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Overview
Prerequisites for Captioning
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CaptionMaker 6.4 User Guide
Prerequisites for Captioning
The two ingredients you need to start captioning a video are: (1) a video file, and (2) a
transcript of the dialog in the video.
Transcribing a Video
There is no magic solution to transcription. It is by far the most time-consuming aspect
of the closed captioning/subtitling process. However, there are methods to transcribe
in the most efficient way possible. If you do not have a script of the video, you can
efficiently produce the script in one of these ways:
•
Type the script on a regular keyboard. You can use a foot pedal control to help you
transcribe the video. It costs less than $100 and will greatly speed up the transcrip-
tion process by allowing you to control the video playback with your foot so that
you can keep both hands on the keyboard.
•
Train speech recognition software to recognize one person’s voice and produce a
transcript by listening to the video and repeating the speech for the software.
Speech recognition software, such as Dragon Naturally Speaking, only recognizes
one speaker's voice at a time, and that person must go through a voice training pro-
cess with the software. In other words, you can't simply feed in various speakers'
voices and expect to get a good result.
What you can do is a process called Shadow Speaking, or Voice Captioning. For this
process you train a profile of one person’s voice into the Dragon Naturally Speaking
software so that it can recognize the speech accurately. Then you watch the video
and repeat all of the dialogue into a headset microphone. This takes a little practice
to get good at listening and speaking at the same time, but for most people, it's
much faster than typing on a regular keyboard. At first, you will probably get a lot of
unrecognized words. As you continue to use the software and correct the errors,
you can eventually expect to reach around 95% accuracy.
•
Use a professional transcription service. This is the easiest way to generate the
script, and can be cost-effective.
CaptionMaker can import scripts from a text file and most word processors, such as
Word Rich Text Files (.rtf). Rich Text Files provide the option of importing colors and
italics. However, because of special formatting and characters used in some kinds of
document files, it is often best to start with a plain text (.txt) file.
Using a Video File
The other ingredient you need for producing captions is a video file. Make sure you are
using a digital video file, not videotape, as your video source. Trying to transcribe from
a tape can wear out your tape deck, and you'll spend too much time starting and
stopping the tape. CaptionMaker can play back most types of QuickTime files (Mac/
Windows), and also Windows Media files (Windows only). See Opening a Movie for a list
of all file types that play in CaptionMaker.
If you have a file format that won’t play, please see Using a Proxy Movie to learn about
making a proxy movie for use with CaptionMaker.
