Portfolio video subtitles. Keep your contribution clear.

Let viewers follow the work and your part in it

A narrated portfolio gives a designer, architect or creative applicant a way to explain selected work. The captions need to keep each project connected to the right contribution: what you made, what a team made and what remained a proposal. Polyglot can transcribe an authorized recording locally on an Apple Silicon Mac, help you review and translate its text, and export separate SRT or WebVTT subtitle files.

This workflow is for a portfolio with spoken explanation. A silent image gallery needs useful written descriptions rather than speech transcription. If your approved publishing platform already provides captions that you can review and export as needed, that may be enough. Polyglot is useful when you have a permitted local recording and need control over reviewed text and language files.

The Royal College of Art’s portfolio advice asks applicants to make their role in collaborative projects clear and to follow the specific programme’s requirements. That supports careful attribution; it does not establish a universal subtitle requirement or permission to submit a particular video format. Check your own recipient’s instructions, including any restrictions on AI tools or translated submissions, before processing or delivering files.

Prepare a project and contribution reference

Outside Polyglot, make a short reference for each project in the recording: the displayed title, approximate video interval, your contribution, collaborators, project stage and approved credit wording. Distinguish a concept, a prototype and work actually delivered. Use this reference to review the narration, not to manufacture a stronger account of the project.

Work only with material you own or have permission to process and show. Client work, team projects, research participants and unreleased designs may have different sharing limits. Confirm that the recording, included images, spoken names, captions and translations can all go to the intended audience. Permission to work on a project does not automatically authorize a public portfolio.

Prepare a clean, approved recording before transcription. If sensitive material is visible or spoken, remove it using an appropriate editing process or record again. Deleting it from captions leaves it in the picture or audio. Local processing does not grant disclosure rights, and Polyglot does not redact media or manage portfolio access.

Keep “I designed” separate from “we built”

This fictional example describes a collaborative wayfinding project. The speaker designed the symbols; the team built the kiosk. A transcription error changes both the action and its owner. Listen to the recording and restore the spoken wording rather than accepting a plausible sentence.

Check the picture at the same moment. If the video moves from a symbol sheet to the finished kiosk, a lingering caption can make the personal contribution appear broader than the narration intended. Review the cue boundaries against the actual speech and the project transition. Do not shorten a cue so much that it becomes unreadable or remove words needed to explain the collaboration.

If the speaker really makes an inaccurate claim, correct the narration or add a clearly identified portfolio clarification through your normal editing process. Quietly changing the subtitle alone creates two different accounts. The contribution reference is a manual review aid; Polyglot cannot verify who did the work.

Fictional wayfinding project
Video: portfolio-v03.mp4
Shown: symbols, then kiosk

Heard:
“I designed the symbols.
We built the kiosk together.”

Draft:
“I designed the symbols.
I built the kiosk.”

Review:
Restore the team contribution.
Keep the project title stable.
Check transition in playback.

Review captions project by project

Import the final approved recording and check that its spoken language is supported for transcription. Review the generated text alongside playback. Check project titles, collaborator names, discipline-specific terms and pronouns. Pay particular attention to “my”, “our”, “helped”, “led” and “developed with”: a small change can alter the account of your role.

Keep development stages faithful too. “We proposed”, “we tested a prototype” and “the client launched” describe different outcomes. Do not turn a proposed feature into delivered work in the captions. Check any numbers against what was actually said; where the narration is wrong, resolve the source with the project owner before sharing.

W3C’s caption guidance explains that automatic text needs accuracy review and that captions include meaningful non-speech audio. Add necessary sound information and verified speaker context manually. Polyglot does not automatically identify collaborators, read credits from images or understand a silent transition between projects.

For a readable companion, export text and format it outside the app. Add project headings and necessary visual descriptions, clearly separating editorial context from spoken words. W3C’s transcript guidance recommends adding relevant visual information when adapting captions into a transcript. A spoken reference such as “this model” may need the model’s name and a description for someone reading without the picture.

Translate the role, not just the sentence

Translate after the original has been checked. Ask a competent language reviewer to compare who did what in each project, including collective pronouns and terms that imply responsibility. A phrase meaning “contributed to the design” should not become “designed the entire project”. Keep uncertainty and prototype status intact.

Preserve recognizable project names and collaborator credits. If a title needs translation, use a consistent mapping in the companion notes so viewers can find the same item in the visual portfolio. Speech-recognition languages and translation targets are separate capabilities; cue validation does not establish semantic accuracy.

Use translated tracks only where the recipient permits them. A caption file does not replace an institution’s language requirements, a requested original-language presentation or a separate assessment of language ability. Polyglot does not certify translations or predict admission, hiring or client decisions.

Verify the portfolio as the recipient will see it

Export the format accepted by the receiving player and pair it with the exact video revision. Record the video filename, subtitle filename, language and reviewed project list together. If you change the project order or trim the narration, check the captions against the new cut before replacing anything.

Open the delivered portfolio using an approved recipient-view test. Verify access, the intended project order, the selected language and a working caption control. Seek to the transition between personal and team contributions, then watch through it at normal speed. Check names, line breaks and whether the player covers labels or visual details, including on a narrow screen.

If the destination cannot accept a separate SRT or WebVTT track, follow the recipient’s supported delivery route. You may need another approved player or a separate editor that can render captions into the video. Polyglot does not burn captions into the picture, host portfolios or upload to application portals. Do not make restricted client work public simply to get a caption control.

Keep credit notes and any descriptive transcript easy to find where the recipient permits them. Verify that the captioned video and those notes tell the same account of each project. Completing this check confirms your own delivery review; it is not a guarantee that the recipient will accept the submission or that every accessibility need has been met.

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