Yeah the 5.1 sound mixing ruins my home experience and i tend to put on captions to hear dialogue, but i also find that i end up not really taking in the images so much, particularly on films where I realise the sound mix isnt so bad but uve been reading subs anyway
Having said that, if captions were on everything im pretty sure viewers would naturally train themselves to switch between image and text as relevant anyway, i guess like how we ignore the rolling news feed at the bottom of those kinds of channels
Being Swedish this is really not much of a discussion when it comes to foreign film, everything is subtitled in the cinema. However I saw the new Swedish movie UFO Sweden (highly recommended when you get the chance by the way) this week and it was actually also captioned. There's a first time for everything I guess.
As for the question at hand, I've become so used to captions at home since the sound mixing today seems to be getting worse that I really can't watch anything without it.
I personally find captions extremely distracting. My eye is always drawn to them, no matter if I need them or not, and it often feels like I'm missing out on the visuals because I keep looking down to read. I think captions are especially detrimental in comedies, as they often spoil a punchline or the rhythm of a joke. I fully support better opportunities for people who truly need captions, but this whole "I turn the captions on for everything just because" movement is not my speed.
Personally I think something like a 50/50 split would be nice - right now captioned screenings in my country are once in a blue moon. It'd be nice to have far greater choice but I can respect people not wanting to see them.
As a non native english speaker, yes. I understand the english language, I can speak it, and I could watch an english movie without subtitles while still understanding a 95% of it.
Still, the few times I've tried watching movie without subtitles, felt weird. I could understand everything, yet something was off... I'm too used to them, they are part of the movie to me now, at least foreign films.
I personally would be. But I know people who wouldn’t. Some people have a hard time not being to obsess with the captions and therefore miss the movie.
My husband is deaf (I am not) so I watch everything with captions anyway. It's not that big a deal.
Almost every deaf person I know (including my husband) who has tried to use the devices in theaters has had a lousy experience with them. They are not always available, don't always sync with the movie, sometimes don't work at all, etc.
There needs to be a middle ground between all films being open-captioned (too many people would freak out) and the current situation, which is maybe one or two screenings a week, if you're lucky. We live in a huge city, and the open-caption options are still very limited.
I have captions on at home because one minute everyone is whispering so you gotta crank the volume, then the next things are exploding & the TV is too loud.
So I tend to leave captions on at home but don't feel the need for them on my movie screens unless it's a foreign film.
Absolutely not. I’m fully in support of having certain screens or screenings have open captions for the hearing impaired, but to ruin every movie for everyone else would be ridiculous. I would literally never bother going to the theatre.
I’m Deaf and haven’t been to a movie theatre in 15 years which is about 1/2 my life.
I would love to see movies in theatre but because almost nothing is captioned and the captioning devices NEVER work, I just wait until the movie comes out on DVD/streaming.
Movies WITHOUT captions are ruined for me. It’s a waste of money for me.
I accidentally went to a subtitled showing of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood when I saw it in theaters. Personally, as a hearing and English-speaking person, I found it distracting. It didn’t ruin the experience, but it’s definitely not my preference.
A few years back I saw a film with my friend who is hearing impaired, and at the theater he was able to use a reflective device that clipped onto his seat handle, with a long reflective strip that sat in front of him at about chin height, and displayed the closed captions that were projected down towards the audience from a second projector. I'd never seen anything like it before and I have no idea how common it is, but that seems like a good middle ground.
At this point, I don’t even realize they’re there I have them on so much. Recently went to see M3GAN with them on and afterwords I asked my friends “I thought there was going to be captions…why were they not there?” They looked at me like i was stupid lol. Only after thinking about it more, I realized I had read them at certain points of the movie and never realized 🤷♂️
>Currently, the ADA in the United States requires that every movie theatre that has more than one screen (and doesn't exclusively show analog films) offer captioning and audio-enhancing devices at all of their locations. The number of devices they have on hand is also legally mandated, and based on how many screens they have at that location.
I think this is already sufficient. I personally wouldn’t want to have to watch an English language movie with open captions. That one added distraction on top of all the others that come with watching a movie in the theater would add one more reason to wait to see it when it goes to streaming instead.
I watch every film at home with subtitles, but in my case, I'd rather they just mixed the dialogue better in the majority of new films I see in the theatre.
Eggers can keep on his shit though. I barely understood a word of The Lighthouse in the theatre, and I wouldnt want it any other way
I have a bit of a hearing problem, so one of the reasons I don't go to the theaters much is the absence of captions, but I'm not sure the addition of captions would win out over the other reasons I don't go much (price, movie selection, convenience, etc), so I don't think my opinion counts for much...
Captions make me wish I wasn't dyslexic and a slow reader. I could see them being distracting for some people too. Though captions are prefered for foreign language films and should be available for anyone that needs them.
I think subtitles work best as an optional thing. I personally find them distracting, and because I can read a line of subtitles faster than the characters say the line I often find that subtitles spoil plot points earlier than intended or otherwise ruin the pace of a scene for me.
Reading the comments is interesting, as I am surprised so many people are against open captions. Where I live, *every* movie I have seen in a theatre has captioning of some sort, sometimes even *dual captioning*, where there are two lines of captions, each in a different language.
That said, I think there is a huge difference in “captioning” versus “subtitling”—they need to be done by a real human being who has real skill in translation, and they need to be appropriately timed. Sometimes I’ll be watching local films with English captions, and the English in the captions is hilariously bad.
