Status of Captioned Movies in Theaters - December 2002
- Part 1
Editor: Captioned movies . . . . . . What can I say? We all know how
important they are to people with hearing loss; yet we also know that
they are pretty much unavailable to the vast majority of people.
The Coalition for Movie Captioning (CMC) was organized to try to
correct this situation, and they're working to make that happen. Their
recent status report isn't exactly encouraging, however. Brew a fresh
pot and pull up a chair.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1997 Meeting with Industry Representatives
In 1996, the Movie Access Coalition, a predecessor of the Coalition
for Movie Captioning, developed a White Paper on the need for vastly
increased captioning of first-run movies in theaters.
The White Paper included a proposed schedule to make all movies
available with captions within three years.
At a January 1997 meeting in California of representatives from the
Movie Access Coalition, motion picture studios, National Association of
Theater Owners (NATO), and Tripod Captioned Films, the studios agreed to
increase the number of open captioned movies.
The studios also agreed to increase the number of prints available,
show captioned movies at regular show times, and charge regular box
office prices. Ten major cities were targeted for testing of the
captioned showings.
Reorganization as CMC
Much has been made of the increasing number of films that are being
captioned. However, the hoped for results from the above-mentioned
meeting with industry representatives fell far short of expectations.
By the year 2000, which was the White Paper's target date for 100%
captioning of movies, more than 80% of the 478 mainstream films released
were still not available with either open or closed captions.
This continuing state of affairs led to reorganization of a broader
national Coalition for Movie Captioning (CMC). Charter members of the
new coalition were these major national organizations committed to
addressing the theater access needs of America's 28 million consumers
who are deaf, hard of hearing and late-deafened:
* Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
* American Society for Deaf Children
* Association of Late-Deafened Adults
* Cochlear Implant Association, Inc.
* Consumer Action Network
* Deaf Seniors of America
* League for the Hard of Hearing
* National Association of the Deaf
* Self Help for Hard of Hearing People
* Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc.
Today only a small number of theaters showing first-run movies are
equipped with Rear Window Captioning(tm). Also, only six to 20 prints of
any movie that is open-captioned have been made available. On the big
July 4, 2002 holiday weekend, only 24 screens across the U.S. featured
captioned movies on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with 34 screens on
Sunday.
The NATO website listed 35,153 total screens in its 2001 statistics
section and the Motion Picture Association of America website listed
36,764 screens. Thus on the July 4 weekend less than one out of every
1,000 screens in the U.S. was showing a captioned movie. In many states,
no movies with captions were available. Similar statistics were reported
on other holiday weekends.
Tripod Captioned Films (now InSight Cinema) stated in mid-2002 that
one open captioned print would last for 11-12 show dates if made
available for captioning when it is new, and for about 8-10 dates if the
print is used before the captions are added.
Formats Currently Available in Movie Theaters
* Open Captioning (OC) - Tripod Captioned Films has been receiving
"prints" of movies from a number of studios. In November 2002,
InSight Cinema, a separate 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization, replaced
Tripod Captioned Films.
* Rear Window Captioning(tm) (RWC) - This process uses an LED text
display mounted at the rear of the theater for display of captions timed
to match the audio portion of the film. Only those viewers who have a
transparent acrylic panel at their seats see these captions. WGBH MoPix
has made approximately 50 films available in 2002, and 17 were made
available in 2001. This system also has the ability to provide video
description for visually-impaired viewers.
* Cinema Subtitling System (CSS) - This format is made available by
Digital Theatrical Systems (DTS) through captions stored on a hard
drive. The captions are synchronized with a time code already found on
prints of movies shown with its DTS digital audio system. Captions are
shown through a second projector that superimposes them onto the screen.
First demonstrated to a U.S. audience in Sioux Falls, SD in 2001, this
system is receiving good reviews from pilot tests since December 2001 at
11 sites in the United Kingdom. Video description can also be provided
by this system.
A number of additional technologies are available or could be adapted
to display captioning, but are not currently being used.
Among them are Personal Captioning Systems' technology, which uses
PDAs to display captions and DLP Cinema CineCanvas by Texas Instruments,
a new projector similar to the Cinema Subtitling System from DTS that
can overlay captions directly onto a movie.
Misleading Figures and Misperceptions
Various news accounts have said that in 2001 Tripod Captioned Films
showed 60 different films in over 500 theaters in the U.S. What is not
being reported is that many of these theaters may have only had one
showing each year or very sporadic showings throughout the year. Movies
were actually shown regularly in only 118 theaters. Of these:
* Five theaters showed an open captioned movie on one screen 52 weeks
a year.
* 15 theaters showed an open captioned movie on one screen 52 weeks a
year from two to four days per week.
* The remaining 98 theaters showed an open captioned movie on one screen
at least once or twice each month.
Here's part 2.
