Horrible Histories

Customised layouts for Discovery’s US versions of “Horrible Histories”

Discovery commissioned Take 1 to produce as-broadcast scripts for series 5,6 and 7 of “Horrible Histories” for the programme’s localization and broadcast in Latin America and Asia. 

Because their content covers a wide range of genres, Discovery requires customized layouts and spec lists to be created for different content categories.  For “Horrible Histories” this meant, amongst other things, providing a timecoded speaker list of when contributors appeared to help the localization team plan and budget for dubbing.

To ensure that each as-broadcast script includes the relevant detail, Take 1 puts their transcribers through specialist training to familiarise them with Discovery’s specific requirements.  In addition, because the transcriptions are created as XML within Take 1’s Liberty system, the data can be reformatted into timecoded speaker lists at the touch of a button.   

“Discovery has one of the highest requirements for detail in their transcriptions, with different combinations of tags and markers needed for different types of content,” explains Take 1 Script Coordinator, Ian Battisson “With Liberty, the job specifications are pre-populated and the formatting ensures that transcribers don’t miss any of the tags or markers required – they just need to fill the data into the relevant fields.  Once the transcription data has been through quality control, we then automatically convert it into Discovery’s bespoke layout for delivery – maintaining their house number naming convention throughout the process.”

Get in touch to find out more about how use XML data to create customised as-broadcast script layouts.