Adding closed captions to your film

We are always being asked what filmmakers can do to make their films more marketable. Their first thought is to consider foreign sales, but you should consider making your film MORE marketable in North America. You may not be aware of this, but in order for a US broadcaster to present your film over the air on on cable, your film must be Closed Captioned. There are some carriers that will make your film available on Video On Demand (but not all will), but the FCC, which oversees broadcast and cable in the US, requires that all broadcast material be Closed Captioned.

Closed Captioned vs. Subtitled - seems like it should be the same, but it's not, and subtitles can't be used as a substitute for closed captioning. The biggest difference between captioning and subtitling is that subtitles presume that the viewer can hear the soundtrack - captioning was originally designed for the hearing impared, and includes description of important audio/sound effects that are not part of the dialogue. You may have noticed this difference watching captions on televisions in public places like bars, restaurants or airports where captioning is often turned on.

Creating closed captions for your film - Before you dive into creating captions, I recommend reading this pdf. This will give you an understanding of what captioning standards are, and what you should be including as you type. There are several reasonably priced pieces of software that will help you create the caption file - I use MovCaptioner from Synchrimedia (and no, I don't get paid for referring...) - this is a Mac based piece of software that will create the file you need to import into your editing software, such Final Cut Pro or Avid. If you really hate typing, it will even work with the MacSpeech Dictate software. If you are working on a Windows machine, here is a site that lists other inexpensive software that will create caption files. Be sure to create your caption track from the final version you submit for distribution - if you're working with us, we can give you the info you need to include your closed caption track with your deliverables, and we'll take it from there.

Options for having it done for you - a quick Google search will give you lots of options for closed captioning services - you should expect to pay a starting rate of $6-10 per minute to have your film captioned. That assumes you have a precise transcript of the film. Notice I don't say script - we all know actors improvise, scenes change during shooting, what is on screen doesn't exactly match the script. If you don't have a transcript, expect to pay a few dollars extra per minute. Again, if you're working with us, you won't need to create or receive a DigiBeta version of your film, as we directly encode for broadcast, cable and satellite - so you'll be able to save a bit by keeping your entire captioning project digital - just look for a captioning company that offers discounts for digital only work.