Subtitles can sometimes be very helpful, especially when speech is heavily accented But I could do without “mournful music” and “sprightly music” and “suspenseful music.” But that’s just me.
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The networks and platforms do not want to pay for subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing separately, that is why we have to read those sound effects and music comments.
The subtitles crack me up.
If I was allowed to write them they’d be like-
Succession: [asshole classical fake-royalty music]
Ted Lasso: [lonely but hopeful music]
Mandalorian: [space western hero music]
Just pictured the greatest living American writer watching a British hooligan crime film, struggling through the Scouse accent, annoyed by the description of prescriptive sad music.
They would need to pay twice for that as subs and cc creation are different jobs, often done with different tools. And as we know, what counts in capitalism is profit, not giving the best service/product/experience.
I live for all the "whooshing" in the subtitles in Twin Peaks The Return. "Ethereal whooshing" "Ominous Whooshing" "Intense Whooshing"
Makes me grin every time.
I’m hard of hearing and I can’t always hear background music and music description subtitles can really help with understanding tone in stuff I watch. And sometimes they are hilarious.
I need them. I lack some sort of social skill and need everything from "chiseled face" to "happy, spry music" defined to me. I live for both subs and audio descriptions.
If your subtitles are in an separate file, use Gaupol, it has functions to remove that kind of stuff for deaf people. Anyway, if someone is born death, I wonder what he imagines under those terms.
In the film 3000 Years of Longing, while watching on Prime, when you put the subtitles on, the CC took off the "translation" when the characters spoke (in this instance) Greek on the screen. That's annoying
I have wished aloud for a "Turn on subtitles but I'm not deaf" mode that is dialog-only many times.
I also wish that when TVs letterbox content with subtitles enabled it would offset the letterboxed content all the way to the top and use the full letterboxed space for subtitles.
They are for the deaf and hard of hearing. Genres like rock or jazz might not be helpful as someone who was born deaf would not know what that means. They understand upbeat, sad, melancholic etc. Sometimes you have to be very creative other times you get a brief that describes what can be used.
I’m guessing that’s just for instrumental music. On some shows, the subtitles actually say the name of the song and even sometimes include the lyrics. I find that useful (especially if it’s a song where I can’t understand one of the words & it’s related to the show).
I work as a close captioner and those are for the deaf & hard of hearing. But only pertinent information should be added (noise the character can hear and reacts to, e.g., knock on door.) A lot depends on the in-house rules too. Subtitles and CC are not the same and often you can find both.
Sometimes I do like the second opinion, though, if I was questioning myself, "Is this music sprightly? It seems sprightly to me..." Consensus is important to me when it comes to sprightly things.
I’ve done this for a living and that is for the non-hearing viewer because music is almost like another character — for them, they don’t know it’s turned suspenseful but as a hearing viewer, YOU know that’s the mood they’re creating.
People who can’t hear tend to really appreciate it.
But as a writer who crafts inspired combos of words, can you appreciate the often insightful adjectives? ... sounds in general. I have no perfect example at hand but I think I have seen things like "pensive operatic tune" and "jubilant harmony". They can be interesting/tasty characterizations!
No, not just you, lol
So glad you are on bsky
I was hoping you would join
Been reading your books for a long time Read Colson Whiteheads' books because he said in an aarp article that he reads your books
So I knew he wouldn't be writing the same book over and over, but always be fresh and new.
Yep!🦻🏻So many don't think of us & why descriptive captions are present in the first place, are appreciated, and needed. It's also a reminder of how scoring is an integral emotional part of media. Umbrella Academy had some of the best CCs in a streamed series. 😄
As someone who is pretty neurodivergent, I find subtitles to be a source of stress and anxiety.
My brain won't let me look at anything but the words; I try to look elsewhere and CAN'T. 🙁
And I read so much faster than people speak, so any movie is 90 minutes of constant mini-spoilers.
