Some way to caption videos

Started by archivistdemon, December 13, 2019, 08:28:30 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

archivistdemon

Hi

Is there a way to use Exif tool or any other tool to caption video files?  Maybe creating a sidecar file that can be read by Lightroom/Premiere/ etc.? 

We are sick of making excel logs of captions.

Thanks so much- sorry for the newbie question!  We looked for an answer here because another archivist we met at a conference said she used Exif Tool to do this type of work.

Thanks!

StarGeek

#1
Do you mean something like subtitles/closed captions?  Or just a description embedded in the file?
* Did you read FAQ #3 and use the command listed there?
* Please use the Code button for exiftool code/output.
 
* Please include your OS, Exiftool version, and type of file you're processing (MP4, JPG, etc).

Phil Harvey

Subtitle files are plain text, you can create them with any text editor.

- Phil
...where DIR is the name of a directory/folder containing the images.  On Mac/Linux/PowerShell, use single quotes (') instead of double quotes (") around arguments containing a dollar sign ($).

StarGeek

There are actually some really interesting tools to help create subtitles other than just using a text editor.

But I actually do think archivistdemon means an embedded description.  The reason I asked for clarification is because, event though the IPTC tag is Caption-Abstract, I really can't recall someone describing it as a caption.

The basic command to embed data into an mp4/mov file would be something like
exiftool -Title="Title of Video" -Description="Extended description of video" /path/to/FILE.MP4

But since Excel was mentioned, if the spreadsheet is altered properly and saved as a CSV file, then all the files can be edited with
exiftool -csv=/path/to/FILE.csv /path/to/video/directory/

See the -csv option and FAQ #26 for more details.
* Did you read FAQ #3 and use the command listed there?
* Please use the Code button for exiftool code/output.
 
* Please include your OS, Exiftool version, and type of file you're processing (MP4, JPG, etc).

archivistdemon

Yes- I mean captions for videos- not subtitles or closed captions.  We caption every single piece of media going into the DAM/MAM.  For stills- we embed captions into DNG, CR2, and NEF files, and utilize xmp sidecar files for other raw formats such as ARW, PEF, ORF, etc.  Every original file must be kept with its proxy file because of the news nature of the work we do- we must be able to go back to the raw to prove no manipulation was performed ie for contests at World Press and others.   Video files have always been a challenge.  We require content providers shooting video - which most photographers are now shooting alongside their photography- to provide a video log (excel or word doc) which contains filename, and description of what was shot in the video- who what where when why- typical AP news style caption. We need this information for editing quickly, search, reuse, resell, etc.  There seems to be no way to create a description that follows the video file from newsroom to edit floor to resell site easily.  Once it is downloaded from the MAM- it loses the description, credit, etc. that is stored in the MAM.  We want what photography has- IPTC fields that can be filled out and can easily follow the footage.  Am I dreaming? Making an excel with all this information, and then transforming it is a 2 step process- we want to be able to do this in a program like Lightroom so we can batch captions/descriptions of what is in the video when possible as opposed to creating a caption/description for each individual file.  It is frustrating for us- because it seems like there isn't an easy way to do so.  An archivist said she used exif tool to perform this function- so that is why I asked.  It is even harder with non .mov and mp4 files- such as RED camera, or sony/ panasonic mxf files.  Just thought I'd throw this newbie question out to the hive mind here- since you are much more advanced in this type of work than I.  We are more photography experts than video.

Thanks for the responses so far.

Phil Harvey

ExifTool can write various forms of metadata to MOV/MP4 videos, but can not yet write to MPEG, AVI or MKV videos.  M2TS videos have no provision for metadata, so nothing will be able to write metadata to these.

For MOV/MP4, you may write native QuickTime tags or XMP.  But you will find that different software reads different types of metadata.  Perhaps a shotgun approach of writing something like XMP:Description, UserData:Description, ItemList:Description and UserData:Description could cover the bases.

For other types of MOV files the only option with ExifTool would be to write sidecar XMP files.

- Phil
...where DIR is the name of a directory/folder containing the images.  On Mac/Linux/PowerShell, use single quotes (') instead of double quotes (") around arguments containing a dollar sign ($).