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A composition rather than a line: one word set large as the hero, the rest arranged around it. It is the style that makes a talking-head clip look directed.
Eighteen months ago
A layout, not a row of subtitles
One word from the caption is set several times the size of the rest and given a second font for contrast; the supporting words are arranged around it. The result is closer to a magazine spread than to a subtitle track, and it is what makes an ordinary talking-head shot look directed.
The two-font pairing is doing the work. A heavy display face for the hero against a quiet sans for the rest creates a hierarchy the eye reads in a fixed order — hero first, context second — instead of scanning a flat line left to right.
Choosing the hero word
A hero is picked automatically for each caption, and it is right often enough to be useful and wrong often enough to be worth checking. The automatic choice favours the longest or most distinctive word, which is not always the one carrying the meaning.
Tap any word in the caption list to promote it instead. The one to choose is the word the sentence would collapse without — usually a noun or a verb, almost never an adjective. Set "never" rather than "beautiful", "free" rather than "completely".
It needs room, and a slower cut
A large hero word occupies real space in the frame, so this style wants footage with somewhere to put it: a wide shot, a plain background, a subject sitting to one side. On a tight close-up filling the frame there is nowhere for the layout to go and it ends up over a face.
It also wants the shot to hold. The composition changes with every caption, and if the picture is cutting at the same rate the frame never settles. Cinematic captions reward long takes — which is the opposite of the advice usually given for short-form, and the reason clips using it stand out from clips that follow that advice.
Questions
How is the hero word chosen?
Automatically at first, favouring the longest or most distinctive word in the caption. Tap any word in the caption list to promote it instead — pick the word the sentence would collapse without, usually a noun or a verb rather than an adjective.
What footage suits cinematic captions?
Shots with room in the frame and a slower cut — a wide shot, a plain background, or a subject sitting to one side. On a tight close-up the large hero word ends up over the face, and on a fast edit the composition never settles.
Can I change the two fonts?
Yes. The display face for the hero and the supporting face are both editable, along with size, colour, position and animation, and each change previews on your own footage.
Are cinematic captions free?
Yes. There is no subscription and no sign-up — 480p exports are unlimited and carry a small watermark, and removing it is one payment for that video only, at full 1080p.
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