In his search for useful tools for the subtitler, the author draws from the potential offered by the multimodal transcription as devised by Thibault and Baldry (2000). The paper discusses how this methodology allows for the minute description of film texts, thereby enabling subtitlers to base their translation choices on the meaning already provided by other semiotic modalities contained in the text such as visual elements, music, colour, and camera positioning. This process, though time-consuming has proved to be an extremely valid pedagogical instrument. A second stage in this research has led to the creation of transcriptions based on phasal analysis. Film texts are divided into phases and sub-phases based on the identification of coherent and harmonious sets of semiotic modalities working together to create meaning in recognisable chunks, rather in the manner of written text. Such texts are analysed in terms of their phasal construction, and also in terms of the transitions separating the phases. This further extension of the original tool provides the basis for a thorough analysis of any film text, and provides a useful addition to the pedagogy of film translation.