Name: Caption This! Become a Pro in Video Captioning and Subtitles
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Created byFelix Tuna

Last updated 8/2021

English

What you'll learn

CREATE closed captions and open captions
EDIT subtitles and captions with software and online tools
IMPROVE your captions with respect to many guidelines
TRANSCRIBE your videos for an easier captioning process
USE captions online with YouTube and Udemy or offline with the VLC media player
INTEGRATE captions into your videos as a track
TRANSLATE your videos using captions

Course content

9 sections • 42 lectures • 2h 26m total length

Introduction: Felix Tuna2:34
Hi, I am Felix, your instructor. I use this lesson to quickly introduce myself.
Course Outline3:27
This lesson gives you an overview about the sections and lessons of this course. It shows my idea behind the course.
I tell you, which lessons are the most important and which you might even skip, if you just want to start subtitling.
Definition: Captions1:32
What are captions? This lesson is a definition so that all of you know what exactly we are talking about.
Subtitling in Practice4:35
In which areas of application are subtitles actually used? Which countries use subtitles and which prefer dubbing?
This lessons shows several examples of the various ways to use subtitles in practice.
Workflow for Captioning Videos3:49
Depending on what kind of video you are working on, the captioning process might differ a little. I show you a possible workflow to ensure the quality of your captions.

Theory: Overview1:40
Overview of the section Theory.
Motivation: Benefits of Subtitles and Captions4:37
I present the most important benefits of subtitles and tell you why adding captions to your company videos and tutorials is important.
Differences Between Subtitles and Captions3:51
Subtitles and captions are actually not the same thing. We talk about the little differences and distinguish between open captions and closed captions.
The Most Important Subtitle Formats5:49
There are a lot of different subtitle formats. Many of them look the same, but some work a little different.
Using an example, I show you SRT, VTT and SSA/ASS subtitles and explain their main characteristics.
[BONUS] Live-Captioning: How to Add Captions to Video-Streams in Real-Time5:01
Did you ever see a live show with subtitles? This lesson explains how manually created subtitles are fed into the stream of a live TV broadcast.

Guidelines: Overview1:53
Overview of the section Guidelines.
Language: Pay Attention to Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation2:54
You will learn about spelling, grammar and punctuation in captions. Furthermore, we talk about numbers.
Style Guidelines: How to Create Great Captions5:37
After this lesson you know the main style guidelines for captions. How long should a single line be? Why is there even a maximum number of characters? How long should a subtitle be displayed? You can evaluate your own and foreign subtitles and know how to improve them.
Example and Discussion: Good and Bad Captions4:14
Did you believe me, when I said that subtitles could be bad or even annoying? In this lesson I show you an example of bad and good subtitles. We discuss the most common errors when creating captions and how to easily improve them.

Preparation: Overview2:06
Overview of the section Preparation.
Definition: Transcription1:24
What is a transcription? This lesson is a definition.
Reasons for Transcription3:45
After this lesson you know when it is helpful to transcribe your videos. You can assess on your own if you need a transcription or if you can just start with the captions immediately.
The Other Way Around: Convert Captions to Plain Text1:56
Sometimes you have a caption file, but just need the text contents. In this lesson you learn easy ways to convert captions to plain text.
Tools for Transcribing Videos3:54
All you need for a transcription is a video player and a writing software like MS Word. However, it is easier with specialized transcription software. In this lesson you get to know useful hardware and software for transcriptions.

The Offline Way: Overview3:13
Overview of the section The Offline Way.
Benefits of Captioning Software3:56
It is possible to create captions with nothing but a text editor and a video player. However this is very tedious and should never be done. In this lesson I show you why specialized captioning software is very helpful for creating captions.
Subtitle Edit7:08
Subtitle Edit is a free subtitle editor. I show you how to download the tool, how to create captions and how Subtitle Edit supports you during the creation process.
Tip: Adjust Timings1:33
Do you have a subtitle file, but need to adjust the timings of the subtitles? I show you an easy way using Subtitle Edit.
Tip: Convert Subtitles1:25
There are many different subtitle formats. For an MP4 file you need a different format than for Udemy. I show you an easy way to convert subtitles using Subtitle Edit so that you do not have to manually adjust all timecodes.
Aegisub Advanced Subtitle Editor5:39
This lesson explains how to use Aegisub, another freeware especially used to create subtitles in the format Advanced SubStation Alpha (.ssa/.ass).
Information 2021-08-14: The Aegisub homepage seems to be offline. I have changed the link to different website from which you can download Aegisub.
Other Programs to Create Subtitles4:13
There is a lot of tools I did not discuss in the previous lessons. I give you an overview about other freeware and paid tools.

The Subtitle Track: Overview1:46
Overview of the section The Subtitle Track.
How to Add Captions to MKV Videos4:09
You learn how to integrate captions into your MKV video container using MKVToolNix.
How to Add Captions to MP4 Videos2:31
You learn how to integrate captions into your MP4 video container using HandBrake.
How to Use Captions With the VLC media player4:44
The VLC media player is one of the best known video players. This lesson shows you different ways to use subtitles with the VLC media player. We also take a look at the settings.
Open Captions Vs. Closed Captions5:33
What is the difference between open captions and closed captions? You will also learn areas of application for open captions as well as different ways to create them.
Tip: The Other Way Round: Extract Captions From Videos2:11
Do you have a video with one or more subtitle tracks, but only need the captions? In this lesson we extract captions from a video using Subtitle Edit.

