Life is Complicated

AppleTV 2 Adds Subtitle Support for Netflix
Life is Complicated Yesterday Apple released AppleTV Software Update 4.4 that adds several great new features. The Holiest Feature of All? Subtitle (aka Closed Caption) Support for AppleTV's Netflix app!A little bit of history here, subtitles have been supported on very few devices and players like Wii, Roku and the Netflix iOS app for iPhone and iPad. I own all of these and can say...
Fri, Oct 14 2011

Should ASL Videos be Captioned Too?
Life is Complicated I produce a lot of ASL videos such as Viral Signs and DeafPod. I'm also a strong advocate for more online content to be closed captioned such as Netflix, iTunes Movies, Hulu, and even Youtube videos!I know I'm not alone, there are a lot of others in the Deaf Community who push for more captioning online as well. Many of us publish ASL videos regularly for one reason o...
Fri, Sep 16 2011

Where the Sky Ends: A Story of Beginnings
Life is Complicated This ASL movie entitled "Where the Sky Ends", directed by Sean Christopher, who also wrote The Blue Box and has been involved in a big or small way in nearly all my other projects. We shot this film within a few days using an HVX200 camera and basic lighting. This is an inspiring story about a young boy who is given a birthday present that will change the re...
Mon, Apr 18 2011

How to Add Closed Caption to Movies for iOS Devices...
Life is Complicated Over the past few months I've seen a few interesting opinions in the Deaf community regarding Apple's iTune, Apple TV 2 and iPhone's lack of Closed Captioning support. I'm writing to clarify a few things as well as to show everyone how to utilize Apple's products and make them "Deaf Friendly".First of all, Apple products fully support CC and is not responsible for Clo...
Wed, Mar 30 2011

Toilet Texting: The Movie
Life is Complicated Sometimes the funniest movie ideas come from the most embarrassing moments. Not that I'm saying this movie was inspired by actual experience, maybe it did, maybe it didn't... Anyway moving on, a couple of months ago I was "inspired" with an idea for a short film and wrote the script (BTW, I use Celtx to write scripts, it's free, compatible with Mac, and there's an app...
Sun, Mar 27 2011

David After The Dentist: Interpreted
Life is Complicated When I first saw the original video on YouTube I chuckled even though I didn't understand a word this kid said. The title: "David after the Dentist" said it all for me and seeing the kid's expression was pretty hilarious. Now, with Wing interpreting this, it's not only funny but it is actually funnier for us than it is for a hearing person because Wing seriously bring...
Sun, Mar 27 2011

Viral Signs, the Hottest New Videos
Life is Complicated Every time a friend forwards me an email with a video claiming I had to watch this video because it was hilarious or when someone posts a funny video on Facebook from YouTube, I'm always disappointed when the video is really just funny for hearing people because there were no Closed Captions. Yeah, I'm aware that YouTube has this awesome Transcribe Audio feature but f...
Sat, Mar 05 2011

Limited Viewing: The Blue Box
Life is Complicated DeafTV.com is showcasing my short film, The Blue Box for free on their website. The video is only up for one week. This is my first short film under my, then new venture, R.E.M. Films where I wanted to experience writing, producing, directing, editing, and distributing a film. Ever since then I kind of took any risks and opportunities that came to me with this short b...
Tue, Jan 18 2011

Netflix's Watch Instantly now on Mac! Closed Captioned? Not!
Life is Complicated Yeah, I was really excited about the Watch Instantly feature finally being available on the Mac when I first found out. It is currently in Beta so this is where I'll provide my feedback. A couple of things worth talking about:Netflix computes your bandwidth and figures out which movie quality to send you. This is actually very nice, it sets your expectations on how go...
Sun, Nov 28 2010

Subtitles in Theaters - Any Movie, Anytime and Anywhere!
Life is Complicated Okay, so as a deaf person who loves movies I have three lame options: a. Wait till it comes out to a theater with Rear Window Captioning. b. Wait even longer for the Open Caption version to come out. c. Suck it up and watch the movie without captions.Here's the problem:Rear Window Captioning (RWC)This system reflects captions off a piece of a glass. The text are...
Sun, Nov 28 2010

