close captioning any info???

[Joelle]

hello all!

I am a real time reporter in Manhattan, New York, Trying to break in to the close captioing market. Been calling and emailing many, many places and cannot get info. all I am getting is at home CDs and kits. LLooking for a company that will train and hire. I called Vitac but asked me to call back in a few months.

Willing to go to any state, country

thanks, any info would be helpful

[Tracy Dyrness]

I'm thinking about going to the Vitac boot camp coming up next month.  I was wondering if you took the boot camp last may maybe and what you thought of it.  Did they offer you a job after?

[Denise C.]

I was just relaying information that was told to me when I took a realtime instruction course online years ago.  Sorry if I got it wrong.    I'm no expert, was just trying to help out.  I will defer any comments about captioning and leave it to the experts.  I'm just a reporter who isn't high-tech.

[Janet]

 

M.A. is right.  You can't just jump from one to the other (captioning or litigation) without training.  One comment that Judy Brentano made to me is that she can always tell when watching captioning if it's a litigation reporter who jumped in too soon.  She said she'd see things like "burden of proof" popping up in captions.  There is a good amount of dictionary work that should be done before starting.  The news and weather are a whole different ball game, full of terms that never come up in litigation reporting. 

 

I signed up for the Vitac bootcamp years ago, but I didn't end up going at the time.  I'm actually glad that I took the two-month course instead.  I just completed the course in November 2011.  It gave me time to do the dictionary work and a whole lot of practice time on the news, weather, shopping network, and sports.  The segments on TV are usually 15 minutes before a commercial break.  I had to build stamina to be able to write 15 minutes at high speeds without the normal pauses or change in speed in a litigation setting.   That takes time. 

 

Have you started practicing with the news?   You can always start your prep now, before taking a formal course.

 

 

[Denise C.]

Oh my gosh!  I spelled PIttsburgh wrong!  I need to go back to work.  I'm from Erie and I didn't even spell Pittsburgh correctly?

I have to stop reading.  It's like a transcript:  Once you submit it, you never look at it again!  YIKES~

[Denise C.]

By the way, I kind of disagree that rarely anything is spoken at 180 words per minute.  I was thrown into cross-examination that was very, very fast and that's why the officials took off that day!

[Denise C.]

rudimentary -- how do you edit?  AArgh!

[Denise C.]

Hi, Mary Ann, my understanding of the captioning world -- just a very rudimetary understanding -- is that the prep work involved is very time consuming for which you are not paid.  I may be wrong since I have no experience in this field.  BUT, I would think as a a reporter, like myself, I would want it to be the best I can produce and, therefore, I am a victim to the prep work.  I don't know, just what I heard a long time ago.  I can't imagine going on a show with no prep work.  AND I also heard -- just hearsay -- that as the day goes on, like on CNN Headline News, the captioning gets better because they clean it up as the news repeats itself.  I'm just recalling from memory years and years ago.

[Denise C.]

Joelle, I can't understand why you're not getting a response if you're a realtime reporter.  Have you ever seen the garbage on the TV?  I remember watching the president's speech once.  I mean, how fast is that?  It was riddled with mistake after mistake.  Made me feel pretty good, actually!  HA!

[Joelle]

thanks Janet, I saw many online courses, I'm not that diciplined lol and I have a small child. But I will check it out.

Denise, the thought of not having to get dressed and look presentable is fantastic!! QVC and HSN are super fast. A little intimidating. I think after doing depos and arbitrations, and federal grand jury work the average is 180WPM. Anyone disagree?

[Janet]

 

I forgot to mention that the course is approved for 2.8 CEUs by NCRA.