This is England (We wont be watching it!)
Thanks everyone, I finally got a reply from Optimum Releasing.
So here is the email I got from them below
Hi Fintan,
Unfortunately we are not providing this service yet but we are looking into it for future releases.
Apologies.
Regards
Emilie Barra
DVD Assistant
Optimum Releasing
22 Newman Street
London
W1T 1PH
www.optimumdvdstore.com
www.optimumreleasing.com
Pan’s Labyrinth DVD: 12th March.
The Host DVD: 5th March
As you can see I am really pissed off with this!
What future releases how long will we have to wait?
Don’t they want our custom? How hard it to put subtitles on a frickin DVD?
How long are we going to wait for the likes of BBC or Film4 show the film as they always subtitle the film?
I saw Pan’s Labyrinth - hired a DVD from Blockbusters and it got subs. It’s really good story and its Spanish (they tend to have good stories).
What the heck’s a DVD assistant?
Fintan,
That was a very short note from the assistant. That to me, is disrespectful.
I’m sorry to hear that they aren’t going to take the time to put subtitles on videos.
If we had the same video format (You guys use PAL, and we use NTSC) it would have been my pleasure to get DVD movies for you from here- that has subtitles on it.
What about eBay? Would they have a PAL version DVD with subtitles on it available for purchase?
Looking at the respond again & Erick’s comment, I am perturbed by it now. At 1st glance, I was like “Yeah, whatever, what’s new..same old glib reply”
With regards to DVD prices, ours is the one of the highest in Europe. I see absolutely no reason why the proceeds from sales can be utilised to make the DVD accessible. If USA are doing it for all DVDs, why can’t the subtitling(captioning) algorithms be transferrable to other regions? It’s a no brainer, innit.
Pan’s Labyrinth - that’s excellent. There’s some special effect but they’re not of CGI style, so without CGI, the emphasis is on the acting & story.
Brilliant and highly recommended.
As for this remark:
“Unfortunately we are not providing this service yet but we are looking into it for future releases.”
What services? That’s where it’s tricky…who does the subtitling…the DVD distributors or the film producers? I would say it’s the producers rathar than the distributors - since they only slap on all the movies etc from the producers onto a DVD, put it in a pretty case, and get it into the shops.
Look at this: http://imdb.com/title/tt0480025/companycredits
Production Companies
Big Arty Productions
EM Media
FilmFour
Optimum Releasing
Screen Yorkshire
UK Film Council
Warp Films
Distributors
IFC Films (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
IFC First Take (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
Madman Entertainment (2007) (Australia) (all media)
NetFlix (2007) (USA) (DVD)
Optimum Releasing (2006) (UK) (theatrical)
Based on that I would say that the Optimum Releasing are probably the wrong firm to get in touch with. FilmFour is one of the producers and they’re not exactly a small firm - they produce quite a few good movies with one of their more famous being 4 Weddings and a Funeral. They have the equipment and resource to do subtitling.
However Optimum Releasing should have explained why there’s no subtitles - ie they didn’t get a subtitle track - in which case it’s not their fault but the producers. If they did get a subtitle track but didn’t slap it on, then it’s their fault…
Tony,
I agree. It should be put on all DVD’s internationally.
From my perspective- when one makes a movie, one person is responsible for making the casting credits at the end of movies. One person or group is responsible for the PR, one person/group is responsible for this and that. Why not subtitling? It just takes ONE person to be responsible for it.
It’s not that hard to do, and it’s not expensive to do. Movie theatres in general pay between $40,000 and $200,000 for film reels direct from movie studios. What is $100 dollars per movie to subtitle in comparsion to the cost of say, adding music to a film? It’s not that much at all extra to subtitle in the greater scheme of things.
“Looking into it” is just an excuse. The technology has been available for years. DVD distributors should have been “looking into it” decades ago.
I wonder if it would be possible for a Deaf person to run a DVD distribution center in the UK and hire people to transcribe subtitles? This distribution center can cater to Deaf and hearing people alike. The only difference is, Deaf people would only buy from this distribution center- thus crippling the profit other non-subtiling distributors make.
Or, what if Deaf UK bought NTSC DVD players on eBay and bought NTSC DVD movies on eBay?
I figure, if you had a NTSC TV set, NTSC DVD Player… All you’d need to do is go on eBay and purchase NTSC DVD’s at dirt cheap prices… That has subtitles on them.
Hello,
Oh man… It is pain in butt. It sucks… Film Industrial want to make more than enough money so they can return the money back to investors.
I wanted to correct Erick about the cost of adding subtitles on the movie. The cost is not 100 dollars. The real cost is 10,000 dollars per movie to add the subtitle.
Aidan
Erick,
We can get region free DVD player so it does not matter where we can get them from.
So if I am desperate to watch it I can get a friend to send me the film
But when you think about it the amount of money they pay into films, posters,promotion and to subtitle a DVD here would cost about £3000 and to turn round that it cost too much to subtitle a film?.
Its bloody peanuts …
Aidan,
I’ve heard otherwise, but $10,000 does make more sense to me. Maybe $100 was for individual basis?
At any rate, $10,000 is still small potatoes in comparsion to what they pay for everything else together.
Cheers,
Erick
Fintan,
“But when you think about it the amount of money they pay into films, posters,promotion and to subtitle a DVD here would cost about £3000 and to turn round that it cost too much to subtitle a film?.
Its bloody peanuts …”
Absolutely, agreed 100%. And not only that, how many Deaf people would benefit? It would be extremely benefetical to millions of Deaf people as well as foreigners in an English speaking country, wishing to learn English. It would even encourage more sales.
That’s awesome about being able to get a region free DVD player. DVD movies are pretty cheap on eBay, and I am very sure you could go to the American eBay version and pay overseas shipping. From what I have seen in the past, it’s not that much extra. Also, if you used PayPal, it will automatically convert the currency to the proper amount when you pay for it.
“Pan’s Labyrinth” on ebay can be seen here for just $5.50 for the DVD. To the US, shipping is just $4.00 but to the UK, I would assume $10.00 or so. If that’s true, then that’d just be $15.50 US money. That would translate to just GBP 7.69
http://cgi.ebay.com/Pans-Labyrinth-2007-DVD_W0QQitemZ190127890257QQihZ009QQcategoryZ617QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Cheers,
Erick
[...] to ask when or will any of the programmes contain subtitles Will I get some sort of brush off like Optimum Releasing standard email we are looking into it [...]
How did they made the movie in the first place ,,,,of course they have to write the script before u do the movie is the same way to save the bloody subtitles dont be such greedy dollars…. so what the diffrent in the olds day used to be black and white movie with no sound they used subtitles give us a rest will ya when they found the sound they stop used the subtitles u hearing people such a greedy listening so we cant we need subtitles ,,,,,,,every human beings enjoys the movie
[...] and the reply that they wont be releasing film with subtitles here http://finllfixit.co.uk/02/07/2007/this-is-england-we-wont-be-watching-it/ [...]