If you’re new to video production and/or the subtitling world, navigating your way through the mine field of closed captioning services can be confusing. Capital Captions offer friendly advice and low cost, fast turnaround video subtitling services which are fully packaged for our client’s convenience. In this blog, we’ll look at some of the major things to consider in order to avoid making rookie subtitling mistakes across your videos. 

Don’t Believe in Automation

We live in a world that seems to centre around technology. The internet is littered with stories of how effective machines are at carrying out mundane tasks for us – apparently increasing efficiency and bringing down costs. When it comes to subtitling, closed captioning and translation, however, things aren’t quite that simple.

Whilst there are constant advances in voice recognition technology, it’s undeniable that when it comes to listening, grammatical and literary accuracy, voice recognition leaves much to be desired. Whilst for bulk projects, some clients may choose cheap automated subtitling services, when it comes to ensuring quality, a professional approach is much better. Subtitles are great for SEO and ensure accessibility for your videos. Files that are littered with spelling mistakes and mishears in terms of your brand name, information and even errors in constructing simple sentences can have a truly detrimental impact on your video engagement and your reputation!

Understand Subtitle and Caption Formats

With so many platforms for distributing your video content, understanding subtitle formats have never been more important. Broadcasters and VoD services may often request specific subtitle and closed caption formats to work with. Converting subtitle formats can be a simple process, or it can be a highly consuming task. For instance, if you’ve created subtitles in SRT format, only to find out that the BBC require EBU-TT closed captions, it’s likely you will have to pay out twice for your subtitles to be created to then include sound descriptions, colour and placement changes, timing specifications and more. Getting things right first time around can save you both time and money.

Consider your intentions (SEO, foreign audience, CC compliance)

Closed captioning is a requirement for broadcast and video on demand content. However, for online videos, there are also a number of benefits to adding subtitles and translation to your films. The type of video to text services you choose should be based on your expectations and what you aim to get out of subtitling. For instance, if improving SEO is your goal, SRT files are indexable by Google and great for YouTube content. In terms of foreign audiences, subtitle burning can be a great way to make your videos instantly accessible without viewers having to toggle across caption options. For closed caption compliance, it’s essential to work with verbatim transcription and professional formats to ensure standards are met.

Underestimating the art of written language

Whilst voice recognition services and/or cheap transcription and translation services can be tempting to keep down costs, the quality of captions can make or break your subtitles. Good translations can be used in text format to improve search engine optimisation, but poor grammar and spelling mistakes can have an impact on viewer understanding and engagement, which ultimately will impact on the reach of your videos.

Consider Subtitle and Translation Packages

Especially when it comes to the simpler elements of closed captioning services, for example, transcription, it may be tempting to work on parts of your project yourself for instance. However, there are a number of downsides to splitting up tasks in this way. Approaching a closed captioning company with a quote for transcription, subtitling and translation services will often mean receiving package discounts. In addition, supplying parts of the project yourself can mean mistakes may not be covered under your quoted price, meaning you could wind up paying out more in the long run.

So there you have it, Our top 5 mistakes that people who are new to video subtitling make. If you are interested in getting your videos subtitled, closed captioned or transcribed by a member of our professional team, why not contact us today for your free, no obligation quote.