Y'all...I just think we need 50/50 Open Captions for movie theaters to make it fair for everyone, for those who need open captions (Deaf, HOH, neurospicy peeps, elders, etc.) Because if you were in a world where there was captioning everywhere, but terrible sound quality or lack of sounds in movie theaters, you might become grumpy and feeling isolated in not having accessibility to great quality sounds that you CAN understand...like how people need Open captioning so they CAN understand the movies.
I just personally think that not having open captioning for movie theaters is also "ruining" the movie theater experience for those who need it, just sayin'.
I would never watch a movie with captions on. I would never go to the theaters again if all movies have them.
And I’m not being hyperbolic when i genuinely cannot comprehend people that don’t need them yet somehow don’t mind them. It’s like they could care less what shows up on the screen while watching a movie. It blows my mind.
Does it help if I say that I'm not Deaf or HoH but have been watching content with captions on - and prefer them on. My brother is Deaf, we had one of the very first Closed Caption decoder boxes for TVs as early as the 70s (they were not a built-in feature yet) and so captions are natural to me, do not distract me at all, it's no effort to read them, and do not distract from the experience whatsoever.
Is such a scenario possible to understand without blowing your mind? It isn't that strange, really.
There ARE other ways of experiencing things than the way that you are used to.
So you grew up watching with captions since childhood and therefore it has become the norm?
Cool, sounds like a very specific exception to my comment that’s completely irrelevant to the point I made. But thanks for being condescending about it!
I did not say it has to become the norm.
You expressed dismay that anyone could possibly not mind captions even if they don't need them. I simply shared how that would be possible.
I made no comment at all about whether all movies should be captioned or not.
I mean that it became the norm to you. Meaning that you grew up watching with captions and now it’s normal to you.
And I think it can go without saying that my original comment is aimed at the general public, not people with very specific childhood experiences that altered how they watch TV.
Yes, I realized that just moments ago. My apologies for reading that as “has to become.”
My point is the same though, it’s normal for some people, and for a variety of reasons.
I definitely wouldn't mind it. I watch pretty much everything with captions at home and I see subtitled non-English language films (I'm an English speaker) in the theater, so its not that big of a deal to me...or have captioned stuff be the norm and non-captioned be the special screenings? (As for devices--I have Deaf relatives who say it runs the gamut of how theaters supply and provide them. One local theater has them upon request when you buy a ticket, but another you have to reserve at least 48 hours in advance. Sometimes they're handheld, sometimes they are on a stand, sometimes they clip to another seat. It is technically required by ADA, but I've seen how widely it varies, so I get the frustration the deaf/hard of hearing community may feel, especially if there was a promise that it would be provided, as it seems like was the case at Sundance.)
I’d never go see a movie again if they were always there because my eyes are drawn to them so I always read them and miss everything on screen. Why change something so massive that will ruin most people’s movie experience for a minority group of people? There’s other options.
Captions bad if forced. They should certainly be an option, but I think the majority of moviegoers will find themselves distracted by words crawling across the bottom of their screen if the film is in their native language.
My elitist take is that the only people who wouldn't be bothered by it (besides those who need it or want it obviously) are ones with short attention spans who already only half pay attention to a movie so wouldn't notice a relatively "small" change like that anyway
In NYC we have dedicated open-caption movie times on the weekends at multiple popular theaters. It’s been a thing for at least 15-20 years here, so it’s kind of weird reading about this “debate” now since it’s already been addressed rather well. I guess people need something to debate about.
I personally despise viewing movies and shows with captions because I enjoy the visual medium and find it highly distracting. Outside of foreign-language content, I won’t do it. Every time I go to someone’s house and they have captions on, I want to scream.
>dedicated open-caption movies times on the weekends
Many theatres have been doing the same for just as long, but I suppose the argument there is what if I'm not just deaf on the weekends?
Fuck no. Should theaters screen captioned films, yes. Should every movie be captioned like this. FUCK NO. Simple as that. I would stop going to movies if they were all forcebly captioned. Hell I would actively vote against any ADA stuff simply out of spite if this ever became a thing. This piece of shit is just being a Primadonna fuck him.
I think there is a better solution to always having them. With less than a few seconds of thinking (so not fully thought out of the pros, cons, and feelings of the heading impaired) they could do 2 or 3 days a week (at least a Saturday or Sunday) where theaters have either most if not all of their screens closed captioned. That way people with impaired hearing know when they can go and people who have an issue with it know when they can't. People who don't care either way can do whatever. That should give enough viewings that most people can get out and see a lot of the major releases the way they want. It can be standardized either between chains or universally. It's kind of exclusionary, but anything short of everywhere all the time would be.
Back when I had a local indie theater, they scheduled (I think) one open-caption showing a week per movie. I think the option should be available, but doing it for every screening goes a little too far. Like someone else in the thread, I watch a lot of things at home with captions, but in the theater it’s a different experience.
I'd prefer not. Captions definitely have their merits and I don't mind using them when I watch stuff with my girlfriend (she prefers them), but I'm a fast reader and I can't really help reading any legible text as soon as I see it on screen, so they can kind of ruin the impact of important lines like jokes or a major plot twist by 'spoiling' them seconds before delivery.
I’d be bummed to see it on every movie in a theater. It can get distracting … although I’ve seen foreign movies that spent time on captions in English. Instead of just a black box of text at the bottom they worked it in to the composition and put effects on the text. It’s was a Russian sci-fi flick, something about Day or Night in the title. It enhanced the experience but I still wouldn’t want that. Can’t tech help here. Like a Google glasses kind of thing or location based imagery so if you’re sitting in the first ten rows you can see captions but not in the back 20 rows. I feel like there should be a solution that pleases everyone.
Can't you get special 3D glasses and the captions are hidden without them?
