Accuracy & Changes, Best Practices for CCSL & Captions

Welcome to TTS. Have you ever sat through a movie with someone only for them to ask at the end of the film: “Geez, why are there so many people in the credits?” The answer is simple: They don’t understand the process. If someone hasn’t done something personally, they probably won’t get it. They never will. Have you edited a film? Have you produced one? Or Directed a 120 minute feature? They are extremely difficult tasks that only a handful of people excel at.

Have you ever done a Style 5 CCSL? Try one. How long do you think it will take you? For our professionals they require 30-40 hours, minimum, for a typical 90 minute feature. They are very painstaking, tedious and time consuming. Most of our clients and customers have no idea how challenging these things are. Eight or nine columns wide, thousands upon thousands of information bits to capture, one slow moving second after another.

If you are a client or potential client, please keep this in mind.

If you are shopping around, our biggest “competitor” in this space started 14 years after we did and was trained by us in our Burbank, CA, offices on Pass and Alameda. So when you’re out there weighing options on the internet, please remember this.

TranscriptionStudio.com guarantees a 98% to 99% level of accuracy.  What does this mean?  It means that for every 100 words or bits of information in your media, any media including basic transcripts, CCSL’s or Caption files, we will be able to capture only 98 out of 100 bits of information accurately, on average.  98 will be correct, but 2 will not.  This does not mean we cannot capture 99% or 100%, it just means we cannot guarantee it.

It is an unreasonable expectation for any company in our field of information capture, as mistakes are made. We are not exempt from human performance. The primary reason for this is that all people hear and see different things, even if they are watching the same exact media. We've been in business since January of 1993 and mistakes are almost always made, rarely without exception.  Especially with highly detailed, multi-columned CCSL's, Caption files, dialogue lists and continuity and spotting projects there are literally thousands of bits of information that require capture and, even with proofing and QC, something always gets through the net.

NO IDENTICAL CCSL AND CAPTIONS

When we are tasked with doing both CCSL’s and CAPTIONS on the same project, we can have two different people doing each one. Each of these people will see and hear different words and phrases. This is human nature. Therefore, CCSL’s and CAPTION files can never be requested to perfectly align, match or be identical. It is an unreasonable request, especially so if any foreign languages, accents or multiple speakers are involved. Even If one person were to do both CCSL and CAPTIONS, it would take too long to deliver both projects anyway and, even if the same person did do both, even then, they will see, hear and type slightly different dialogue or description for each of them.

HOW PRODUCERS AND FILMMAKERS CAN SAVE MONEY

If you let your distributor or sales agent pick a CCSL format, they will pick the most detailed, expensive one because that cost is yours, the filmmaker, not theirs. Try to avoid letting them provide a custom format. We can do them, but our transcribers are trained in our templates, so they go much faster. When you are making changes on a v2 second revision, please give us the items we request, such as a detailed list of changes in a word doc.

YOUR TRANSCRIPT WILL REFLECT THE QUALITY OF THE MEDIA WE RECEIVE

If you send us media with multiple people speaking over one another, poor sound, poor video, your final product will reflect that. We can only give you what you give us. We cannot improve upon the source material. If you give us difficult to understand foreign dialogue, your CCSL, transcripts and CAPTION files will reflect that. If we can’t hear it, see it or discern it, we make the best possible guess.

Terms & Conditions, CCSL & Captions

ONE FREE ROUND OF CHANGES OR REVISIONS WITH CAPTIONS & CCSL’S.

We are more than happy to correct any mistakes that can be attributed to us on any Caption Files, CCSL (STYLE 3 and above) on ONE pass through, but after that, we ask that you make any further changes yourself. “Changes” means small spelling mistakes or corrections, not differences in how one person may describe a scene vs. another, or major errors in time coding (off by more than 1+ seconds) or scene description that are directly attributable to us at TTS, it does not mean minor differences in time coding. We do not have $200,000 professional editing machines that are frame accurate, we depend on your time code burn and frame counts. We use templates and editing programs that can have minor differences in time coding which is normal.

WHAT’S ‘REASONABLE’ FOR CHANGES?

We provide ONE FREE round of changes to a CCSL or CAPTIONS within a reasonable amount of time. What’s ‘reasonable’? 15-45 days tops. Once you get outside 45 days after we deliver, and you come to us with changes, then we are not legally bound to provide these corrections. Why? Too often the film changes in the interim period, sometimes even by a second or two, and this will throw off everything, especially the captions. If you come to us after this period, we will look at the circumstances, sometimes splitting the costs. If you need changes to your captions, we require at least 10-15 business days.

