Last year’s winners include Sanctuary, Fathers&Sons, Amazon Falls, The Haunting Hour, Gunless, Tucker&Dale vs. Evil, and Hiccups.

The Leo Awards are happening on May 25-26, at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. Good luck to all the nominees!

Here’s the full list of nominees.

Interested in volunteering at the event? How to volunteer at the Leo Awards.

Hope to see you there!

May Recipe: Kale Chips

Photo by Well of Health

Healthier than buttery popcorn or potato chips, kale chips are a great movie-watching snack. If you’re looking for more details, The Chic Life’s Easy Kale Chips Recipe & Baking Tips has great tips on choosing the right variety of kale and how to measure your oil.

Instructions 

1 head kale, washed, stalks discarded, ripped into small pieces.

Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and a touch of pepper. Massage into the kale.

Spread the kale out on a cookie sheet, leaving lots of space.

Cook in a low oven; you want to dehydrate them gently without burning. Remove when crispy, but before they brown!

Enjoy!

This year’s DOXA Documentary Film Festival runs from May 4-13, and Vancouver has a lot to be excited about! Over 100 films, 72 screenings, 6 world premieres, 5 venues, and some of the best festival programming you can ever dream of. Line 21 has been a DOXA sponsor for a long time, because it gives us an opportunity to support documentary films and screenings in Vancouver, but also because it’s a lot of fun and put together by great people.

Line 21 is a screening partner at DOXA this year, and we are really excited! First of all, the film we’re presenting looks excellent. Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet is the story of Jason Becker, who was a young guitar god when he was diagnosed with ALS, (Lou Gehrig’s disease). DOXA’s Dorothy Woodend says, “This is one of those rare films that make one re-evaluate what is possible in life.” We can’t wait to see the film! Look for us in the audience!

Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet on Vimeo.

We are also proud to support the Kris Anderson Connexions Youth Forum, which runs concurrently with the festival and gives young women an amazing opportunity to develop their film-making and storytelling skills by putting them together with incredible industry mentors. Keep an eye out for the Connexions participants throughout the festival.

Can’t decide what film to see?

• Pick one of the special programs, like the Justice Forum, The Philosophers’ Cafe, or Rated Y for Youth.
• Check out the handy “genre tags” at the bottom of each film page on the DOXA site.
• Pick a theatre and a time that suits you and see whatever is on. We’ve seen many DOXA films, and loved every single one. How many film festivals can you say that about?

We’ll see you there!

Looking for more information about 2012′s DOXA Documentary Film Festival?

Full DOXA Schedule

Buy DOXA Tickets

It’s often a hassle to order CCSLs near the end of a project and dedicate a large chunk of your budget on them, but they’re important for copyright, content editing, and foreign release.

Understanding Combined Dialogue and Action Continuity Scripts — what they include, why they’re important and how to accurately complete one — will allow you to better schedule your production time and budget.

What is a Combined Dialogue and Action Continuity Script?

A Combined Dialogue and Action Continuity Script — or CCSL — is a breakdown of all the dialogue and action in your production.

The dialogue and action are broken down shot by shot, word by word, according to either timecode or foot and frame timing (or both, depending on your needs). A CCSL needs to be extremely precise and includes the following:

1. Shots are numbered and given a time reference
2. Description of camera shots and the movement within each shot
3. Full list of word-accurate dialogue is broken down, per shot
4. All non-verbal utterances
5. IDs, as well as notations about whom each character is speaking to
6. Voiceovers, off-screen, and face obscured are indicated
7. Foreign dialogue is included and translated
8. Main titles and supers are numbered in
9. Dialogue is broken into titles, with a timed reference in and out with duration, in accordance to subtitling standards
10. Titles are edited, if necessary, to meet timing of subtitling standards
11. Titles include annotations to assist translators, where necessary
12. If appropriate, all titles are numbered and broken by reels
13. Full list of end credits is included

These are the elements included in a comprehensive CCSL. Not all delivery requirements are the same, so it may be worth having a less involved version if your budget is tight and your requirements allow it.

