I wanted to see the summer blockbuster movie, “Transformers”. I looked up Fomdi and there were two showtimes at different theaters. Here are the theater details.
Theater #1
- 1.9 miles from home
- Rear Windows Captions (RWC, visor-style)
Theater #2
- 8.9 miles from home
- Open Captions (DTS, White letters projected onto screen)
My first reaction was to go to the one closer, theater #1, to my home. With a second thought, I decided to brave Los Angeles traffic and venture farther to enjoy Open Captions.
Theaters, are you listening?
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Posted on July 22nd, 2007 by tayler
July 22nd, 2007 3:12 pm
I gotta agree! But maybe it’d help theaters/industry insiders if you explain why open captions are preferable (enough to brave LA traffic!!!) *grin* Good point, Tayler.
July 22nd, 2007 3:31 pm
Theatre #2 that is!
July 22nd, 2007 4:47 pm
Tayler, I agreed. Did you get to see the preview that has no title — just 1.18.08?
Absolutely amazing, is it?
R-
July 22nd, 2007 5:15 pm
Yup, OC over RWC any day, any time, any where.
July 22nd, 2007 5:43 pm
Comments:
1.) Agree that Open Captions are preferable to RWC. However, I think we’ll have more success pushing for RWC in every theater for every movie because hearing folks won’t be bothered by the subtitles on the screen.
2.) Ridor, the 1.18.08 preview is a J.J. Abrams movie (Producer of ‘Alias’ and ‘Lost’ on TV). I love anything that he does….
July 22nd, 2007 6:07 pm
No questions asked. Give them support for providing the open captions.
I drove over 30 miles each way in order to watch the open captions instead of 3.5 miles with RV captions available.
July 22nd, 2007 6:19 pm
I dont think movie theaters care whether more deaf prefer OC over the RWC - they look at the bottom line which is profits. OC means reserving a theater for the Deaf and having to inform the moviegoers who select the OC movie that it is OC only to lose them to another movie or another theather where they could watch the same movie. Sometimes the window ticket forget to inform the movie is OC and the management would often have to refund the money. Seen that happen.
As far as the movie theater industry, RWC is a win-win solution; the deaf gets to view captions unseen by other moviewatchers. They don’t care that it is difficult to manipulate the visor and that we have to sit still in order to view the captions and we often have to hold the visor so they don’t slip.
If we stop all stop going to movies with RWC, they will finally get the message that it is not pleasant to watch a RWC movie, but they will then stop having captioned movies rather than going back to OC. They don’t want to lose the revenue since the majority of their moviegoers are hearing. Reserving a theater and a time slot for an OC doesn’t run up much revenue on their profit sheets.
July 22nd, 2007 6:21 pm
Sorry for the grammar in my comment above. Didn’t proofread.
July 22nd, 2007 7:42 pm
Why are you guys worried about whether the movie theatre industry losing money or whether it’s convenient for them to intall RWC or OC? It is NOT about them, It’s about us simply wanting the same access as anyone who want to view the movie.
Losing money on us? Not our problem. They need to figure out how to make it accessible for us and making a profit at the same time.
July 22nd, 2007 8:00 pm
Definitely OC over RWC!!! I don’t get it with movie theaters. You see, I go to CSUN and I’m living in San Fernando Valley (Northridge to be more specific). I sometimes go out to movie theater with friends. The movie theater in Simi Valley always have OC on weekly basis! Guaranteed when I check on Fomdi, Simi Valley will have something with OC.
While other movie theaters doesn’t guarantee that. They tend to have RWC. Now, what’s difference between those movie theaters? Grr… is it because of the company, Regal?
So we tend to drive on 118 to Simi Valley just to watch a movie.
July 22nd, 2007 8:09 pm
I love RWC. I go to theaters with RWC all the time because I can go anytime during the day… or any day of the week.. and first run… first night of the movie shown, RWC. OC.. .we have to wait for the odd hours and pick the worst day of the week.. only once or twice a week. OC is better but convience for me.. RWC is far better for me
July 22nd, 2007 8:32 pm
Always preferred watch with OC until have kids. Right now, Nexflix is best solution!
RWC + Kids = No thanks!
July 22nd, 2007 10:16 pm
Yeah I rather OC over RWC
Hope someday we all can go watch OC at Drive in movie
They should try once in month
I am sure they will make lot of profits
July 22nd, 2007 10:24 pm
I am all for OC!! RWC is an eyesore and a headache!
July 23rd, 2007 4:22 am
Why not to put rear RWC to be in front so we can watch the RWC below the movie?
July 23rd, 2007 10:46 am
Dareen and probably others, there is another place closer to you since you live in Northridge. It is Mann theatre in North Hills Plaza (corner of Devonshire and Balboa) in Granada Hills that shows some movies with DTS captions on Tuesday and Thursday (only one movie) per week. You have to check Mann theatre website and look at DTS stuff to see what movie for this week et al.
