Hello lovely people!
Firstly, I am feeling much better yes, thank you for asking.
If you don’t know what that's about just watch my previous video.
So, last night, my gorgeous wife and I wanted to go to the cinema for a date night.
She's just started a new job and it’s all going swimmingly and I have recovered from my migraine
so, what better way
to celebrate than with a romantic dinner and a film?
We both love eating, we both love films- who doesn’t?!
We checked the listings, lots of great films on at the moment, at least three we’d both
want to see.
Then we narrowed it down to subtitled films
[crickets noise]
hm. aha.
oh no.
That would be none of them.
There weren’t even any foreign language films with British subtitles!
If you don't already know yes I am actually deaf and do requere subtitles in a film.
I know I don't sound like I'm deaf but...
I got a video about that too!
The only subtitled performances this week are, wait for it:
The Predator at 1pm on a Sunday. Exactly the time I want to see a sifi/horror [sarcasm]
The Nun at 1.20pm on Sunday. Again, Sunday afternoon definitely my prime spot for supernatural
horror films. And…
Amazing local art house cinema The Duke of York playing American Animals at 6pm
on Wednesday, so that already happened
King of Thieves at 8:45pm on Sunday and The BFG at 10.30am on Sunday.
I mean claps for them
Claps for them. Not helpful in this instance but claps for them
And also thank you to yourlocalcinema.com for compiling that information.
Unfortunately not all the cinemas give the information
and also unfortunately it didn't fix our date night problem
Unless you’ve looked for them you probably won’t realise the times subtitled
and captioned films are generally only shown at times very inconvenient to those of us with
jobs or… school.
And there are largely only one or two choices per week
and there are films that would have been out for quite a while already
I should also say I live in a city, a city!
not a village in the middle of nowhere!
There are a number of cinemas here.
It’s also hugely unlikely that you are able to find anywhere in it's first week or even two weeks of release
a captioned version of a new big blockbuster film.
[Explosion sound effect]
I mean obviously if it something like
The Avengers or Fast and Furious I’m going to be there
The moment it comes out! Watching and waiting. I'm not going to understand what's going on
much at all... or you know, dialogue...
But I really do enjoy just watching it.
And then I'll go a few weeks later to the actual captioned version
and realise all the things that I missed.
But it's a kind of
thoughtful, talky, family dramas... oh I love family dramas
Who is with me?
Or like some kind of talky oscar-bait type film
Probably with a disabled person in but that is another video anyway
Then I'm not really going to see it when it first comes out and I'm gonna wait for that captioned performance
Because it's so dull watching films that are based all around the dialogue
and you don't get the dialogue!
I find this really sad because I don't get to go to the cinema as much as I would like and
I ruddy love the cinema! It's one of my favourite things to do
[Sights]
I have a degree in film, I really ruddy love films. [Loud noise]
Uh I dropped that
But I don't get to go as much as I'd like and
if I do with a group of my friends to like the new big release
I don't understand what is going on
Even if they do.
Of course, it isn’t only deaf or hard of hearing people who benefit from captions or subtitles
It's also people who don’t have English as a foreign language, those with processing
difficulties, older people, someone who has attention problems…
I mean it’s a surprisingly large group of people
Who would benefit from captions
Cinema managers argue that there is “no demand”.
That people don't come to the subtitled versions
Well yes that is because they are on at 11am on a Tuesday
And largely we all have given up going to the cinema because to the lack of showings!
Shocker, deaf people do have jobs,
and school
and lives.
If you only put subtitled versions on during the day of the week or really early morning on the
weekends, can you really be surprised when people don't come?
Another excuse is that ‘hearing people don’t want to see subtitles on the screen’.
First off, that’s a major assumption. Many hearing people watch Netflix, YouTube and social media
videos that have subtitles and they love it.
Most people keep their phones on silent anyway
Secondly, films with subtitles are not unusable to hearing people
They could go to that showing or they can go to the one before
or the one after, or any other showing in that day
or a different cinema in that city.
Whereas deaf people have just that one they can go to .
