Captioning Hollywood: Methods, Might, Cinema and
Civil Rights
By Cheryl Heppner
Editor: Have you noticed more captioned movies in your area recently?
It's not happening everywhere, but people in many communities have much
better movie access than they had a couple of years ago. Many of the
folks who were involved in making that happen were on a Movie Captioning
panel at the SHHH convention. Cheryl Heppner captures their reports of
how it all happened and what you can do to make it happen in your area
in this great article.
If you'd like to share this article, please be sure to credit NVRC.
(See credit at the end of the article.)
~~~~
Panel Members:
Mary Watkins, Media Access Group, WGBH
Cheryl Heppner, Coalition for Movie Captioning
Joe Gordon, SHHH State Coordinator, NY
Tom Simeone, Trial Attorney
Arlene Romoff, SHHH New Jersey
Questions, Answers, and Comments
Captioned movies started with open captions in the late 1970s through
Tripod Captioned Films, which has now become an independent organization
called InSight Cinema. For open captioned films, prints (copies) of the
movie travel from city to city.
WGBH developed the Rear Window Captioning (RWC) system and began
showing movies with it in the early 1990s. WGBH had been the pioneer in
TV captioning in the 1970s. WGBH began to develop RWC, a closed
captioning system, because open captioned movies were not being shown at
the most popular times.
WGBH focus groups tested various kinds of closed captioning equipment
and favored RWC. They began with 12 installations and now have 220. WGBH
doesn't sell the equipment. They are a captioning and description
agency. Theater chains that have installed RWC equipment include AMC,
Loews, Consolidated, Clearview, Mann, and National Amusements.
WGBH movie captions are also used by Digital Theater Systems for
their Cinema Subtitling System, an open captioning technology. Only
selected screenings are accessible with this technology. Another system,
Dolby ScreenTalk, is similar.
In the future there will be digital movies. Georgia Tech has
developed a PDA-based captioning receiver which allows captions to float
in front of your eyes.
CMC was established in late 1999 and released its vision statement
and position paper in January 2001. The goal is to make all first-run
movies accessible. Individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing should
have the same freedom to attend showings of any movie at any time, be
seated anywhere in the theater, have access to all the audible portions
of the movie through high quality, reliable captioning.
CMC stands ready to help the movie industry through input, referrals,
market research, cost/benefit analysis, standards setting, testing,
outreach, training of theater personnel. As an example, CMC learned
recently that theaters in the US could not display DTS-CSS captions for
two weeks after the release of 20th Century Fox movies, including
blockbuster Star Wars Episode III. Movie theaters showing RWC were not
restricted. CMC advocacy efforts resulted in 20th Century Fox deciding
that movie theaters can display DTS-CSS at any time, starting with the
day of release.
There are more than 36,000 movie screens in the US, but the number
showing captioned movies on any day still number only in the hundreds.
Much more progress needs to be made.
CMC encourages and is a resource for individuals and organizations to
educate, advocate and litigate for increased movie access. It supports
all forms of captioning: InSight Cinema open captioned movies,
seat-based RWC, and screen-based open caption projection systems like
DTS-CSS and Dolby ScreenTalk.
Each of the systems plays an important role in making movies
accessible. Consumers and the movie industry may see pros and cons for
each of these systems. The diversity fosters the captioning technology
and quality. Having these systems in theaters gives all consumers and
the movie industry the chance to experience, enjoy, learn more, and
become better informed about movie captioning.
It is important to have clarity in the words heard in theaters. New
York City has many theaters. He couldn't appreciate movies with only an
assistive listening device. Captioning made a tremendous difference in
his comprehension and enjoyment.
We need to be clear what we want in captioned movies -- the ability
to see them with family and friends, not limited to one technology, and
available at the time of release.
Legislation is passed in proportion to calls, e-mails, letters and
other communication received. Everyone should have input. It's best to
write as an individual, not a form letter. Encourage your friends and
family also; they can talk about how they want to be able to see movies
with you. Organizations can also send letters.
You should send your letters to the theater, the owner of the chain,
and the state Attorney General. Tell them you are being discriminated
against. New York has no state agency for deaf and hard of hearing
persons, so individual participation is even more necessary.
Be informed about the different ways to caption movies so you will be
able to speak knowledgeably.
New York's SHHH conference had a visit by three assistant Attorney
Generals because they had received many complaints. They had a very
frank Roundtable discussion which included assistive listening devices,
captioning, and signage in theaters.
Washington, DC Lawsuit (AMC and Loews Theaters)
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is an imperfect remedy. It
was the first major law to address access to public accommodations but
just gives a general mandate and says nothing about any kind of
captioning.
Under the ADA, you can't sue the movie distributors for not
captioning their movies. You can only sue theaters. Texas tried a
lawsuit against distributors but it was dismissed. A lawsuit against the
San Antonio Spurs team for not captioning at their games was also
dismissed, but a case against the owners of the auditorium where they
played was allowed to proceed.
Accommodations such as captioning requested under the ADA must be
reasonable, require no undue burden, and the accommodation must not
fundamentally alter a product or service. One example of what would not
meet this requirement is having book stores make all books available in
Braille.
The ADA doesn't specifically require captioning. There is just the
general mandate, but it specifically says open captioning is not
required. It's obvious that the theaters and chains probably lobbied
hard to have that put in Congressional history.
When you make a request under the ADA for public accommodations,
there is no requirement that you get the accommodation of your choice.
His clients in the DC-area lawsuit against AMC and Loews would have
loved to get open captioning.
When the case was filed, he didn't know much about RWC, but someone
asked him how much he was getting paid by WGBH. Now he thinks there are
more RWC movies being shown from the settlement than in any other city
in the world.
Taking legal action at the state level gives you a lot more options.
Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida have already had rumblings about movie
captioning at the state level.
Like it or not, theaters are under the impression that people who
don't use captioning don't like it. He is more than happy to serve as a
resource to others who are pursuing action against theaters. His law
partner's sister has a hearing loss.
The national association of state Attorney Generals had a meeting
last week and one topic was New Jersey's success in its captioning
effort.
Page Two