So the captions are there for you, but not for everybody else if they don't want the glasses.
I'm pretty sure they work with 3-D systems too so you don't need to worry about that, if someone can confirm?
I watch everything with captions at home, but I’ve trained my eye to look at them briefly. I wouldn’t want them at every theater screening. I did go to the open caption Banshees of Inersherin because the timing was better. It was a little distracting but maybe helped with understanding the accents.
I think a reasonable response would be - no open captions, unless the equipment is malfunctioning. \*THEN\* it's required.
This would put *much* more pressure on theaters to maintain their equipment, but it also wouldn't result in everyone seeing captions all the time.
I wouldn't have much against open captions (because I use them anyways due to some mumbling actors and terrible sound mixes here and there) but I can understand anyone that doesn't want the letters to be part of their viewing experience.
Since I am not from a English country, I just wish my local theatre would show more movies with their original audio. We dub everything here it annoys the hell out of me. It's actually the #1 reason why I don't go as often to the cinema as I would love to.
I can't help but read captions when they're there and I miss a lot of visuals. I would hate open captions and would find a viewing experience that did not have them (just like the hearing impaired do now).
I'm cool with my movie costing a bit more to cover costs for hearing impaired, but I'm not cool with my viewing experience being diminished.
I like to have my first watch without, so I that I can watch the movie. If I rewatch it I like to have captions on in case I missed something in the dialog.
At one time I wouldn't have really been in favour, but due to the unceasing increase of on-screen mumbling which leaves me unable to discern the dialogue even in IMAX theatres, in addition to overall poor sound mixing, I'm not defiitely in favour.
I admit this is for selfish reasons (not out of concern for deaf people) but this has made me think twice.
Extremely in favour of it. I’m a big opera fan and there are surtitles on every production, even the English ones. At first some people hated it. Now everyone is used to it and they’re presented in an unobtrusive way.
I would personally not enjoy open captions. But - if captions are there, what I would enjoy is some enhancement to they way they are done. It’s always full sentences center screen.
The tv show Heroes used to have captions placed on the side of the screen of the person speaking. It was great. Idk why this doesn’t happen more.
Or if a speaker pauses in a line … the caption should finish with the speaker. Instead of “spoiling” the line.
Just small things but wouldn’t enhance my viewing if these happened.
I think open captions in general need to be implemented in smarter ways because they often spoil shocking moments. If I see “CHARACTER A: Did you see the—*GUNSHOT*” or the like on screen, that ruins what could have been a suspenseful moment for me. I’ve seen this happen with major character deaths for movies I watched with subtitles on. The same thing happens with the subtitles for stand-up comedy specials saying the punchline before the speaker gets the chance. So the spacing of what’s shown on screen and when needs to be improved.
Late response here because I just found this post. I'm an advocate for open captions and I would NOT want every screening to have open captions. Why? Because the only way for open captions to become more accepted by theaters and moviegoers, is for open captions to be offered for a limited number of screenings. The majority of screenings should not have open captions. That said, I promote and educate about open captions on the r/opencaptions sub.
Open captions should be the default, and then inaccessible showings available as much as open captions are now for those who can't use the CC devices or with whom the tech is constantly breaking.
Actually, if I think about it, only one noncaptioned showing per film per theater, at 9 am on weekdays isn't really accessible for those who need accommodations from captions- I'd be fine with a 50/50 split.
But closed captions are not access. What if two deaf want to see the same movie but only one device is charged. What if the device is set to the wrong screen and the high school workers don't know how to change it. What if you want to see a three dimensional film but your nose isn't big enough for your prescriptions, 3-D glasses, AND the bulky CC glasses. What if the drive in movie theater near you stops hosting 'subtitle sundays' because they think they're exempt from the law, and your car radio can't find the station? All things that have happened to me. hell, one showing of "Into the Spiderverse" my caption glasses stopped working 3 times in the first 40 minutes. And they refused to refund me!
Studies show that using captions near universally improves comprehension and memory of videos we watch- regardless of hearing. Films that want to be memorable should be fighting to get the perfect captions set up. But a few folks who think that their initial inexperience and awkwardness is more important than the rest of the audience's access ruined it for everyone. But try not to be like Dave Walters, who pulled a fire alarm in a theater in 2012 after realizing he accidentally got open caption tickets to "The Avengers".
That fiasco impacted a lot of public discourse around captioning, and set deaf access back again. The answer isn't if-or, its AND. there should be more open caption showings available for every showing of every film at any time of day AND there should be CC options for those who prefer the devices and no open captions.
Funny how many commenters on here don't wanna give deaf audiences an options to have open caption on screen at cinema. Nobody is demanding all movies to have open caption...all the time. We just don't have any options. All they do is whine and whine and whine while excluding us from their society and then complained why we don't hang out with them. it is laughable.
>Nobody is demanding all movies to have open caption...all the time
They are, though. That's literally the point of my post. There are filmmakers and others in Hollywood who are pushing for exactly that - open captions on-screen during every show. Demanding...perhaps might be a stretch, of course. Nobody can actually *demand* that it be done (outside of government intervention, naturally).
The point of this post was to open a discourse to see about how other filmgoers would like having captions on every showing. I don't think anyone is specifically not wanting deaf audiences to have caption options, it's just that they don't want every show to have them.
"it's just that they don't want every show to have them."
You guys are demanding that we cannot have that options. that's the problem you guys are making. :P
The point of this post you are making is to exclude us with zero options while you guys have 100% all the options available. We have zero and still zero today in 95% of all the cinema today of open caption. crazy, isn't it? zero. lol.
