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You probably are familiar with video captions. You might be watching a Spanish video on YouTube but don't know Spanish. To understand what is being said, you turn on captions.
So, it goes without saying that captions are necessary in this globalized world. While making videos, be it an explainer video, product video, etc., captions can give you an upper hand and make you stand out. It has become an unavoidable part of Video Editing.
In this blog, I will tell you about captions in detail. After reading this blog, you will understand the purpose of captions, why you need to add captions, and how you can add captions to your videos.
What are captions?
Captions translate the audio content of webcasts, videos, television broadcasts, live events, or any media productions into text. Captions help those who find it hard to hear, or it becomes an accessible learning tool for students with or without hearing loss.
Open captions and closed captions are two typical types of captions that you may have heard of. Closed captions can be "closed" or removed from view, whereas open captions are fixed and often burned into the video.
How to add captions to your videos?
Let's make this a 3 step process to keep things simple.
Step 1: Creating a new caption file
Firstly, you need to import your video to which you are going to add captions. For that, open Adobe Premiere Pro and import your video.
Now click the new item button at the bottom of the Project Panel and select the captions option.
A new caption task is added in the Project Panel, and on the screen, a new dialog box will appear on the setting of the video screen to match the caption to the video size.
Before creating your new caption file, you can manually adjust width and height, frame rate, and pixel aspect ratio.
You have four options of captions: three for closed captions and one is an open caption. Make sure that you enable the closed captions display in the program monitor and select the correct caption type.
Now, you have to add captions by dragging the captions file from the project panel into the timeline.
Step 2: Adding, timing, and formatting your captions
Select the caption file from the timeline and use the caption panel to add the text. You can also add the format of your text.
If you are unable to find the caption panel, simply go to the windows menu and select the captions option. Click on the plus button to add a new text box in the caption panel. Ensure that the In and Out points match the spoken word.
You can view the captions in the timeline by expanding the video track. You can make use of the formatting options, including a few types of captions. These include pop-on, paint-on, and 2-4 roll-up lines.
You may also find simple positioning options. With the open caption, there are a few extra features or options that you can use, such as additional fonts and size adjustment.
Step 3: Export
Use the caption tab in the export settings dialog box to export the caption as Burn-in or as a Sidecar file. A burn-in will come naturally into the video file, and the viewers have no access to turn off the text in the video.
You will be given an additional .scc file when you export the video as a Sidecar file, which you can use to upload or deliver your video files.
Adding and editing auto-captions to videos
The easiest way to caption a video is to upload it on YouTube, use the auto-captions option, and then modify it manually. It uses a speech recognition application to generate captions from the videos you have uploaded in over 12 different languages. Yet, due to the feature's inaccuracy, it is essential to edit auto-captions after they have been created.
Benefits of adding captions in videos
Deaf or hard of hearing viewers
Since closed captions were created to give an equal entertainment experience for the deaf and hard of hearing, content accessibility is undoubtedly an essential advantage of transcription. Transcripts are the whole plain text form of all captions created.
Transcription and captioning provide a vital option for the 48 million Americans with hearing loss and the 360 million globally. Closed captions allow these users to watch your video material, boosting your audience.
Sound-sensitive viewing
Captions enable users to see your videos without audio. If someone is on a noisy train or on a crowded street, subtitles will express their conversation. Captions also allow viewers to watch videos on silent in a library, workplace, or train. These days, most social media networks autoplay videos on quiet.
SEO indexing
Google utilizes web crawlers, commonly called spiders or Google bots, to achieve this. These web crawlers regularly analyze and index web pages on Google. Thus, Google knows what to show you.
But web crawlers can't see videos. As a result, plenty of video content is missed. Web crawlers can utilize closed captions to index videos if they are uploaded with closed captions, helping you rank better than your competitors on Google's first page.
Google can only index closed captions. Closed captions are text files incorporated in video files. Open captions included in the video can't be indexed.
Content that can be easily repurposed
It's difficult to sort through hours and hours of recorded video and audio to choose the best bits to utilize in clips, reels, and montages, but this is a common practice among market researchers and content producers.
In order to use the transcripts as testimonials, direct quotes may be grabbed with a simple copy and paste. It is possible to create report outlines or study aids using transcripts.
Translation into foreign languages that is convenient
Finding a way to get your video footage translated is the first step in creating subtitles in other languages. The Internet is at the heart of today's global society, and it is where everything begins and ends. Translations of transcripts and captions can help your content reach a larger audience while also improving its search engine optimization (SEO)
Wrapping Up!
I hope this blog helped you in understanding how you can add captions to videos and the benefits of adding it. You can now make sure that your videos are uploaded with captions so that it can be accessible by all and also you can get more viewers thereby enhancing your video's SEO rankings.
If you are looking to create videos, or is in need of video editing services, contact us! Know more by visiting www.webdew.com.
