#accurate subtitles which makes it so difficult to take in what the dudes saying and because of the virus theres no practical to help me

[mittensmorgul]

When you write Superwiki transcripts, do you prefer adding movement or just speech? Some transcripts don't mention something the characters pick up or do and it's usually just talking back and forth. Do you do that?

Sometimes, if it changes the nature of a scene. Like if Dean walks across the room to get in someone’s face in a threatening manner, I’ll describe that. I’m trying to remember which transcripts are mine (whoops! and some of the synopses are mine too, and I’m trying to find the time to do the rest of the s12 missing synopses but Real Life has been Happening To Me lately >.>)

If a character does something that doesn’t really affect the pacing of the scene or dialogue, or isn’t explicitly plot-relevant, then I might not mention it. Like in the diner scene in 12.12, I didn’t mention every time a character picked up a menu or every time Sam fiddled with his phone. It’s just not necessary sometimes. But sometimes it’s crucial.

Under a cut, because this may or may not be interesting to anyone, and I sorta rambled on a bit. I was gonna reply privately, but then I spent a long time on it and thought what the heck, someone may be interested in this. :P

12.06 is mine, so is 12.09, 12.12, 12.15, 12.18, and 12.23. (for some reason I tend to get stuck with some of the tricky ones. :P)

And looking back over these, it seems I haven’t done two exactly the same all season.

For a technically tricky episode like 12.09 (the descriptions of what they’re doing, like running through the woods and setting up their trap at that cabin in an almost completely dialogue-free montage that is plot-critical), it’s important to accurately and objectively report anything that happens that’s character/plot relevant, because the visuals carry the plot through those scenes, but... sometimes it’s hard to remain objective (I allow myself one snarky comment/joke/meta reference per transcript, but that’s it).

For something like 12.12, where at a glance it looks like we’re just seeing clips of the same scene (like the diner scene) over and over again, I try to highlight the differences between each POV. That was hands down the most difficult transcript I’ve written. Usually they take about 6-8 hours, that one took more than 12.

Sometimes it’s just recording camera cut shots (like in 12.18 when we get our first shot of Moloch and realize it’s not a dude in a goat mask, I point that out *sits here hoping I actually pointed that out without double-checking that I did point it out...*). Or the dude peering over the stair railing at Dean lying unconscious on the landing below. That’s definitely plot-relevant! :P

Sometimes I have to describe what the characters can and can’t see, like Sam’s fight with Ramsey in 12.15. Another fun one to transcribe. I made a post laughing at the “Official Subtitles” for that entire scene, because it is HILARIOUSLY less-than-informative. So everything in the transcript is my description of it:

[Sam gets out of the car and confronts Ramsey. She leaps at him and pins him to the ground, knocking of the holy fire glasses. Gwen scrambles in the back seat for a weapon and grabs the green cooler. She blindly clobbers Ramsey with it, giving Sam time to get to his feet, but he still can’t see Ramsey without his glasses. He sees her footfalls raising dust and waits for her to jump again, then stabs her with the angel blade, killing her.]

Beats the hell out of crunch, panting, growling, glasses thud, whimpers, growling, smack, yelps, squish. *yes the official subtitles used SQUISH for the moment Sam stabbed Ramsey.* Because subtitles are for people who are actively watching the action on screen. They only convey sounds. I try to fill in important visuals (and generally delete things like *SQUISH*).

Stuff like that. I can’t possibly put in every facial expression, every movement, every change of camera angle. So I try to stick to important things that will hopefully cue the reader to recall the scene they’re reading, and help them visualize it in their head without becoming so distracting with descriptions that it’s difficult to follow the dialogue.

Sometimes I also put something in to convey that there was a pause in speaking, due to the character waffling over what they want to say, in an emotionally gripping moment, or to show obvious avoidance of speaking on a specific topic. Breaking up a line of dialogue with a quick [sighs] in between lines, or [Dean finishes his drink] or [Sam hesitates in the doorway], stuff like that helps maintain the flow of dialogue and give context and meaning that might not otherwise come across with just an unbroken blurt of sentences all smooshed together.

Something like this:

GWEN: Yeah, but I didn't. [Voice breaking] I lied. I lied to make things easier. I… I'm sorry. I… We should go. 

Conveys her emotional state a lot better than:

Yeah, but I didn’t. I lied. I lied to make things easier. I. I’m sorry. I. We should go.

And then there’s scenes like this:

CROWLEY: [commenting on Dean’s glasses] Fancy. Really bring out your eyes. DEAN: Shut up. CROWLEY: [mocking Dean’s tone] Shut up. DEAN: I mean it, Crowley. CROWLEY: I mean it, Crowley.

Without pointing out that Crowley was referring to Dean’s glasses, we’d have zero context for Crowley’s first statement. He could be talking about Dean’s clothing. Maybe Dean was wearing a frilly blouse. Or maybe it was just the lighting. Maybe Dean had been wearing one of those glowstick necklaces. We just don’t know without context. :P And the note that Crowley was mocking Dean’s tone conveys the humor in the next series of repeated lines. Or I hope it does. :P

It’s almost like writing a rough draft, bare bones fic, with lots of incomplete sentences. It’s just slightly different in structure, but still trying to supply at least enough visual and contextual information to make the entire episode read in a sensible fashion.

I don’t know how anyone else does it, but that’s how I do it. I hope that helps. :)

#mittens transcribes things #which i used to do for a living in the 90's so i've had a really good long time to think about my process :P #kajuned