08 Feb 7 Surprising Benefits of Being a Captioner or Transcriber

A big part of the job of captioning and transcribing is watching television shows, movies, and other digital media very closely. Sometimes over and over again. This attention to content pays off in unexpected ways.

1. We can recognize a bargain.

• I learned that to make one’s own wedding cake would take 40 hours labour at a minimum. Paying a baker is well worth it.

2. We get great ideas.

• One Line 21 employee also writes for the BuildDirect.com blog. She gets a lot of her article ideas from set designs—both things done right, and things to avoid. We’ll never reveal which projects spawned which ideas. Steffani’s a great writer with good ideas to share. Read her here.

3. We’re better conversationalists.

• Information I’ve picked up pops up in life a lot. I’ll be talking with people about food or places or whatnot, and I’ll think, “how did I know that? Oh, right, it was in that show!”

4. We’ve added to our travel bucket list.

• Sichuan, China: where mysterious coffins hang on the side of a cliff.
• Battambang, Cambodia: to see the bamboo railway.
• Kenya: to see the elephant sanctuaries.

5. We’re safer.

• I remember the work safety video where I learned that if a power line falls on your vehicle, it will charge the metal body of the vehicle. The vehicle is insulated by its rubber tires. Bottom line: you must NOT touch the frame of the vehicle or try to exit. I had absolutely no idea about this.

6. We’re better at reading menus.

• I’ve learned so many foody terms and ingredients from working on cooking shows. Menus no longer intimidate me.

7. We’ve upped our game at Jeopardy and Trivial Pursuit.

A sample of the interesting bits we’ve learned:

• Baby beavers like to ride around on their mother’s tail.
• Excavators have decelerator pedals.
• Marilyn Monroe had a sort of artist/muse relationship with Milton Greene.
• The author Ian Rankin writes his crime novels about Edinburgh specifically and incorporates the history and geography of the area.
• Ted Harrison struggled for artistic and critical respect while enjoying commercial success.
• Artist Yolanda Sonnabend is now cared for by her brother, a biologist who was at the forefront of early AIDS research.