Welcome to the Captions Style Guide - Pro supplemental guidelines!

This supplemental guide functions in conjunction with our standard Captions Style Guide and incorporates additional guidelines that should be applied when working on Pro projects.

Captions are used as part of accessibility services. As such, we need to ensure that a deaf or hard-of-hearing viewer receives a similar experience to that of a hearing viewer.

Capturing Content

Special Instructions

RULE: Instructions that appear in the Special Instructions section in Dash should always be followed, even if they fall outside of the standard Rev Style Guide. 

WHY: Rev has come to an agreement with some customers to honor special instructions to complete these files to best suit the customer’s and their audience's needs. 

Special Instructions should only be followed if they are in the appropriate section in Dash.

Here are some areas where unapproved instructions may be and should be ignored:

• Customer-provided resource file
• Customer-provided script
• Glossary
• Speaker names

Scripts 

RULE: Scripts should be used as resources to help create an accurate captions file. Regular Rev
guidelines still apply to projects submitted with scripts. 

WHY: When a customer provides a script, their expectation is that we will use their document to
create the captions for their video. 

General guidelines when following scripts:

• Follow scripts as closely as possible to ensure that all dialogue is captioned correctly. This will ensure that names and important terms are spelled correctly.
• For some projects, it may be possible to use the scripts exactly as provided by copying and
  pasting the content into Dash.
  • If copy and pasting isn’t an option, the script should be used as a resource to ensure accuracy.
  • Some scripts may not be complete and we may need to add in captions for spoken dialogue and/or atmospherics that have not been included.
• Scripts can provide valuable information about characters and scenes. This may be included as notes, separate from the dialogue.

Glossaries and Resource Files 

RULE: Customers may provide additional information in the form of glossary terms. Customers may choose to upload a resource file with glossary information. 

WHY: This additional information is provided to help create an accurate captions file. 

The glossary is a section where customers can provide clarification on the spelling of words and terms that may be presented in the video. These can include but are not limited to niche terminology, company names, and speaker names.

Important things to note about glossary terms and resource files:

• Always check projects for included glossary terms and resource files. Misspelling a term found in the glossary or resource file will result in a poor customer experience.
• If a customer provides instructions in a glossary or resource file that go against the guidelines found in the standard Captions Style Guide, they should be ignored. Caption the project as usual.
  • These types of instructions are not approved by Rev

Silence and General Atmospherics

RULE: Atmospherics need to be added at regular intervals during extended periods of silence or when a sound continues for an extended period. We should not have gaps of 10 seconds or more between captions.

WHY: Many Video on Demand (streaming) platforms require atmospherics in these scenarios.

Silence

• A (no audio) atmospheric is needed for periods of silence. Use (no audio) to indicate the beginning of a period of silence.
• For extended periods of silence, the (no audio) atmospheric should be repeated every 8 to 10 seconds.
  • Do not use continues for this atmospheric 
• If a project is completely silent, a (no audio) atmospheric should be repeated every 8 to 10 seconds.

General Atmospherics

• Appropriate atmospherics should be used for sounds.
• For extended periods of unchanging sounds, an atmospheric should be used every 8 to 10 seconds.
  • Use continues/continue in the atmospheric to indicate that the music or sound is continuing
    • (birds continue chirping)
    • (bell ringing continues)

Music Atmospherics

RULE: Atmospherics need to be added at regular intervals during extended periods of silence or when a sound continues for an extended period. We should not have gaps of 10 seconds or more between captions.

WHY: Many Video on Demand (streaming) platforms require atmospherics in these scenarios.

Music Atmospherics

• Appropriate atmospherics should be used for music and for lyrical vocalization.
• For extended periods of unchanging music or lyrical vocalization, an atmospheric should be used every 8 to 10 seconds.
• If a project is a music video with indistinguishable lyrics for the duration of the project, an appropriate atmospheric should be used every 8 - 10 seconds
  • Use continues in the atmospheric to indicate that the music or sound is continuing
    • (upbeat music continues)
    • (singer continues vocalizing)

Formatting Captions

Carets

RULE: When added text appears anywhere in the lower ⅓ of the video, use an up caret ^ to move captions to the top of the screen, with a few exceptions.

WHY: Captions should not cover important text that exists within a video.

Examples of added text include:

• Names / Titles
• Websites / URLs / hashtags
• Opening credits
• Scoreboard 
• News tickers
• Existing subtitles / captions

*If there is also text in the upper third at the start time of the caption group, do not use an up caret.  

NOTE: Anything that falls under the Don’t Use list would also not count as text in the upper third. That means that if there is qualifying text in the lower third, the items in this list would not count as “upper third text” when deciding if a caret is needed for the lower third text.

Syncing Captions 

Caption Timing 

RULE: Sync each caption group (atmospherics and speech) so it appears on-screen when the audio begins.

WHY: The deaf or hard-of-hearing viewer should see the text on screen at the same time it would have been heard by anyone else.

1. The start time needs to align with the beginning of the sound. 

• • Aim for precision, but it’s ok for the start time to be up to a ½ second early or late from the true beginning of the sound.

2. Do not worry about the end time. 

• • Rev automatically calculates the end time for a caption group after you submit the project (post-processing). 
  • NEVER add extra spaces to a caption group OR double up the captions in an attempt to adjust the amount of time the caption group is on-screen. This causes errors in the file format for customers.

3. Keep in mind the readability of the caption groups.

• • Split the caption groups if a speaker is talking very slowly (more 5 seconds to say a sentence) or there is a long pause. This maintains proper timing with the speech and ensures the caption group does not end too early.
  • Use advanced caption format if multiple speakers are talking very quickly. This combines two quick phrases into the same caption group for readability.