A Filmmaker's Journey: The New Direction
Life is Complicated This blog started out as a personal place for me to write about whatever I wanted without any particular goal or direction. As a result it's been kind of abandoned because I honestly think about a million things a week and always wondered if I should write about this or that. My wife started writing more in her blog and it inspired me to get back into writing. Only th...
Sun, Nov 28 2010

A Filmmaker's Journey: The New Direction
Life is Complicated This blog started out as a personal place for me to write about whatever I wanted without any particular goal or direction. As a result it's been kind of abandoned because I honestly think about a million things a week and always wondered if I should write about this or that. My wife started writing more in her blog and it inspired me to get back into writing. Only th...
Tue, Nov 16 2010

Subtitles in Theaters - Any Movie, Anytime and Anywhere!
Life is Complicated Okay, so as a deaf person who loves movies I have three lame options: a. Wait till it comes out to a theater with Rear Window Captioning. b. Wait even longer for the Open Caption version to come out. c. Suck it up and watch the movie without captions.Here's the problem:Rear Window Captioning (RWC)This system reflects captions off a piece of a glass. The text are...
Mon, Mar 15 2010

Disney Screws the Deaf and Leaves Us Hanging.
Life is Complicated If you weren't aware, Hollywood is trying to find ways to get people to buy their DVDs instead of renting. While Netflix is one of the greatest ideas ever, it's hurting the greedy producers of Hollywood because people are finding the idea of owning movies stupid since they can just have any movie they want dropped in the mail. So some corporate moron had this bright i...
Mon, Nov 16 2009

TVGuardian: A possible key to broaden closed captioning...
Life is Complicated TVGuardianŽ technology may be what we need to get CC on streaming videos.If you're deaf like me, you want closed captioning everywhere such as TV, DVD, Blu-Ray, Cable, Satellite, Cellphones (iPhones), and most importantly on the Internet. Broadcasters and Movie Studios have done pretty well with providing closed caption on most of their shows on TV and DVDs. But as we...
Fri, Mar 27 2009

Netflix's Watch Instantly now on Mac! Closed Captioned? Not!
Life is Complicated Yeah, I was really excited about the Watch Instantly feature finally being available on the Mac when I first found out. It is currently in Beta so this is where I'll provide my feedback. A couple of things worth talking about:Netflix computes your bandwidth and figures out which movie quality to send you. This is actually very nice, it sets your expectations on how go...
Thu, Nov 06 2008

Some NBC and Fox Online Shows have Closed Caption!
Life is Complicated I'm a big fan of NBC's Heroes and I was very excited when I found out that NBC offered Closed Captioning on selected shows (Heroes is one of them)! I'd like to personally thank NBC for making Closed Caption possible on some shows, especially Heroes.Fox also has some online videos with Closed Caption options available to a limited selection of online videos. But hey, i...
Thu, Sep 25 2008

Closed Captioning look and feel on AppleTV and iTunes
Life is Complicated Deafmac.org posted a question on what people thought of iTunes Closed Captioning. I don't think a of people knows what it does look like but would like to see. Instead of trying to describe it in words I decided to post pictures and show that AppleTV's closed caption is a bit different from what we are used to. So first off, iTunes does support Closed Captioning as we...
Fri, Aug 08 2008

Review: Is AppleTV Deaf-Friendly?
Life is Complicated Question: Is AppleTV a Deaf-friendly device? I was skeptical for a long time and passed the first and second generation AppleTV. A friend of mine purchased the first generation AppleTV and after playing with it I couldn't see the benefits of it other than watching my photos being nicely displayed. I never gave up on it though, the idea of having some kind of Home Thea...
Tue, Jul 15 2008

The Blue Box movie update
Life is Complicated The Blue Box short film was completed on March 30th. It is approximately 21 minutes, complete with sound-effects and original musical score. We had a successful private premier on April 1st! The second viewing will be held to the public at the Deaf Studies Today! conference at Utah Valley State College at 3:55 pm. To view the full film festival schedule please visit t...
Mon, Apr 07 2008

Movie Trailer: The Blue Box
Life is Complicated Here it is! The trailer for my upcoming film, The Blue Box. It will be shown at various Film Festivals, starting with the Deaf Studies Today! Film Festival in April. This is a short film about Lisa who finds herself in the midst of criminal charges including the murder of her own husband. The problem is she doesn't remember what happened. This film was written by Sean...
Fri, Mar 14 2008