There are two main categories associated with the word transcript.
One is very important if you’re a high school student trying to get into college, or an undergrad looking at grad school. It’s the list of all your grades, but not what we’re talking about in this case.
The other is a transcript in film. This is what matters to us. It’s the conversion of all spoken words in a video, of any length, into text.
An accurate transcript becomes instrumental not only when you need to share the dialogue of your video with those unable to hear, but it’s a useful tool in editing, subtitling, and creating closed captions.
There are a few different ways to generate a transcript, but what’s most important is that it’s precise.
Picking your method of transcript
While there are multiple options in which to transcribe a video, there are only two methods — manual and automatic. Based on budget and time, it’s usually easy to decide which category will work best for you. Once you pick, you can then decide exactly how to get the job done.
Going Manual
This is a slow and tedious option, where someone listens to the video dialogue and writes it down. There’s no software assistance, and no easy way to check for accuracy, unless you want to listen to the video content a second time.
While very inexpensive, this can quickly become a huge time commitment. It can take over two minutes to convert one minute of speech. That means even a short, 5-minute video can take at least 12.5 minutes. Think about how long a 40-minute video could take. Even if you break up one video among several people, you’re still asking for a significant time investment.
Automating The Process
Obviously, any time you can automate something, it’s faster than doing it manually. Creating a transcript is no different. When automated, you end up with an electronically-generated transcript made by a specific application.
This is much faster, but a machine is not a person, so these transcripts must get checked by a human for accuracy. You’ll always find a few mistakes, but accuracy is constantly improving.
You also have a few options to pick from, including speech recognition programs, specific transcript software, and Application Programming Interfaces or APIs.
Why make a transcript at all?
Loading video content that has a transcripts can also:
- Improve SEO
- Increase accessibility to users how are hard of hearing or who don’t speak the language
- Give your audience options in how they consume the content
If for some reason your audience can’t listen to your video content, they’re able to read the full transcript so they don’t miss the message. That’s a definitely added layer of accessibility that’s worth having.
Skip the hassle of making a transcript plan
As you can see, there’s a lot of time involved in getting an accurate and complete transcript. Thankfully, you don’t have to invest the energy yourself. Transcription services are out there, but again, you need to know you can depend on them to produce a quality product.
That’s where ECG Productions can step in and make this whole process a million times easier. We use our industry connections and past experience to deliver pristine transcripts. Our team invests the time for you to get this important piece of your video project done so you can focus on other things. Contact us today to learn more about this, and all our service offerings.