These guidelines are for people familiar with SDH captioning and provide a short addition to our standard transcription guidelines to understand what’s expected when captioning SDH at Happy Scribe.

Any SDH project at Happy Scribe requires the same proofreading as with non-SDH subtitling, with the addition of:

• Dialogue specifications
• Atmospherics
• Speaker labelling
• Music notation

Technical requirements

Technical requirements are, unless otherwise indicated:

• 42 characters per second (CPL)
• 2 lines of subtitle, with preferably the top subtitle being shorter (but give preference to proper line breaks)
• 20 characters per second (CPS)
  • Stretch subtitle by 12 frames or 0.5 seconds past their original out-time to improve CPS.
  • Truncate subtitle by slightly simplying speech (only sparsely do this).
  • Allow CPS to reach 23 CPS as a last resort. No subtitle may reach a higher number.
• Subtitles should last at least 1 second and max. 7 seconds. Atmospherics should never last longer than 3 seconds, even if the sound they describe may be longer.
• All subtitles have a mandatory subtitle gap of at least 2 frames between each other (this is force-enabled).
• Ensure all subtitles are snapped to shot changes according to the requirements (this is force-enabled, but some automatic subtitles may need adjustments to snap).

<aside> ⚠️

If other presets are specified by the style guide, be sure to follow those presets instead.

Review the Transcription and Subtitles Guidelines for language-specific items and for an order of priorization in subtitle formatting.

</aside>

Dialogue

• Dialogue should captured as per normal subtitling standards, but unlike clean-read should include a selected amount of verbatim cues:

  • Filler words (offset by commas).

    1	Y, bueno, como te dije…
    2	Entonces, este, le dije que no.

  • False starts of 3+ words (separated with an ellipsis).

  1	Ayer íbamos por…
  2	Fuimos a ver a…

• Atmospherics that interrupt dialogue should be preceded and succeeded by ellipses.

  | 1 | Solo quisiera… [suspira profundamente] | | --- | --- | | 2 | …poder decirte la verdad. |

Atmospherics

• Sound descriptors are used for sounds made by the surrounding environment, by speakers or when instrumental music plays.

• They should be inserted if dialogue allows it and if they provide relevance (i.e. are not clearly seen and cannot be inferred from dialogue).

• They should last a minimum of 1 second, just like other subtitles. Atmospherics should last a maximum of 3 seconds, even if the sound is heard for longer.

• It is not necessary to add an atmospheric simply because a sound is heard. Focus on atmospherics that introduce the mood or set the backdrop for the scene.

• Atmospherics are formatted in lower-case formatting, with the exception of proper nouns.

  1	[música sombría]
  2	[himno de México]

• Sound effects made by speakers should be in the present simple.

  1	[resopla] ¡Me la suda!
  2	[Ignasi ríe]
  3	[león ruge]

  Speakers’ sound effects can be written in the gerund form if simultaneity needs to be stressed.

  1	[temblando] S-sí, sí lo es.
  2	[cantando] Dónde fuiste, amigo…

• Sound effects from the scene or an unknown source should use a participle or just the noun (if the verb is redundant).

  1	[personas cantando] or [cantando]
  2	[perros ladrando]
  3	[motor de auto acelerando]
  4	[neumáticos rechinando]
  5	[explosión]
  6	[teléfono]
  7	[flash fotográfico]

• When there’s room, prefer to add descriptors that give a more refined representation of the sound.

  ❌	[puerta se abre]
  ✅	[puerta cruje mientras se abre]