Sample of a Simple CCSL

Download a sample of a Simple Combined Continuity and Spotting List (PDF)

Sample of a Comprehensive (or Complex) CCSL

Download a sample of a Comprehensive Combined Continuity and Spotting List (PDF)

Get more transcription samples, including Dialogue Lists and As-Produced Scripts.

What is a CCSL Used For? Why is it Part of My Requirements?

CCSLs are a delivery requirement between production companies and studios. They serve as a legal description of the film or television project for copyright purposes. The continuity is used for pan and scan and content editing, while the dialogue and subtitles are used for foreign release. CCSLs are also used as the outline for dubbing and subtitling.

How Do I Get a CCSL Completed?

Completing a Combined Continuity and Spotting List is a very labour intensive job. CCSLs need to be done by people (not machines), and they take a lot of hours to accurately finish. Due to the hours involved, it’s best to have your script into your transcription provider 4 weeks in advance of when you need it.

Note: To get an accurate script, only send final media. Sending initial media is a waste of time because your transcription provider will have to go back and change things. For example, one small edit throws all the timecodes after it off, making your transcription provider start from scratch.

When ordering a CCSL, your transcription provider will need:

1. Media with a t/c or foot and frame burn, or both
2. Shooting script, preferably a later version
3. List of the tail credit crawl in a text format (Word, Excel, or other text document)
4. Foreign language translations, if applicable
5. Song lyrics, if applicable

Have more questions about CCSLs or other transcription formats?
Get in touch with us.

April Recipe: Spring Pea Shoot Salad

If you ever go to Legendary Noodle on Main at 26th (and you should, if you are able to eat and enjoy wheat), a definite must-order is the pea shoots. They are sautéed in garlic and so delicious! So in honour of spring and Legendary Noodle, here’s a pea shoot salad. This recipe was inspired by this Sesame Pea-Shoot Salad recipe.

Varying the quantities of the greens is totally okay.

Ingredients

1 cup sugar snap peas

½ cup snow peas

1 cup shelled peas or shelled edamame

6 cups pea shoots

Wash greens and pat dry. Optional: blanch the greens (except the pea shoots) until just brightly coloured. Or lightly sauté or steam them. Or leave them raw!

Toss greens together in a bowl.

Dressing

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 tsp sesame seeds, may be toasted or soaked and sprouted

½ tbsp brown sugar if desired

2 tsp soy sauce or Bragg’s aminos

Whisk dressing together or whiz it in the blender, and drizzle over the greens.

We’ve stayed in this business for as long as we have because of our clients. Over the last 18 years, our clients have made our hectic schedules and hard work worthwhile. Here are some (but by no means all) of the highlights:

First Client: Four Force Entertainment

Our very first project at Line 21 was a HandyDART PSA for Four Force, and we still get to work with them to this day. We have a framed copy of invoice #1 on our wall in the office.

Series Clients We Love: Omni & Paperny Entertainment

To us, Force Four, Omni Film and Paperny Entertainment all deserve special awards of honour for consistently generating fun, entertaining, smart, and interesting TV—from factual to reality to dramatic. We’ve sincerely enjoyed it all, from You, Me, and the Kids, Kink, and Champions of the Wild to Million Dollar Neighbourhood, Eat St., and Buffalo Air. Much love.

First Drama Series: Lonesome Dove

Those of you who have known us long enough will remember that in the days of hardware encoders, we carried our own smart encoder around between Vancouver post houses. For the first episode we did of Lonesome Dove, Carolyn delivered the entire captioning station and encoder (all the way down to the mouse!), to Jon Robertson at Post Haste (now Technicolour). Total weight of approximately 80 pounds, now, of course, all done in software.

