InqScribe – Best Transcribing Software

I’m finally in the last stretch of transcribing my documentary footage, so I’ll keep this post short. I thought I’d talk about the amazing software that I’ve been using to help me in my task – InqScribe.

Basically it’s a video player and text editor, but with the sole purpose for transcriptions and subtitling. You import your footage onto your computer, import the clip into InqScribe, adjust the timecode to match the footage, and playback the video as you type.

I know that doesn’t sound very revolutionary or time saving, but InqScribe’s got plenty of great controls. You can slow down the playback, toggle play/pause with the keyboard (or foot pedal if you have one), jump back a few seconds, and create keyboard shortcuts to insert timecode markers and different character names wherever you need them. It’s definitely made transcribing as painless as it can be. Best of all, they have a free 30-day trial, so check it out.

Though my two-week documentary editing cycle starts next Wednesday, I need to pick up the pace since I have to be on set Sunday through Tuesday. I’d like to get a paper edit complete before I start capturing footage, a process I’ll explain in the near future.