Cinema Certified Result Review

Cinema Certificed Result Review is recommended for material that must adhere to specific captioning standards, like content distributed over iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, Netflix, and other video-on-demand (VOD) services, or even broadcast television or DVD authoring. In this article we show how to request and use this service.

Before submitting the Captioning request:

Follow these tips to ensure your content gets through the QC process of your aggregator or VOD distributor quickly:

• Select our Cinema Certified™ Result Review service on the sign-up page.

• Ask your VOD distributor/Video Editor for specific Captioning standards or guidelines, like caption placement and lyrics, and communicate them to us, so that we can advise you on the type of results you can expect, and which requirements we can fulfill.
  Requests or changes made after the submission is complete will result in additional work and in extra charges.

• If you require songs to be captioned, ensure you get the lyrics in advance. Note that if you don't supply us with the lyrics, results may be poor due to the difficulty of capturing such content.

• Have your screenplay or continuity script available as a rich text document, Word document, or a searchable PDF. A scanned version of the script (which is not searchable) is not as useful. You should make the script available to us even if the film changed significantly during the production process.

• Prepare a low-res proxy movie. As an example, using Final Cut or Compressor you can choose the Podcasting -> H.264 for Video Podcasting preset, which creates a video with a bitrate of 1.1 Mbps (1100 kbps). This is sufficient for our purposes, and it will keep the size of the video file under 2 GB, even for a 2-hour film.

• Check that your media file has the right starting time. Our timing is generated assuming a start time of zero. If this does not match the media file you're providing to the VOD service, use the Offset Timecode setting, under the Advanced Settings, to change the start timecode. Note that the offset timecode only affects broadcast outputs like SCC and CAP -- not DFXP or VTT.

• Make sure you use the correct frame rate and frame type (Drop Frame or Non Drop Frame). Our standard .scc files are created at 29.97 fps, but we produce several broadcast outputs on other rates. If you have a mismatch in frame rate or frame type, your movie will fail the QC. If the VOD distributor will accept DFXP/TTML files, then use those instead, as it removes the possibility of frame rate confusion. 

Making the Captioning request:

• Check that your account is enabled for Cinema Certified Result Review. If you checked the Cinema Certified box when you filled out the account sign up form, and if you see a yellow label in your account, then you have the right type. If not, just open a ticket and request that your account be upgraded to Cinema Certified Review.

• If you have a prepaid account, ensure you have enough credits to make your request, under the Billing tab. More information about purchasing the required credits in our article on Creating an Invoice for a Captioning, Transcription and Cinema Certified Result Review request.

• Now, go to Caption/Transcribe -> New Captioning Submission, and open the Advanced Settings. First, check that you have the correct outputs under Output Types, and the correct language under Language/Content. Finally, check Result Review: AST Manually Checks Caption Files and Save Above Settings as Default, and then click Apply Changes:

• On the Submission page, complete all the required fields. In the Guidance for Transcriber field:
• Include a link to your script. You can use services like Google Drive, Dropbox, Hightail, etc, and publish your file as "public" and "unlisted". Then paste the URL to your file in the Guidance field.
  If you are unable to link to your script online, open a ticket and send us the script, once you have an ID for your submission.
  
  
• If you require songs to be captioned, add a note saying "Have lyrics:", and enter the lyrics next. If they are in a separate document, place them online, like in Google Drive, Dropbox, or Hightail, and then paste the URL to the file in the Guidance field.
  
  
• Include any caption placement requests or other special requirements, by giving explicit instructions to the reviewer. See more information about how to make such requests in the notes below.

• Click Start Upload. Once Captioning results are generated, Cinema Certified Result Review will be performed and the status will show Results Being Reviewed.
  Cinema Certified Result Review is typically completed within one to two business days (can take longer for non-English submissions).

Requesting Cinema Certified Result Review for a completed Submission:

If you want to have Cinema Certified Result Review performed on a Captioning submission already completed, do the following:

• Ask your VOD distributor/Video Editor for specific Captioning standards or guidelines, like caption placement, and communicate them to us, so that we can advise you on the type of results you can expect, and which requirements we can fulfill.
  Requests or changes made after the submission is complete will result in additional work and in extra charges.

• Check that your account is configured for Cinema Certified Result Review.

• If your initial submission was an audio track only, make your video asset available online, using services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Hightail, etc. Then open a ticket and send the link to the video, so that it can be made available to the reviewer.

• If you have any special requirements, or caption placement needs, open a ticket and communicate them to us, before making the request.

• Open the relevant Submission Details page and click on Have AST review this, and then confirm on the next screen:

• Cinema Certified Result Review will be performed and the status will show Results Being Reviewed. Cinema Certified Result Review is typically completed within one to two business days (can take longer for non-English submissions).

Don't hesitate to open a ticket if you have any questions during the process. We know you have put a lot of work into your production, and we're here to make sure that it's "curtain ready" with closed captions as efficiently as possible.

Captioning Placement Notes:

• While some streaming services place the captions below the video -- thus, positioning to avoid onscreen text is not necessary, others position them over the video and want the caption text to avoid onscreen text. So if positioning is required for your content ("top" or "bottom"), ensure the media file you're uploading is in an MP4 format, and use the guidance box to make the request, by adding a note like:

FCC Placement: Please place all the captions overlapping the onscreen text at the top of the screen.

• Other special requirements can be requested the same way. Ensure the media file you're uploading is in an MP4 format, and use the guidance box to make the request, by adding a note like: 

FCC Placement: Please remove all the captions when there's already onscreen text.
OR
FCC Placement: Please remove all the captions between 01:44:15 and 01:46:24.


Additional Notes:

• Cinema Certified Result Review is available for Captioning-Only, Transcription/Captioning, or Translation requests.

• Cinema Certified Result Review for translated results cannot be ordered online; please contact us for information on obtaining this service for translated files.

• We strongly recommend that you request Transcription for your media file, even if you have a transcript available, since our transcribers are trained to generate formatted transcripts, optimized to work with our automated system. You can submit your existing transcript as Guidance for the Transcriber.

• If you want to add Cinema Certified Result Review to non-English content, please contact us first by opening a ticket.

• Cinema Certified Result Review is an extra-cost service. You can see pricing in the Supplementary services price sheet, on the help main page, in your account.

Additional Background:

Our standard process of generating caption files normally needs no manual intervention for content that is mainly dialog. We are able to produce nearly perfect caption files with remarkable speed and accuracy. However, content that is highly sweetened (dialog that is mixed with music, noise, and sound-effects), or content that has a lot of talk-over (multiple speakers talking at the same time) needs some manual intervention. TV or cinema content often falls into this category.

Our Result Review process employs trained reviewers to provide this extra manual assistance needed for sweetened content. Our standard Result Review is usually sufficient for most applications, but video-on-demand systems often enforce very exacting standards on the captioning quality, which requires an extra level of review.