Subtitling Movies/Vlogs
There’s a movie theater in my town where rear-window captioning or MOPIX, is offered. My friend, who’s also deaf had problems with his tickets that he ordered on-line to see Spidey 3. He complained to me that the theater switched around the movies out of the theater room where the MOPIX set-up is in, so his ticket for Spidey 3 was useless.
So I went over to the movie theater’s website to investigate for myself… and I looked at the schedules, and no MOPIX sign anywhere on the schedules. So I got ticked off and found a web comment link on their site then fired off one to them.
Imagine my surprise when a hour later, I get a response from them, and it wasn’t a form e-mail! The guy very politely pointed me to the front page of their website… Apparently they re-designed the website, and they had a MOPIX logo, which you could click on and see the MOPIX schedule.
Oops! Then I was even more surprised to get another e-mail soon after that, inquiring about my blog address. He was curious about my blog, and he asked whether my blog was related to deaf and hard of hearing issues… because apparently he wanted to know what the deaf community was saying. He also told me if the deaf community had any issues with the website, to let him know.
That is very unusual here, in my hometown! We get blown off all the damn time! So now I’m feeling a bit guilty for shooting from my hip in my web comment to the theater! I honestly did not think I would get a live person responding to my comment. *winces*
But there’s more! After I gave the guy my blog address, several hours later I got an e-mail from him … he looked at this blog, and now he is surfing my blogroll and he is thrilled to see that Banjo’s vlogs are subtitled, and now he has subscribed to my blog and Banjo’s! And this guy is hearing without any association to the deaf community!
So folks, don’t you think this is a compelling reason to subtitle or provide a transcript of your vlogs?! We are reaching out to the world – both deaf and hearing alike!
P.S. My friend was able to get a refund from the theater. So there is a happy ending for everyone!
Update on P.S. I talked to my friend today and had him show me the website where they mucked up his on-line ordering. It turns out it wasn’t even on the same website I sent a web comment to! *winces* It was made by ticketmakers.com… so I sent them an e-mail, and naturally, I got a form e-mail response. Hopefully though, they will remedy the situation soon.
20 Comments
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Aslpride said,
May 5, 2007 at 1:23 am
It would be depend on what people’s intentional to show their vlog to? For example, my intentional for my vlog is toward deaf people, because those issues relate to deaf. However, if someone want anyone to understand their message on vlog, then they can go ahead and add subtitle.
Aidan Mack said,
May 5, 2007 at 6:43 am
Thank you for sharing this story with us. I agreed with you that we should subtitle or provide a transcript of our vlogs. For me, I don’t have any confidence with my English yet. I will figure it out. I have an idea.. Maybe you can translate from my ASL into English transcript because you write English so well. ;o)
Keep blogging! I enjoy reading your blog.
Aidan
IamMine said,
May 5, 2007 at 6:48 am
Wow, I’d subtitle my video clips as an optional for hearing people, but I don’t know how and it doesn’t have anything to do with them.
It takes extra effort, you know? I do NOT like to know what I really said in English and I’m not that great of a writer like you, Deaf Pundit.
You know, my video clips would fall into the “rant” category?
It wouldn’t make any sense to them and it’d save me some embarrassment/humiliation.
Seek Geo also subtitles his video clips for hearing audience.
That is UNUSUAL reaction you got! I, too, get blown off from movie theaters!
There’s one about 25 minutes away from here that offers open captioning once in a BLUE moon.
A person I spoke to was clueless and rude.
Bah. Lost a customer.
Bill said,
May 5, 2007 at 8:53 am
That’s a nice post! I watched one of “Banjo’s” vlogs that he subtitled, and it was so cool, I asked him how he did it. (free software, by the way http://www.urusoft.net/products.php?cat=sw)
IamMine: Your comment was funny! (I am presuming intentionally so), because it sounds like the excuses people make to not provide the extra services for the d/hh or blind communuties! Tables turned!
deafpundit said,
May 5, 2007 at 8:57 am
ASLPride, I still think it is a good idea, because what we talk amongst ourselves can be very, very educational for the hearing!
I got an e-mail from a woman who stumbled across this blog, and she told me that she has learned so much from my blog posts. My posts aren’t even targeted at the hearing, but she still walked away having learned something.
But I do understand people’s uneasiness with subtitling or transcripting their vlogs because they feel their English is not so good. You can always find a friend who is willing to help you out with that.
Just my two cents on that.
deafpundit said,
May 5, 2007 at 9:37 am
And by the way, nice try on getting me to transcript your vlogs, Aidan.