CAPTION AND SUBTITLE REVISIONS - HOW THEY ARE DIFFERENT FROM CCSL

Please keep in mind that we can only legally offer 97% accuracy on captions and this is standard across the industry. It will of course depend on the nature of your film. If you give us a movie with multiple characters speaking over one another, accents (which is anything in a non-American dialect), if the pace of speech is ‘rapid-fire’ and the editing style is quick cuts back and forth, or any of these elements, then we cannot be expected to ‘correct’ endless words such as ‘OF’ ‘THE’ ‘TO’ ‘FROM’ etc, etc…

What we will and can correct: Are we referring to a ‘Giraffe’ as a ‘Chimpanzee’ or are we referring to ‘Shirley’ as ‘Judy’ etc… What we ask every filmmaker is this: Are our captions in any way making a material difference to the audience? When all of us routinely watch movies on Netflix, many of these films are big budget and yet we all notice mistakes in captions and subtitles. We are merely pointing out the sheer challenge and difficulty of having to make thousands of captures, again, especially with multiple characters with accents speaking over one another.

We kindly ask that you make ‘reasonable’ requests, especially from those who are dedicated perfectionists. There is no perfection in this industry, no matter how many revisions. Please know this.

DISQUALIFICATIONS - INCLUDING RUNNING TIME

If you come to us requesting changes and ANYTHING has changed with your film, then we are talking about ‘NEW WORK’ below. Even if you’ve just changed the MOVIE TITLE, up front TITLES or the CREDITS and/or the RUNNING TIME IS ALTERED at all, then this no longer falls under ‘ONE FREE ROUND OF CHANGES’.

If you submit your film to us and it has a running time of 1:33:22 and we provide captions and/or subtitles and then you come back to us several weeks later and the running time is different, even off by 1 or 2 seconds, then this disqualifies the free round of changes and now becomes ‘new work’. All of your captions and subtitles will be ‘off’ if your running time has changed.

Even if you submit two different versions of your film and the running time is the same, any changes to the film, especially up front, can render the caption timing off. We then most likely have to spend time making all of the caption fixes or re-do the entire film.

NEW WORK.

Changes and revisions does NOT include new work ordered or any work after a FILM has been changed or altered in any way. Once the editing or post process changes anything to a film, it can change everything for us, especially for captions. This now falls into the territory of ‘new work’ for which we will bill $65-75/hour, and $85 or more, especially on weekends.

If you make changes in post that go over 5+ seconds, it is sometimes easier for us to just start over, especially with captions. Rather than us making hundreds if not thousands of individual changes, it can be significantly cleaner for us to just start over at the beginning.

Please provide what we request. Especially a detailed list not just of the changes you want but the changes you have made. If you ask for changes to captions after you have made new edits, we won’t know if it’s easier to make those changes or start over from scratch on a new round of captions. There is no way for us to know this without detailed lists and information ahead of time and, even then, we may not know until we get into the bulk of the work.

If you need changes to your captions, you have to provide us with a detailed list that includes TIME CODE LOCATION and REQUESTED change. You can’t just send us a bunch of attachments or screenshots and expect us to ‘figure it out’, especially after a long period of time. Our captioners have moved on to other projects and your project may no longer be fresh in their minds. We have to know exactly what is wrong and where. We are more than happy to help, but please eliminate the guesswork for us. We do make mistakes and we’re willing to fix them if the request is both within a reasonable time frame and no changes or edits have been made to your film.

We will not keep doing multiple revisions until ‘Perfect’. That burden is on the client. If and when we do make mistakes, we are happy to correct them for FREE, once. Again, one time. Please make a detailed list in a WORD or EXCEL doc which includes TIME CODE LOCATION and REQUESTED CHANGE.

ASPECT RATIO AND OTHER SPECS

If you don’t provide your specifications up front, we will provide you with a standard aspect ratio. If share the aspect ratio after we have already done the work on your captions or the majority of the work, then this can be considered ‘new work’ as it is not always a simple or easy fix.

