Censoring Cuss words

[Sonaa]

Sorry, but I wanted to find out how I could censor cuss words in a vcd or dvd. I found a video that I want to show to some kids, but it's not allowed to have cussing. It's about autism and it has a lot of cussing. I need to figure out how to censor those parts. Also if you could add on how I could censor middle fingers it would be great too. It's not that I believe in censoring, just need to do it because it's the contraints I have to work with.

[Baldrick]

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic335587.html?highlight=swear

[guns1inger]

There is no way to do this easily.

For the audio you need extract the audio from the DVD. open it in an audio editor, blank out the language you don't want without changing the length of the audio, re-encode it and put it back into the DVD. It is probably simplest to demux the contents back to elementary streams, alter the audio, then re-author.

For the video - again, you have to demux, load the video into something that can do overlays, hide the offending fingers, re-encode the video, then re-author.

Or you could find more suitable material for the age group.

[Sonaa]

That was somewhat useful.. but I think it was talking about cutting a chunk out with the word.. Is there any way I can just beep the audio without cutting stuff out?

Thank you Baldrick for reply! I tried swear and the search didn't pop it up for me for some reason..

[Sonaa]

Oh.. That does sound difficult.. I just wanted these kids to see the autistic kids.. And the autistic kids have anger issues and did cuss in the movie a lot at one point when they got frustrated.. Oh well..

[redwudz]

It depends on the format, but you just need to extract the audio and use a audio editor to replace the words with silence or white noise. If you remove the audio instead of substituting silence or noise, you will lose the audio/video sync. You can do this with the freeware audio editor Audacity. It accepts WAV and MP3 audio and a few other formats. Then you put the audio back in. Other audio editors should be able to do the same.

For AVI type files, I use VirtualDub Mod, extract the audio as a WAV, edit, then add back in. You can do about the same with MPEG, but you would need a different program to add the audio back. For DVDs, it's a fair amount of work to extract out the video and audio, change it, add it back in and reauthor to DVD format.

If you do some forum searches, you will find several threads of members trying to do the same thing to eliminate some objectionable words.

Here's a guide about extracting audio with VDM. https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=280779

And welcome to our forums.

EDIT: Wow, everyone is typing fast tonight.

[guns1inger]

You can always just turn the audio down for that section.

[Sonaa]

edited

[Sonaa]

Thanks Red! That sounds more simplified. I have already converted the dvd to avi. I just need to get those sound editing programs and put something in. I wonder if I can find professional beeps?

I'm wondering if the girl flipping the bird a couple of times is too disturbing for 13yr olds v.v;;

[guns1inger]

If they have ever been a passenger in a car, or watched a non-disney movie, they have seen it.

Personally, I wouldn't use beeps, as it is more likely to draw attention to the fact that someone swore. I would just mute the audio for the length of the word. Audacity can do this pretty easily.

[redwudz]

With VirtualDub Mod you can also add a Logo filter to blur out the 'flipping' if the image is more or less stationary. Audacity has a noise and silence generator built in. It's still a bit of work, though. You can run the video through VDM or a software player and note where you want to blank the audio by checking the timeline, then go to those points in Audacity a little easier. There are likely payware programs that can do all this, but VDM and Audacity are freeware and not too hard to learn to use.

Good luck.

[gll99]

If you are concerned, you could always try to find a less disturbing video example. Editing is unavoidably time consuming.

Do a Google search "autistic videos" I'm not saying you will find the perfect video but if the material is not suitable and you are dealing with children then it's best to err on the side of caution. Even with the best intentions, why risk upsetting others by not seeking guidance and support before proceeding with material you seem to feel has questionable content.

A good motto which can be used in many fields of endeavour but especially suitable when dealing with children is: When in doubt, leave it out.

When you edit sound the mouth still shows the spoken words so if you want to do a complete job when it's obvious you would have to blur that as well as the finger salute.

Not that most kids have not likely heard or seen this before but if you are an educator then you will always be held to a much higher standard. All it takes is one complaint.

[Sonaa]

Ah so extract and then blank out.

Well it's kind of disturbing all together. It's an honest look at the lives of school age children with autism. They know they have autism and are working on it. But it doesn't make them any less human and they have a lot of things to work on so they can live in the 'real world.' It is pretty heart rending and I'm wondering if the kids I'm working with might identify with the struggles of the autistic children. In the documentary, one boy's mother dies and it shows him struggling with it but unable to say that he is. It shows that autistic kids just want what everyone else wants.. Friends, boy/girl friends, to learn, to live... Some of the kids in the video have Aspergers and it causes them to lash out when they get stressed.

If this were just a movie type video with cussing, I'd not even consider it. But I wanted to share the humanness of it.. The documentary is Make me normal : Only Human.

Anyways I'm still considering if I'll do or not, but I just wanted the option of possibly showing it to them..

Also funny enough check documentaries on autism.. a lot of them have a small disclaimer about language. I think it's just part of the disorder..

[Sonaa]

I'll keep my eye out though.. Always appreciate other people's views on the situation

[Sonaa]

thanks for everyone's help!