Reliable multilingual subtitling

How can you produce synchronised subtitles and an accurate translation without distorting what is said on camera?

1250 € per session, excl. VAT

In short

In a half-day session of 3 hours you create French subtitles and an English translation for a short fictional video. Using a tool authorised by your organisation, you correct the transcript, adjust the segments, check the meaning and export usable files, accompanied by a quality report.

Why this training?

A plausible transcript can change a time, confuse a proper name or omit a negation. Once it becomes a subtitle, that error is distributed with the video and may be reproduced in every translation. Readability also depends on segmentation and display duration. AI helps suggest wording, but listening, bilingual proofreading and checking in the player remain necessary to preserve meaning and reading comfort. Ongoing case study: The fictional organisation Avelune Médiation is preparing a two-minute video presenting an exhibition route. Two speakers, a proper name, times and background noise require careful transcription, followed by French and English subtitles for the website’s video player. Transfer to the workplace: For a future authorised video, reuse the glossary and checklist, compare issues before and after correction, then have the translation proofread before publication.

Objectives of this training

  • Correct a transcript by checking every uncertain passage against the audio.
  • Segment subtitles according to meaning and display duration.
  • Translate dialogue while respecting terminology, register and reading constraints.
  • Export and test SRT or VTT files for the target player.
  • Measure issues with accuracy, synchronisation and readability.

Who is it for and what are the prerequisites?

Roles and tasks concerned

  • Communications officers who publish interviews or video presentations.
  • Educational content creators and audiovisual assistants producing multilingual adaptations.

Prior skills

  • Have previous experience of making simple requests to an AI assistant.
  • Be able to work with video files and understand enough English to discuss translation suggestions.

What you will work on

  1. Define the scope of the video and its uses

    Objective: Define distribution constraints and safeguard data. Languages, audience, separate or burnt-in subtitles; video rights, speakers’ consent, confidentiality and AI assistance disclosures under the applicable rules. Vigilance regarding deepfakes: verify provenance and do not fabricate statements.

  2. Transcribe and synchronise

    Objective: Produce an accurate and readable French version. Recognition errors, speakers, punctuation, timestamps and syntactic breaks. Distinguish dialogue from sound cues useful for accessibility.

  3. Translate without distorting meaning

    Objective: Adapt the English to subtitling constraints. An instruction specifying context, register, glossary and preservation of time identifiers; condensation without additions, false friends and cultural expressions.

  4. Check and export

    Objective: Validate the files and document their limitations. SRT/VTT structure, encoding, accents, overlaps, reading speed and testing in the target player.

What you take away

  • Corrected French transcript with uncertain passages flagged.
  • Bilingual glossary and reusable translation instruction.
  • Two subtitle files, in French and English, in the selected format.
  • Completed checklist and record of corrections.

Method and assessment

  • Short input sessions followed by immediate practice on the ongoing case study.
  • Individual work followed by work in pairs, with peer review of the outputs.
  • Guided group discussion: what works, what needs correcting and what remains a human decision.
  • Preparation: Arrange headphones, a computer and a tool authorised by your organisation; check the actual transcription, editing and export capabilities. Make the fictional or anonymised video, its usage authorisation and a short bilingual glossary available; prepare a backup transcript.

Observable criteria: Proper names, times and negations match the audio; no uncertainty is concealed. ; Segments follow the exercise guidelines: a maximum of two lines and a target of 17 characters per second. ; Subtitles do not overlap and their synchronisation is checked during playback. ; The translation preserves the information and uses the glossary terms. ; Files open in the target player; issues before and after correction are counted by category..

Frequently asked questions

Do you need to command the target language?

Sufficient understanding is necessary for the exercise. For a language you do not command, arrange validation by a competent person before publication.

Can you use a real interview?

The exercises use only fictional or anonymised cases, with rights and consent verified, within authorised tools.

Is dubbing covered?

No. The session covers subtitles and their translation, without speech synthesis or facial modification.

Are automatic subtitles sufficient?

They provide a starting point that needs checking: accuracy, synchronisation, readability and sound cues require human review.

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