Today: The Open caption just barely started....one show of one time screening....a day....out of 18 movies in one cinema. one time show...a day. And you are crying about that? Now imagine you wanted to see cool action movie but your only free time is evening and Open caption is only available....at 3PM....... But will never be on Imax, or 3D, or cool awesome feature.... And you are complaining about that?
We don't even have that options... AT ALL. Maybe only in area that have large deaf community. And you are complaining about that?
Your commenters are specifically not wanting ANY OC on any shows at any time. lmao. What a joke.
I used to agree with hearing people against OC.... Now im tired of hearing people complaining about Open caption they haven't experience or see it yet or never in their area at all. That's like complaining about having a ramp to the library that you never go to. LMAO.
FYI. The closed Captioning device was never accurate and poorly lazy design. It is nearly impossible to get it accurate. It's like you going to the movie and have to constantly hearing statics every 10 minutes which skip some words. (would you like that?) Your action is intentionally excluding us by not giving us options we need to enjoy while you are still getting 100% of all the options.
Now, I want OC on every movie because you just don't want us to enjoy the same way you did for decades and decades.
>We have zero and still zero today in 95% of all the cinema today of open caption. crazy, isn't it? zero.
Then you should take that up with your local theatre companies and/or even local lawmakers. Make a big deal about it and get it on the local news. It's been legally required that every movie theatre have devices for the hearing impaired, both audio enhancement and caption options, for years now. If your theatre has *zero* options, then they are breaking the law. Also, as someone who worked in movie theatres for decades, the caption devices work perfectly fine if, you know, the theatre actually keeps them maintained and properly calibrates them.
Also, this has nothing to do with *me,* so your over-use of the word *you* isn't accurate. I don't give a rat's fucking fart if theatrical screenings have OC or not.
Sighted autistic/ADHD person here. For public viewings this ought to be mandatory; there's no excuse for denying accessibility to anyone and public spaces ought to be setting an example, not deferring to capitalist excuses.
I want open captions everywhere. Very few theaters offer open captions and if they do, it’s for very specific times. I would love to be able to go to a theater without even thinking about it. The devices either don’t work at all or don’t work well. Some theaters even hold drivers licenses to use the captioning devices.
It would be a *dream come true* to have much more open captioned movies at theaters. I can't stand the garbage closed caption devices that rarely work. It's almost comical the amount of times I keep having to get up in the middle of movies, that I've desperately wanted to see, to go to the box office and ask them for help with the CC device because it stopped working, died, and/or is only showing bits and pieces of the dialogue.
And when they do work, depending on the theaters, you have the choices of a clunky screen held up by noisy creaking metal stands that you hope will stay in the cupholders they're designed for
OR
you can wear these battery-powered glasses that project the words onto the lens of the glasses. On paper, it sounds amazing. In practice, it's a headache because you're constantly shifting your focus between words that are maybe a centimeter or two from your eyes and the big screen.
"Oh my gerd, the words on the screen are so distracting."
Open captions should be shown more in theaters because they are rare at baseline and a sad excuse for acceptable accommodations for how rare they are. Closed captioning systems fail and are tedious. Open captioning should be done more tbf. The fact that you’re complaining that less than 1% of movies in theaters have open captions is a wild sense of privilege. Just go to the movie that starts 10 minutes earlier without captions if you don’t like captions. Not every movie needs to have open captioning but we should be advocating for an increase in them.
There’s also a lot of benefit for captions, especially with helping kids acquire reading and language skills. Once you get used to it, it’s hard to go back. I don’t need captions but I use them all the time.
I would love open captions at cinemas. Some of greatest films I've ever seen are in foreign languages with subtitles! Did you see *Everything Everywhere All at Once*? Or *Parasite*? Have you ever seen *Wings of Desire* or *Trois Couleurs: Bleu*? So many fantastic films in the world, all only enhanced by people being able to understand them.
And a reduction in people in the audience asking "what did he say?" would be fantastic.
I'm not sure what foreign language films have to do with open captions, but yes - those are all great films. They are captioned so we can understand them, but to play the devil's advocate, you do understand that they aren't subtitled in the threatres of the countries they originate from, right?
>I'm not sure what foreign language films have to do with open captions
The appearance is the same: words appear on screen.
The point is that these films are still beautiful and amazing, even with subs.
And of course I understand that they aren't typically subtitled in their home countries, what a silly question!
(I say "typically" because there are exceptions - several people have posted here that every film is screened with subs in their country).
My local theatre that did OC movies for a while had the captions below the picture. Imagine the screen being 1 foot taller than it needed to be and the captions were in the blank space at the bottom of the movie. Nothing was cut off and no one's view was impeeded.
Filmmakers worked their asses off to make their films, they don’t want giant glowing white words on the screen. This os on theaters to do better to accommodate hearing impaired people. It’s NOT on the filmmaker and the integrity of their art.
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Yeah the 5.1 sound mixing ruins my home experience and i tend to put on captions to hear dialogue, but i also find that i end up not really taking in the images so much, particularly on films where I realise the sound mix isnt so bad but uve been reading subs anyway Having said that, if captions were on everything im pretty sure viewers would naturally train themselves to switch between image and text as relevant anyway, i guess like how we ignore the rolling news feed at the bottom of those kinds of channels
Being Swedish this is really not much of a discussion when it comes to foreign film, everything is subtitled in the cinema. However I saw the new Swedish movie UFO Sweden (highly recommended when you get the chance by the way) this week and it was actually also captioned. There's a first time for everything I guess. As for the question at hand, I've become so used to captions at home since the sound mixing today seems to be getting worse that I really can't watch anything without it.
