My Little Pony/Littlest Pet Shop Closed Captions

[BeanyOne]

[I wasn't sure if this was the appropriate place to post something like this...I looked around a bit, and hopefully I'm in the right-ish place?]

Per my introductory post, I'm a freelance captioner for the deaf and hard of hearing, with my current projects being My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Littlest Pet Shop. I find it very hard to get help or any kind of feedback on this, whether it be because the subject matter isn't taken seriously or people simply don't realize I need it. If anyone would like to offer feedback or help in some other way, I'd greatly appreciate it.

For feedback, what I'd really like is for people to watch episodes I've captioned and comment on timing, accuracy, descriptiveness, and ease of reading. Since the captions are in plain text and on Youtube, my primary concern with ease of reading is that there's ample allowance given for font size not spilling over into the next line or lines disappearing too quickly.

If you'd like to help in some other way, right now I really need someone to watch episodes of Littlest Pet Shop and transcribe them. My hearing is not the best, which makes catching rapid or high-pitched lines especially difficult. If I had a transcript to work from, it would make the process a lot easier in general.

Episodes for review:

• Littlest Pet Shop Season 1 Episode 1: Blythe's Big Adventure (Part 1)
• Littlest Pet Shop Season 1 Episode 2: Blythe's Big Adventure (Part 2)
• My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Season 3 Episode 8: Apple Family Reunion
• My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Season 3 Episode 9: Spike at Your Service

Also, because it is relevant, an article I wrote on captioning.

Thanks for your consideration!

[Dracos]

Good enough spot for it. :)  We don't have much of an MLP fanbase here, or so I think.  But that's a pretty cool thing to do.  Maybe some will crawl out of the ether.

[BeanyOne]

As long as I've got a post in the right place, at least! :>

[VySaika]

* Gatewalker blinks.

Season *3* Episode 8-9? Wow. This has stuck around longer then I figured it would.

[BeanyOne]

Yeah, it isn't showing signs of slowing down, either. Honestly lasted longer than I thought it would, too.

It is really good, though. Just wish people wouldn't be so outright coercive in getting others to watch it. That doesn't really work with anything.

[Merc]

I looked at the S3E8 MLP episode. Thoughts:

Applejack's first line comes entirely too soon. The banjo part is fine, but the spoken line feels off coming up at 0:01, should come in at 0:03.5-0:05.5. (Assuming you can time like that, otherwise 0:03-0:06 perhaps).

I would also consider the use of separate rows of text with different timing. The banjos, for example, do not end until around the sneeze, and you can leave lines for just a little bit longer by using a different layer. It might also mean you don't have to have lines pop up too early in some cases, which I think is happening because of a screen space capacity. I understand point 6 from your article, but I tend to feel that you go the opposite end and are -too- conservative with splitting lines sometimes, particularly when two people are talking, and the second person's line shows up with a lag of 3-5 seconds before they actually speak.

Later on, there's lines where three different things happen, and I feel it looks busy when you have to split text with a |.

I don't think the box impact needed to be described, it felt pretty self-explanatory, though the inhaling dust/sneeze might be worth keeping since it follows with Applejack's reply.

Speaking of, one thing I disagree that you've done is 'explaining' things, like translating in brackets 'gesundhoof' to [gesundheit]. Same thing for the 100 moons = 7.57 years.

A viewer who is able to hear would not see something translated to gesundheit, so why translate it for the close captioning? When you translate it, it feels like a case of Viewers are Moron in effect, which I feel is not the intent. I almost started looking for other places where I was expecting explanations and was surprised when I didn't see them too, so that was an odd first few minutes seeing two quick explanations and then nothing.

Granny Smith's "Everypony?!" comes a second too early by being put together with Applebloom's line, and would have worked better with a small stagger. Also, while the quote marks can be used to identify that she was repeating Applebloom's line, I think it would work better without them.

Since you switched to a description of Granny Smith, even though Applebloom is still the speaker, I would include her name in the text at 0:51. Because the text appears before Applebloom actually speaks and Granny Smith's face is on the screen, it can be confusing. This goes back to the comment about splitting some of the text and staggered text.

