On June 5, 2012, the National Association of the Deaf testified before the US Copyright Office. They argued that closed captioning should be exempt from copyright law, meaning that third parties should be allowed to add or fix captions and audio description on all digital video distributed via the Internet. A decision should be determined within the year.Read
Jeremy, one of the video editors for "Travel the Road" who I had the pleasure of working with to coordinate the program's closed captioning, is on an amazing journey that is worth mentioning here on our blog. In the closed captioning world, you have the privilege of working with a myriad of clients who are all on different missions in life--whether it be to build a hospital in Senegal or spread the gospel by providing drinking water and education to the children of Mozambique, so many of them have a story.
Today I wanted to direct you to Jeremy's mission--to create the first Christian television broadcast in Papua New Guinea. Jeremy posts on his blog tidbits of all he is experiencing, and to say that he is facing many struggles would be an understatement. Right now, he is specifically focused on filming the crusades that are being put on throughout the country and in remote villages for the church there. He is teaching and training them how to edit and produce the first-ever Christian television broadcast in the country. Over 6 million people will get a chance to hear the Gospel preached on the only channel on the television in Papua New Guinea because of the work that he is doing.
Learn more about Jeremy's mission at: http://www.thelifeoffaith.blogspot.com
This past week, I felt how important time code was when authoring captions and subtitles to DVD and Blu-ray Disc authoring systems. Consistency is the name of the game. As a producer, editor, DVD authoring person, et cetera, you must be sure that the video your captioning company receives from the onset of the project, has the final time code.
Ask yourself some questions: Is the first frame of the video the same timecode on all video versions? Does the first spoken word start at the same time code? Does the last frame of the video end at the same time code? Am I authoring in drop, non-drop, FILM, et cetera? Pick one and stick with it for the entire project. The standard time code for authoring systems is drop (29.97 fps) and I recommend that you use this from the onset of the process. Your editing system may have a different default time code than your authoring system, so make sure they are the same. Have any edits been made from the initial video you gave your captioning company? Minor edits will affect the captioning or subtitling in a major way.
You may be wondering what the big deal is and why it isn’t simple for the captioning company to adjust. It’s just simply trying to coordinate changes, especially if we don’t know what is differences are between files. Sometimes it is an easy re-ripple of time code or a conversion from drop to non-drop time code. Sometimes, the final videos are so different that the time spent re-sending new captioning and subtitle files can be as laborious as actually creating them in the first place. The time it takes for the authoring person to re-render and check new files over and over again is time taken away from the final delivery of the authored DVD or Blu-ray Disc. The bottom line is this—send your captioning company the real deal the first time around.
Each captioning company will categorize their levels of captioning differently, but a fully operating captioning company will offer at these three types of captioning: live captioning, live-to-tape captioning, and post-production captioning.
Here are descriptions of the different types of captioning:
Live Captioning
Just like it sounds, live captioning is written by a live captioner in real-time. The live captioner is trained as a court reporter and uses a stenograph machine to caption live. They do not type using a keyboard. The live captioner writes at the same time the show is being broadcasted. The live captioner dials in directly into a T.V. station.
Live-to-tape Captioning
This type of captioning is written by a live captioner in real-time. Instead of dialing into a station, they dial into an encoder and an audio line and write in the same “live” style. The show is recorded in real-time, but is mailed out to the station and broadcasts on a later date. This type of captioning is used mainly for extremely tight turnarounds and to reduce cost to the client. The accuracy rate is much lower than post-production captioning.
Post-Production Captioning
Post-production captions typically get transcribed by a transcriber using a video and audio file that has been digitized. Many transcribers work remotely (from home) or on location. Typically, a caption editor close captions this type of captioning. Within post-production captioning, most companies will offer different levels of quality to meet the needs of their clients.
Have you ever wondered how live captioners caption Christian programming? Biblical and Christian terms used during a sermon or teaching do not come easy to the common captioner.
Captioners writing for Christian programming are required to specialize in this area of captioning. Not just any experienced live captioner can accurately write a church sermon. Captioners must add each and every word that is spoken to their dictionary prior to writing the show. To build a large Christian dictionary may take years and endless hours of practice. It doesn't just take time and practice, it also takes a captioner who understands the Bible and Christian terminology. If not, [speaking in tongues] could get captioned as [speaking in a foreign language]. So, if you are a Christian broadcaster that is getting your show captioned, ask about the captioner who writes it. Do they have a comprehensive Christian dictionary? Watch the captions and see if the words that matter most to you are captioned properly.Read
Oftentimes, when I give my clients caption files for their DVD Authoring Systems they encounter problems and call me with questions on how to insert the caption file. In today's blog, I am going to specifically talk about .scc files being used in Apple's DVD Studio Pro.
Steps for importing an .scc file into DVD Studio Pro:
- Select Outline tab > Tracks folder > Track1 > Select Other tab (in Inspection window) > Select Choose > locate .scc file > Select Okay.
Either field 1 or field 2 will be populated, but most likely not both.
- DVD Studio Pro > Preferences > Encoding > MPEG-2 SD > Select desired timecode in the start TC field > Check or uncheck the Drop frame box accordingly.
You must let your captioning company know if your project is in Drop, Non-Drop, FILM, PAL, et cetera. Most captioning companies' default time code is Drop frame.
- Highlight the actual video content/track on the timeline > Right-click the timecode directly to the right of the yellow play head and purple chapter marker > Select Zero-Based Timecode or Asset-Based Timecode.
I strongly recommended that all timecode options (there are many) be changed to zero-based so that the captioning company can create a file that corresponds to these settings. The captioning company will probably need to have the exact timecode of the first word spoken on the video so they can match their caption file to your project.
To view captions from your computer using a DVD player:
- Open DVD Player > Preferences > Features > Closed Captions > On
I recommend that you burn a closed-captioned DVD and play it out of a DVD player, viewing it on a TV. Viewing the captions from your computer will sometimes not display captions accurately, if at all.
