[Frameworks] Closed captioning for experimental film?

Sat Feb 3 18:33:27 UTC 2018

Thank you for your thoughts, Jessica, Reed and Kerstin,

To answer Jessica’s questions, I found myself showing my film at a
community screening where the next group to show was an advocacy group for
disabled people, which meant that a number of viewers were either
hearing-impaired or sensitive to the needs of those who are.  I did not
know in advance that this would be our audience.  I don't know that anyone
putting the program together thought about the potential problem.  (There
was a large screen to the side where close-captioning was being created in
real time for the audience.)  One audience member challenged me (in the Q &
A afterwards) to never make a film again that did not have a
closed-captioning option.  I wasn’t prepared to think through the issue on
my feet.  Unfortunately, I needed to leave the venue and didn’t have the
opportunity to have a deeper conversation.  In the days since, I’ve tried
to imagine what closed-captioning for one of my films might look like.  How
do you visually indicate the balance between ambient audio and music, for
instance, when each plays throughout the film but changes over time?  In my
most recent film the soundtrack is made up of ambient sounds mixed with
longer sequences and “spots” of more central sounds in the foreground.  Perhaps
the size of the font used in the description could indicate the centrality
of a sound.  To me, every bird call and footstep is important.  Maybe these
soundtrack subtleties don't even matter as far as what closed-captioning is
trying to accomplish for hearing-impaired viewers.  Anyway, I am still
thinking about this.  Perhaps a conversation with someone at one of the
services Reed and Kerstin suggested would be helpful.

Best wishes,

CC

On Tue, Jan 30, 2018 at 12:50 AM, Kerstin Schroedinger <krstn at zeromail.org>
wrote:

> hi i was working with a group in Glasgow called Collective Text
> info at collectivetext.org
> and they did an amazing job, i can highly recommend them
>
>
> Kerstin Schroedinger
> schroedinger.blackblogs.org
>
>
>
> On 29. Jan 2018, at 5:37 AM, lady snowblood <snowbloods.parasol at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Hi there Caryn -
>
> I really love this question. I think the answers are complicated.
>
> I have not seen closed captioning or subtitling *successfully* applied to
> experimental work, to communicate sound design. I say that in part because
> of watching Twin Peaks: The Return last year and occasionally watching it
> closed captioned. It broke the tone of the work when the description was [
> OMINOUS WHOOSHING ]. This phenomenon was recognized by a large enough
> community that it became “meme’d” in online social groups discussing the
> series.
>
> Another take on this can be had by looking at @NetflixSoundFX, a now
> seemingly defunct twitter account that tweets out the verbal descriptions
> of the sound design captioned on Netflix material. Divorced from the
> source(s), it’s funny and evocative, and refers to the problem at hand.
>
> Now for my assumptions, or where I go with this question — I am interested
> in accessibility and how differently-abled people interpret or access art
> designed for “the majority”, I.e. those with sight and hearing intact. I
> also used to work tech support that served a community which included a
> significant number of deaf people; they came to our outlet for support in
> part because we had staff members who spoke American Sign Language and
> could interpret with them.
>
> I’m kindof thinking out loud here, but, what audience are you interested
> in bringing the work to via captioning? I’m making the assumption that,
> with captioning, it’s for a deaf audience ... or an audience in a loud
> environment (a bar?).
>
> My follow up question is, have you asked your goal audience how they want
> to have the sound translated for them? Members of the deaf community I’ve
> discussed this with (and it’s very few, but was so interesting that I have
> kept it in mind all these years) provided me with responses other than
> reading more words on the screen.
>
> I am (obviously) running with a number of assumptions here, would love to
> hear more from you!
>
> Jessica
>
> * * * * *
>
> Jessica Fenlon
>
> artist : poet : experimental : http://www.sixth-station.com
>
> flickr <https://www.flickr.com/photos/drawclose> : vimeo
> <http://vimeo.com/jessicafenlon> : instagram
> <https://www.instagram.com/port.manteaux>
>
> On Jan 28, 2018, at 3:52 PM, Caryn Cline <carynycline at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Frameworkers,
>
> Has anyone worked with closed captioning and applied it to an experimental
> film in a way that you felt captured the sound design of your project?  I'm
> thinking particularly of films that rely on ambient sound and/or music
> rather than dialogue.  The examples I've seen have been narrative films
> where dialogue, music and major sound "spots" have been described in words
> onscreen.  I'd be interested in examples that are more integrative, if
> possible, that is, where the verbal description of an ambient soundtrack
> tries to communicate the ideas behind the uses of sound.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> CC
> --
> Caryn Cline
> Experimental Filmmaker & Teacher
> "a proud member of the reality-based community"
> vimeo.com/carynyc
>
>
> film still from "We Will Not Be Silent" (2017)
>
>
>
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-- 
Caryn Cline
Experimental Filmmaker & Teacher
"a proud member of the reality-based community"
vimeo.com/carynyc

film still from "We Will Not Be Silent" (2017)
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