Add Captions to Documentary
CentClip transcribes and captions documentary films accurately - handling narration, interviews, and location-specific vocabulary without per-project fees. Designed for independent filmmakers, festival submitters, and distributors who need broadcast-ready caption files on their own schedule.
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How to add captions to documentary
- 1
Upload your documentary file
Drag your documentary onto the CentClip upload area - MP4, MOV, and other common formats are accepted. No account is required to start, and your first 5 minutes are processed free. If you want to preview accuracy before committing to a full-length film, upload just the opening segment.
- 2
Review and correct the transcript
CentClip generates a time-coded transcript for every speaker and segment in your film. Click any line to fix a subject's name, a place name, a historical term, or a word the model mishears in a noisy field recording. Corrections update caption timing automatically, so you do not need to adjust sync manually.
- 3
Export captions in the format your distribution requires
Download a burned-in MP4 with captions baked directly into the picture, an SRT file for streaming platforms and festival portals, a VTT file for web players, or a plain text transcript for press kits and accessibility archives. All formats come from the same corrected transcript, so you review the film once and export as many times as needed.
Why choose CentClip?
Feature-length films cost a predictable flat rate per minute - not a per-project quote
Documentary post-production budgets are tight and irregular, and most captioning vendors charge per-project rates that require a quote, a contract, and a wait. CentClip charges 5 cents per minute with no minimums - a 90-minute documentary costs $4.50 total. That predictability makes it easy to build captioning into a fixed post-production budget without negotiating a separate line item for each film.
Handles the acoustic variety that documentaries throw at a transcription model
Documentary audio ranges from studio narration to archival recordings to street interviews shot on a phone. CentClip's speech model handles accent variation, background noise, and rapid speaker changes well enough that most filmmakers spend only a short correction pass rather than retyping segments from scratch. For archival footage with degraded audio, the editable transcript lets you correct problem passages without re-uploading.
Credits never expire - so they fit the stop-and-start rhythm of documentary production
Documentary projects stretch across months or years, and post-production often happens in bursts separated by fundraising or filming gaps. CentClip credits do not expire, so you can buy a block when you have budget, caption your rough cut, and use the remaining credits on the final delivery version six months later. There is no subscription fee accumulating while the project is on hold.
FAQ
How accurate are the captions for documentary interviews and narration?
Accuracy depends on recording quality - clean narration and lavalier-mic interviews typically return fewer than five errors per minute, while archival or outdoor footage may need more corrections. The editable transcript lets you fix any errors before exporting, so the final caption file reflects your corrections.
How much does it cost to add captions to a full-length documentary?
Your first 5 minutes are free with no account required. After that, captioning costs 5 cents per minute - a 90-minute documentary is $4.50 and a 120-minute film is $6.00. There is no subscription, and unused credits never expire.
What caption formats do festival portals and streaming platforms accept?
Most documentary festival portals and streaming platforms - including Vimeo, YouTube, and major VOD distributors - accept SRT or VTT sidecar files. CentClip exports both, along with a burned-in MP4 for platforms that require captions baked into the video.
Do my credits expire between production phases?
Credits never expire. You can buy a block during rough-cut editing and use whatever remains during final delivery - months or years later - without any renewal requirement or penalty.