Clients We Miss:  Haddock Entertainment, Stargate

We are superfans of all our dramatic series. We miss Beggars and Choosers, which we thought was hysterical, Dead Like Me, (likewise, hysterical), Robson Arms (hysterical…), and maybe most of all, the Da Vinci/Da Vinci City Hall/Intelligence series’.

And, of course, no mention of dramatic series’ in Vancouver can be made without Stargate. Between the original series, Stargate SG-1, and then Stargate: Atlantis, and Stargate: Universe, there was 10 seasons, plus 5 seasons, plus 2 seasons (plus movies) of great TV to watch and work on. This was followed by Sanctuary, which has had 4 seasons so far and we are hoping for season 5!

Unsung Heroes: Front Street & Brightlight

Front Street and Brightlight are film and made-for-TV movie producers in Vancouver. We have huge admiration for how they manage their many movies per year to broadcast schedules, and they’ve always been great to work with.

And for all the clients we don’t have space to mention, thank you for your dedication and support over the last 18 years. Here’s to 18 more!

Carolyn and Kelly, 2012

Kelly Maxwell and Carolyn Hicks, friends since Junior High at RC Palmer in Richmond, started Line 21 back in March 1994.

Kelly in Stewart, BC, 1993

Carolyn in Caen, 1993

Our first office was Carolyn’s parents’ kitchen table (definitely one of our best lunch options!). This was after we both learned our trade at Western Captioning. Carolyn started at Western Captioning in 1990 and Kelly started there in 1991. When the owner wanted to sell us his company, after exploring all options, we ended up business owners—much to our surprise!

Since 1995, Line 21’s office has been in Yaletown. We were first in the Empress building, had a brief sojourn to Kits from 1997-1998, and we’ve been in our current space in Yaletown (behind the Boulangerie la Parisienne, kitty-corner to the Yaletown Brewing Co), since 1998.

To celebrate our birthday, here are some fun facts about Line 21.

5 Facts About Line 21

1. We’re a small(ish) company. There are approximately 11 people working for Line 21 on any given day, plus some freelance transcribers. There’s a lot of labour that goes into what we do. Kelly and Carolyn both still work in production, hands-on.

2. We are fans of the shows we work on… especially the dramatic series. And we are huge fans of Vancouver actors, directors, editors, writers, and post people.

3. We’re really proud to have long-term staff. The majority of our staff have been working for us for about 10 years. Leslie and Dawn joined us in 1998, Steffani in 1999, Patricia and Siri in 2002, Will in 2005, and Yasumi joined us in 2006.

4. We work to live. Most of us work flexible hours to support children, education, and/or artistic endeavors.

5. Line 21 has closed captioned approximately 20,000 titles and transcribed about 9,000 scripts. All archived in perpetuity. And all done by real people (sometimes people think we’re all machines).

Find out more about Line 21.

March Recipe: Jack’s Best Birthday Cake

This recipe comes from Twist It Up by Jack Witherspoon. We made it to celebrate Line 21′s birthday and it was wicked!

Ingredients

1 cup butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup strong coffee at room temperature
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup cocoa powder
2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup boiling water
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat until smooth.

In another bowl, combine milk, coffee, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a 3rd bowl, combine flour and cocoa.

Alternate  adding the milk and flour mixes into the creamed sugar mixture. Blend. Add in the boiling water and blend. Add in the vanilla and blend.

Pour the batter into 8 inch round cake pans, or equivalent. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. (Bake for more or less time if you choose a different size pan).

Cool, and ice with icing made of:

3 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup melted butter
4 tbsp milk at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla

Blend all together until smooth. Add more milk to thin if needed.

Next:  Our client highlights over the last 18 years.

What Is Closed Captioning? talks about the difference between closed captioning and subtitling by explaining that closed captioning is meant for a non-hearing audience while subtitling assumes that the audience can hear but doesn’t understand the language being spoken.

