Captions Translated Into Another Language

Your video with captions in another language, timed to the speech.

Pipeline: Basic edit (cut): cuts, captions, looks, speed, split screens, stock, voices and music.
Format: 9:16 and 16:9
Upload: The finished video.

The prompt

Type your own words into the fields: the [BLANKS] fill in as you go. Copy it and send it to Claude or ChatGPT with Cut Express connected.

Prompt

My video is in [SPOKEN LANGUAGE]. Make a transcript, then add captions in [TARGET LANGUAGE]: translate each line yourself and keep it on screen while that line is spoken (captions source items, one item per spoken line, with its start and end).

- Clean preset, white with a black stroke, 2 lines at most, bottom third.
- Keep [NAMES AND BRANDS] as they are, untranslated.
- Change nothing else in the video.
Show me the first ten lines of the translation before you render.

The blanks

[SPOKEN LANGUAGE]: The language people speak in the video.
[TARGET LANGUAGE]: The language of the captions.
[NAMES AND BRANDS]: Names, products and terms to keep in their original form.

Tips

Translated captions are lines, not word-by-word: a word highlight can't follow a language that isn't spoken.
Read the first lines of the translation. A note about tone ("informal, like a friend") changes all of them at once.

New to prompting video? How to write a good prompt for Cut Express covers the story, the hook, captions, sound, pace and how to iterate with versions.

Paste it in Claude. Get the MP4.

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Basic edit9:16

Add Captions to a Finished Video

Your finished video with word-by-word captions, nothing else changed.

Upload: The finished video.

Add captions to the video I uploaded and change nothing else: same cuts, same sound, same length. Make a transcript first (language: [LANGUAGE]).

Captions: [CAPTION PRESET] preset, font [FONT], [WORDS PER LINE] words per line, 1 line, the spoken word highlighted in [CAPTION COLOR], positioned [POSITION] so they never cover a face or the text already on screen.
Fix the spelling of [NAMES AND BRANDS] if the transcript gets them wrong.

Fill in Tips

Basic edit9:16

Branded Caption Style for Every Video

A caption style in your brand that you reuse on every video.

Upload: One recent video with speech to try the style on.

Design a caption style for my brand and try it on the video I uploaded (make a transcript first).

Brand: [BRAND COLORS], font [FONT], feeling [TONE].
- Try the style as v1: your pick of preset adapted to the brand, the spoken word in the accent color, [WORDS PER LINE] words per line.
- When I approve it, write the caption style out as a short block I can paste into future chats ("captions: preset ..., font ..., colors ...").

Fill in Tips

Basic edit9:16

Shorts From One Long Video

Several vertical Shorts cut from one long video, each with captions.

Upload: One long video with speech (a podcast, a talk, a stream, a course lesson).

I uploaded [LONG VIDEO], about [TOPIC]. Inspect it with moments and a transcript, then find the [NUMBER OF CLIPS] strongest moments that make sense on their own, each about [LENGTH IN SECONDS] seconds.

Before you render, list them for me: the in and out times, the first line said and why it works as a hook. Wait for my pick.

For each one I pick:
- Start on the hook line, no warm-up. Cut the silences and the false starts on the speech.
- 9:16, cover crop kept on the speaker's face. A slow punch-in on the key sentence.
- Captions from the speech: bold preset, 3 words per line, the key word in [CAPTION COLOR], bottom third.
- Clean the voice (denoise and enhance). No music unless I ask.
Render each as its own video titled "[SERIES NAME] 1", "2", and so on.

Fill in Tips