Sound Waves - Summer 2008 Edition
Welcome to the Summer 2008 Web Edition of our Sound Waves newsletter. Here you can read the stories from our newsletter online. Alternatively, you can download the full PDF version of the summer 2008 newsletter.
Movies, popcorn, soft drink, open-captioning: What more does a movie buff need?
It’s
Friday night after a long week and it’s time for a trip to the movies to
relax and forget about work, job deadlines, stress and the daily challenges and
frustrations that we all face. You get your ticket, soft drink, popcorn
(or nachos) and settle back to enjoy the latest blockbuster that all your
friends are talking about. You settle back into your seat, you watch all those
movie trailers and the warnings to turn off your cell phones and no talking,
then you watch the big screen as you prepare to escape reality for a few hours.
But wait, what’s going on? You can see the picture, no problem; you can hear the
sound, no problem, but you can’t understand half of what’s being said? What’s
going on?
Maybe…..you’re a hard of hearing person. If so, you know
the answer to the question – What’s going on? –
because you’ve experienced this
before, likely every day in some way. When you’re a hard of hearing person,
there are lots of times, like at the movies, when you have to endure the
challenges and frustrations of trying to understand the spoken word via a
variety of mediums like the movies, radio, DVD Player, i-Pods, meeting at work,
presentation, at the dinner theatre, family meal. So, from lots of experience,
you know that going to the movies and trying to understand all that is being
said (often while competing with background music, traffic sounds, guns,
screams, etc.) is a significant and frustrating challenge. When the camera is on
the actor’s face, you can usually get most of the conversation, because you can
read lips, however, not everyone can do that either. However, when the camera
isn’t on the actor’s face, you hear the words, and you might even understand
some of what is being said, but usually, the meaning is lost and so is the
meaning of the action.
Welcome to the world of the hard of hearing! Most people just don’t seem to appreciate the communication and lifestyle challenges faced by hard of hearing persons every day. Hearing loss is not something you can touch,
see, taste, smell or, pardon the pun, hear, but it’s real and living with it is tough. The good news is that technology is making inroads into erasing many of the hearing challenges that people face. Better hearing aids, education, support organizations like CHHA-NL, and newer technology like Open-Captioning allows us to truly enjoy the ‘full experience’.
What is Open-Captioning? Open-captioning is something like what you see sometimes on television, often during translation from another language into English. The words appear, usually in white on the bottom of your screen and cannot be removed (unlike closed captioning which you de-select by using the menu on your television). The use of open-captioning in the theatre means all dialogue appears on the screen, which, as you can imagine is of tremendous benefit to anyone who is hard of hearing (or the Deaf), by allowing you to, not only hear, but more important to actually understand and internalize what is being said. This is of vital importance to being able to truly appreciate a movie with all its nuances of mood and emotion.
While there are some people who complain about the use of open-captioning, this is mostly due to people not being accustomed to its use. Studies have shown that many people come to really like open captioning with more use. Unfortunately for hard of hearing persons, not all movies are open-captioned. Right now in St. John’s, Empire Theatres has introduced the use of open-captioning with some movies at specific times, and while this means a hard of hearing person can’t always go to a movie when they may want, the good news is that a choice exists. Empire Theatres is to be commended for providing this service and let’s hope it gets expanded over time. If you are interested in viewing an open-captioned movie, call Empire 12 Theatres in the Avalon Mall 722-5775 in St. John’s for dates and times and be sure to say thanks for a wonderful service.
by Leon A. Mills, CAE, M.Ed., Executive Director