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How Transcripts help Content Creators to deliver a better Story

Maarten Verwaest
February 25, 2021

Transcripts rule. If you are a documentary maker or a journalist, you know that having transcripts of interviews, and even transcribing b-roll audio, massively speeds up the video editing process. Moreover, once published, it improves the retrievability of your content. Here’s how.

Making Your Selects. Once you have your interviews in hand, it’s time to log your best takes.  Thankfully there are great digital tools to make the transition from field shoot to final edit seamless. For those working on Final Cut Pro, Lumberjack allows you to log live on your shoot and tag soundbites in the field, and to set up your top soundbites for editing. Limecraft Collections are a great way to go to simplify the soundbite-tagging-to-editing process.

Faster Video Editing. If you’ve ever scrubbed through footage listening for soundbites, you know it’s time-consuming. Even listening at double speed. It’s much faster to scan through an accurate transcript, then pull the list of soundbites onto a storyboard for final selects. For those working in Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro or Davinci Resolve, using Limecraft Flow for transferring your shot list ensures the transcript fragments are properly transferred to the timeline.

Captioning and Content Discovery. To make sure your content is discoverable on YouTube and Vimeo, consider uploading the final transcript of a show. Also, once you have an accurate as-run transcript, captioning is a breeze. You can create your captions manually, but automated processes like Limecraft Subtitling make it extremely simple. If the quality of the audio allows, consider the latter.  Auto-captioning is usually more accurate when it comes to timing. If, for example, a caption comes too early, there’s a risk to give away a storyline without letting the viewer draw those conclusions for themselves.

Blogs, Websites and Social Posts.  Be sure everyone in your communications department has access to your interview transcripts.  Transcripts are a great source to pull quotes for social media posts, blogs, publications and e-newsletters.

Where to Get a Good Transcript.  These days, you can get accurate transcripts in minutes. For straightforward and brief interviews, try automated services like Limecraft. At a rate of €0,25/minute, accurate transcripts are your best tool for storytelling. For people with accents, those who speak very fast, or in case you need 100% accuracy, you would probably prefer a human touch with a service like True Subtitles or Lingsoft. Don’t count on the YouTube automated tool.