ugh.. that is so odd..

handbrake's preview option doesn't help?

Well, things are still weird, but I think I've mostly solved the subtitle problem.

It took Handbrake well over two hours, but ran into a new problem which I don't understand. When it finishes, normally the file shows on my desktop as a video file. That is, it's icon shows the first image in the video and it's info says it's a mp4 file. But this file never did that - it looks like a document icon. It doesn't have a file extension!

Yet I could open it with VLC and the movie played fine. But I couldn't bring it into iTunes which is my goal.

Anyway, I saw a number of those apostrophes that I missed so I watched the whole section (27 minutes) and every time I found a bad one, I immediately edited it on the .srt file.

And Handbrakes is working on another version - hope this one doesn't screw up!

But even if it doesn't, I may still have to repeat this again because I think there may be a problem with "..." characters. I reentered them, but I think it will still screw up. After you enter then - and it looks more like ". . .", as soon as you press ENTER, they change to the closer spacing and that apparently is interpreted as something different so I get garbage again.

But we'll see. If it does, I'll just have to find some other way of expressing it. It only happens twice, I think.

Thanks a lot though, for the suggestion that it could be the text language that caused that problem. It does seem to be the case.

i use notepad as much as possible.. but windows 7 seems to have added some auto-formatting to it.. now nowhere's safe

dabigkahuna wrote:

If I don't figure out something soon, I'd be glad to send you what I have (which is the combined three parts of the "making of" movie as well as the .srt file as far as it goes). But how do I get it to you? And if I do figure it out, I'd be glad to send you the results so far.

Can you just email me the .srt file?

I'll just rip the Making Of video from my DVD and try to merge the subs with it...

bmwracer wrote:

Can you just email me the .srt file? I'll just rip the Making Of video from my DVD and try to merge the subs with it...

Yeah, I can do that but need an email address! The file has lots of extra stuff in it from the main movie but you can just delete that stuff out. There is also the question of whether or not my copy starts exactly the same place as yours. If not, you'd have to adjust all the times!

I think I have the problem (except for the blank space) just about solved. Only had time to check the first four minutes, but so far no text problems (haven't gotten to the "..." parts yet). And I have gotten it into itunes so when I have a break at school, I'll watch the rest, looking for errors.

UPDATE: Latest version seemed to fix the text - and then I spotted a typo! Oh well, the professional version of the movie had a typo too. But I'm making yet another copy and hope I don't find more!

Another UPDATE: Just watched the latest video version. Didn't spot any errors, though that doesn't mean they're not any! One thing I do need to check is the actor's names to see if the tranlation matches the official spelling of names in English. Heck, I don't even knoww for sure if the spelling in the translation is the same every time!

Outside of that, I'd say the only things I need for what I have so far would be a proper sized video of as good a quality as possible. Of course, that would apply to the original movie and "First and last Concert" as well. Still, it's a lot of progress so far.

Something to check to see if your vid starts the same place mine does.

When I start my video, the timer changes to the three Japanese characters (just after the "Waterboys" intro) a small fraction of a second after the clock says 12 seconds played.

dabigkahuna wrote:

Something to check to see if your vid starts the same place mine does. When I start my video, the timer changes to the three Japanese characters (just after the "Waterboys" intro) a small fraction of a second after the clock says 12 seconds played.

I'll take a look when I get home.

Not much to report except that I saw the lady who has helped me with the translation and, while I don't have more from her yet, she did say she was working on the second part of the "making of" vid.

She did tell me it gives a lot more stuff about the girls' frustrations.

Well, at least we should eventually have more stuff. I always worry that it might just be too much and I won't get more.

dabigkahuna wrote:

Something to check to see if your vid starts the same place mine does. When I start my video, the timer changes to the three Japanese characters (just after the "Waterboys" intro) a small fraction of a second after the clock says 12 seconds played.

I just checked and that's pretty much what the start of part 1 does on my DVD.

bmwracer wrote:

I just checked and that's pretty much what the start of part 1 does on my DVD.