July 23rd, 2007 10:48 am
Let us make attempts to close RWC business!!!! We do not like RWC and let OC be used from now on as we do not see hearies complaining about OC at all. Some hearies complained about RWC because the way we sat and viewed RWC distracted them as well as we were not comfortable to use RWC either!!!!!
July 23rd, 2007 4:18 pm
Taylor,
You are so brave to provide your state I’D for the rear mirror. I assume that you do not worry about I’D Thief.
July 23rd, 2007 4:55 pm
It’s true - I was told that our theatre did not receive enough support from the deaf or the hearing viewers to keep an oc auditorium open. That was before Mopix, which has access for blind as well as deaf.
Hearing users like me can get distracted from the movie experience - being so into a movie that you forget you are at the movies - when the oc systems are used. My kids all keep, no, intentionally turn on the captions on DVD’s, so I know that they don’t care.
If you want more OC movies, I would suggest that you try talking to local theatre General managers - if they have the capability, they may be able to schedule oc showings for you. As Cy said, it’s not difficult to block off a theatre for OC, but it is difficult to get it filled. Join Movie Club (for frequent movie-goers to get discounts). Show a record that you are a regular visitor. Then request that they try OC on a few showtimes, and rally your friends to go see it - so that it shows your support.
My thoughts
July 23rd, 2007 5:46 pm
I’m all for OC. I got exasperated just checking out the times at a nearby theater (11 am or 8:45 pm on a daily basis) for the Harry Potter movie. Many of us travel far and work during the day so those times weren’t feasible for us. I decided to place a call to the manager (who I had already spoken with about an earlier problem with the OC), and he was gracious enough to put in a special screening at 5:30 PM on Wed. July 25th for the Regal New Rochelle, NY theatre. So, of course, I had to email friends and strangers asking for their support to come to the 5:30 PM showing. This shows that even with a small number of Deaf movie-goers (especially to the New Roc theatre), they still want to make us happy after a number of mishaps with their OC. I was extremely happy with the manager’s response to this situation. It definitely didn’t hurt to ask for them to set up a feasible screening time.
Now I wonder if any of you know how to make the captions brighter on the screen? It seems that the captions are quite transparent and I haven’t gotten to the point to talk with the manager about that.
July 24th, 2007 1:46 am
(If this is moderated, I am sorry for the duplicate post)
“Theaters, are you listening?”
Are you making sure that you are communicating to the theatres? It is good to vote with your dollars, but make sure they know! I recommend joining their frequent moviegoer club, and showing that you support their OC efforts with your dollars - also tell them you want more movies OC, so you can visit more often
I work for a theatre that provides MoPix technology (provides RW for deaf, and Descriptive Audio for blind). I am told one of our theatres had an auditorium with OC, that had trouble being filled with either hearing or deaf people. (It’s not always true that if you build it, they will come). As Cy said, it doesn’t cost much/if anything to reserve a theatre for OC, unless no one goes to it. For some hearing moviegoers, the OC interferes with the “experience” and that is part of why people go to a movie theater. Vicki’s idea was great! I am sure many theatre managers would be able to do the same, showing OC films if they could get some support for it.
Other notes:
ttp://www.deafdc.com/blog/shane-feldman/2007-03-12/regal-cinemas-considering-new-movie-captioning-technology/
July 24th, 2007 11:47 am
They ask for ID when issuing RWC equipment?? They don’t where I live. They just give it to me when I give ticket with RWC auditorium number on it.
My husband recently went to a Harkin theater at a new shopping plaza and was issued a new version of the RWC equipment; double drink cup stems with full visor expanding to both stems - you plop both metal cups into both drinkholders and adjust the visor and the visor will stay put. My husband says it works much better but he had to hold his drink in his hand!
The original RWC theater in downtown still has the single-cup RWC equipment that most of us hate. I am guessing they distribute the double cup RWC equipments to new theaters - so if you are going to a movie, try for the new theaters.
July 27th, 2007 1:08 pm
Rear Window Captioning = a PAIN IN THE NECK!!! I can’t tolerate slumping down in the seat (I’m just 6 feet tall), then twisting my neck and head to read the captions…
OPEN CAPTIONING!!!
August 6th, 2007 9:04 pm
I went and watched Transformers movie with RWC.
Most of the time in the past, its usually not many people in there but this one, it was almost full. Only few available seats is 2nd row front. It was somewhat hard to watch RWC with very close-up huge screen.
I usually don’t care as long as they provide CC but RWC has some its own disadvantage unfortunately. Also they seems stopped asking me for driver license every time I asked for RWC equipment.
Hmmmm