Burned-In Captions on a Talking Head
Burn captions into a talking-head reel so the words survive a repost. Keep them short and off the bottom buttons.
Burned-in captions on a talking head are part of the video file, not a sticker the next app will drop. They should match the voice, sit in the safe zone, and stay short enough that the eyes are still visible. Style is secondary. Readability is the job.
Match the words
Do not tidy the caption into a different claim. If you said "about thirty seconds," do not caption "exactly 30" unless you mean to change the claim and the audio.
Leave the eyes
A caption bar across the mouth is sometimes unavoidable. A bar across the eyes makes the host a voiceover. Put lines lower-middle, still above the app buttons.
Export after the captions
If you add words only inside Instagram, TikTok and Shorts will not have them. Burn in, then upload the file everywhere you need the words.
A worked example
Host says three short lines. Each line appears as they speak, white on a thin dark band, eyes clear. The file uploaded to Reels still shows the lines with the sound off.
Before you post
- Captions match the audio.
- Eyes stay visible.
- The words are in the file, not only in the app.
Where Scro fits
Scro styles the voiceover into one of 13 caption looks and can burn them into the export. Trim the opening silence so the first caption is not late.
Burn the captions in. Finished samples are on the examples page.
Related: Your Voice and an Avatar.