Captioning for Digital Movies

April 2000

Editor: As if worrying about captioning of "normal" movies isn't enough, now we have to start thinking about what will happen with captioning when the industry moves to digital movies. Those of you who try to keep up with technology probably know that digital movies are on their way.

Mary Watkins of WGBH shares her thoughts on how the advent of digital movies will affect movie captioning. Out thanks to Mary for the information and to USA-News for distributing it.

Additional information on WGBH is available on the WGBH Page in our Resource Directory.

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There has been much discussion lately about the technology know variously as eCinema and digital cinema and questions have been raised over whether these technologies will help or hurt closed or open captioning in movie theaters.

First of all, it is far from a done deal that movie theaters will all be digital anytime soon. The vast costs to exhibitors and the slow pace the movie industry moves at both argue for restraint when talking about how soon we will see this as widespread technology. There are many opinions, strongly held, about this new technology, and it would be a mistake for anyone to assume it will go one way or another. We just need to be aware of the opportunities inherent in the technology.

Second, IF theaters go digital, the caption data and the audio descriptions will be easily embedded into the digital video signal being projected. At that point, if *closed* captioning is desired as an option, the Rear Window concept will still be viable and practical: the data will be sent to a datawall which displays the captions in reverse on the rear wall of the theater and a reflector at the seat of the deaf or hard-of-hearing moviegoer will reflect those captions.

The moviegoer will then continue to have their private caption-viewing experience. In no way will digital cinema make Rear Window captioning obsolete - it will actually make it easier to distribute the data for captions.

If a theater desires to display open captions or another language as subtitles, it is likely that the caption data could be embedded in the digital movie and, just like in TV closed captions, opened up for the whole audience to see at the push of a button.

This of course assumes a theater wants to have open-captioned showings and the captioning agency can get their work done in time for national distribution (no easy task).

But, to avoid confusion and misinformation, it should be understood that the way the film is stored and projected (digitally in this case) is a separate issue from how the captions are presented to the end-user. It will just be more like TV captions, easier to deliver the text in either closed or open format according to the wishes of the studios and the exhibitors.

Rear Window is also purposely based on a very flexible data format which can be adjusted to change with whatever new display technology may exist. It meets the needs of many people now and will be ready to be upgraded and improved as newer technologies emerge.

People have strong feelings about captioning for feature films, and we can all benefit from sharing as much information as is known about current options and future opportunities.

Please contact us if you have questions about how we envision Rear Window working in a digital environment.