Deciding when to end one caption group and create a new one requires paying attention to three

things:

1. The rhythm of speech. When a speaker pauses, that's a good spot to break.

2. The grammatical structure of the speech. Punctuation, conjunctions, and prepositions are good

spots to break.

3. The length (character count) of a caption group. You cannot exceed 60 characters in a caption

group.

Always create a new caption group whenever the speaker changes or a sentence ends with

punctuation . ? !

Caption groups must be under 60 characters.

A caption group can have a maximum of 60 characters. Dash has built-in color coding to help guide

you. Aim for the caption group box to be green or yellow. If the caption group box turns red, it is too

long.

If a sentence is longer than 60 characters, break mid-sentence. Breaking shouldn't interrupt

comprehension or readability, so you should try to break:

 After punctuation , : ;

 Or before conjunctions such as: and, nor, but, or, yet, so, by.

 Or before prepositional phrases such as: that, who, because, in order to, not only, as we, in

which, where, with, what, how, for, through, until, to, as, of.

OSentence Breaking Example

This is an example of incorrect caption breaking. These breaks make for awkward reading:
This example reads much better because it follows the rhythm of speech, breaking at slight pauses:

Caption Breaking Example

When splitting up a long sentence, balance it between the neighboring caption groups. For example,
it looks bad to have "team" on its own:

Instead, combine them into one caption group since it is less than 60 characters:

 r before complete proper nouns (e.g. do not break between "United States of America").

Speaker ID Rules

1. Use a dash and a space EVERY time a NEW speaker starts speaking or when the speaker

CHANGES. I.e. "- "

o Atmospherics do not count as a change of speaker. If an atmospheric is used that

breaks up dialogue from the same speaker, do not include a dash after the atmospheric.

2. If the speaker CANNOT be visually identified, identify the speaker with a speaker ID. E.g.,

"- [Mark]", "- [Narrator]"

o If a speaker is unknown, use an appropriate identifier. Some possible examples could be

"- [Interviewer]", "- [Guest]", "- [Ghostly Voice]"

o Exception: There is no need to identify a speaker if they are visible for any portion of

their dialogue AND they are not interrupted

 E.g. Mark starts speaking off-screen but then walks into the frame while talking

ADDITIONAL NOTES

When you NEED to identify a speaker, here's how:

  You should use the speaker's first name if it is known: "- [Mark]"

 If a character name is not known, use a visible descriptive identifier: "- [Blonde Woman]"

o Never use race or other discriminatory identifiers. Instead, use a descriptor such as

occupation, clothing, height, etc.

EXAMPLES
Example 1: Basic use of the dash.

Example 2: A speaker is never seen during the scene.

Include atmospherics for these main conditions:

1. A sound effect is heard which is integral to the story or message of a video. If a character reacts

to a sound, you should probably include it. E.g. "(gun fires)"

2. Background music is heard in a way that sets a specific mood as part of the story telling. Only

include a background music atmospheric if there's a significant gap in speech and the music

seems important. E.g. "(dramatic orchestral music)"

Sound effects often help tell the story

 Atmospherics are put in parentheses and are always in lowercase, E.g. "(loud snoring)".

o Atmospheric-only caption groups do not need a dash or speaker ID.

 Only include significant sound effects that help tell the story. Use your best judgment.

 If in doubt, include the atmospheric.

o E.g. If a character reacts to an off-screen gun shot, use "(gun fires)"

o E.g. If there is a group of children playing, you could use "(children laughing)"

o E.g. "(plane flying overhead)" or "(car honking)" should be included if characters

react to it.

 Include sounds made by the speaker, E.g. "(laughs loudly)".

  Atmospherics should always be present tense, E.g. "(laughs loudly)", never past tense

"(laughed loudly)"

 Always describe with an action verb, E.g. "(frogs croaking)", never with an onomatopoeia of

a sound "(ribbit, ribbit, ribbit)"

Mood Music

Music is often used in videos to help set a mood or underscore actions.

If there's at least a 2-second gap in speech AND it does not seem that the lyrics are intended to be

clearly heard AND the background music is setting a specific mood, then caption the atmospheric as

mood music.

 Most of the time you won't know the artist or title, so you should use a description:

o E.g. "(gentle music)", "(bright pop music)", "(heavy metal music)", "(electronic

dance music)".

o A list of music adjectives can be found here.

 If someone talks over the music, focus on the speaker and don't add the atmospheric.

Dialogue is always more important.

COMMON MISTAKES

Here are some common issues when using atmospherics:

DO NOT use "sound of". The viewer knows the words in parentheses are sounds or music currently
being heard.

DO NOT use an onomatopoeia.

DO NOT use the words "intro", "introductory", "ending", "fading", "playing", etc. when describing
music.

DO NOT use "again", "previously", "repeated". If a sound is heard repeatedly, simply include the
same atmospheric again and sync it to the sound being heard.
DO NOT describe the action that created the sound.

DO NOT indicate a speaker's inflections through atmospherics.

There are 2 main scenarios in which you will see pre-existing on-screen text:

1. Pre-existing text shown as slides, graphics, whiteboards, or a software interface. DO NOT use

the up-arrow caret ^.

2. Pre-existing text shown that helps tell the story AND is in the lower 1/3 of the screen. DO use the

up-arrow caret ^ to indicate the overlap.

How to indicate overlap with on-screen storytelling text in lower 1/3 of the screen:

1. Up-arrow carets ^ should be used whenever there is pre-existing burned-in text on the lower 1/3

of the screen.

2. When you flag this occurence, insert the up-arrow caret ^ in the caption group by typing shift+6

on your keyboard and Dash will display a blue up-arrow caret at the beginning of the caption

group.

3. You must add an up-arrow caret ^ to EVERY caption group that occurs at the same time as the

burned-in text, even if it occurs for only a split second.