Captions

What captions are

Captions are the spoken words of a video shown as text in the picture, in time with the speech. Burned-in captions are part of the video file itself, so they appear on every platform and cannot be switched off. They exist because most feeds start a video silently, and because a viewer who cannot hear, or is on a train, still needs the words.

They are not subtitles, which are a separate timed file the viewer can switch on and off and which is the right choice for a website player, a course platform or a translated version. And they are not the automatic captions a platform generates on upload, which are unchecked and are wrong about names, numbers and anything said quickly. This service does both the checking and the styling.

When you need one

You need burned-in captions on any video that will be posted to a social feed, sent in a message, or shown on a screen without sound: a trade-show loop, a reception screen, a clip in a sales email. If the video is short and the picture is a person talking, the captions are doing most of the work, because the viewer decides within a few seconds whether to turn the sound on and usually does not.

You do not need burned-in captions for a long video on your own website or a training platform, where a switchable subtitle file is better because the viewer controls it and it does not spoil the picture. And if you need the words as a document rather than in the frame, that is a transcript.

What gets looked at

Every video goes through the same four checks before the captions are burned in.

• The words. Transcribed by software, then listened to and corrected by a person against a spelling list of your names, products and terms. Filler is removed unless you ask for full verbatim.
• The timing. Each caption appears as the words are spoken and leaves before the next begins. No caption sits on screen so briefly it cannot be read, and none lingers over the next sentence.
• The line breaks. Two lines at most, broken at a natural pause, so the eye is never split mid-phrase. Numbers, names and amounts kept on one line.
• The style. Type size, colour, background and position set so the captions are legible on a phone in daylight, do not cover a face or a lower third, and match how the rest of your material looks.

If the video was recorded from a script, the script is used as the source and the captions are exact to the word. If the video is in a tall or square format, the caption position is set for that shape, not cropped from a wide one.

What you get

The captioned video. One finished video file per version, in the aspect ratio and resolution you asked for. If a clip needs a wide version for a page and a tall version for a feed, both are delivered.

The caption file. The same text as a timed SRT file, so you can upload it as a switchable subtitle track wherever that is supported, and so the timing exists if the video is ever re-cut.

The plain text. The caption text as a document, which doubles as a short transcript for the post or page the video sits on.

A style sheet. After the first job, one page recording the type, colours and position used, so every later video matches and any editor can reproduce it.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A dental clinic records a two-minute video of the practice owner explaining what happens at a first visit, filmed on a phone in the consulting room. It is posted with the platform's automatic captions. They spell the owner's name wrong in the first five seconds, render the name of the imaging equipment as a word that does not exist, and turn a fee figure into a different number.

The video is re-captioned. A person corrects the transcript against the clinic's website and a short list of terms, sets the captions in two short lines low in the frame so the owner's face stays clear, and delivers a tall version for the feed and a wide version for the website page about first visits. The SRT file goes on the website version so it can be switched off. The clinic re-posts the corrected video and pins it. The words a nervous new patient reads in silence are now the ones the owner actually said.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. How many videos, how long, where they will be shown, and whether a script or transcript already exists. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. Per video or per minute of footage, agreed before anything starts.
3. The files. You send the finished videos, the spelling list, and any brand colours or type you want matched.
4. The check. Transcription, correction and timing, then a styled test of the first video for you to approve before the rest are done.
5. Delivery. Captioned videos, SRT files and plain text, within three to five working days for a batch of up to ten short videos.

What it costs

Captions are quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call. The price depends on the total minutes of footage, the number of speakers and how clean the sound is, how many format versions each video needs, and whether a checked script or transcript already exists. A standing arrangement for every clip you post is priced per minute and stated in writing. The pricing page explains how fixed pricing works.

What happens next

Captioned clips are usually the last step in a chain that starts with a longer recording. If you have that recording and want more clips from it, that is short-form editing. If you want the words to do more than sit in the frame, the same recording can go through content repurposing and become an article, posts and a newsletter section. And the post that carries the video is written separately, because a captioned video with no words around it is a video nobody clicks.