Documentary Subtitling and Translation for Broadcast Channels and VoD

At Capital Captions, we work with experienced subtitlers and translators in a huge range of specialisms to provide competitively priced, fast turnaround documentary subtitles and translation services. With viewers increasingly using tablets and smartphones to view video content, quality subtitles have never been more important. Our professional linguists combine linguistic knowledge with technical expertise to create word perfect captions for deaf, hard of hearing and foreign viewers.

Video on Demand Subtitling including Netflix, Amazon, iTunes and iPlayer 

Especially if a documentary involves filming on location, video production is no small undertaking in terms of time or money. For this reason, many or most documentaries will be intended for distribution via broadcast or popular VoD channels as opposed to general viewing via online social media.

Video service providers often have different requirements for documentary closed captioning, requesting both different formatting styles and file outputs. At Capital Captions, we work with a vast array of closed caption formats and have experienced working with guidelines and specifications from broadcasters.

Whether you are airing your documentary on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, BBC or online via Amazon, we have your format covered.

Our closed captions come in the below formats: 

• EBU-STL Captions
• EBU-TT-D and EBU-TT Captions
• SCC Subtitles
• DFXP / TTML / XML Captions
• CAP Subtitles
• WebVTT and SRT subtitles for online videos including YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook
• Burned in subtitles (MP4, MOV, AVI, WMV and more…)

Accurate Documentary Closed Captioning 

For documentaries, accuracy is paramount. Documentaries are by nature, designed to encourage and help viewers to learn and take in information. Spelling errors in documentaries stick out like a sore thumb. In addition, where viewers already have some understanding and knowledge around your topic, inconsistencies can have an impact on the credibility of your information.

Documentary Caption Localisation 

Even for monolingual captioning, localisation is really important when it comes to writing quality documentary subtitles. As with any academic writing, it’s important to make sure spellings are consistent with the target audience, i.e. US English versus UK English. Similarly, if your documentary features a lot of statistics, conversions should be made in order to be relevant to your viewers. For instance, metric versus imperial measurements and currency conversions.

Documentary Translation Services and Foreign Subtitling 

Travel or cultural documentaries are often multilingual and may require some translation and burned-in subtitles, also known as forced subtitles. This process involves transcribing foreign speech in the video, then translating, time coding and formatting captions in a style that complements the look of the film. Capital Captions provide multilingual subtitling at highly competitive prices in over 50 different languages.

If you have a documentary or video which requires documentary subtitles and translation then we can help. Give us a try today to see the benefits we can bring to your video and get your quote today.