At Capital Captions, we regularly work with performers and production companies to bring their theatrical and musical performances to the big screen. When sharing video content, closed captions for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing are an absolute must, and foreign subtitles are a great way to expand your audience. Here’s a summary of what we offer in terms of subtitling, closed captioning and translation for shows and events.

Offline Closed Captioning for Theatrical and Musical Performances

If you have recorded the performance of your show, following on from sound and picture editing, once you have a locked-in final cut of your film, the next step is captioning. There are a number of options when it comes to closed captioning for theatrical performances. If subtitles are to be burned into your video to display as permanent, we would suggest working with standard dialogue-only subtitles. However, if you want captions to be turned on and off as required, elements for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing should be included, such as sound effects and speaker identifications.

Some formats typically used for online closed captioning are:

• SRT subtitles
• WebVTT subtitles
• Burned-in (embedded) subtitles

For broadcast closed captioning for theatrical events and/or shows, typical formats are:

• STL closed captions
• EBU-TT closed captions
• SCC closed captions
• CAP closed captions
• DFXP closed captions
• XML closed captions

For festival and public screenings, DCP (digital cinema package) format is often required, with an export as XML.

Live Closed Captioning for Theatre

Capital Captions do not currently work with live subtitling and/or closed captioning, but please watch this space as we are always adding services.

BSL Interpreting for theatrical recordings

We are highly experienced in working with BSL interpreting and offer services to add BSL interpreting to recorded theatrical performances. This includes transcription and teleprompter preparation, BSL recording using greenscreen and final video editing with a fully integrated BSL interpreting format. This format usually consists of shrinking the video image size slightly and moving it to the top left corner of the screen. The interpreter will then display bottom right of the screen and a background colour can be chosen as a backdrop to both the video image and interpreter.

Audio Description for theatre recordings

Those of us who have ever attended any kind of a theatre performance or indeed, concert, will know that they are often packed with visual delights. When it comes to recording performances for visually impaired viewers, audio description is incredibly important. While audio descriptions during songs should be kept to a minimum, set piece descriptions as well as identification of speakers can be crucial. Capital Captions work with audio description services for a range of different recording types, and we match your voice artist the tone of your video to ensure consistency. 

Translation services for theatrical, musical and other live performances

At Capital Captions, we work with translations in over 50 languages. Working only with professional translators and without automation, we provide highly accurate translations of scripts, subtitles and closed captions. With highly competitive prices and fast turnarounds of within 48-72 hours and less, when it comes to translation, we’ve got you covered.

While we work with over 50 languages for translation, some of our most requested translation projects have been in:

• French translation
• German translation
• Italian translation
• Spanish translation
• Portuguese Translation
• Chinese translation
• Japanese translation
• And more…

So there you have it, your quick guide to closed captioning for theatrical and musical performances. Remember, at Capital Captions we also offer other services such as BSL Services, Audio Description and voiceovers to. So if you have a theatrical masterpiece you are looking to add closed captions to, then why not get in touch with today to see how we can help.