Transcription for Video Producers

People are consuming more video than ever before. The average consumer watches 16 hours of video a week, on average. Your role as a video professional is more than just important; it’s essential. Whether you are creating an artistic short or a YouTube video ad, the ROI is undisputed.

That leads us to the tricky question of how to create more video in less time. With people streaming so much video content, they want more and more and more. You may even find that you are facing increased pressure to do more video editing than in the past.

There is good news. Tech has taken some of the heavy-lifting out of your editing work. You no longer have to cut corners on quality to hit production goals. Speech-to-text video tools are bringing the message of your video to wider audiences without adding to your production workflow. (In fact, transcription is actually cutting down on the hard work of making videos inclusive.)

Here’s how transcribing videos to text can cut down editing and help grow your audience.

What are the benefits of speech-to-text?

There are many ways to use transcription in the video production and editing process. It’s widely accepted that text on the screen of a film, ad, or video clip increases accessibility. Film festivals or streaming networks may require captions or subtitles for distribution.

These post-production perks aren’t the only reason to consider speech-to-text, however. The process of production and editing can benefit from it, too. Consider how much time you lose looking through hours of video footage for the perfect snippet. You may want to locate a sound bite or tie in a piece of dialogue to a narrative moment.

Having an accurate transcription of your video gives you the roadmap to finding these gems. You no longer have to play through every second of the video to find the right minute of footage. The transcription document (with timestamps) serves as your roadmap to getting to that key moment of the film. It saves time, and it helps with storytelling, story mapping, and the creation of post-production promotional assets, too. Pulling quotes from a scene for a movie trailer or press release is done with ease, thanks to transcription.

Different types of speech-to-text

The transcript is just the first phase of a speech-to-text process. You can certainly rely on the transcription alone to create a better piece of film. But that’s not where the journey ends. From there, you can place the text directly into your film project.

From the viewer’s perspective, the text at the bottom of a film screen will all seem alike. They won’t know what kind of speech-to-text they are looking at, and they likely won’t care. For video producers and editors, however, knowing which text to choose is important. Here are the most common ways to incorporate text in your film footage:

• Captions

This is the text you see when you select “closed captioning” on a movie menu. It features dialogue and other audio context clues. Captions can be set to be turned off when the viewer no longer wants to see them. Captions can also be “burned in.” This makes them part of the video file so that they aren’t separated from the visual film experience.

In fact, captions are becoming increasingly common for all video types. Even social media ads are advised to include them. People choose to mute their mobile devices and watch more videos without sound. Captions can add to the accessible nature of your content.

• Live captions

If you are producing a live event, these are the captions viewers will see. Live captions are shown at the time of airing. They can be created with software through speech recognition tools or via human transcribers.

• Subtitles

English language subtitles are a common way for English-speakers to enjoy films made in another language. There are two parts of creating subtitles: the translation to English and the creation of the text transcription. Subtitles are a great way to grow reach for any film project. They provide accessibility outside the original viewing audience.

How to transcribe videos to text

Now, you have a few options for creating text for your video. Whether you want captions or subtitles, the options are pretty much the same. They include:

• DIY transcription

Yes, you do the transcribing yourself. It does require you to sit, listen to the audio, and type it out. This is, at first glance, the cheapest option. When you consider how much time your team will spend to get it done, however, it may not be as affordable. What other valuable tasks could you be doing with that time? Post-production coloring? Creating promotional materials? Audio dubbing?

• AI transcription

The auto-transcribe option is a popular use of AI in media and entertainment. It’s rather affordable, too. You provide your video or the audio of your video to an automated transcription provider. Within hours, you get your text files back with the words and sounds from your video typed out. It will also include time stamps so you can match them to your video. You get 80% accuracy when you automatically transcribe. And you can expect to spend little time getting the text to 100% accuracy after you get it back.

• Human transcription

The next level up in price and quality is human transcription. It works much the same way on your end, initially. You send in a video or audio file, then wait to get the transcription back. Since a qualified person is doing the work, it can take hours or even days to get the text files back. Expect up to 99% accuracy for your time and money.

When you don’t want to choose one, it’s possible to get a hybrid approach. Some video professionals opt for AI transcription then hand the text to a human for post-production editing.

What is transcription in video editing?

Video to text transcription is the process of taking the sound from a video or audio file and turning it into text. It includes all of the voices captured on the original audio. You can create a transcript from any audio or video file (with sound). This includes b-roll, seminars, films, ads, or client interviews. Transcripts are made from human speech, typically, and don’t try to describe non-speech sounds.

How long does it take to transcribe one hour of video?

Finally, depending on the method you choose to transcribe your video, the time for transcription will vary. Human transcribers can generally finish one hour of text-to-speech within 4-6 hours. AI services can perform it much faster, in an hour or less. As the quality of the service you choose increases, so will the time it takes to get the text. One of the best transcription productivity tips is to transcribe all your videos before editing. It can save you so much time in the production and marketing process.

How can I get a transcription of a video? 

Fortunately, thanks to the technology available today, it’s very easy to get a transcription of any video. The steps to take are as follows:

• Choose what text solution you want: captions or subtitles.
• Decide if you want higher accuracy with human transcription, faster turnaround with automated transcription, or the benefits of both.
• Locate the video or audio and video files you want to transcribe. Make sure it’s complete and in the chosen format.
• Go to the Rev website and pick the service you want. Upload your video file to their checkout page. (Alternatively, you can paste the URL of a public YouTube video or Google file.)
• Complete your purchase and await notification of your video transcription’s completion. This can take 4-12 hours, depending on the transcription service.