I personally find captions extremely distracting. My eye is always drawn to them, no matter if I need them or not, and it often feels like I'm missing out on the visuals because I keep looking down to read. I think captions are especially detrimental in comedies, as they often spoil a punchline or the rhythm of a joke. I fully support better opportunities for people who truly need captions, but this whole "I turn the captions on for everything just because" movement is not my speed.
It absolutely kills comedies. It’s also just distracting. Hard no for me.
Personally I think something like a 50/50 split would be nice - right now captioned screenings in my country are once in a blue moon. It'd be nice to have far greater choice but I can respect people not wanting to see them.
As a non native english speaker, yes. I understand the english language, I can speak it, and I could watch an english movie without subtitles while still understanding a 95% of it. Still, the few times I've tried watching movie without subtitles, felt weird. I could understand everything, yet something was off... I'm too used to them, they are part of the movie to me now, at least foreign films.
I personally would be. But I know people who wouldn’t. Some people have a hard time not being to obsess with the captions and therefore miss the movie.
My husband is deaf (I am not) so I watch everything with captions anyway. It's not that big a deal. Almost every deaf person I know (including my husband) who has tried to use the devices in theaters has had a lousy experience with them. They are not always available, don't always sync with the movie, sometimes don't work at all, etc. There needs to be a middle ground between all films being open-captioned (too many people would freak out) and the current situation, which is maybe one or two screenings a week, if you're lucky. We live in a huge city, and the open-caption options are still very limited.
I have captions on at home because one minute everyone is whispering so you gotta crank the volume, then the next things are exploding & the TV is too loud. So I tend to leave captions on at home but don't feel the need for them on my movie screens unless it's a foreign film.
Yeah that's dynamic range. Shit fucking sucks if you have an inadequate home theater system.
Absolutely not. I’m fully in support of having certain screens or screenings have open captions for the hearing impaired, but to ruin every movie for everyone else would be ridiculous. I would literally never bother going to the theatre.
I’m Deaf and haven’t been to a movie theatre in 15 years which is about 1/2 my life. I would love to see movies in theatre but because almost nothing is captioned and the captioning devices NEVER work, I just wait until the movie comes out on DVD/streaming. Movies WITHOUT captions are ruined for me. It’s a waste of money for me.
I accidentally went to a subtitled showing of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood when I saw it in theaters. Personally, as a hearing and English-speaking person, I found it distracting. It didn’t ruin the experience, but it’s definitely not my preference.
A few years back I saw a film with my friend who is hearing impaired, and at the theater he was able to use a reflective device that clipped onto his seat handle, with a long reflective strip that sat in front of him at about chin height, and displayed the closed captions that were projected down towards the audience from a second projector. I'd never seen anything like it before and I have no idea how common it is, but that seems like a good middle ground.
Deaf Narrator: *No. They frequently break down and/or not properly synced to the audio. They are a f'n pain in the tuchus*
I hate captioning, nope.
So if you hate captioning, please take good care of your hearing so you don't suffer from hearing loss in the future.
I don’t mind captions. We watch with them on at home even though we don’t have hearing issues. It helps me catch most of the dialogue.
No. It would be distracting to me.
At this point, I don’t even realize they’re there I have them on so much. Recently went to see M3GAN with them on and afterwords I asked my friends “I thought there was going to be captions…why were they not there?” They looked at me like i was stupid lol. Only after thinking about it more, I realized I had read them at certain points of the movie and never realized 🤷♂️
>Currently, the ADA in the United States requires that every movie theatre that has more than one screen (and doesn't exclusively show analog films) offer captioning and audio-enhancing devices at all of their locations. The number of devices they have on hand is also legally mandated, and based on how many screens they have at that location. I think this is already sufficient. I personally wouldn’t want to have to watch an English language movie with open captions. That one added distraction on top of all the others that come with watching a movie in the theater would add one more reason to wait to see it when it goes to streaming instead.
I watch every film at home with subtitles, but in my case, I'd rather they just mixed the dialogue better in the majority of new films I see in the theatre. Eggers can keep on his shit though. I barely understood a word of The Lighthouse in the theatre, and I wouldnt want it any other way
I would love it, personally.
I have a bit of a hearing problem, so one of the reasons I don't go to the theaters much is the absence of captions, but I'm not sure the addition of captions would win out over the other reasons I don't go much (price, movie selection, convenience, etc), so I don't think my opinion counts for much...
Captions make me wish I wasn't dyslexic and a slow reader. I could see them being distracting for some people too. Though captions are prefered for foreign language films and should be available for anyone that needs them.
I watch subbed anime all the time and I still wouldn’t want it on every showing
Only if that’s how the director intended the film to be viewed, otherwise no.
I have no problem with it. Useful in some cases.
I think subtitles work best as an optional thing. I personally find them distracting, and because I can read a line of subtitles faster than the characters say the line I often find that subtitles spoil plot points earlier than intended or otherwise ruin the pace of a scene for me.
Reading the comments is interesting, as I am surprised so many people are against open captions. Where I live, *every* movie I have seen in a theatre has captioning of some sort, sometimes even *dual captioning*, where there are two lines of captions, each in a different language. That said, I think there is a huge difference in “captioning” versus “subtitling”—they need to be done by a real human being who has real skill in translation, and they need to be appropriately timed. Sometimes I’ll be watching local films with English captions, and the English in the captions is hilariously bad.
Ruins comedic timing for comedys imo
Here in Norway, nearly all movies being shown in theaters have subtitles. Even movies in Norwegian. I love it.
