For Filmmakers: Subtitles and Letterboxes.. GET IT RIGHT DANGIT!!!!!

[mickey]

Greetings,

This is a rare rant.

I am tired of seeing subtitles positioned in the picture instead of the black portion of the film. It destroys everything. And if the scenery if of similar color to the wording, dialogue is lost.

Please keep the subtitles off the movie print and on the black letterbox portion below.

Thank you,

mickey

PS Can I get an Amen???

[Kevin73]

Yep, big pet peeve of mine. Understandable in a full screen format, but when you purposely have black space at the bottom to maintain that visual aspect of the film why ruin it with putting words over it?

[Jimbo]

I completely agree.

Actually, most if not all of the remastered Shaw Brothers movies I own have their subtitles in the black portion at the bottom of the screen. Also many of the quality releases of older Japanese movies I have are like that, too...some with yellow or other-colored subtitles.

Releases of newer movies are annoying in that regard, though. Not only that, but newer movies in widescreen tend to have fully 50% of the screen blacked out, leaving only a small picture in between. Which makes any subtitles almost unreadable, especially since they're tiny AND on the picture. This may be fine if your TV is wall-sized, but if it's in the normal-sized range it's a challenge to watch.

[GeneChing]

...but I do like fan subs too. Sometimes, like badly dubbed old Shaw brothers films, that improves my experience of the film.