Textless video masters for multilingual campaigns

If your event video will be shown in more than one language, ask for a textless master. It is the finished video without titles or captions on screen, so new text can be added without changing the edit.

What is a textless master?

A textless master has the same finished pictures, music and speech as the main video. The only thing removed is text written on the screen, such as titles, speaker names, lower thirds, captions and logos that contain words.

The result is a video you can place text on again, in any language, without going back to the editor to rebuild it.

Why does a multilingual campaign need one?

In Malaysia, one message often goes to Bahasa Melayu, English and Mandarin readers, sometimes Tamil too. If the titles are part of the picture, each language needs the edit opened and the text replaced. That costs time and risks changes you did not ask for.

With a textless master, a designer or editor adds the text for each language on top of one fixed version. The picture stays identical, and only the words change.

What is not on a textless master?

Spoken language is still there. If a speaker talks in one language, viewers in another still need subtitles or a voice-over. See event captions and subtitles, available on request and confirmed for each event.

How is it different from other versions?

• Clean master. Built for reuse in later edits. See a clean master versus a video with titles and music.
• Raw footage. The unedited clips. See what to expect from raw event footage.
• Public and private versions. Edits for different audiences. See different edits for the public and a private audience.

What should be planned before filming and editing?

1. The languages. Which ones, in which order of importance, and where each is shown.
2. Where titles can go. Space at the bottom or side of the frame, so translated text, which can be longer or shorter, still fits.
3. The shapes. A wide, square or vertical cut may each need its own textless version. See the format and framing planner.
4. Spoken languages at the event. Which speakers use which language.
5. Text for the main version. The wording, fonts and positions, so a translator can match them.

The caption and language planner helps you write these decisions down.

When should you ask for it?

Ask before editing starts. A textless master can be exported at the end, but it is easier and clearer when the edit was built with it in mind. The quote can then list it as a named deliverable, with the shapes and languages it is meant for.

What should you check when you receive it?

Play the master from start to finish and make sure no text is left, including in the opening and closing seconds. Check that the sound and music match the main version and that the picture shape is right for each platform. Keep the master together with the text list, so whoever continues the work knows what to add.

What we confirm for your event

• That the textless master is a named item in the quote, and in which shapes.
• That you receive the text list and fonts used in the main version.
• That the master is delivered together with the finished film.
• Who adds the text for other languages: you, a designer or our team.
• How captions and subtitles are handled when speech is in several languages.

For more on accessibility and language planning, see our accessible video and language planning guides. To plan the full set of files, use a deliverables sheet a supplier can price or the event video selector.