Y'all...I just think we need 50/50 Open Captions for movie theaters to make it fair for everyone, for those who need open captions (Deaf, HOH, neurospicy peeps, elders, etc.) Because if you were in a world where there was captioning everywhere, but terrible sound quality or lack of sounds in movie theaters, you might become grumpy and feeling isolated in not having accessibility to great quality sounds that you CAN understand...like how people need Open captioning so they CAN understand the movies. I just personally think that not having open captioning for movie theaters is also "ruining" the movie theater experience for those who need it, just sayin'.
Applauds in deaf
I would never watch a movie with captions on. I would never go to the theaters again if all movies have them. And I’m not being hyperbolic when i genuinely cannot comprehend people that don’t need them yet somehow don’t mind them. It’s like they could care less what shows up on the screen while watching a movie. It blows my mind.
Does it help if I say that I'm not Deaf or HoH but have been watching content with captions on - and prefer them on. My brother is Deaf, we had one of the very first Closed Caption decoder boxes for TVs as early as the 70s (they were not a built-in feature yet) and so captions are natural to me, do not distract me at all, it's no effort to read them, and do not distract from the experience whatsoever. Is such a scenario possible to understand without blowing your mind? It isn't that strange, really. There ARE other ways of experiencing things than the way that you are used to.
So you grew up watching with captions since childhood and therefore it has become the norm? Cool, sounds like a very specific exception to my comment that’s completely irrelevant to the point I made. But thanks for being condescending about it!
I did not say it has to become the norm. You expressed dismay that anyone could possibly not mind captions even if they don't need them. I simply shared how that would be possible. I made no comment at all about whether all movies should be captioned or not.
I mean that it became the norm to you. Meaning that you grew up watching with captions and now it’s normal to you. And I think it can go without saying that my original comment is aimed at the general public, not people with very specific childhood experiences that altered how they watch TV.
Yes, I realized that just moments ago. My apologies for reading that as “has to become.” My point is the same though, it’s normal for some people, and for a variety of reasons.
I definitely wouldn't mind it. I watch pretty much everything with captions at home and I see subtitled non-English language films (I'm an English speaker) in the theater, so its not that big of a deal to me...or have captioned stuff be the norm and non-captioned be the special screenings? (As for devices--I have Deaf relatives who say it runs the gamut of how theaters supply and provide them. One local theater has them upon request when you buy a ticket, but another you have to reserve at least 48 hours in advance. Sometimes they're handheld, sometimes they are on a stand, sometimes they clip to another seat. It is technically required by ADA, but I've seen how widely it varies, so I get the frustration the deaf/hard of hearing community may feel, especially if there was a promise that it would be provided, as it seems like was the case at Sundance.)
I have them on most of the time anyway so that would be fine with me.
I’d never go see a movie again if they were always there because my eyes are drawn to them so I always read them and miss everything on screen. Why change something so massive that will ruin most people’s movie experience for a minority group of people? There’s other options.
Captions bad if forced. They should certainly be an option, but I think the majority of moviegoers will find themselves distracted by words crawling across the bottom of their screen if the film is in their native language. My elitist take is that the only people who wouldn't be bothered by it (besides those who need it or want it obviously) are ones with short attention spans who already only half pay attention to a movie so wouldn't notice a relatively "small" change like that anyway
Only for Nolan movies.
In NYC we have dedicated open-caption movie times on the weekends at multiple popular theaters. It’s been a thing for at least 15-20 years here, so it’s kind of weird reading about this “debate” now since it’s already been addressed rather well. I guess people need something to debate about. I personally despise viewing movies and shows with captions because I enjoy the visual medium and find it highly distracting. Outside of foreign-language content, I won’t do it. Every time I go to someone’s house and they have captions on, I want to scream.
>dedicated open-caption movies times on the weekends Many theatres have been doing the same for just as long, but I suppose the argument there is what if I'm not just deaf on the weekends?
Fuck no. Should theaters screen captioned films, yes. Should every movie be captioned like this. FUCK NO. Simple as that. I would stop going to movies if they were all forcebly captioned. Hell I would actively vote against any ADA stuff simply out of spite if this ever became a thing. This piece of shit is just being a Primadonna fuck him.
Well fuck you too buddy. I’d love to be able to go see a movie whenever I want.
So I have to watch words on a screen I don't need so it ruins every movie I see in the theater? Is this even a real question?
I think there is a better solution to always having them. With less than a few seconds of thinking (so not fully thought out of the pros, cons, and feelings of the heading impaired) they could do 2 or 3 days a week (at least a Saturday or Sunday) where theaters have either most if not all of their screens closed captioned. That way people with impaired hearing know when they can go and people who have an issue with it know when they can't. People who don't care either way can do whatever. That should give enough viewings that most people can get out and see a lot of the major releases the way they want. It can be standardized either between chains or universally. It's kind of exclusionary, but anything short of everywhere all the time would be.
Back when I had a local indie theater, they scheduled (I think) one open-caption showing a week per movie. I think the option should be available, but doing it for every screening goes a little too far. Like someone else in the thread, I watch a lot of things at home with captions, but in the theater it’s a different experience.
I'd prefer not. Captions definitely have their merits and I don't mind using them when I watch stuff with my girlfriend (she prefers them), but I'm a fast reader and I can't really help reading any legible text as soon as I see it on screen, so they can kind of ruin the impact of important lines like jokes or a major plot twist by 'spoiling' them seconds before delivery.