It's about choices and offering choice
Fun fact: cinemas in the UK must follow “The Equality Act 2010” which stipulates that
businesses must make reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities, to allow them
to use their product or service equally. Quote from the Act:
“The Equality Act 2010 covers all service providers in all sectors, which means you
must do what the equality law states in relation to your staff training and awareness, operational
functions, processes, information and facilities. In order to do this, you may need to make
some reasonable adjustments, which means possibly changing the way things are done, *I love that it says that*
aids and additional services and making changes to overcome barriers created by the physical
features of your premises”
In relation to cinemas, they should put suitable measures in place, for example regular subtitled
showings or providing technology, such as subtitle glasses
to costumers to make their services accessible.
Dear God I have never seen that offered to me
Ever, I've been to many cinemas no one has ever offered me subtitle glasses.
Please let me know if you've ever had subtitle glasses ever
and how that worked out for you.
I'm trying to imagine it.
Long story short, I don’t think burying their subtitled performances in time-slots no one wants to
go to is exactly equal and fair…
In the States there have already been new regulations put in place thanks to the Americans
with Disabilities Act Title III, this states that: “public accommodations that own, operate
or lease movie theaters are required to provide closed movie captioning and audio description
whenever showing a digital movie that is produced, distributed or otherwise made available with
these features.”
Thus cinemas must now now advertise and offer subtitles and/or closed captioning glasses
to their D/deaf customers.
Again, the glasses!
Where are these glasses?
Also since I’m in the UK I have no experience of whether this is actually put in place so,
American friends, please do let me know what is it like going to the cinema for you if you are a person
who would actually benefit a lot from subtitles or captions.
Back here in England though, it’s time for change.
Change.org
[Laughs] I’m sorry that was awful, but I couldn't help it.
The always excellent Ellie Parfitt , who writes as deafieblogger, and her friend Michelle Hedley
[Change of pronunciation] Hedley
Have started a petition on change.org to convince cinemas that there need to be
more subtitled showings. Ellie has contacted her local cinemas on numerous
occasions but they will not pay attention.
So much so she was even CC'd on an email chain
with a big boss of a large chain cinema stating how much they did not have any interest
in meeting with her.
Professional.
Ellie is campaigning for an increase in open captioned showings-
Open captions are ones that are always in view and cannot be turned off like in the cinema
Closed captions are the ones that the viewer can control and turn on and off
like on this video.
Hello!
You are the one that wanted to get involved in this...
Ellie wants at least one subtitled showing of each film in each cinema every week.
With the option of a smartphone app which streams the subtitles as a back up
Just a back up though, obviously
I don’t spend the entire film with my arm out or
Doing this
I’ve put the link to the petition in the description below.
[Whispering] Go sign it
[Whispering] Please, thanks
The most important thing to do though is to show that there IS demand so, please do sign the
petition but do also go and contact your local cinema.
Via email, or Twitter, or Facebook or so on
Ask them for more accessible showings
at reasonable times because deaf people like date nights too!
Feel free to drop in that you think they’re not complying with the law
if there are not accessible showings.
Quote the darn act if you have to.
Prod the cinemas,
Embarrass the ones who are shamefully excluding hundreds of people from
something that is easily accessible to the majority.
Please also share this video and the petition with your friends as well.
It's so important that cinemas know hearing people are not turned off by subtitles.
And that they would happily come along and watch them surrounded by the cool deaf people
Don’t let them use you as an excuse.
Ellie is also encouraging everyone to share their experiences, good and bad, on social media.
She asks that you tag the cinema and use the hashtag #subtitledcinema.
Thank you for watching you wonderful souls!
Now, some more good news just before you go [Gasp]
Uh!
My merch wristbands will be available from Monday! [Sparkling sound effect]
There will be a post on the community tab so make sure you keep your eyes peeled for that.
Also Kellgren-Fozard Club Members will get access one day early.
If you want to join in
with that then click the link down in the description or hit the ‘Join’ button to find out more
Thank you for joining the conversation about subtitled cinemas,
for really making a difference and for being a wonderful human being!
See you Monday!