Soul Sisters (双兔) Fan Subtitling Project: Call for Participants and Interest Check

[douqi]

[ETA: Thanks everyone for your enthusiasm and generosity in volunteering your time and skills! I'll leave this post pinned for a week or so in case there are further expressions of interest, but I think we've got enough people on the team to start work. Since Discord seems to work for everyone, I'll start setting up a project server and hope to get it up and running by the end of the week/early next week, then I'll send everyone invites. Thanks again!]

As discussed here, here and here, Soul Sisters (双兔, pinyin: shuang tu) was released recently on iQiyi with MTL subtitles. Some people expressed interest in having/working on proper English subtitles, so this is a post about that.

I'm happy to organise (unless someone else wants to — if so please let me know!) a comm project for putting together English fan subtitles for the show. If you are interested in having/working on them, please make a comment below to indicate this. I will pin this post and leave it up for a couple of weeks. I have not organised a fandom project like this before so please let me know if I've missed anything out or there's something I haven't thought of.

Subtitling tasks

We will need people to do the following jobs:

• Translator: This role involves translating the subtitles from Chinese to English I'm happy to do the bulk of this and to do it by myself if necessary, but it would be helpful to have another person on this task if possible. You would obviously need to be comfortable with quasi-historical Chinese and English.
  
• Editor: This role involves reviewing the subtitles for flow and (if possible accuracy). Ideally I would like two editors, one of whom is comfortable enough with Chinese to check for accuracy and potentially suggest alternative interpretations. However, this is not essential and we could make do with one editor who is comfortable reading just English.
  
• Timer: This role involves creating the subtitle script containing the timings for each line. Familiarity with Chinese is obviously helpful, but I'm not sure it's 100% essential given that the raw videos have Chinese hardsubs that provide reasonably clear indications as to the beginning and end of most lines. It would be helpful to have up to two people doing this task. The timer may also be asked to do some minor typesetting for translations of text that appears on screen but not in dialogue (we can have a discussion as a team about how to best present this text).
  
• Encoder: This role involves combining the subtitle files with the raw video files, if we go for a hardsub release option (see below). One person should be sufficient.
  
• Quality control: The role involves watching through the videos with the subtitles to make sure all is as it should be and to catch typos, errors, etc. One to two people should be sufficient.

If you would like to take on more than one task, you are welcome to do so, and please feel free to say so in the comments.

Raw videos

I have the raw videos for all the episodes in reasonable albeit not best quality. I think these should be sufficient to work from. If anyone is able to get hold of the best-quality versions, please let me know.

Communication

I'm happy to set up a separate comm for project-related communications, or a Discord server if people are comfortable using that. Please also feel free to suggest other communication methods.

Output

We can have a discussion about whether people prefer hardsubbed videos, soft subs, whether to limit it to comm members and our friends, etc. There is also a question about where to host the files (YouTube is probably a no go, due to their copyright strike system). There is a browser extension that I use which will let us overlay soft subs onto iQiyi videos directly, and viewers will be able to access this if they have a subscription to the videos on iQiyi and are prepared to install the browser extension. This is another possible option. I'm vaguely aware that iQiyi has some sort of functionality that allows viewers to submit user-generated subtitles, but one of my red lines is that I don't do free labour for large corporations who cannot be bothered to do it properly themselves.

What to do if you're interested

Comment on this post indicating which task(s) you'd like to take on, any limits on time availability/commitment, and your preferred method(s) of project-related communication.

If you are interested in having subtitles, but don't have the time/capacity to commit to a task, please could you also comment on the post to indicate this, and also indicate your preferred format(s) for viewing the subtitles in. Seeing evidence of enthusiasm is always really encouraging!

Comments

[wolffyluna]

I unfortunately don't have the skills or time to help with the subtitles, but I would definitely be interested in having subtitles for Soul Sisters!

I have a slight preference for subtitles hosted off iQiyi, just because I have had some technical difficulties with their site in the past, but I would also be willing to try the iQiyi + browser extension method if that works best for everyone else.

[skuzzybunny]

Thank you for organizing this! I'm stoked to make this more accessible for people.

Right now with time and other projects I think I'm best suited for quality control, though my chinese & english is competent enough that if you do end up pressed for editing help I'm happy to jump in as well.

I'd ideally prefer discord or email for communication, as those I check more regularly than here- but I'm happy to be flexible for whatever works best for you.

[forestofglory]

I don't think I have skills or time to help but I would love fansubs for Soul Sisters! I'm not too sure what different formats are out there but I'm ok with anything that doesn't' require much faff.

[llonkrebboj]

\o Volunteering for editor and/or quality control, whichever is needed. Doubling for both is also fine. I'm comfortable with listening and reading in Chinese and am generally available on weekends.

Communication on discord works!

[aurumcalendula]

I can help with timing! I'm not familiar with Chinese, but I have have experience making .srt subtitles for fanvids.