REQUEST FOR RUSH OR EMERGENCY WORK

Many clients or customers come to us under rush or ‘emergency’ circumstances for various reasons and they expect us to compensate. There is only so much we can do. Anyone in the film and TV industry should understand that you can’t shoot a film in a few days, let alone edit it. Our work is equally meticulous and detail oriented, especially CCSL’s and continuity projects with more complicated formats. What we can do is put 2 people on one project, but we charge extra for this. We give one person the first half of the film and the second person the latter half. This can speed it up, however, it is always ideal to have ONE person do one project as there is a certain style and momentum to all of it. But this is an option upon request.

CCSL’S & CDSL’S SPOTTING AND CONTINUITY PROJECT FORMATS & DELIVERY REQUIREMENTS

When you pick a style or one of our formats, we will convert your media into that written format. So if you pick STYLE 5F, for example, we are NOT responsible for matching it to your delivery requirements. There are too many variables. We do our best to interpret your delivery requirements into the closest format we have. It is YOUR responsibility to get one of our formats approved by your distributor or sales agent. We cannot be held responsible for any differences between format and contract language interpretations. Our job is NOT to interpret your contract language. Our job is to suggest formats that are as close as possible to that language. PLEASE GET THE FORMAT APPROVED!

PROPRIETARY WORK PROCESS - NO ‘PROOF OF WORK’

When a client sends us work, no matter what form it’s in such as a link MEDIA, we work on your project utilizing our own methods and processes that we have to come to hone after much time. Sometimes we can begin your project immediately upon receiving it and sometimes we start 3 days before the deadline. We cannot make a promise as to which it will be. But It will get done and it will be done right. Sometimes we start a project only to temporarily suspend it in favor of one with a more urgent deadline. Nor can it be demanded of us, unless separately agreed to, to reveal our methods of labor. We will get said requested work finished by our agreed upon deadline. We have many clients, employees and contractors and, like you, we find a way. We kindly request that you, the client, do not prematurely ask us to present proof of our labor. You have your methods, we have ours. If ours didn’t work, we wouldn’t still be standing after 30+ years. Thank you for your understanding.

PROMISES RENEGED RE: DISCOUNTS

On many occasions, clients or new customers ask us for a discount. We are happy to oblige with volume work or verbal promises of work. So if we provide a discount for 2 or more film projects at a certain rate and then the client pulls one or more projects back from us, especially without any notice, that discount is hereby defaulted and an invoice will be sent with a surcharge attached.

Please do not request a discount arbitrarily. We price competitively and there has to be a good reason. Volume is that reason for us.

If you have promised us to expect work to arrive, written or verbal, we will have people ready. Please do not be late. If you are late, tell us. If you pull the second or last part of promised work, we will revoke the initial discount, add back in the original quote and then add an additional 30% surcharge on the total. The reason is that we have to pay other good people who have cleared their schedules for you, often giving up other income.

This is especially enforced when we have asked good people to sacrifice their weekends for your ‘EMERGENCY RUSH’.

If a client promises us work that is ‘coming’ we often adjust in anticipation of that work arriving as we pull employees or contractors off other projects that have longer deadlines to accommodate, not only do we lose the promised income and the time, but so do our contractors and employees who have made switches and sacrifices to satisfy the client’s ‘emergency rush’, often giving up other income. Please, honor your word just as you expect us to. We know things change, just communicate with us.

PAYMENT ON DELIVERY.

If you are a known basic transcription client, we usually offer a Net-30 for payment terms.  For CCSL & CAPTIONS however, we expect either FULL PAYMENT on DELIVERY, with delivery meaning the first round or first time we deliver. Sometimes we take 50% up front with 50% at delivery. Delivery does not mean us waiting on the client to get back to us with changes or corrections. If we are NET 7 or NET 14, the CLOCK starts when we DELIVER VERSION 1 (v1) to you. Not VERSION 2 (v2).

WE HOLD DELIVERY OF CCSL & CAPTION FILES UNTIL FULL PAYMENT IS MADE

Unless otherwise negotiated, we expect full payment before we deliver. Especially with new clients.

MINIMUMS & MORE

We also charge a 15-minute minimum per-file.  The reason we do this is for efficient File Management.  We once received thousands of short, one-minute files and it takes longer to organize them, disseminate, proof, track and email them than it does to transcribe them.  We cannot profit from short files and so after this, we instituted a 15-minute minimum to justify our time and expenses. We also "round up" each file.  We do not count seconds when we charge.  For example, if we receive a media file that is 38 minutes and 42 seconds, we charge you for a 39 minute file. 