Then the first part of the file would probably work unchanged for you, but since all three are combined into one on my computer, the rest would need to be redone (whenever I actually get it done!). Or maybe you could make another copy of yours that combines them while still keeping your original, separate, vids.

Okay, update time.

First, people who can't find obtain a good copy of the movie might want to check out :

http://www.filestube.com/aIKmmn4Puk8wHlUCXKqfI8

Unpacking the 12 files gives you a 9.5 gb .mkv file of pretty darn good quality.

It takes forever to download each file - at least if you don't buy a membership. Also, without a membership, they'll limit how much you can download. So you might download one, try to download another, it get a message that says you have to wait 3 hours before doing another.

As for the "making of" vids, I have no more translated yet. I think it is being worked on, but apparently the second one isn't done.

Next, I did take the pictures that I was sent from the DVD that relate to movie data and asked a student if they could translate them. No luck. A few words here and there was all they could do.

There are two sets - one of 12 pics with a good amount of Japanese writing on each. In fact, the picture is all writing.

The second set has 60 actual pictures, each with a small amount of writing - and I think all include dates so I'm hoping some will be of interest to me.

There are also other videos from the DVD of their trips and such - no subtitles! I don't know if I'll ever get those translated. It's a lot of work for the person helping me. Consider they gave me the translation for the first part of the "making of" vids in mid December and I don't have the second part yet!

I think if I threw more at them, they'd go insane! Now, if I can find someone else to translate other parts, that would be good.

Hello, I just discovered the Swing Girls move this past December and am hooked like everyone else. I thought I was the only one who watched it more than 5 times. I had a lot of questions about the movie and this site answered many of them, but I have a few more I would like to ask. Do you mind if I join in this conversation? Thanks

pete08757 wrote:

Hello, I just discovered the Swing Girls move this past December and am hooked like everyone else. I thought I was the only one who watched it more than 5 times. I had a lot of questions about the movie and this site answered many of them, but I have a few more I would like to ask. Do you mind if I join in this conversation? Thanks

Welcome...!

Ask away...

Hi – I�fm glad to be able to speak with other Swing Girls fans. I do have some questions so here they are.

I live near to NYC and have been attempting to locate photos and/or videos associated with the SG�fs NYC trip (I wish I was aware of them when they were here). Are there any available for down load that anyone is aware of? Most links listed in this forum are now dead.

I would like to know if any of the cast members of the Swing Girls had prior musical experience. Some sites claim an open cast call was made at a local high school for teens with musical experience but I think that was for the brass band and not the main cast members.

I can�ft seem to find any current information on Toyoshima Yukari, has she retired from showbiz?

At the baseball game the crowd starts to chant what sounds like to me as �gom nay kit�h (I�fm sure I have that all screwed up). I know what the subtitle says but when the subtitle is placed in Google Translate I get a Japanese phrase 4 times longer and is nothing like what they are chanting. Any thoughts on that? Also, anyone know where that ball park is located?

Many web sites list the cast by their real names and the names of the characters they played. Example: Juri Ueno as Tomoko Suzuki and Yuika Motokariya as Kaori Sekiguchi and so on. I noticed in the movie that some of the characters like Tomoko and Yoshie are referred to by their 1st names while others are referred to by their last names like Sekiguchi and Nakamura. Any reason for that?

Some sites claim the SG missed the train stop at Akayu and get off at Ringo instead. That makes no sense since Akayu seems to be the start (or end) of the Flower Nagai Line and there are 3 stations between there and Ringo. From what I gather filming took place all over Yamagata Prefecture so maybe it was those locations where they filmed.

I read somewhere that the high school used in the movie was demolished, is that true?

Comments: I�fm impressed that someone is translating various SG videos that do not have subtitles. That seems like a monumental task.
I have the movie on DVD (purchased from a guy in Singapore). I was able to down load their final concert and cut 2 DVDs from that. I�fm now I�fm looking for the �gMaking of�h video, been attempting via a torrent but there seems to be no seeders around.

Arigatō

Can't help with much.