At 0:59, a foreboding theme plays. As you mentioned the banjos at the start, wouldn't this be an appropriate place to include (BGM: Foreboding sound) or something to that effect? Mind you, this might fit with the onomatopea issue, how -does- one describe a foreboding sound?

1:33, for the caption, since I'm of the opinion that stretching text (ie, 'frieeeeeeeeennnnndddddssss' or such) looks bad in caption, perhaps use an ellipsis before and after friends: "(My Little Pony) Do you know, you're all my very best....friends..."

It's not quiet exact, but it captures an emphasis on friends that way.

In general for the theme song end punctuation seemed off. First line ends on a comma, but was more of an end, than a segue to Twilight Sparkle's line. Since they go from line to line, why not use ellipsis?

At 1:40 there is a short BGM. Again at 2:05. Again, since you included it for the banjos in the very start, it feels inconsistent not to have it for any future BGMs. I started to notice after this there's quite a few BGMs interspaced, so if it was to avoid clutter, I would have at least kept the foreboding BGM instead of the banjos, I think.

3:20, I think if you're keeping that as one line, you'd want to split it from:
"(frustrated) Oh, fingle-fangle!
(others laughing)
*second break*
(Applebloom laughing)
Granny Smith: *stuff said*"

To:
"Young Granny: (frustrated) Oh, fingle-fangle!

*second break*
Others: (begin laughing)
Applebloom: (also giggles)

*second break*
Granny Smith: *stuff she says*"
Applebloom: (giggles some more)

3:35 It sounded to me like Applejack said "the same quilt" instead of "this same quilt".

3:40 suggestion - Add: "Applejack: (blinks thoughtfully)" since the blink had an audible sound and seemed to have that sort of purpose.

3:48 The apple fritter is making a sizzling hot noise. Considering the guy burns himself, worth describing? Same for the alarm sound. It feels odd that the choice to describe was the splashing, which is visible, rather than what leads up to that.

4:04 - While funny, I imagine the editor's note should be removed?

General comment: I'm seeing some tense inconsistencies, sometimes it seems you use the future tense, sometimes present, rarely past (such as the frustrated bit above).

6:02 Applebloom makes an audible sigh as the door opens. Rather than describing the door, describe the sigh, or describe it alongside?

6:54 Applejack says "We don't have much time!" You missed the We.

7:09 you describe the banjo music here, but it started earlier? It feels like you're just trying to fill the screen while nothing's happening based on placement.

General: Keep in mind intended audience as well. While yes, a lot of grown audience watch MLP, will a little girl necessarily know words like 'cacophany', 'dirigible', or 'surreptitiously'? Then again, it's a way of learning new words, perhaps, so I'm a bit split on this for that reason.

Keep it simple. At 9:03-9:04, you have "(Babs joins in finishing her sentence) but it felt like forever!" which was hard to read in the time it all flashed. Why not just "Together: ...but it felt like forever!"?

12:18 Granny Smith sighs.

15:56 foreboding BGM due to the fruit bats spotting the fruit hat.

16:05 It's not Granny Smith screaming, it's the other old green pony.

I'm kind of wondering if there's a good way to make obvious that all of the time from 18:01 to 20:16 is a song. Use italics during the song perhaps? A yellow font? While there's plenty of description of stuff happening during the song, I still think there should be some way to identify it perhaps.

21:41 You have another editor's notes.

**

Finishing watching the episode, general comments I'd have is that I'm concerned by lines that show up too early. I'd rather see a line that stays around a bit after it's happened for readability purposes, than one that shows up before it happens. There are some cases where it's not bad to have something show up early, because what gets said before is quick, but as I pointed out earlier, some lines seem to lag by 3-6 seconds.

Also, again, watch tenses. As a recommendation, I'd pick a present tense for general descriptions. Also, just because it makes it shorter, don't use progressive words, use simple ones. Ie, instead of (Ponies cheering) use (Ponies cheer). Past tense where the mood preceeds/colors a statement is probably appropriate (such as when Granny Smith said something and you used 'frustrated').

Some of the descriptions seem abrupt, which might be okay, but sometimes you mix them with more descriptive ones, and then it looks awkward. An example is the (thunderbolt , Rainbow Dash whistles innocently) one. Same advice as with tense: Pick one, stick with it.

