Freebie Film Tip #14: The Joy of Subtitles

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Get out the popcorn. It's November.

Freebie Film Tip #14: The Joy of Subtitles

Someone has already noticed: Youtube's auto-generated subtitles suck. Oh, but they suck in such interesting ways…and people misunderstand songs so creatively… Today, let's enjoy misunderstanding everybody.

Today's Short Subjects: The first short subject goes right to the heart of the question, 'Why do we need a babel fish, and could it handle O-Zone?' Was your reaction to Dragostea din tei, also known as the Numa Numa Song, to shout 'Do Not Want!'? Well, sure, but this listener's take on what the song lyrics mean is, frankly, more interesting than the real lyrics. Enjoy, if you can.

Now, we're going to watch a Dracula movie, so we need to get into the mood for really bad Dracula. So we can't watch Christopher Lee, because he was good at it. Jonathan Frid, on the other hand, defines helpless vampire portrayal. Frid's Barnabas Collins not only had to contend with witches, encroaching dawn, a lovestruck mad scientist, and melodramatic dialogue, but also had to worry about bad camera placement, misplaced fangs, and self-destructing sets. He was our hero on Dark Shadows.

Now you're ready for today's challenge: watching Youtube.

Today's Feature Film: Some fan on Youtube liked Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula. But the hearing-impaired complained (I can relate). So they used the auto-generator for subtitles. The result is breathtaking. The film's in English, and features some Romanian actors working together with US ones, including Peter Weller, who amazes me with what he'll do. (He must really need the work.) Oh, and the guy who's playing Vlad Tepes also played Dracula in a guest appearance on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. Watch some of it for fun, or the whole thing if you dare. It's not history as we know it, Jim. But boy, it livens up a dark November evening.

None of this is new, but hey, as Barenaked Ladies are wont to remind us, It's All Been Done Before. Auto-generated subtitles have been disabled for this video.

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