You will be able to add captions and text that are accurate, readable and clear of the app's buttons.
Priya turned on automatic captions for her first teaching video and posted it without reading them. A parent pointed out in the comments that the caption read "pee five students" every time she said P5, and "model method" had become "muddle method". The teaching in the video was sound, but for many viewers the captions made the whole thing look careless.
For anyone watching on mute, captions and on-screen text are the video, so they deserve the same care you gave the script.
Most editing apps and platforms can generate captions automatically from your voice. Use them, because typing captions by hand takes far longer. Then read every word before you export.
Automatic captions are often good with common English words. They tend to stumble on names, local words, school levels, brand names and Singlish. "Lah", "can or not", "kopi", "Tampines", "PSLE" and "HDB" might come out as anything. Numbers and prices are another weak point, and a wrong price in a caption can cause real confusion.
Play the video and read along. Fix each error by tapping the caption and retyping it. Check the timing too: a caption should appear while the words are being said, not a beat before or after.
Priya now reads her captions twice, once while listening and once with the sound off, to catch anything that would mislead a muted viewer.
Captions and on-screen text are read on a phone held at arm's length, often while moving. Make them easy.
Use high contrast. White text with a dark outline or a dark background box reads well over almost any video. Coloured text on a busy background often disappears. Pick a plain, solid font over a decorative or script one.
Keep lines short. Two short lines of caption at a time is easier to read than a block of words. Most apps let you set how many words show at once.
Keep text away from the edges. As lesson 3.3 showed, the app places its own buttons, account name and post caption along the sides and bottom of the screen, and your text can end up hidden behind them. Place captions and on-screen text in the middle part of the frame, and check the preview on your own phone. Layouts differ between platforms and change with updates.
Captions do two jobs at once. They help viewers who watch on mute: on the train, in the office, beside a sleeping baby. And they make your video accessible to viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing, who would otherwise get nothing from a talking video.
Both groups are real customers. Adding accurate captions to every video that has speech is the simplest way to make sure none of them scroll past because they could not follow. It also helps you, because platforms increasingly read on-screen text and captions to understand what a video is about, as lesson 6.1 explains.
When someone taps through to your profile, they see a grid of your videos, and the still image standing in for each one is its cover frame. Most apps let you choose which frame of the video it uses, or upload a separate image.
The default is often a random moment: you mid-blink, a blurry hand, a half-finished shot. A deliberate cover helps a visitor choose which video to watch next. A good cover shows the subject clearly and carries a short title, a few words that say what the video is about. "Will it melt in the car?" works, while a full sentence is too much to read in a grid.
Keep your covers consistent in style, with the same font, the same position of the title and similar framing. Your profile grid then looks organised, and a visitor can scan your titles like a menu. Mei Ling uses the same font and the same spot near the top of the frame on every cover, so her grid reads like a list of party questions answered.
Also check how the cover is cropped on each platform you use. A vertical cover may appear cropped to a square or a different shape on the profile grid, so keep the title near the centre.
Run through four checks. Every caption word is correct, and that includes names and local terms. All text is clear of the edges. The on-screen hook is readable in the first frame. The cover frame has a short title and shows the subject clearly.
In the activity you will add captions to your edit from lesson 5.3, correct every error, and design a cover frame with a short title.
Add captions to your edit, correct every error, and design a cover frame with a short title.
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