Deluxe’s localization team was tasked with providing English and German subtitles for the Berlin Film Festival screening of Watergate, a documentary from A+E Networks which tells the story of the conspiracy led by President Nixon and his White House staff and how they were brought to justice. A+E enlisted Deluxe’s subtitling production team to handle the creation of both English and German subtitles ahead of the festival. Because of the historical nature of the project, accuracy in translation was essential. “Attention to detail was paramount on this project,” said Magda Jagucka, Deluxe’s Director of Operations, Subtitling. “Our global team coordinated closely with two of our in-territory-based leading German translators to ensure consistency of style and historical terms.”

Much of the footage in the documentary included high contrast black and white graphics and archival footage of magazine clippings and government documents. In order to ensure subtitles were legible throughout the film the Deluxe team employed a custom subtitle display using opaque and semi-transparent boxes so they would stand out from the footage.

The Deluxe team delivered HQ ProRes videos with English-German burnt-in subtitles. The final product was screened at the Berlin Film Festival on Feb 11 as a Berlinale Special.

Watergate was written and directed by Charles Ferguson and produced by Representational Pictures.