You Know Who Else Used Subtitles?

January 15, 2008 5:20 PM

How do I make my own subtitled Hitler clip from this scene in Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich?

I have three questions:
1. Does someone out there have this scene without the subtitles? I have a fast connection and I will set up an FTP site so someone with the clip can upload it.
2. Failing that, how do I get this scene from the DVD?
3. I have a Mac equipped with AfterEffects. Will this software work for adding my own subtitles?

Mefites with experience in such things are encouraged to contact me by emailing matt at fandango dot net.

Thanks, everyone!

posted by fandango_matt to media & arts (7 comments total)

Use Handbrake to rip the DVD into a mp4 file. Find the clip, copy and paste it into a new file...
posted by schwa at 5:37 PM on January 15

To clarify fandango_matt's problem, the subtitles are part of the original video in the U.S. releases... there is no subtitle track. I just tried to help him using my own copy, but alas, no dice. Looks like one would have to snag a German release of this movie.
posted by crapmatic at 6:31 PM on January 15

You can't.

(not unless your purpose is to produce a Hitler video guide to staying safe in MetaFilter, eg with Hitler having been banned for self-linking, or something, or dare I suggest, representing some kind of benevolent leader of some kind of web site thing completely unrelated to this place)
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:15 PM on January 15

IIRC, the original R2/4 release has switched (i.e. not burned) subtitles, with the English subtitles turned on by default. Unfortunately, the Collectors Edition owned by a friend has burned subtitles :-(

After Effects isn't really the thing for doing subtitles. IIRC, you can do it by creating a text layer (not sure if this requires a plugin like RichEdit?) for each subtitle appearance, then placing/sizing it appropriately in the timeline. For anything other than a very short clip, though, it becomes extremely unwieldy.
posted by Pinback at 7:16 PM on January 15

I'd bet some members over at opensubtitles.com would know a lot about this.
posted by aerotive at 7:28 PM on January 15

Have a look at Overstream.
posted by worldshift at 5:28 AM on January 17

Another tool is BubblePLY. I've blogged about these here.
posted by worldshift at 5:55 AM on January 18