I think the science of subtitles needs to be upgraded - many times subtitles give away plot points. In Star Trek Picard S3, the main bad guy (who wasn't known for like six or seven episodes) spoke off camera in the third or fourth episode and subtitle said "Borg Queen: (bunch of text)"
It's because they pay less and less, so professional CC creators like myself refuse a lot of the jobs and these are often done by random ppl who did not have the right training.
I love catching the obvious mistakes in both subtitles and closed captioning. Sometimes, they get hilarious. Other times, the writer may purposefully add something goofy or outrageous, such as a shout out to a loved one or a random knock knock joke. It's rare but occasionally gold.
It's also extremely unhelpful for Deaf people. I know this is an old post, but we should be actively discouraging it unfortunately, and I wanted to offer this perspective (kindly) as is my duty as a member of the community.
On some digital streams, I've seen options for both "English" and "English SDH." Does the "SDH" often contain the extra info that the "English" may not? I've never actively compared one with the other.
That's the difference between closed captions, which are intended for the profoundly deaf, & need to describe all audio, & normal subtitles, which are for people who don't know the language, or are just hard of hearing.
We sometimes turn on CC for Irish and Welsh movies due to heavy accents. We laugh at the music descriptions. Glad you’re here, I followed you on Twitter but left due to the muskrat.
The best thing about that Bluesky guide I just included in my last post to you is that in non-techy terms it means you can change your username from stepehenking.bsky etc etc to @stephenking.com seeming as you and only you have that domain name. Best of all, its free. Unlike a certain blue checkmark
I was wondering when you were gonna make it here. I wanted to give you an invite code but had no idea how to reach you. Very glad to have you here! Anywho, your web techy person can help you with this to help verify you're you https://blueskyweb.xyz/blog/4-28-2023-domain-handle-tutorial
That is 100% on the way. Companies that host screeners for production companies (like Vimeo & FrameIO) are working on it & I think I saw that one of them is either currently offering live translation in multiple languages or about to.
My problem is the "background" music that is actually in the foreground of the speakers. Turn the music DOWN! Yes, music is essential for atmosphere, but the dialogue is more important!
Subtitles is how I managed to learn to speak fluent English as a child before I even had English lessons in school :)
My teacher was so confused.
I later even fooled the MI6 linguistics department with my English... but I'm not allowed to talk about that ;)
Comments
Horse neighs
Horse whinnies
Only problem is I have to read them out loud.
Trust.
If I was allowed to write them they’d be like-
Succession: [asshole classical fake-royalty music]
Ted Lasso: [lonely but hopeful music]
Mandalorian: [space western hero music]
They're for deaf and hard of hearing people
To give us the same experience you're getting
Those things offer context
As someone who is neither deaf nor hard of hearing, sometimes I want subtitles but I never want closed captioning and it can be hard to set that.
Thank you, Stranger Things!
Makes me grin every time.
aka "opens my Stephen King book"
I also wish that when TVs letterbox content with subtitles enabled it would offset the letterboxed content all the way to the top and use the full letterboxed space for subtitles.
*woman vocalising*
People who can’t hear tend to really appreciate it.
(just my guess!!)
I have to crank up the brightness to make out basic shapes.
I had to turn every light in my house off and black out the windows.
So glad you are on bsky
I was hoping you would join
Been reading your books for a long time Read Colson Whiteheads' books because he said in an aarp article that he reads your books
So I knew he wouldn't be writing the same book over and over, but always be fresh and new.
“papers rustle”
I find descriptions of the music helpful. And I know a lot of deaf and hard of hearing people who also find them useful.
My brain won't let me look at anything but the words; I try to look elsewhere and CAN'T. 🙁
And I read so much faster than people speak, so any movie is 90 minutes of constant mini-spoilers.
Horse whinnies...in Norsk
Branch breaks...in 日本語
Frying pan sizzling... in español
😁
I am particularly amused by [muzak] in subtitles.
SAYING WHAT WITH AN ACCENT, Y’ALL?!
My teacher was so confused.
I later even fooled the MI6 linguistics department with my English... but I'm not allowed to talk about that ;)