Logos of ZOO Digital and AVT Masterclass


Welcome to Subtitling From a Template—a course by ZOO Digital and AVT Masterclass.

 About This Course

 

 Who Is This Course For?

• Aspiring Subtitlers: This course is designed for individuals interested in entering the field of subtitling, providing a comprehensive understanding of the craft, from basic timing rules to advanced translation strategies.

• Linguists: Linguists and translators seeking to specialise in subtitling can benefit from this course by honing their skills in timing, text segmentation, and cultural adaptation for effective subtitling in various media formats.

• Media Professionals: Professionals working in media production or localisation who require a deeper understanding of subtitling techniques, including editors, directors, and localisation managers, can enhance their expertise through this course.

NOTE: All translation exercises are conducted from English to your chosen target (native) language, facilitating practical application of the learned concepts.


 Course Outline

Module 1

• Different types of subtitling
• Subtitling vs written text translation
• Temporal and spatial constraints

Module 2

• Basic rules for timing subtitles
• Timecodes
• Shot changes and chaining

Module 3

• What are templates?
• Template types
• How to work with a subtitle template

Module 4

• Reading speed
• Fixing timing issues

Module 5

• Text segmentation
• Line breaks
• Linguistic conventions

Module 6

• Translation strategies
• Cultural references
• Wordplay and humour

Module 7

• Quality assurance
• Technical and linguistic checks
• KNP

Every module has a knowledge check at the end. For the exercises, you will be given access to our cloud based subtitling tool 

At the end, as a special treat, we have included short interviews with some of our trusted and experienced subtitlers, who have shared their perspectives on working in subtitle templates in their language combination.


Course Duration

The number of hours needed to complete the course successfully is around 24 to 30.


Meet Your Trainers

Prof. Agnieszka Szarkowska is the Head of the AVT Lab research group, a Co-founder of AVT Masterclass, and an Honorary Research Associate at University College London. She is a dedicated researcher, academic teacher, and translator trainer. Her research projects have encompassed a wide range of topics, including subtitling, captioning, respeaking, and audio description. Driven by her enthusiasm for education, Agnieszka co-founded AVT Masterclass, an online platform that provides professional audiovisual translation education. Agnieszka is a member of the European Association for Studies in Screen Translation (ESIST) and was awarded the Jan Ivarsson Award in 2022. Profile picture of Agnieszka Szarkowska

Agnieszka Walczak, PhD, is a media accessibility expert, translator and translator trainer. She’s the co-founder of AVT Masterclass. Agnieszka is the author of over 15 publications on audiovisual translation. University lecturer for almost 9 years (Autonomous University of Barcelona, University of Warsaw, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, University of Łódź). Agnieszka combines her academic expertise with experience in the audiovisual localization industry. She has been working as a freelance subtitler and audio describer for various linear and non-linear providers for over 10 years. She has also experience from working with global media production and post-production companies. Member of EST, ESIST and STAW. Profile picture of Agnieszka Walczak

Łukasz Dutka, PhD, is a seasoned audiovisual translator, subtitling trainer, and media accessibility specialist. Co-founder of AVT Masterclass, a former director of the Global Alliance of Speech-to-Text Captioning, and a member of the Management Board at Dostepni.eu, an accessibility services provider. He has worked in postproduction subtitling, live subtitling, SDH, template and pivot template creation, QC and project management, both in-house and as a freelancer for major broadcasters and leading streaming platforms. With a decade of experience in training subtitlers at companies and academic institutions, he is also a member of ESIST, EST, Subtle and STAW. Profile picture of Łukasz Dutka


Buy Course

Subtitling From a Template is now available for a very special price of US$200 only. Please use the button below to purchase your access to this course.

PLEASE NOTE: During checkout, we will ask you for your target language (the language you would be translating your subtitles into), so that we can setup your subtitling streams within the course's exercises accordingly.

Once you're registered we'll setup your personalised environment based on your target language and will notify you via email when you can start the course.