Captioning Jobs: What You Need to Know

 

Captioning is the process of listening to video audio and creating text-based closed captions.

In addition to typing the dialogue, captioners also describe sound effects and music cues to help viewers understand what's going on. 

Captioners then time code each caption to synchronize with the audio of the video.

You must have seen captions appear at the bottom of a video screen while watching videos on Netflix or other platforms. 

Captioners make these captions.

Video creators use captions because it helps them to reach a wider audience.

It also helps the audience to understand what is being spoken in the video with greater clarity.

For instance, a Japanese movie shot in the Japanese language will only be understood by someone who knows Japanese. 

But if English captions are provided, that movie will be understood by a larger audience who can read English.

Due to the rise of video streaming services, a lot of video content is getting created, so the demand for captioners is also rising.

You can quickly become a captioner as it requires no special skills. 

All you need to do is listen to the video audio, understand it, and caption it.

How to get started:

At first, you'll need the most basic setup, and that is a desktop or laptop computer and a reliable internet connection.

If you're applying for an English captioner, you must have strong English language skills and be able to capture audio accurately. 

You'll be asked you to take a grammar quiz and submit a caption sample before being approved to caption. 

To ensure your caption sample meets the quality standards expected by customers, you'll also be provided with guidelines.

To get started, sign up on the following best-captioning sites where you'll find lots of captioning jobs.

• CaptioningStar
• VananCaptioning
• Vitac

Expected earnings:

On average, a freelance captioner makes around $240 a month. 

Rev.com (unfortunately it closed down), a legitimate company in captioning domain, claims that some of its highly skilled captioners have made $1570 in a month.

Looking at the numbers above, you can be assured you'll make somewhere in between.