Dual language CC in Premiere Pro 2021

[ANA VICTORIA5E89]

Hi, I have quick question. Is there a fast process for dual language closed captions in Premiere Pro 2021? What I am currently doing is:
1. Generate the CC in the language of the video, say English
2. Originate the STR file
3. Get the STR file Copy and paste in word document and do the Spanish translation there.
4. Create a copy of the timeline and in that copy edit the Captions by copying and pasting the translation.
My question is, is there a more efficient way of doing this?
Please and Thank you!!
Cheers!

[Stan Jones · Accepted solution]

Nitpicking, but to be clear, by STR, I think you mean SRT - the common sidecar caption/subtitle file?

If you use a Word document, be sure to "save as" a text document (.txt). Word is known for introducing invisible characters that will mess up your captions.

Before I describe the method you requested, I recommend that you actually just create the new translation in the .srt file being very careful to keep the caption numbers and timecodes exactly as they are. "Save as" that file to a new name. If you use Word (e.g. for spell check), do a "save as" to a text file and then change the file name to .srt.

In PR, click on the eyeball in the original caption track HEADER so it is disabled. In the Text panel, pick "Import captions from file." Navigate to your new srt file. In the "New caption track" dialogue that appears, Set it to the same caption type as your original (608 or 708) and for 608 set to CC2 and for  708 set to Service 2. Leave the default "Source timecode" and click OK.

You should be good to go!

There may be times where you need a different method. For the method you requested, Do NOT copy the timeline (sequence). That does not create a second caption track in the SAME sequence. That is ultimately what you want. If you use a separate sequence, no matter; you can copy paste a caption track from another sequence just as easily as I describe below.

COPY the caption track in the original sequence. (In my test, I started with a single 708 track.) There is no duplicate command for captions, so I think the easiest way is to use the "\" key to show your entire sequence in the timeline. Then drag-select all the captions. I would start the drag from the end - too hard to start at the beginning. Ctrl-C to copy. Right click on the caption track header, and pick "Add Track." Set to 708 Service 2. Set the CTI (cursor/current time indicator) to the start timecode of the first caption. Ctrl-V/Paste.

Now edit those captions.

Note that you can see only one caption track in the Program Monitor at a time. But when you export and embed captions you get all the tracks. There may be some gotchas there, so be sure to test your whole workflow before you do the whole thing.

Additional questions are whether you actually need to embed closed captions or need both 608 and 708 caption types.

Stan

[ANA VICTORIA5E89]

Thank you so much Stan. I'll be testing your method soon. Thanks so much!!

[Stan Jones]

Let us know!

[ANA VICTORIA5E89]

Sorry about the SRT spelling!!

[samz14242260]

Hi there I'm having somewhat of a similar issue.

I as well would like to have multiple captions with different languages. Similarly an english version as well as a Spanish version.

In the new Premiere Pro 22.0 transcript/captions workflow I am unable to view multiple caption tracks at once.

When a caption track is selected automatically the other tracks are deactivated.

Ideally I would like to have both languages on different parts of the screen and edit them independently, however I am yet to find a work around for this, as well the old way of putting your captions on a video track is no longer possible.

[ANA VICTORIA5E89]

Hi Samz, thanks for your reply. I tried what Stan Jones suggested and the problem I found with it was that once Pr generates the srt file, it doesn’t let you import another one without moving to a complete different timeline. So right my process is generate a srt file in English. Copy it and paste it on Word. Translate it but not touching the time codes. Save it as srt, if not possible, change the file name to srt. Create a new timeline. Copy and paste the sequence and once there import the srt file.

[Stan Jones]

To import srt into the SAME sequence, just disable/turn off visibility of the existing caption track, and the option to import captions from file will again be available.

Correct, you cannot see more than one caption track at a time.

If your goal is to burn both langauges into the video, you can do this by putting the caption tracks in SEPARATE sequences, then nesting those in another sequence. They will not be editable in that final sequence, but they will appear.

See "Show Multiple Caption Tracks" in this thread:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-discussions/faq-workaround-nesting-to-apply-effect-contr...

If you just want to see one track while you edit another, you could start with the caption tracks in separate sequences, and nest one of them - so, for example, you could see (but not edit) the English version while you edit the Spanish version. In the end, you can copy paste individual captions/a whole track from one sequence to another. 

Stan