I will be very excited if someone manages to get a hold of the best quality versions of the episodes (I managed to screen record the episodes without logos, but I think the frame rate's a bit wonky).

I generally prefer softsubs, but I don't mind hardsubs if they're in the letterbox.

[skuzzybunny]

as far as episodes, i have 1080p versions, but nothing better i can find at the moment

[geraineon]

Interested in having subtitles! No skills! I can cheerlead or if you need another qc I can standby.

Edited to add: iqiyi overlay is a good idea!

[laine4466]

Interested in helping out! Would like to help being an editor or QC because I'm not confident enough to come up with the EN output for quasi-historical text, but I'm willing to give it a try if it's needed (with some guidance). Discord is my most preferred communication channel but as long as there's any communication it will be fine for me

timer, encoder, and quality control

[avawatson]

Hi, I've never worked on this sort of thing in a group before, just solo, but this came across my timeline on bsky and I thought I would volunteer! I can definitely take on timing and encoding if you still need someone. So soft subs or hard subs, I can do either/both. Also very happy to do quality control. I'm not confident in my editing or translation, but I have a little bit of competence in Mandarin, enough to volunteer for QA at least.

Comms: Discord works well for me, but I'm open to other platforms too. I'm not normally active on dreamwidth, but could work it into my regular sites to check if I'm part of a project and all.

For time commitment, I'm a full time parent and I do freelance work on the side, but I don't have anything on the horizon that I would expect to make me completely unavailable, especially for more than 2-3 days at a time. I would expect to be able to sit down and put in some time in most nights, which I imagine should be more than enough time for this? But again, I've not done this in a group project before, so please let me know if I'm underestimating time requirements.

[halfcactus]

As much as I'd love to help, my computer situation makes it impossible, so I'll just be cheering everyone on! I was also hoping to watch this with a friend, so I'm definitely interested in subtitles. :')

Re: Output - Youtube/Vimeo + softsubs are my personal preference, but hardsubs are easier for watchparties, I think! Dailymotion has features for soft subbing and password protection, but I can't remember if the password protection is available for free users. I think Dailymotion also doesn't have the same space restrictions that Vimeo has... It's just that it has ads and is a pain to embed, lol.

[halfcactus]

Btw, re: platforms

Discord is probably the best one because filesharing is easier (as much as I like DW community posts for status updates and links), I've previously used Telegram for fansubbing collaboration, since the file size limit is, idk, 1-2GB, so we could freely send each other videos. But this is more because myself and my collaborator were already on Telegram haha.

[douqi]

Thank you for the support! And that's helpful to know re: technical difficulties with iQiyi.

[douqi]

Amazing! I'll put you down for QC in that case. And thanks for publicising the project!

I've also just got hold of the 1080p versions — I think that should be enough to work with for now.

It looks like Discord works for most people, so I'll start setting a project server up now and send out invites in about a week or so.

[douqi]

Thanks, and especially for being flexible regarding roles! I'll put you down for either editor or QC depending on what else people are volunteering to do (I'm still sorting through all the expressions of interest).

It looks like Discord works for most people, so I'll start setting a project server up now and send out invites in about a week or so.

[douqi]

Amazing! I'll put you down for timer then.

And I'll shortly put up the 1080p versions of the episodes so hopefully you'll have something to vid from.

Does Discord work for you?

[douqi]

Thank you! Cheerleading is a super important role :) And I appreciate the offer to QC if necessary, though I think we might just have enough people on that at the moment.

[douqi]

Thanks for volunteering! I'll put you down for either editor or QC depending on where we have gaps (still sorting through everyone's messages).

It looks like Discord works for most people, so I'll start setting a project server up now and send out invites in about a week or so.

[aurumcalendula]

Awesome!

Discord works for me!

(now in the correct thread)

Re: timer, encoder, and quality control

[douqi]

Thank you for volunteering! I'l put you down for timing and encoding then.

Re: time requirements — I think we can be pretty free and easy, since this is a fan project after all, and I definitely wouldn't want anyone to burn themselves out fansubbing a show!

It looks like Discord works for most people, so I'll start setting a project server up now and send out invites in about a week or so.

[douqi]

Thank you! And I hope your computer woes get sorted soon. That's really helpful to know re: platforms, softsubs and hardsubs (I also find those aspects of Dailymotion annoying. Also it once thought I was uploading porn because of all the bathing scenes in Led Astray by Love).

[douqi]

Thanks! Sounds like either hardsubs or softsubs + an easily accessible hosting site then. Helpful to know!

Re: timer, encoder, and quality control

[avawatson]

Awesome, thank you! I'm excited!

[yueliangist]

very late but i'm interested in helping out! currently have a pretty good base in chinese and willing to do lots of research to help translate if needed! could also edit, or help out wherever needed.

i use discord the most.

[halfcactus]

Hi Douqi! I was wondering how this project is coming along and if you still need more hands?

[douqi]

Thanks for checking in! I think we've got everyone we need now for the moment (and I need to stop holding everyone up and actually do some translating...)