From what I've learned, none of the cast played the instruments before that they used in the movie. Some never played anything at all (Juri already played piano, but not sax).

Watching the "making of" videos, it sure looks to me that the stars at least didn't play anything even remotely like their movie instruments - someone who played, say, flute, would make faster initial progress in switching to a sax or something. I'm still waiting on the translation of the second "making of" movie (and the third) which might give more info.

I saw in credit stuff a reference to a school name (I think) which I believe is the source of the other players in the movie. Haven't gotten that text translated yet though.

Translations are, well, weird sometimes. The person helping me with the translation told me she knows someone who does this and commented that they tend to keep things short (while I'm trying to make things as complete as reasonably possible). Thus they'll shorten statement to a minimum often or even leave things out. For example, the scene near the end where the announcer says something and Juri jumps up suddenly - no translation! What the heck did he say that caused that?

I had a student who speaks some Japanese tell by a couple possibilities and neither sounded quite right, but they led me to another possibility: "It's all yours" - a common statement to use with performers. She told me that would work too.

And the person who is translating the other things for me - sometimes I'll hear a lot of talking, but only get a short translation. I don't know if that is simply because the statement is longer but essentially repetitive or what. Other times I'll get longer translations for a shorter statement. Go figure!

I find those translation programs to be pretty poor, btw.

Not sure about how the names are presented on screen vs web sites, but aren't Tomoko and Yoshie in the movie always referred to by just their first names and Nakamura pretty much by his last?

Don't think the train stops matter. I suspect they were just selected for appearance, not actual location. It's like the Elvis Presley movie, Blue Hawaii. I live in Hawaii and following where he is driving, sometimes it follows the right order and other times it is way off.

You are correct - the translating is a huge task. I'm limited by when I get info from the Japanese lady helping me. Last one I got was in mid-December.

And then I have to put it into an .srt file with the correct timing (and I try to get it pretty much exactly right on timing so many repetitions on checking) and adjust the words to fit better, etc.

I also heard that Japanese folks use as few words as possible to make their point, which is not a bad idea for them but makes translation harder. "Om nay kit" could be a local chant too, who knows. I'm starting lessons to learn Japanese, I'll ask my instructor what she thinks.

I believe you are correct with the school mentioned in the credits, I also feel that's where the brass band players came from. When you look at those kids they do look a lot younger than the main characters.

Yes, in the movie Tomoko and Yoshie are referred to by their 1st names while Takuo Nakamura, Kaori Sekiguchi, and Naomi Tanaka are referenced by their last names. I don't loose sleep over this but I was just wondering why. I remember from my own high school days that some kids were called by their last names so it could be as simple as that.

I'm not all that technical but I understand the concept of .srt files. You have your work cut out for you, good luck with it. I take my hat off to you for your efforts.

Do you know anything about their NY tour or where I can down load the "making of" video? Those are the 2 items I would like to add to my SG collection. Thanks.

I enjoy this forum and will continue to monitor it and contribute whenever I can.

pete08757 wrote:

Do you know anything about their NY tour or where I can down load the "making of" video? Those are the 2 items I would like to add to my SG collection. Thanks.

I can upload those two for you to download... But I'm not sure where, since a lot of those sites (e.g., Megaupload) have been shut down...

Any suggestions on a site?

Thanks for the offer but I have no experience with down loading files except via torrents. I looked real quick but I can't find anywhere to do this, I guess they are out of business as you say. I will look into this more and see what I can find. Thanks again.

I found these file sharing sites, let me know if you feel comfortable with any of them:

http://www.filedropper.com/
http://www.dropsend.com/
https://rapidshare.com/
http://www.filesnack.com/

Thanks

pete08757 wrote:

Thanks for the offer but I have no experience with down loading files except via torrents. I looked real quick but I can't find anywhere to do this, I guess they are out of business as you say. I will look into this more and see what I can find. Thanks again.

Yeah, I can do the torrent thing, but I wouldn't know which site to put up the torrent.

Or can I just forward the torrent directly to you and you can have at it (is that possible?)?