Subtitling or Voiceover Services – Which is Best for your International Films?

Capital Captions handle a wide range of services in working from video to text, from subtitling to transcription and voiceover services. In today’s article we’ll be taking a closer look at voiceover and dubbing services to see which is best when compared to closed captioning or subtitling.

When considering whether to go with voiceover or subtitling services there are many things to consider. Firstly you’ll need to think about one of the biggest factors: cost. Along with audience, engagement and timescales, cost is one of the most important factors you’ll need to consider, so we’ll start with that.

Is it Expensive? 

Cost is one of the biggest factors when considering whether to use voiceover or subtitling services for your film. To put it simply, voiceovers are more expensive than subtitling. The reason for this is because they require a voice actor to hire a studio and record in the required language. This doesn’t mean that dubbing is always better. Some videos are more suited to voiceovers and some are more suited to subtitles which we’ll discuss this later on this article.

Who’s your Target Audience 

Many Hollywood studios now dub films in different languages in order to make videos more accessible to foreign audiences. Your target audience will depend on what your video is about. Viewer’s watching advertisements, or being given advice or support may be more appreciative to listen to a voiceover. In contrast, for business or educational videos, captions can be great for focus, and most people will be happy to read subtitles on those videos.

The best way to understand your target audience is to become your target audience. If you put yourself in your audience’s shoes and think about how you would best appreciate your video then you will be more likely to end up making the right choice. Think about how your video would be best received by your audience to give them the best understanding of it.

Engagement 

Having the correct type of engagement with your audience is crucial to the success of your video. Video engagement is highly important in terms of video popularly. This is regardless of whether you choose to use voiceover or subtitling services.

In terms of voiceover and dubbing, you may think it would be easier for an audience to digest information without having to read captions. However, in terms of engagement, voiceovers need to reflect the emotions and character in the videos they translate. A voice actor therefore needs to be as skilled as a thespian in many ways, as a film actor.

Timescales 

If you choose to go with dubbing services then this can take longer than subtitling. There are many reasons for this. Fundamentally, subtitling and translation services still need to be undertaken prior to adding voiceovers to your videos. Artists will work with timed text and the more accurate the translation and timings, the better the results.

Additionally, is the need to spend time making sure that the voiceover artist is the right person for your video.

Distribution Methods 

Video sharing sites offer an easy way to add subtitles to your videos providing you have an .SRT file beforehand. Unfortunately there is no easy way of adding voiceovers to social media videos. If you are distributing film on DVD’s then that’s a different story. Some DVDs allow users to switch voiceovers on and off via the root menu. This is a great way for voiceovers to be used as an alternative to creating a video which has a permanent voiceover burnt in.

So there you have it, whilst we think voice over and subtitling services are important, deciding which is right for you will always come down to a personal decision. Many factors will also play a part in your decision. These may include taking account of cost, target audience and timescales. Ultimately, making the right decision is crucial to maximise you potential audience.

Capital Captions offer translation and voiceover services in a range of different languages. These include French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and more. 

If you’d like to get more information about our dubbing or subtitling services or are after a quote from us for either voiceover or subtitling services, head on over to our quote page and our team will be happy to help.