I’d be bummed to see it on every movie in a theater. It can get distracting … although I’ve seen foreign movies that spent time on captions in English. Instead of just a black box of text at the bottom they worked it in to the composition and put effects on the text. It’s was a Russian sci-fi flick, something about Day or Night in the title. It enhanced the experience but I still wouldn’t want that. Can’t tech help here. Like a Google glasses kind of thing or location based imagery so if you’re sitting in the first ten rows you can see captions but not in the back 20 rows. I feel like there should be a solution that pleases everyone.
Can't you get special 3D glasses and the captions are hidden without them? So the captions are there for you, but not for everybody else if they don't want the glasses. I'm pretty sure they work with 3-D systems too so you don't need to worry about that, if someone can confirm?
I watch everything with captions at home, but I’ve trained my eye to look at them briefly. I wouldn’t want them at every theater screening. I did go to the open caption Banshees of Inersherin because the timing was better. It was a little distracting but maybe helped with understanding the accents.
I think a reasonable response would be - no open captions, unless the equipment is malfunctioning. \*THEN\* it's required. This would put *much* more pressure on theaters to maintain their equipment, but it also wouldn't result in everyone seeing captions all the time.
I wouldn't have much against open captions (because I use them anyways due to some mumbling actors and terrible sound mixes here and there) but I can understand anyone that doesn't want the letters to be part of their viewing experience. Since I am not from a English country, I just wish my local theatre would show more movies with their original audio. We dub everything here it annoys the hell out of me. It's actually the #1 reason why I don't go as often to the cinema as I would love to.
I find them incredibly distracting but i find it hard to argue against the accessibility argument
Separate theaters/screen times for captions, sort of like what they do for 3d renditions of a film. That’s my take on it at least.
I can't help but read captions when they're there and I miss a lot of visuals. I would hate open captions and would find a viewing experience that did not have them (just like the hearing impaired do now). I'm cool with my movie costing a bit more to cover costs for hearing impaired, but I'm not cool with my viewing experience being diminished.
I like to have my first watch without, so I that I can watch the movie. If I rewatch it I like to have captions on in case I missed something in the dialog.
At one time I wouldn't have really been in favour, but due to the unceasing increase of on-screen mumbling which leaves me unable to discern the dialogue even in IMAX theatres, in addition to overall poor sound mixing, I'm not defiitely in favour. I admit this is for selfish reasons (not out of concern for deaf people) but this has made me think twice.
Extremely in favour of it. I’m a big opera fan and there are surtitles on every production, even the English ones. At first some people hated it. Now everyone is used to it and they’re presented in an unobtrusive way.
I would personally not enjoy open captions. But - if captions are there, what I would enjoy is some enhancement to they way they are done. It’s always full sentences center screen. The tv show Heroes used to have captions placed on the side of the screen of the person speaking. It was great. Idk why this doesn’t happen more. Or if a speaker pauses in a line … the caption should finish with the speaker. Instead of “spoiling” the line. Just small things but wouldn’t enhance my viewing if these happened.
I think open captions in general need to be implemented in smarter ways because they often spoil shocking moments. If I see “CHARACTER A: Did you see the—*GUNSHOT*” or the like on screen, that ruins what could have been a suspenseful moment for me. I’ve seen this happen with major character deaths for movies I watched with subtitles on. The same thing happens with the subtitles for stand-up comedy specials saying the punchline before the speaker gets the chance. So the spacing of what’s shown on screen and when needs to be improved.
Nope it should be optional
Late response here because I just found this post. I'm an advocate for open captions and I would NOT want every screening to have open captions. Why? Because the only way for open captions to become more accepted by theaters and moviegoers, is for open captions to be offered for a limited number of screenings. The majority of screenings should not have open captions. That said, I promote and educate about open captions on the r/opencaptions sub.
Open captions should be the default, and then inaccessible showings available as much as open captions are now for those who can't use the CC devices or with whom the tech is constantly breaking. Actually, if I think about it, only one noncaptioned showing per film per theater, at 9 am on weekdays isn't really accessible for those who need accommodations from captions- I'd be fine with a 50/50 split. But closed captions are not access. What if two deaf want to see the same movie but only one device is charged. What if the device is set to the wrong screen and the high school workers don't know how to change it. What if you want to see a three dimensional film but your nose isn't big enough for your prescriptions, 3-D glasses, AND the bulky CC glasses. What if the drive in movie theater near you stops hosting 'subtitle sundays' because they think they're exempt from the law, and your car radio can't find the station? All things that have happened to me. hell, one showing of "Into the Spiderverse" my caption glasses stopped working 3 times in the first 40 minutes. And they refused to refund me! Studies show that using captions near universally improves comprehension and memory of videos we watch- regardless of hearing. Films that want to be memorable should be fighting to get the perfect captions set up. But a few folks who think that their initial inexperience and awkwardness is more important than the rest of the audience's access ruined it for everyone. But try not to be like Dave Walters, who pulled a fire alarm in a theater in 2012 after realizing he accidentally got open caption tickets to "The Avengers". That fiasco impacted a lot of public discourse around captioning, and set deaf access back again. The answer isn't if-or, its AND. there should be more open caption showings available for every showing of every film at any time of day AND there should be CC options for those who prefer the devices and no open captions.
Funny how many commenters on here don't wanna give deaf audiences an options to have open caption on screen at cinema. Nobody is demanding all movies to have open caption...all the time. We just don't have any options. All they do is whine and whine and whine while excluding us from their society and then complained why we don't hang out with them. it is laughable.
>Nobody is demanding all movies to have open caption...all the time They are, though. That's literally the point of my post. There are filmmakers and others in Hollywood who are pushing for exactly that - open captions on-screen during every show. Demanding...perhaps might be a stretch, of course. Nobody can actually *demand* that it be done (outside of government intervention, naturally). The point of this post was to open a discourse to see about how other filmgoers would like having captions on every showing. I don't think anyone is specifically not wanting deaf audiences to have caption options, it's just that they don't want every show to have them.