I actually didn't see many [] notes in that episode, just two that I commented above that I disagree with, and the two editor notes which probably aren't appropriate normally. I do agree with the sentiment stated in your article's note 7, where you're explaining something centered around sound, such as foal vs fool, but I didn't feel the 100 moons or gesundhoof needed explanation. If they know 'gesundheit', they should be able to make a natural leap of logic, and 100 moons isn't something that has -any- reason to have a unit conversion.

I'd like to see some staggered captions as well, unless there's some logic to avoiding it. As mentioned earlier, I think you were perhaps too conservative with some captions splitting, and in sequences involving music, I'd like to see some way to identify that the music is still ongoing, rather than feeling like it's just filling in gaps where singing or some other action isn't happening.

Also, holy crap that took longer than I wanted to spend on this. I...probably won't really review the other three episodes.

[BeanyOne]

That was a much better review than I was expecting this quickly. A thousand thanks, sir.

[Merc]

*tips non-existent hat back at Beany* Aw shucks, t'aint nothin' pardner! =p

I happen to like Applejack, so I picked the episode I picked to watch for that reason. =)

I am a bit surprised it's on season 3 though, last I watched it was still season 2. *laughs* I'm way out of the loop on this show, though I'm still something of a casual fan.

I might at some point review the second pony episode, or some other episode that you post, though probably not as in detail next time.

[Merc]

S3E9: Fewer comments, not going to repeat much from previous post besides watch tense and use of abrupt descriptions since you mix things up quite a bit.

May highlight a few of the lines that pop up early that are pretty obvious at least.

1:38 A cat yowls as the rock that Spike kicked apparently hits it off-screen.

2:09 Spikes hands are sizzling from the heat.

I think it's worth commenting on the BGM due to atmosphere during:
2:48 Along with the burst of air from the timberwolf, the BGM darkens and then
2:54 changes to dramatic beats that abruptly stop at 3:06, going into
3:07 BGM changes to a more upbeat wild west type motif as Applejack comes to the rescue.

I think you were a bit early with the comments about the second and third timberwolf shattering. Also, you missed Spike making trembling sounds around 3:24.

5:04 I think you start Spike's line "Applejack said I could help you!" just a mite early, it comes up as the scene is transitioning, and Spike doesn't speak until the scene finishes its transition.

8:03 You missed the sparkling clean sound of the kitchen stuff.

8:19 Impending doom BGM

Minor change on two lines, where you split them:
8:26 Remove the "truly I do" part at the end, end Dragon Code with a period, and put ellipsis right before it, as Applejack pauses briefly as she parses that thought. (Listen, Sugarcube. I completely respect your..."Dragon Code."
8:31 Start new line with "Truly I do," moved from original line to the new line that originally started at 8:31.

Spike's line at 8:34 should start just a bit later, right after his look of shock ends. Same with Applejack's reply at 8:45.

12:33 Rainbow Dash noisily clenches her lips from nervousness.

14:05. AJ says "No, I'll think of 'em!" not "Oh, I'll think of 'em!"

19:12 Foreboding BGM starts as the timberwolf reanimates

19:18 AJ is grunting in effort trying to free herself

19:19 Line should start 1 second later, and I think you can do away with the (genuine fear), as it's visible enough on her face.

19:32 Timberwolf growls.

19:50 BGM changes, showing how result was amazing and they're going to be okay.

20:37 probably want to all-caps "fake" in AJ's line.

21:10 I probably wouldn't use brohoof -or- broclaw. Bro is not a term I'd use in general. =p

I wouldn't say anything, really, for it.

[BeanyOne]

I should probably mention that a few of the things you've pointed out are casual in-joke things I've developed with MLP for people who have been watching for a while. Doesn't look too great from a newcomer's perspective, I'll admit...

The Littlest Pet Shop captions are, I believe, a LITTLE closer to how I really prefer to do things, but all of this is heavily amateur anyway. All of the input is welcomed, and I'm happy you took the time to do this.

(though I should mention that in the first episode of LPS, I am already aware that I switch two of the characters around by accident...didn't notice until after the captions were made public. I have since created a very specific reference guide to the two characters because I am the biggest derp ever)