one of the multimedia producers came to me last week and explained that she had an upcoming project that has more than one language in the audio – meaning we would need to use subtitles. at the time we didn’t have a plugin available to implement subtitles. previous to this, the latest effort at using subtitles was this project on yankees pitcher chien-ming wang. it’s a really nice project and the producer did what many would do and that’s build the subtitles into the picture – literally. that means that in photoshop he overlayed the subtitle and then saved the picture. so the subtitle is baked right in.
however, you run into all kinds of problems with this implementation. the biggest is that the subtitle is then tied directly to the duration of that photo on the screen. what happens when you have several photos go by in the time of one subtitles – or more commonly – several subtitles that need to advance in the time of only one photo?
i decided to handle this by building a plugin to read a XML file that contains the subtitles and timings and to display them independent of the photo cuepoints. this way you can have timings that work with the audio, and operate independently of the photos. it also adds the ability to turn on and off the subtitles (in case you are bilingual and not interested in having subtitles cover the photos). although this feature has been called into question as being useless (but i don’t think that’s the case).
anyhow, this new feature was rolled out not in the most recent chapter in the African children feature, ‘Ghana.’ (which i find to be an incredibly moving set of pieces). let me know what you think.
what does the j.x. stand for?
also, why is the new section (madagascar) so long?
j.x. stand for my two middle names:
Joseph Xavier
the new section is long. i agree. too long probably. but i wasn’t responsible for the newest section (that person is on vacation). i did feel that it was a really powerful story, though. with very powerful images and narration. so do you shorten it at the expense of the content?
what do u think kat?
On provocation, I watched it again. I liked it better the second time.
I agree that the images are powerful and the story is strong, but it is very difficult to listen to a person narrate for ten and a half minutes. It seems like she is just reading…? What kind of voice training do the reporters have? Some ambient sounds or subject narration would make an enormous quality difference — do you have any idea if that was a possibility? The photographer seems to have gotten good access. The last story in the presentation (Kenia), is very long. I think the presentation could be stronger if the message was more concentrated because, although beautiful, some of the images are repetitive. I’m wondering which comes first, the narration or the images?
I have a feeling it was the narration, because otherwise it would not have been so long.
as far as i know, kat, the reporters have no voice training. they’re writers who are basically doing us the favor of calling in and giving us a summary of their story. ambient sounds aren’t really a possibility yet, but as more photographers with multimedia experience (such as yourself) enter into the workforce, i expect that to change.
subject narration would be good. but that’s hard to do right. it is something we’re looking at pursuing however.
i wouldn’t say that the narration or the images come first. both are flexible. we’re allowed to cut the audio as we see fit. same with the photos. it’s the idea of the total package.
in the end, though, i totally agree. 10+ minutes is probably 5+ minutes too long.