Stop 6 of 8 · Daily
Edit script, voice-over, captions
Interview transcripts become a paper edit, the script is written in Arabic and English against the same timings, the voice-over is marked up for the read, and the caption files come back checked by a person.
The paper edit comes before the timeline
Four interviews at twenty five minutes each is a hundred minutes of talking for a two minute film. Ramez used to scrub through it. Now the transcripts go in, with speakers labelled by role rather than by name, and what comes back is a paper edit: the lines that earn a place, in order, with a reason each and a running duration.
He disagrees with a third of it. That is the point. Arguing with a structure that exists is faster than building one from a blank sequence, and the running duration tells him at line eleven that the film is already too long.
Two languages, one set of timings
Arabic is not a track added at the end. Both scripts are written against the same shot timings, because length is a picture problem.
| Decision | Ask for it up front | What Ramez checks |
|---|---|---|
| Register | Modern Standard or Egyptian, and why | That it matches how the client speaks to customers |
| Names and terms | The client's own glossary, both languages | Spelling of departments, products and job titles |
| Numbers and dates | Written out the way the client writes them | Currency, hijri or gregorian, digits or words |
Inside the job Project. Read the four attached interview transcripts. Build a paper edit for a two minute film following the story spine in the treatment. Give me a table of: order, speaker role, the exact quoted line, timecode, duration, and one line on why it earns its place. Keep the running total under one minute forty so there is room for the voice-over. Then list the three moments the spine needs and no interview covers. [paste the transcripts]
Write the edit script in English and in Egyptian Arabic from this paper edit. Same shot order, same timings, both versions readable at a natural pace within each shot's duration. Show them side by side per shot with the duration. Mark every Arabic line that runs longer than its shot and suggest a shorter phrasing. Use the attached client glossary for all product and department names. At the end, list every line a native speaker must confirm before this goes to a read.
The read, marked up
A voice-over script for someone standing in a booth is not the same document as the edit script. It carries pace, emphasis, breath marks, a pronunciation line for every name, and a target duration per paragraph so the read comes back cuttable.
Turn the English and Arabic scripts into voice-over read scripts. One line per breath, target seconds per paragraph, emphasis marked in capitals, a pronunciation guide for every proper noun in both languages, and a note where the read should slow for a graphic. Add a short direction line at the top describing the tone in three words and naming one thing the reader should not do.
Captions that survive both languages
Ask for the caption file, not a wall of text. Two lines maximum, around forty two characters per line, split on sense rather than on width, and a reading speed a person can follow. Arabic captions need right to left handling and a font the delivery platform actually renders, which is worth testing on one clip before you export forty.
Produce SRT captions for both languages from the final script and these shot timings. Two lines maximum, forty two characters per line, split at natural phrase breaks, minimum one second per cue. Then give me a checking list of ten items for the Arabic pass: the lines you were least sure about, every name from the glossary, every number, and anything idiomatic that may not carry.