This means that subtitles include just what speakers say, while closed captioning also includes non-verbal information, such as sounds effects and speaker IDs.

While this covers the basics, the difference between subtitles and closed captioning is actually quite complex. Here are answers to some common questions to help you better understand why we need both subtitles and closed captioning.

Note: Sometimes if closed captioning is not technically available for some reason, you might encounter subtitling written for the deaf and hard of hearing; this is called SDH subtitling, and it includes all sound effects and identifies each speaker.

Is CC Just Subtitles With More Details?

Maybe another way to look at this is that subtitles would be closed captions except for all the details that get left out. In general, the reading rate is significantly slower in subtitles than in captioning. This is in compensation for the work the viewer is doing in listening and reading in two different languages, and in attending to the audio in order to figure who is saying what and in what context.

What’s the Difference Between Making a DVD With Subtitles Versus With Closed Captioning?

Do you know the saying that the great thing about standards is that there are so many of them? Well, that’s subtitling.

Each authoring system has a slightly different way of dealing with subtitling, and you can expect to spend some time working on your subtitle file formatting.

Best practices for subtitle file formatting:

• Always start with a clean subtitle transcript with immaculate spelling, punctuation, thoughtful phrasing, and accurate spotting.
• 5 frames blank between each subtitle is customary to make sure that one title is removed before the next is displayed.
• Try to import your subtitles into your authoring system as formatted text before you move to using graphics and slides.

In comparison, captioning is generally more complex information. Captioning files are encoded, so the text is not handled as graphics, it is compiled and encoded and decoded at the machine level. There are also more aspects to include in captions, including left/right/centre positioning. In addition, the conventional file formats for closed captioning mean that once you choose the one you prefer from a relatively short list, you should not have to do much more debugging.

How To Know Whether To Use CC or Subtitles?

Consider your audience. If you expect them to all be hearing viewers watching in optimal conditions, you can go with subtitles. Our recommendation would be to caption your film in the language it is voiced in, either using broadcast standards or SDH standards, and then to add subtitles for additional languages you might want to target. The captions will be clear and easy to read for those who choose them, and you won’t risk excluding the viewers who don’t get enough detail from subtitles alone.

——-

February’s Recipe: Steak Gaucho-Style with Argentinian Chimichurri Sauce

Photo by Sifu Renka

We love Bob Blumer! We worked on his show Glutton For Punishment for 5 seasons and we’re now at work on his new show, World’s Weirdest Restaurants. This recipe is featured in his cookbook, Glutton For Pleasure (which is a great read).

I learned about Chimichurri from Carolyn’s husband, Rob, and it is one of the very best things! Great on anything, not just steaks. Well, maybe not on fruit pie.

Filmmakers need to future proof their media and according to a recent article in Variety, most aren’t even considering this.

Acad sounds alarm about fragility of digital prod’n suggests that filmmakers don’t consider future proofing, and that with our current explosion and implosion of digital standards, some films may not be accessible just months after they are made.

As someone said to me last week, filmmakers feel liberated by digital media. There is the perception that a digital file is permanent and reproducible in a whole different way from physical media. But digital media does not at all solve the archivist’s problems.

Why Do Filmmakers Need to Future Proof Their Digital Media?

Future proofing generally means taking steps to ensure that your media and data don’t degrade before you are done with them.

We could be talking about a physical issue, like the short lifespan of fax paper, or we could be talking about the lifespan of hardware or of software applications needed to access the information on media: for instance, 8-track tapes may be intact, but if you don’t have an 8-track player, you won’t be listening to the songs on them. And with digital media, if you have chosen a proprietary file format, and the software to open that file obsolesces for whatever reason, you have the same problem again.

This set of issues is as old as material culture. Do we scratch our messages in the sand or on a stone tablet? Do we write on vellum or on rice paper? If the problem isn’t clear, consider this: would you put the Kobo version of a book into a time capsule… or would you print the book on the best archival quality paper you could find? Or something in between, depending on when you thought the book would be accessed?

