Closed captions
The text track every distributor and streamer will eventually require — nearly free if you make it while your edit is fresh.
The money-saving moment
While your editing session is still open and your dialogue is fresh. A caption file made now, checked against your own timeline, costs an evening. The same file ordered later from a service runs $5–15 per minute of runtime.
What they are
Closed captions are a timed text file of everything said and heard — dialogue, speaker labels, and sound effects ('[door slams]'). 'Closed' means the viewer can turn them on or off. They're distinct from subtitles, which translate dialogue only and assume you can hear the rest.
Why they're asked for
Streamers are legally required to carry them in most markets, so no caption file means no streaming deal closes until one exists. Theaters increasingly use them for open-caption screenings and accessibility devices. And they're the raw material translations are made from later.
The formats
You'll be asked for SRT (the simple, universal one), and sometimes SCC or IMSC/TTML (broadcast-style formats a service can convert from your SRT). Deliver a clean SRT and you're 90% of the way to everything else.
The cheap correct path
Start from an automatic transcript (free and near-free tools are everywhere now), then do a human pass against picture: fix names, add sound-effect captions, split lines so they read naturally, and check timing. The human pass is the part that makes it professional — and it's fastest for whoever knows the film best. That's you or your editor, this month, not a stranger next year.
When you don't need it
For your first theatrical dates, captions are rarely a gate. But make them anyway while it's cheap — the streaming conversation that follows a good tour will ask for them on day one.
Questions? hello@indiegreenlight.com