I remember reading somewhere the formatting guidelines on when a text appears on screen.
It could be the film title, a shop name, a hospital name, a letter or SMS on a phone, an inscription or whatever else. Italics only, brackets only, or both?
In these guidelines there is the mention of italics but not of brackets. And yet I remember seeing brackets mentioned somewhere.
Sometimes I see it done thus
[ Min Ho General Hospital ]
with those spaces between the text and the square brackets (versus the normal way in which there is no space)
But was it italics too, or not?
At other times, when it’s not a title or shop sign, but a telephone text, I’ve seen it in italics and "
< i > “Come on quickly, mother is going to kill you! Soon Young” < / i >
(here I’ve put spaces inside the italics formatting for fear that you wouldn’t be able to see them)
I cannot seem to remember. Anyone knows what is the consensus on this?
texts on screen should be between < i>text</ i>
Quote from NSSA guide :
“ITALICS < i> italicised text here < /i>
Italics should be used for flashback scenes (in the beginning of an episode or any other flashbacks a character may have), texts on screen, lyrics, previews, thoughts (anything that comes from the mind including daydreams) and voiceovers.”
In your document it says :
“16) We use Italics [the < and the > with an i in the middle (sorry, if I did the real thing, you wouldn’t see the marking) for any printed material, text messages, and flashbacks of what was said, unspoken thinking, unspoken reminiscing and unspoken dreaming, song lyrics when the singer is not visible live; and speech where the voice is being transmitted over the telephone, radio, or television.”
texts on screen but in a flashback should be between < i>[flashback text on screen]< /i> : it’s like italics needed in a italic situation
Quote from NSSA guide :
“[ ] BRACKETS
Brackets may be used if there are two things requiring italics. That is, if there is text during a flashback scene, text during a preview, etc. In this case, the text should be written with italics and within brackets :
< i> [TEXT ON SCREEN HERE] < /i>”
We never put space just after [ , nor just before ] : it’s exactly the same rule for parentheses.
Oh, that’s where I had seen it! Thanks a lot!
So the only case of brackets is text within a flashback.
What if, in the present, we have both things in the same subtitle? For instance, in the first line there is someone thinking, and in the second line the name of a shop? Shouldn’t we differentiate between the two by putting the text in brackets?
There is no universal standard on Viki.
Personally, I prefer using square brackets for on screen text because too many things get italicized otherwise. And I hate italicizing things.
Edit: I think I’ve used spaces with square brackets before because I didn’t like how it looked when the characters where so clumped together. Though I doubt you saw from me.
@irmar it would look like this I will use more space so character won’t write out:
< i >Where am I right now? < br >[Cafe Bonjour]< /i >
Where am I right now? [Cafe Bonjour]
I believe I have seen [text in brackets] without italics when there was a name on screen written to define the person who was talking without flashback or the name of Shop or a street.
I will take care of the government funding. < br > [Yoon Tae Won]
I will take care of the government funding. [Yoon Tae Won]
This is how the English subtitler wrote it (I am adding spaces so you can see it)
W< / i > < br >< i >Oh Seong Moo< / i >< br > Chapter 325: A Mysterious Assault
These are three different lines of the first page of a comic book.
Yet no brackets. And the third line, the Chapter, is not in italics (I don’t know why it shows in italics here, the second time, when there is no italics marking).
Yeah, it’s true that everyone does as they want. I’m trying to decide on a way and keep it consistent, and put on my guidelines for my team. That’s why I’ve been bothering you here. And your imput so far has really helped me.
I think for the title of any support, you can do as you want. For announcing “episode 1”, I saw many typos with […], ~…~,-…-,< i> or not, etc.
It’s free to your fantasy I think so and you can change it from one drama to another.
My example was not the Episode number for the drama itself.
In the course of the drama, they show the first page of a webtoon on the screen of the cartoonist’s tablet, and it’s the webtoon’s title (which coincidentally has the same title as the drama).
My bad I really didn’t have a clue that you were talking about that, how dense.
I tried but with some actors I just can’t watch, I’m sorry about that and I mean no offense because I have some weido taste.
I really didn’t have a clue that you were talking about that, how dense.