What does this mean for filmmakers?

1. You need active file management and a plan in place for output to archival quality media.

For example, the company that we used to work for saved all its client data files on to floppy disks. If we had those floppy disks now and found a floppy drive to play them on, we would find that the files are compiled by proprietary software. It could become illegal to break that software encoding to get the client’s material.

This is the same thing that’s happening with breaking DVD coding. There is a continual and active lobby to make it completely illegal to rip DVD files to digital files — even if you are the filmmaker or rights holder. Potentially, you might have legal rights to the media itself, but might be prevented by law from attempting to access the media, if it means circumventing a digital lock. Read more about digital rights management here.

2. If you want your media to last you have to output to a format you can conserve – such as paper or film or an open-source digital format.

3. You need to back up your data frequently and in several locations. Our guiding principles with our own media are:

• Accessibility: Can we find it when we need to? When we find it, can we open the files? Are the files well indexed and documented?
• Location: Do we have a physical backup? Is it off-site? Do we have several copies?

Here’s an article on the keys to safe data archiving that has a very useful grid that outlines some best practice file formats for archiving.

What are your methods for future proofing your digital media?

2012 is the year of the Dragon. If you were born in 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988 or 2000… this is your year!

A symbol of good fortune and sign of intense power, the Dragon is regarded as a divine beast–the reverse of the malicious monster Westerners felt necessary to find and slay. In Eastern philosophy, the Dragon is said to be a deliverer of good fortune and a master of authority.

People born in the year of the Dragon are to be honoured and respected.

And, as usual, there is both good and bad news.

Good News
Dragons are free spirits. Conformation is a Dragon’s curse. Rules and regulations are made for other people. An extroverted bundle of energy, gifted and utterly irrepressible, Dragons do everything on a grand scale: big ideas, ornate gestures, extreme ambitions. However, this behavior isn’t meant for show and is rarely ostentatious.

Because they are confident and fearless in the face of challenge, they are almost inevitably successful. Look for Dragons at the top of the bill, not playing supporting roles.

Bad news
There are pitfalls to the Dragon nature. Too much enthusiasm can leave them tired and unfulfilled. Even though they are willing to help others, pride can often impede them from accepting help themselves. Dragons’ generous personalities attract friends, but they are solitary by nature. A Dragon’s self-sufficiency can mean he/she has no need for close bonds with other people.

The Water Dragon: 1952 & 2012 

Water has a calming effect on the Dragon’s temperament. Water allows Dragons to be more perceptive of others. Thus, they are better equipped to take a step back and re-evaluate a situation. Water Dragons can be patience and do not desire the spotlight like other Dragons. They generally make smart decisions and are able to see eye-to-eye with other people. However, their actions can go wrong if they do not research or if they do not finish one project before starting another.

The Wood Dragon: 1964 

Wood has a modifying influence and brings creativity to this sign. Questioning and liberal, Wood Dragons enjoy talking about original ideas and are open to other points of view. They are innovative, imaginative, practical and appreciate art. Generally less pretentious than other Dragons, Wood Dragons have the ability to get along with other people. They have the essentials to build a prosperous and happy life for themselves. Still, Wood Dragons are outspoken and at times a bit pushy, even in the most friendly discussion.

The Fire Dragon: 1976

The Fire Dragon is a Dragon doubled and thus a force to be reckoned with! The Fire Dragon can move from calm to combustible in a matter of seconds. In some ways, the Fire Dragon is his or her own worst enemy. These Dragons cannot help feeling they are valuable and all-knowing. When they are right their vehemence and vigor is an asset to the cause. When they are wrong, they are obstreperous and combative.

Though they value objectivity, Fire Dragons aren’t always very good decision makers and are prone to jumping to the wrong conclusion. They also suffer from recklessness and quick tempers. Yet, when they do keep their emotions under control, they emanate a commanding influence on other people.

