Lock sheet · v14A
CAPTION HOUSE · 14 August 2026
Where metadata meets the pavement
The Caption House reconciles what the camera recorded with what the beat editor claims. Every frame earns an index card before the seventeen fifty-five lock.
A wrong caption is not a typo. It is a trust failure we treat as seriously as a wrong quote.
The room sits between the hold shelf and the cut room — smaller than either, always warm from the proof lamp. Two caption editors work each desk day: one reads contact sheets, one writes index cards in Fira Code on cream stock. Cards carry beat tag, frame number, field time, GPS note if relevant, and a plain-language description of what the image shows — not what we wish it showed.
The four-pass process
Pass one — ingest. Photographers deliver contact sheets by fifteen hundred. Digital files land on an air-gapped drive; prints go in a wire basket labelled by beat. Ingest logs the shutter count against the sheet header. Mismatch triggers source hold before anyone writes a caption.
Pass two — reconcile. The caption editor walks the sheet against field notes from Street Notes. If frame 14A claims Marine Parade but the pavement texture matches Katong tiles, the card goes amber until the beat editor confirms location by telephone. Reconcile also catches time drift — cameras set to wrong timezone are more common than newcomers expect.
Pass three — alt text and cut copy. Alt text lives on the card back in sentence case, under one hundred twenty-five words, no promotional adjectives. Cut copy is the caption readers see on card pairs and shelf bands — tighter, often under twenty words, with dateline in mono.
Pass four — lock. At seventeen fifty-five the caption lead signs the lock sheet. After lock, any change requires hold clerk witness and a new card version. Version numbers appear on card pair captions as 14A, 14B, and so on.
What caption house rejects
We reject staged crowd shots presented as documentary. We reject frames where faces are identifiable in sensitive contexts unless source verification hold cleared consent. We reject metadata stripped by third-party apps — if EXIF is missing, the photographer re-files with original RAW or the frame stays off the shelf.
Partners sometimes send pre-written captions. We read them for factual claims only; voice and length are rewritten to desk standard. Promotional superlatives — "vibrant", "must-visit", "iconic" — are deleted on sight. British spelling is enforced: "colour" not "color", "centre" not "center" unless quoting a sign.
Caption lock queue · 14 August 2026
15:00
Ingest
Katong and Marine Parade sheets — forty-two frames total, two shutter mismatches flagged.
16:00
Reconcile
Frame 14G location confirmed by beat editor call — amber tick removed.
17:00
Alt text
Geylang market roster frames — alt text pass complete, cut copy drafted.
17:55
Lock
Evening cut metadata signed — no further edits without hold clerk witness.
Caption enquiries from contributors should include frame numbers and beat tags. Email [email protected] with subject line CAPTION · [beat] · [frame]. For how locked captions flow into publish order, see Evening Cut.
