Aug '16 | Bay Area Video Production Team Takes on Documentary

For my second blog post I’m gonna put caution to the winds and share something kind of different we worked on in July — a documentary about women in the cannabis industry. For two days at the Cannabis Business Summit in Oakland, I was on set as part of the Bay Area video production team for Windy Borman’s documentary Mary Janes: The Women of Weed. As this documentary is about the controversial subject of the budding marijuana industry, Windy is, unsurprisingly, based out of Colorado, one of the four states where it is currently legal. So when she came to California, Patina Pictures took the job of field producing her shoot here. We helped set up her local interviews and got a Bay Area video production team together to film a conference unlike any I’d seen before (namely because of the many marijuana plants they had growing on the showroom floor). It was a little outside of our normal wheelhouse, but was so much fun to be a part of.

Our part in this documentary only took place over the summer, but we’re excited to share that Windy just recently reached the end of her Indiegogo fundraising campaign. Congrats Windy! At last you can focus all your energy on making this fascinating story come to life! I, for one, can’t wait to see it.

One of the many interesting things about Windy’s documentary is that it is not about the drug, its medical uses, or even the legalization issue (though that is a big topic especially with a vote in many states coming up in November), but about how it is the only industry in America’s long history that is predominantly headed by women. As such, she interviewed a lot of female “ganjapreneurs” on their experience with the medical, legal, technical, scientific, and business aspects of cannabis.

While the number of interviews is great news for us eager audience members, it resulted in hours of footage for Windy to comb through when she got back to Denver. Instead of tearing her hair out trying to transcribe everything herself, she hired an external company to transcribe for her, letting her focus all her energy on finding good soundbites and crafting the story she wanted.

If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, I would definitely recommend following Windy’s lead. There are a lot of companies that will transcribe your interviews for you so you and your Bay Area video production team can focus on crafting the story you really want.

Here are a few transcription services I found, in a variety of different price ranges, that I look forward to trying out:

Speechpad – With a starting option of $1/minute for a week-long turn around time, they have a 99% accuracy guarantee and a foreign language translation service if you need it. Plus they’re based in San Francisco!

Scribie – For a slightly less expensive starting price option of $0.75/minute for a 3-5 day turn around, Scribie offers similar transcription services with a minimum quality standard of 99% accuracy. The moderate pricing takes into account they will charge more for audio clips with accents that are difficult to understand.

InqScribe – A Do-It-Yourself option. Download the free version for Mac or Windows or pay $99 for a full license for an easier and faster platform on which to transcribe. You can play the video and transcribe in the same window, insert timecode anywhere in the transcript, use mouse-free controls (there’s a pedal!), and export your transcripts as subtitles onto your video.

After an in-depth internet search, these are the three services this Bay Area video production team member recommends – if you have recommendations on another company, comment below!