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Easiest method to caption videos?
Hi,
I have a bunch of short videos for which I need to creates captions/subtitles, and would appreciate any advice. Previously I’ve only created subtitles through the laborious, manual method. But there’s so many here I’m looking for alternatives that I can do myself but more efficiently. I’m editing in Premiere Pro CC, and trying to caption eight 90-second videos that have scripts in MS Word (if that helps). What methods do people prefer?
Much appreciated,
Neil -
7 Replies
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A free shortcut method I use to get the transcript is to upload the video to an unlisted YouTube account. You Tube swill automatically transcribe/ caption it, and give you a choice of file formats for the caption file.
The quality of the transcription depends on the clarity of the audio; I find with clear single-person voice, it gets about 90 percent right. With accents, multiple voices, poor audio, it may go as low as 60 percent but the mistakes are hilarious. Thankfully, there’s an editing function right in the YouTube interface where you can correct the mistakes and add punctuation and names of people speaking. Definitely faster than hand- transcribing, and it’s free.
Take the. SCC or .VTT file with timings from the YouTube site, drop that into Premiere, good to go.
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For English subtitles Mark’s suggestion is the way to go. For other languages, it’s best to hire a professional.
We translate, subtitle, or dub videos into any language and can give you a timed .srt file that you can easily drop into Premier Pro.
Greg Ball, President
Ball Media Innovations, Inc.
https://www.ballmediainnovations.com -
Thank you very much, Mark, that’s very helpful! Have a great holiday!
Neil
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Thanks Greg. I work for a nonprofit that typically won’t spend on things like this, but I’ll keep that in mind and appreciate the advice.
Best,
Neil -
I hear you Neil. But just keep in mind that the more people who view and understand the video, the more people donate to the non-profit.
Happy Holidays to you.
Greg Ball, President
Ball Media Innovations, Inc.
https://www.ballmediainnovations.com -
We use Rev.com when we don’t have a written script. Upload your final (or at least, picture lock) and they send you caption files. It’s $1/minute, and their turnaround time is fast at around 24 hours. They deliver whatever type of Closed Caption files you prefer, and have an automatic tool to convert to other types if you need another file type later.
Alternately, just copy-paste your scripts into Premiere’s native captioning tool. Have you ever used it? It works pretty well, mostly, though I’ve had some weird crashes that only happen when I’m captioning. Save often!
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Hi Neil – We launched a tool on Kapwing that’s free to use and designed for quickly adding subtitles to short video. I think it’s the simplest tool for adding captions because you don’t need to download anything or sign in, have any professional video experience, or know what an “SRT” file is to make your captions. It’s DIY and super simple.
Check it out at https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles
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