TURNAROUND TIMES

Turn Times vary depending on several factors but the biggest is the STYLE (format) you select. Price and turnaround times are tied to format. You can add another 2-5 business days for Documentaries.

STYLE 1: 1-3 business days.

STYLE 2: 1-3 business days.

STYLE 3: 2-5 business days.

STYLE 4TF: 5-8 business days.

STYLE 5A: 7-10 business days+

STYLE 5B: 8-10 business days+

STYLE 5C: 8-12 business days+

*STYLE 5D: 10-12 business days+

*STYLE 5E: 10-12 business days+

*STYLE 5F: 10-15 business days+

If you are in a major ‘RUSH’ let us know as we can sometimes place two people on one project. One person will do the first half of the film and the second person will do the latter half. This will come at a 25-50% SURCHARGE if we have to deliver faster than the time we usually require. We can also be asked to work on the weekends in the cases of major rush, but this also will come at the same SURCHARGE. Just ask us and we’ll tell you what we can do… or not do. When you ask us to make changes, we almost always assign the same person who did your original CCSL or CAPS to do the revisions. Why? They are most familiar with your media and less likely to err. Sometimes, this requires an extra day or two.

CCSL’S & CDSL’S are extremely time consuming and detailed. They are 8-9 columns wide and involve thousands upon thousands of bits of information capture.

CAPTION FILES. We can’t guess as to which ones you need. Every production is different and often have different territories. Let us know. Do you need .CAP & .SCC? Those are two of the most popular, but there are others.

*The Asterisk above is for these very difficult and time consuming formats. If we have not seen nor evaluated your film ahead of time, then we reserve the right to go longer than the business days alloted. Please show us something, even a trailer.

WHAT IS A ‘BUSINESS DAY’ AND WHAT IS A +1 BUSINESS DAY?

Business days end at 11:59AM PACIFIC and begin anew at 12:00PM. If we receive anything beyond the daily cutoff, it counts as the next business day. Because projects are so often delayed or changed, it makes it extremely difficult for us to plan or schedule CCSL transcribers, unless we know a project is coming 100% and when. If a client sends us a link on a Sunday night and we didn’t know when it was coming, odds are, we’ve already assigned work to every available transcriber. So the FIRST business day doesn’t start the next MONDAY morning, but rather TUESDAY morning. On countless occasions, clients will promise us work on say a WEDNESDAY only for it not to arrive. Meanwhile, we’ve scheduled transcribers to be ready to take work on that Wednesday. We understand things change, but people expect to be compensated for their time and for giving up possible projects to be ready for ours. If we don’t know exactly when a project is coming, we therefore ADD +1 BUSINESS DAY.

PAYMENT METHODS

Our current preferred method is now PAYPAL, where you can use your major CC. PAYPAL gives you plenty of options. ZELLE is our second choice. We no longer accept checks, cash or crypto and once QUICKBOOKS ONLINE returns, ACH and credit card acceptance is much easier.

PROJECT FORM.

We ask that you fill out a project form with all of the details. If you do not fill out a project form, it forces us to track countless details including emails, speaker names, deadlines, file priorities, changes, links to media and more. Please fill out a project form so that we have ALL of the project information up front. We receive hundreds of emails per-day from multiple clients and we cannot efficiently track email once it begins to change and add up.

Specs

LINKS AND DOWNLOADS

We kindly ask that you send us a direct, downloadable link. VIMEO is best for us as it gives us several downloading options on compression and size. 1GB and less is best for us. We can also take FRAME.IO, DROPBOX links, among many others. But if we need a password or have to download an APP to access your media, it adds complexity for us. We have hundreds of customers and if we had to do that with every one of them, it would be downloading an endless amount of APPS. Please make sure accessing your material is not password required for us. We kindly require that clients compress their files well under 1GB per-file so that they do not eat up our bandwidth and take up too much time downloading and recompressing.  We greatly prefer VIMEO first with BITC, burned in timecode. DROPBOX is fine also as is WE TRANSFER.

Please send us a PROJECT FORM with all of the details, including SPEAKER NAMES, media links, and supporting documents such as shooting scripts or cast lists or PDF documents that identify individuals in the case of CCSL’s.  The more information we receive from you, the more accurate the final result.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration,

TTS MANAGEMENT

Jeff@TranscriptionStudio.com - Jeff Z

Operations@TranscriptionStudio.com - Erin F