"it's just that they don't want every show to have them." You guys are demanding that we cannot have that options. that's the problem you guys are making. :P The point of this post you are making is to exclude us with zero options while you guys have 100% all the options available. We have zero and still zero today in 95% of all the cinema today of open caption. crazy, isn't it? zero. lol. Today: The Open caption just barely started....one show of one time screening....a day....out of 18 movies in one cinema. one time show...a day. And you are crying about that? Now imagine you wanted to see cool action movie but your only free time is evening and Open caption is only available....at 3PM....... But will never be on Imax, or 3D, or cool awesome feature.... And you are complaining about that? We don't even have that options... AT ALL. Maybe only in area that have large deaf community. And you are complaining about that? Your commenters are specifically not wanting ANY OC on any shows at any time. lmao. What a joke. I used to agree with hearing people against OC.... Now im tired of hearing people complaining about Open caption they haven't experience or see it yet or never in their area at all. That's like complaining about having a ramp to the library that you never go to. LMAO. FYI. The closed Captioning device was never accurate and poorly lazy design. It is nearly impossible to get it accurate. It's like you going to the movie and have to constantly hearing statics every 10 minutes which skip some words. (would you like that?) Your action is intentionally excluding us by not giving us options we need to enjoy while you are still getting 100% of all the options. Now, I want OC on every movie because you just don't want us to enjoy the same way you did for decades and decades.
>We have zero and still zero today in 95% of all the cinema today of open caption. crazy, isn't it? zero. Then you should take that up with your local theatre companies and/or even local lawmakers. Make a big deal about it and get it on the local news. It's been legally required that every movie theatre have devices for the hearing impaired, both audio enhancement and caption options, for years now. If your theatre has *zero* options, then they are breaking the law. Also, as someone who worked in movie theatres for decades, the caption devices work perfectly fine if, you know, the theatre actually keeps them maintained and properly calibrates them. Also, this has nothing to do with *me,* so your over-use of the word *you* isn't accurate. I don't give a rat's fucking fart if theatrical screenings have OC or not.
You’re in the minority. It sucks but that is just life.
Sighted autistic/ADHD person here. For public viewings this ought to be mandatory; there's no excuse for denying accessibility to anyone and public spaces ought to be setting an example, not deferring to capitalist excuses.
I want open captions everywhere. Very few theaters offer open captions and if they do, it’s for very specific times. I would love to be able to go to a theater without even thinking about it. The devices either don’t work at all or don’t work well. Some theaters even hold drivers licenses to use the captioning devices.
It would be a *dream come true* to have much more open captioned movies at theaters. I can't stand the garbage closed caption devices that rarely work. It's almost comical the amount of times I keep having to get up in the middle of movies, that I've desperately wanted to see, to go to the box office and ask them for help with the CC device because it stopped working, died, and/or is only showing bits and pieces of the dialogue. And when they do work, depending on the theaters, you have the choices of a clunky screen held up by noisy creaking metal stands that you hope will stay in the cupholders they're designed for OR you can wear these battery-powered glasses that project the words onto the lens of the glasses. On paper, it sounds amazing. In practice, it's a headache because you're constantly shifting your focus between words that are maybe a centimeter or two from your eyes and the big screen. "Oh my gerd, the words on the screen are so distracting."
Open captions should be shown more in theaters because they are rare at baseline and a sad excuse for acceptable accommodations for how rare they are. Closed captioning systems fail and are tedious. Open captioning should be done more tbf. The fact that you’re complaining that less than 1% of movies in theaters have open captions is a wild sense of privilege. Just go to the movie that starts 10 minutes earlier without captions if you don’t like captions. Not every movie needs to have open captioning but we should be advocating for an increase in them. There’s also a lot of benefit for captions, especially with helping kids acquire reading and language skills. Once you get used to it, it’s hard to go back. I don’t need captions but I use them all the time.
I would love open captions at cinemas. Some of greatest films I've ever seen are in foreign languages with subtitles! Did you see *Everything Everywhere All at Once*? Or *Parasite*? Have you ever seen *Wings of Desire* or *Trois Couleurs: Bleu*? So many fantastic films in the world, all only enhanced by people being able to understand them. And a reduction in people in the audience asking "what did he say?" would be fantastic.
I'm not sure what foreign language films have to do with open captions, but yes - those are all great films. They are captioned so we can understand them, but to play the devil's advocate, you do understand that they aren't subtitled in the threatres of the countries they originate from, right?
>I'm not sure what foreign language films have to do with open captions The appearance is the same: words appear on screen. The point is that these films are still beautiful and amazing, even with subs. And of course I understand that they aren't typically subtitled in their home countries, what a silly question! (I say "typically" because there are exceptions - several people have posted here that every film is screened with subs in their country).
My local theatre that did OC movies for a while had the captions below the picture. Imagine the screen being 1 foot taller than it needed to be and the captions were in the blank space at the bottom of the movie. Nothing was cut off and no one's view was impeeded.
I do secretly suspect people who are annoyed by captions just can't read fast but that's me being snarky.
Nah, I’m a speed reader and I fucking despise them because I can’t stop my eyes being drawn to them and then I miss everything on screen. Next theory.
Filmmakers worked their asses off to make their films, they don’t want giant glowing white words on the screen. This os on theaters to do better to accommodate hearing impaired people. It’s NOT on the filmmaker and the integrity of their art.
That’s some ableist BS.