtitles or Closed Captions, What’s best for my video?

So, you have produced your video or feature film and are ready for post-production. You make sure the video has the correct frame rate, the colours all match up and the syncing is correct. But is there anything else that you should be considering? The answer in our opinion is yes, do you opt to subtitle or closed caption your film. But what exactly is the difference between the two? Is there a difference? And do you require both subtitles and closed captions?

In today’s post we’ll be considering some of the commonalities and differences between the two so that you always go for the correct option when it comes to choosing between subtitles and closed captions.

What Are Subtitles?

• A subtitles purpose is to provide the audience with written text to follow along with while watching their movie.
• Subtitles are used where the viewer cannot understand the language and require them to follow the film or video. In essence subtitles are translated text of the foreign film for the user to follow along with.
• Subtitles are taken from audio files from a transcript of the film and produced before the release of the film.

What Are Closed Captions?

• Closed captions primary purpose is to provide the deaf and hard of hearing with a clear understanding of speech but also of any background noises and sounds such as cat’s meowing or a litter bin falling over.
• Captions come in two forms; closed and opened. Captions give the viewer the opportunity to turn them off, whereas opened captions are burned onto the video and cannot be switched off by the viewer.
• Adding closed captions to your videos will enable greater accessibility to more viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing. Being able to reach new target audiences is of the utmost importance.

With Netflix and Amazon prime’s popularity rising year on year, subtitles and closed captioning have become more important to opening up new regions and are practically embedded in most of the films and shows on these streaming services.

Subtitles have other’s useful uses too. They have been proven to aid and assist in the learning of a new language. The rise in mobile and tablet technology has also meant a lot more people are using these devices to watch foreign films with the added benefits of having subtitles or closed captions.

Subtitles or Closed Captions?

So, as you can see, there are quite a few differences between subtitles and closed captions, knowing whether you will require subtitles or closed captions will depend on where you will be distributing your film to and who your potential audiences are aimed at. If you would like a free quote on subtitling and captioning of your film, contact us today for a quote.