A suggested subtitle workflow with markers and XML via web collaboration

A suggested subtitle workflow with markers and XML via Internet

Sometimes you may want to start with subtitling at an early state of your project -- or you might be forced to do that.
Using markers in FCP could be a good approach, especially if you have to collaborate with others who also own FCP.

Below some ideas and screen shots

First create the "Selects"
Then export the sequence to low-res format. Best would Photo JPEG 50% half-size with no field dominance.

Below an example "Selects" screenshot - clips are already switched to "not visible" after the export was done.

Now import the the low-res file into your project and add it to track V2.
The below screenshot of the "Selects" now with the low-res mov (the low-res is set to locked so later on markers can't be placed there
by accident. The audio can be locked as well)
As you see the render bar will go to "orange". The reason is that the low-res file is not the original sequence format and only half size.
In this case it doesn't matter as there is no need for high quality playout.
This sequence will be exported as XML. Then it will be uploaded to a web/ftp server along with the low-res file (or maybe send as mail).

At the remote place the XML will be opened with FCP (or imported into a project)
The low-res movie will be re-connected and markers for subtitle will be applied to the "offline clips". When setting up the marker
you could enter the actual text as title and some comments like the language which could be helpful -- with my example I got 4 spoken
languages and finally we needed 6 translated languages. Also duration could be helpful at a later state - but it's not needed.

The sequence will look like below after setting markers to the "offline clips".
Using the markers for the offline clips will assure that "at home" each of those clips will get the marker info at the correct timecode without
any tedious user interaction.
For other porpuses you can still add markers to the sequence level (which can't be locked) or to the low-res mov by unlocking it.
This sequence will be exported as XML and sent back to the editor. The low-res might be deleted temporary for the XML export,
depending on the information workflow.

Back home, the XML will be imported into the project.
Slight changes to the XML ( either manually or using a script) could make that a bit more seamless, as the original "Selects" can be
replaced without any user action.
Clips might need to be re-connected (depending on FCP version) and the low-res file might have to be deleted (or not) - it depends.
So the new timeline may look like below - with all the title markers applied.
Now you can drag those clips to a bin and use them as masters for editing.

During process of editing you can review markers with an ctrl-click on the clip - so even though they are not displayed in the Canvas overlay it's quite easy:

Up to this point you did only use the FCP "board means". All titles are "floating" with your edit. You don't have to move generators to keep them in sync with your cut and you don't have to wait for them to render.

But at later state you might need some more control or real titles. This will require some external help - there is no "way out" for markers, especially clip markers. But XML is your friend here again.
During any state of editing you can export the timeline as XML and process it with either your own script or app or a third party app like my xmlRead.

So if the below would be an intermediate or the final cut you can use my xmlRead, import the XML and use it's find feature to step thru the markers.

In the app itself you also can view all the markers and their settings (currently there is no "save back" to XML, but that's not that important with this workflow)

For final or intermediate playouts with subtitles (or just for review translations) there are some export options to text with xmlRead:

The actual text export could/would look like this
# Verstehen sie mich? 01:00:00:21 01:00:00:21
# no idea 01:00:03:09 01:00:03:09
# keine Ahnung 01:00:05:10 01:00:05:10
# Stop talking … 01:00:08:02 01:00:08:02
# keine Ahnung 01:00:09:15 01:00:09:15
# Was ist ihr problem? 01:00:11:05 01:00:11:05
# Können sie sagen, wo mein Vater ist 01:00:15:00
# Jemand hat angerufen … 01:00:17:14 01:00:17:14
It's easy to use Excel to modify this to a STL format (or for me to modify my app so that it would export the below STL directly).

But as you see there is no real timing for those titles - as they are currently all 1 frame long, because I didn't set a duration for the markers. But that isn't a real problem as you can set a simple duration with in my app.
Another "not yet there" thing is that I will add an export option for Bouke's SubBits .ebs format. Subbits will allow an easier timing and formating of these "real" subtitles as within FCP.

But as said the above text easily can be converted to an STL text file:
01:00:00:21, 01:00:00:21, Verstehen sie mich?
01:00:03:09, 01:00:03:09, no idea
01:00:05:10, 01:00:05:10, keine Ahnung
01:00:08:02, 01:00:08:02, Stop talking …
01:00:09:15, 01:00:09:15, keine Ahnung
01:00:11:05, 01:00:11:05, Was ist ihr problem?
01:00:15:00, 01:00:15:00, Können sie sagen, wo mein Vater ist
01:00:17:14, 01:00:17:14, Jemand hat angerufen …

This STL (or a Subbits .ebs) file then can be used with TitleExchange to create the actual generators at a final state.

The STL can also be used for DVDSP or other DVD authoring apps.

This workflow also would allow to setup subtitles for multiple languages as shown with the generator entries in the example above.