By Roger Jackson
Previously: Blockbuster Trends
Many video-on-demand outlets require Closed Captions. This is true in the USA and increasingly elsewhere in the world, for example in the UK and Australia. And while it is not yet a mandatory requirement for all films submitted to Kinonation, we very strongly recommend it, not least because without captions a film won’t be eligible for delivery to iTunes. This has generated many questions from filmmakers, which I’ll try to answer here.
Why Captions Drive Revenue
Only 3 in 1000 people in the US are “functionally deaf.” But 17% of Americans report some sort of hearing impairment, which amounts to over 50 million people. That percentage is more or less reflected worldwide. Closed captions allow those people to enjoy your movie. Big potential audience. BUT – it’s not just about physiological hearing issues. Your audience will often watch films on a laptop in a noisy cafe, or a tablet on a commuter train, or a TV in a bar — or simply at home in the kitchen with the sound of cooking and kids. Closed Captions allow consumers in all these scenarios to watch your film comfortably…and therefore generate revenue for you.
Definitions
Closed Captions (often abbreviated to CC) are defined as subtitles PLUS what at Kinonation we call “Atmospherics” – additional captions that describe relevant, unspoken audio. So, closed captions = subtitles + atmospherics. Subtitles are simply captions that exactly match the dialogue track. For a narrative feature, the subtitles will, of course, match the script, albeit with some sentences broken up to correspond to the tempo of the dialog as spoken. For documentaries, subtitles will correspond to each of the featured individuals, plus a narration or voice-over track, if that exists.
When Should I Use Atmospherics?
What sounds should – or should not – be included as captioned atmospherics is largely a creative decision. Bottom line: if the non-dialog sound is relevant to the story it should be captioned. For example, a car back-firing “bang” that causes a war veteran to dive under a restaurant table. That must be captioned, since it’s presumably relevant that the character has some form of PTSD. But the same car back-firing in a restaurant scene where everyone ignores the bang – then it’s a creative decision to include, or not include “sound of car back-firing” or “loud bang.”
Closed vs. Open Captions
“Closed” captions are captions that are selectable by the consumer. i.e. they can typically be turned on — closed off — at the consumer’s discretion. “Open” captions (not a term in common use) are typically burned-in to the video, and therefore cannot be turned off by the consumer. At Kinonation we ingest CC or Subtitle files as separate metadata, and never want captions or subs to be burned-in to the main video. Note: the exception is that trailers for films NOT in English should always have English subtitles (not CC) burned-in.
Changing Rules
In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission defines the rules on closed captions for video-on-demand. It’s a bit of a moving target, since the ultimate public policy objective is for all films & TV shows to be accessible for hearing impaired people — and therefore include closed captions. On January 12, 2012, the FCC adopted rules requiring captioned programs shown on TV (including films that have had a TV airing anywhere in the world) to be captioned when re-shown on the Internet. These rules implement provisions of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA). It’s all a bit messy and almost impossible for the FCC to monitor. And so they’ve essentially passed the buck to VoD outlets. The current reality is that your film needs closed captions if you want it to be considered by iTunes or any cable or satellite based VoD. It’s not at all expensive to get a closed captions file made — you can do-it-yourself, but we strongly recommend you use ZenCaptions.
ZenCaptions
Based in San Francisco, ZenCaptions uses a worldwide network of professional “captioners.” You simply upload your film to them — or send them a link to the film online – pay with a credit card, and you’re done. Cost is $1/minute, which is incredibly good value…roughly a hundred bucks for a feature film. They send you the captions file in the format you choose (.srt, timed text. .scc, etc.) If you have a film on Kinonation, just make sure the version you send them has identical timecode to the master you’ve uploaded to us. In our experience they do a great job. But you should still do your own Quality Control (QC) – open the file in a text editor and re-edit until you’re 100% satisfied. Maybe your script says “I’m going to join the Foreign Legion” and the actor says “I’m gonna join the Foreign Legion.” The captioners will have to choose one option, and you may want the other. Trust, but verify – they only claim 98% accuracy!
Do-It-Yourself
There are plenty of caption applications that allow you to go the DIY route. Offline apps like MacCaptions or Softel or Telestream. But it’s time consuming – not so much the writing, it’s matching timecode to dialog that takes a while to master.
No Burn-In
These days it’s generally a mistake to burn-in subtitles for your film. At Kinonation we ingest every film “clean” – meaning no burn-in, and producers upload the subtitles or closed captions as a SubRip Text (.srt) file. That way we can deliver film plus subtitles to outlets like iTunes and Hulu, while for outlets that want subtitles burned-in (e.g. Amazon Instant Video) we can automatically do that during the custom transcode.
What About Trailers?
Trailers should not have closed captions, even though that FCC decision makes little sense from the POV of a deaf person. Trailers for films NOT in English should have burned-in English language subtitles, and ideally you produce a separate trailer for each territory/language you want to sell your film to.
Technical Formats
There are multiple file formats for captions, but all are essentially simple text files that can be edited in text-editing applications such as TextMate. File formats for subtitle files include SubRip Text, Timed Text, SCC, WebVTT, EBU-STL, etc. We require all captions or subtitles to be uploaded to Kinonation as SubRip Text (.srt) files, which is probably the most common format, and then our cloud system will automatically convert to the different formats required by each VoD outlet.
Font, Typeface, Size, Color, Background
These are not typically defined by the captions file, but instead defined by either the VoD outlet or the type of device or video player you’re using. In my opinion, captions are easiest to read when they use white text against a black background captions block.
Films Not in English
A common challenge is with non-English films submitted to Kinonation for distribution to VoD. The filmmaker already has subtitles in English. But she doesn’t have closed captions. Do outlets such as iTunes let that slide? Or are they adamant that the atmospherics are added to “upgrade” the subtitles to CC. Tricky question, variable answer. What if just a handful of atmospherics are added? Is that enough? It often depends on the individual doing the Quality Control (QC) but the safe solution is to upgrade the English subtitles to proper closed captions, by adding atmospherics.
Finally…
Should you invest in other language subtitles for your film? e.g. Spanish subtitles for your English language thriller? Or Japanese subtitles for a documentary on kids who play golf? The answer is an emphatic Yes. We just inked a deal with a major Spanish VoD outlet. They want either Spanish dialog films – or at least movies with Spanish subtitles. And in December we signed a deal for VoD distribution in Japan. And another one in Germany, although in Deutschland they prefer audio dubs…über expensive. Anyway, try to make your film eligible for global, multi-language distribution. Obviously, getting your film subtitled in a second language is way pricier than simple English CC. It’s 10x more work, requiring dual-language expertise, and 10x more expensive. Figure $1000 for foreign subtitles done properly. Worth it? We think so. And you can always dip your toes in the water by subtitling your trailer first…and then promoting to the target territory to judge the reaction.
We Want Your Film
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Next Up: Post # 43: (scheduled for Tues February 4th)
Roger Jackson is a producer and the co-founder of film distribution start-up KinoNation. He was Vice President, Content for digital film pioneer iFilm.com and has produced short films in Los Angeles, documentaries in Darfur, Palestine and Bangladesh, a reality series for VH1 and one rather bad movie for FuelTV. You can reach him at roger@kinonation.com.