I enjoy your vlogs too, and I think your English is just fine!
eyvind said,
May 5, 2007 at 7:13 pm
I’m hearing and I really think movie and vlogs should be captioned, its not unusual that I miss a key word or phrase somewhere in there and it all hops over my head before I can catch it. I tend to read subtitles on all movies that have them, I turn on “Subtitles for the hearing impaired” on DVDs and turn on text-tv when I watch movies or shows on TV. This might not be also because I’m not altogether at a comfortable level of listening in any of the languages I speak, it takes some time for me to understand some things people say in Swedish and English (both of which I pretty much speak, write, and read fluently).
If I ever have any control over whether to subtitle something or not, well, I would absolutely choose to subtitle it.
About you contacting the theatre. I would say you seem to be a top-notch friend and a morally very good person (as opposed to evil
).
I always love getting personal cards and letters and mails from people, companies, whatever. In the company I am starting (with Bill from above and a few others) I have decided to do whatever I can to get prompt and personal replies to clients and other people who contact us (I hope the rest are on the same page as me on that). It’s horrible how little so many companies understand about what people really think is important.
I dunno what else to say… I love people? I guess so, but I’m not a people person.
Top Posts « WordPress.com said,
May 5, 2007 at 7:59 pm
[...] Subtitling Movies/Vlogs There’s a movie theater in my town where rear-window captioning or MOPIX, is offered. My friend, who’s also […] [...]
deafpundit said,
May 5, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Thanks, eyvind.
The reason I contacted the theatre on behalf of my friend is because his English isn’t very good, and people don’t take him seriously when they read what he writes. And when people don’t take him seriously, he tends to yell. 
So that would’ve just made the situation bad, and I wanted to see this situation fixed, because I’m sure if it happened to him, it also happened to others as well.
Mary P said,
May 6, 2007 at 11:00 am
Hearing people are reading! The deaf and hearing communities are two solitudes, sadly separated by a huge communication barrier. I was thrilled to find this blog, which I can read and understand, and which gives me a window into an entirely different world, and a different perspective on my own.
Sadly, my mere 20 hours of ASL instruction (so far!) means I catch one word in twenty, if I’m very lucky, on a vlog. If captioning is a possibility, that would be wonderful. And maybe one day I’ll be able to understand without captions!
Oh, deafpundit – did you see that pingback at comment number 8? You were Number 36 of WordPress’s Top 100 blogs for May 5th! (It means you had one of the biggest traffic spikes that day.) Well done! I once made it on that list – but only barely managed it at position number 98.
deafpundit said,
May 6, 2007 at 11:36 am
Yep, I saw.
On that day, I had 423 hits to this particular post, but my blogsite had 529 hits. It was cool… and I hope people keep coming back to read! 
eyvind said,
May 8, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Congratulations deafpundit!
I’m as glad I found this blog as Mary seems to be, it certainly has given me quite a bit more perspective on things. Please do keep up the great blogging.
eyvind said,
May 11, 2007 at 2:14 pm
I’m glad your friend got a refund.
About the little website thing, everyone makes mistakes and yours was one of the easiest to make.
In any case, I’m glad it worked out.
Fuzzy Optimism » The Deaf Edge and FierceStreetNetworks said,
May 11, 2007 at 2:41 pm
[...] Deaf Edge hit place #36 on WordPress.com’s Top Blogs list for May 5th with Subtitling Movies/Vlogs, a few hours after I found the blog. I would have to say that The Deaf Edge deserves it as much as [...]
billcreswell said,
May 21, 2007 at 9:38 am
Wow. I started using Subtitle Workshop (banjo’s recommendation) to try to subtitle a movie trailer. I am running about 10 minutes editing time for the first 4 seconds of video. A two and a half minute trailer at this rate is going to take a few hours! Kudo’s to those who do subtitle their vlogs (spec. Banjo, and Seek Geo)
deafpundit said,
May 23, 2007 at 7:34 pm
Wow, nice job subtitling the movie trailer, Bill! I enjoyed the Spider-Man 3 trailer!
Bill said,
November 13, 2007 at 6:19 am
I was just revisiting this post – I am up to nine movie trailers now!
http://www.overstream.net/search.php?query=Movie+Trailers&pt=1
Bill said,
April 22, 2008 at 5:49 am
One year, and 109 videos later. Wow, time has flown by, and so much has happened!
Thanks!
A Deaf Pundit said,
April 22, 2008 at 9:14 am
Wow. Yeah. It’s been almost a year. Unbelievable!
artimentary said,
April 30, 2008 at 8:06 pm
new here, hello. HH and learning ASL as hearing failing with balance disorder that’s progressive. Great to have captions, hands, art, all that helps us have access with each other…coool work you do. some people look at my work as say it’s music for the eyes…laughing here…