The Earth Dragon: 1928 & 1988

Earth Dragons make great managers because they are practical, levelheaded and demonstrate a knack for organizing. They still have the need to dictate and be admired, but they are affable, congenial and supportive. Compared to other Dragons, Earth Dragons are less likely to breathe fire at the least irritation. They will work diligently to complete their goals.

The Earth element adds a greater portion of self-control to the Dragon’s personality and usually the Earth Dragon is deserving of the respect he or she desires. These Dragons take their life and romantic responsibilities quite seriously.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2012!

• Transcribe accurately what is being said, with punctuation, spelling, and the write words [sic]. Phrase your transcript into captions. Include sound effects.
• Time your captions to the media, matching them with audio and on-screen events. Position the captions to indicate who is speaking.
• Test broadcast appearance, watching the media and captioning together as they will appear when finished. Make sure the positioning, phrasing, and timing feel natural and that it is clear who is speaking. If you find anything that is unclear or awkward, fix it.
• Test readability to ensure that display duration and reading rate are adhered to, and that any timing errors or illegal characters are removed.

2. Know Where Your Supers Are.
Knowing where the supers are helps ensure that the captions don’t get in the way so that viewers understand who’s speaking and the captions don’t interfere with the show. Make sure you have the latest information, since any changes to supers or subtitles may affect your captioning. The last thing you want is the captioning and subtitling on top of each other; sometimes both are needed!

3. Work From the Original Script.
Working from the original script lets you know the spelling of a character’s name or how to spell the name of that make-believe planet. It also helps identify a character who is speaking off-screen. Be sure you’re clear on the story, too: it makes a difference whether your characters are dropping in or out of orbit.

4. Triple Check for Spelling, Punctuation, and Readable Phrasing.
Badly punctuated or phrased captions seriously impair your audience’s ability to understand your media, so double-, triple-, even quadruple-check your captions. Captions and subtitles are meant to help someone enjoy your show, not confuse them further.

Make sure that the right word is chosen… to avoid sometimes hilarious results:

(Should be THEN she BAWLS out Freddy)

Have a project that needs captioning or subtitling? Contact us.

January’s Recipe: A Foolishly Simple Flax Cracker

1 cup flax seeds
1 cup water
Pinch of salt or a drop of tamari

Mix ingredients together and let them sit until the flax becomes glutinous (not the same as glutenous! there’s no gluten in flax!).

Next, spread the mixture in a layer on a cookie sheet and dry in low oven (225F or below) or dehydrator until it reaches your desired consistency. You might prefer pliable, you might prefer crispy.

Possible Add-ins:
Garlic purée, try 1T
Puréed celery, try 1/4 cup
Herbs, try 1T.

If you remember the snickerdoodle hummus recipe (note: the recipe’s at the bottom of the post) from a few months back, these crackers are a perfect fit. But they are also great with cheese, peanut butter, cream cheese, jam, honey… anything you don’t want to eat straight off the spoon.

***
Bonus: Looking for some lunch recommendations in Yaletown? Check out our favourite go-to spots.

Wow, we’ve been in Yaletown since 1995! Today we highlight 3 great grab-and-go lunch options that you might not know about.

Salsa and Agave for any type of Mexican food…but we especially like the veggie and chicken tostadas. Fast, fresh and delicious! There are 2 locations in the same block, one for eating in, and one for taking out.

Bean Around the World’s Quinoa bowl. We go to Bean Around the World (used to be known as the Yaletown Market) for great soup, but even better is their quinoa bowl with veggies, chicken, and pineapple salsa!

Euro Pastry House’s Zucchini Schnitzel. Right in our very own building is the Euro Pastry House. It used to be run by Zoran, but now it’s Renée’s place and thankfully she kept his menu! Great for sandwiches of all kinds–the zucchini schnitzel on marble rye is delicious.

Where’s your go-to lunch spot in Yaletown?