I need some help here. I want to help transscribe some of my favorite StrongBadEmails but they're old and no one has done them yet. Also, I can't write fast, so I don't want to watch them over and over to get them right. Is there a way to slow them down somehow? - Ace101
Yes, yes there is. I use a program called flash boy on the rare occasions when i feel the strong urge to transcribe a cartoon. check out StrongBadEmail/army. I put details on how to get the program at the bottom of the transcript. -JamesGecko
Thanks. This helps a ton. Look for a transscript of (your friends)? soon! -Ace101
On second thought, it may be delayed. I have another problem. How do you import the .swf links into Flashboy? I mean, you have to save the link and open it though Flashboy and it doesn't say how. -Ace101
heres what I do. Goto the page with the cartoon. Open the source code of the page. About halfway though the source, you will see a block of code that looks something like this:

<BODY bgcolor="black">
<center><OBJECT classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"
codebase="http://active.macromedia.com/flash2/cabs/swflash.cab#version=4,0,0,0"
ID=newintro WIDTH=550 HEIGHT=400>
<PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="welcome.swf"> <PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high> <PARAM NAME=bgcolor VALUE=#000000> <EMBED src="welcome.swf" quality=high WIDTH=550 HEIGHT=400 TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></EMBED>
</OBJECT></center>

Look for a file name that ends in .swf
In this case it's

welcome.swf

goto www.google.com
type in www.homestarrunner.com/welcome.swf
it will spit out a link. (sometmes it says the page is not valid, don't worry. try the link it gives you anyway)
Right click the link it gives you and select "save as".

You can now save the file. I downloaded like half the website this way. (I then burned it to a cd and gave it to a friend who had a crazy firewall that was blocking the site)
-JamesGecko
If you're using a the [Firebird/Firefox] browser (I assume it'll work in Mozilla, too), saving the .swf files is a lot easier: when you're at a page on H*R.com, just go to Tools > Page Info and click on the Media tab. Then click on the .swf file in the list and then click "Save As...". (This may be different on Linux or Mac.)
-- InterruptorJones
Oky, but how do you open the source code? -Ace101
On IE, you go to View>Source. On Netscape, goto View>Page Source.
Thanks a ton, man!

An Easier Way to Transcribe

by InterruptorJones

Okay, so the other night I figured out an easier way to transcribe. Flashboy is helpful and all because you can easily stop the movie, but if you miss something you still have to start all over again. This is a huge pain!

The solution? Record the audio from the movie and then play it back. Your audio player has a slider so if you miss something or are having trouble understanding something, you can easily go back 10 seconds or 30 seconds and listen to it again -- no restarting the movie!

Now, this is a little tricky since your computer probably isn't set up to record the sound coming out of it. In Windows 98 and XP (not sure about other versions, someone check?) you have to go to the volume control. To get there, double-click on the little speaker icon in the system tray (next to the clock). This will bring up some volume sliders. Click on the Options menu and pick Properties and in the Properties dialog under "Adjust volume for:" choose the "Recording" option and in "Show the following volume controls:" make sure "Mixer" (in Windows XP, this will say "Stereo Mix" instead) is checked and click OK. Then, under the "Mixer" slider make sure the checkbox next to "Select" is checked. Turn the volume up all the way. You can now close the volume control panel.

Now's the recording part. If you have a sound-editing program (there are many freeware/shareware ones available, and you only need a very basic one), use it, but if not you can use Windows' Sound Recorder program (Start > Programs > Accessories > Entertainment > Sound Recorder). Then start the movie and click on the red Record button as soon as the movie begins.

The biggest disadvantage of the Windows' Sound Recorder is that for no apparent reason, the length of a new recording is limited to 60 seconds. This can be circumvented, however, by opening a long WAV file in it and recording over it -- your recording time will be limited only to the length of the file you opened. If you don't have a long WAV file sitting around, you're either going to have to download another editor or just record the sound in several sessions (most StrongBadEmails, for example, are shorter than 3 minutes).

Now, once the movie is through, click on the Stop button. Save the file if you want, but you don't need to unless you want to keep it or your computer is prone to crashing. :)

All that's left to do now is the actual transcribing. You'll see the benefit of this approach almost immediately, and you'll be relieved that when you have trouble hearing a line of dialogue or get distracted by an IM you won't have to start the movie all over again -- just stop the recording, move the slider back a few clicks, and pick up where you left off.

You'll probably wind up watching the movie a couple extra times anyway to add notes about the action (remember, a good transcript describes the action, not just the dialogue), but I've found that this approach is a big time-saver in the long run (especially when you're trying to transcribe Spanish dialogue spoken with a Homestar Runner accent!).

I hope this little HOWTO will be helpful to would-be transcribers. Drop me a line on my userpage if you found it useful.

-- InterruptorJones

AHA!


I have figured out a whole new way to transcribe stuff. If the toon is available in fullscreen, right-click and hit the word Play. The toon should pause.

Now I'm asking for a favor from those who make them fullsized. Make StrongBadEmail/your friends fullscreen and I'll do the writing. -Ace101

Even better than AHA!

Just came across this link: http://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/flash.html
It's a series of bookmarklets that let you pause, rewind, and fast-forward flash movies. Looks like 'exactly'' what we need. They work great!

By the way, does anyone else think some of this stuff should be on a page linked from the home page?