The Online Way: Overview2:22
Overview of the section The Online Way.
YouTube: Create, Edit and Add Captions to Your Videos4:02
You probably have already seen the CC-icon under YouTube-videos, which tells you that the video has closed captions for at least one language. In this lesson I show you the subtitle editor of YouTube as well as different ways to use captions with YouTube.
UPDATE 31.07.2020: In this video I briefly showed you the feature to let your Community create captions for you. Unfortunately, YouTube just mentioned in a newsletter that this feature will not be available anymore after the end of September 2020.
Udemy: Create and Use Captions for Your Video Courses4:24
As one of the largest video course platforms Udemy also allows instructors to put captions in their videos. I show you how students can use captions on Udemy and what instructors have to do to have captions on their course videos.
Subtitling Platforms4:01
Cooperative subtitling is a term that describes platforms where multiple users can caption a video. I show you how to use platforms like rev.com and amara.org.
Download Subtitles for Any YouTube Video2:29
Did you know that you can download captions for basically any YouTube video? I show you an online tool to do so.

Translation: Overview1:39
Overview of the section Translation.
Motivation: Translate Videos into Many Different Languages Using Captions3:13
This video is a motivation. It shows you several reasons to use captions for translating your videos.
The Translation Procedure: Translate Transcriptions, Not Captions!3:26
This lesson shows how to best proceed when translating a video using captions.
Online Translation Tools3:33
Find a short description of some of the most popular online translation tools in this video.

Requirements

To try out your newly learned skills, you need a video file to create captions for.
Basic computer skills (e.g. how to download and use software).

Description

Captions and subtitles

[Remark: This course contains manually created/timed captions in English and German. Feel free to use this feature to follow along the course contents. Deaf and hearing impaired people as well as people whose second language is English (or German) can follow this course without any problems.]

You may know the closed caption icon from YouTube or Netflix. Captions are an important tool in video production to make videos and even entire movies or TV shows accessible to a larger - possibly even international - audience. Deaf and hearing impaired people can easily follow and understand your videos through subtitles. You help foreign language learners to learn a new language. Maybe you have even used subtitles in your favorite TV show yourself to improve your foreign language skills - especially if English is not your first language.

In this course I will teach you a lot about subtitles and captions. You will not only learn how to create and edit subtitles with free offline and online editors, but also some theoretical background on formats, guidelines to create great captions, transcriptions and even translations. This video course contains nine sections:

Introduction
In this section I present the course contents and give you a quick introduction to captions.
Theory
This section gives you some nice to have background knowledge on the difference between subtitles, closed captions and open captions as well as an overview on the most important subtitle formats. If you are already at an intermediate or expert level, you may skip this sections. Beginner, however, should definitely take a look at those videos.
Guidelines
This is one of the most important sections. Many courses and videos teach about how to create captions. However, a lot of them fail to explain how to design great captions that are easy to follow and that do not distract from the video content. Captions should support the viewer in his understanding of your video contents. While well designed captions add value to a video, bad captions may even disturb the viewer. I explain some of the most important guidelines to you and even show you a short example of good and bad captions. Please to not skip this section, even if you want to start creating captions right away!
Preparation
This section deals with transcriptions. Do you think you can create captions directly without a script? Maybe that will work. But maybe it won't. A transcription of the video can help you later on. Keep in mind that this is not an in-depth course about transcriptions. I just want to introduce you to the topic of transcriptions and show you some tricks, software and hardware to use.
The Offline Way
This section is the one you were all waiting for. In this section I teach you how to use offline tools like Subtitle Edit or Aegisub to create captions for your videos. To benefit the most, I advise you to also download these tools and try them out yourself. Create some captions for your own videos to train your captioning skills!
The Subtitle Track
After you have created your own captions in the last section, this section shows you how to use subtitles offline. I will explain how to embed subtitles into MP4 and MKV video files as a track and how to use captions with the VLC media player. This section is relevant for you, if you want to work with videos and captions offline. If you want to create subtitles for your online videos, take a look at the next section, instead.
The Online Way
This section presents different websites and online editors to create, edit and upload closed captions to your videos. I will explain why different formats are important and show you ways to use captions for your YouTube videos and Udemy courses. You need this section for any online videos, because websites cannot read the subtitle tracks you may have created in the sixth section.
Translation
Through captions you can appeal to an international audience and grow your community over time. This section presents processes and tools for an easy and cheap translation of your videos.
The End
In this last video I recap what you have learned in the course. Congratulations on coming this far!

Who this course is for:

Video producers who want to appeal to an even greater audience
YouTubers and (Udemy) video course creators who want to create and use captions for their videos
(Explanatory/learning) video creators who want to translate their videos for their international audience

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction - What It's All About5 lectures • 16min

Theory - About Subtitles and Closed Captions5 lectures • 21min

Guidelines - Nice and Clean Captions4 lectures • 15min

Preparation - Transcribe Your Video5 lectures • 13min

The Offline Way - Manually Prepare Captions With Desktop Tools7 lectures • 27min

The Subtitle Track - Integrate Captions into Your Video File6 lectures • 21min

The Online Way - Caption Videos Manually and Automatically Online5 lectures • 17min

Translation - Appeal to Your International Audience4 lectures • 12min

The End - What Did You Learn?1 lecture • 5min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: