Full text of some articles and book chapters. If you have problems accessing any of my publications, please let me know (seanzdenek@gmail.com). For a complete list of publications, see my CV.
Continue reading “Selected publications in disability studies, sound studies & inclusive design”Caption every screen.
The characters on our favorite television programs are just like us: they come home from work and stream their favorite TV shows and YouTube videos. But it’s hard for me to recall any programs that showed actors using captioned media. While the sounds emantating from their screens may be captioned for us, the sounds are not captioned for them.
Continue reading “Caption every screen.”Positioning and styling captions when speakers overlap and interrupt each other
![A profile shot of Gweneth Paltrow in Contagion (2011). The on-screen text, Day 2, is partially covered by the closed captions: [Coughs] [Cell phone rings]](https://seanzdenek.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Contagion-Header-1080x601-1.jpg)
It can be challenging to caption scenes with multiple speakers. Bottom-center caption placement is far from ideal for readers when it fails to clarify which captions belong to which speaker. Adding to the difficulty: speakers often talk quickly, interrupt each other, and overlap their speech to show collaborative support. When captions are placed underneath or next to each speaker, readers can more quickly distinguish — at a glance — who is speaking.
Continue reading “Positioning and styling captions when speakers overlap and interrupt each other”My interview with KairosCast
I enjoyed talking with Courtney Danforth last summer about my captioning research.
Check out the podcast with transcript.
Continue reading “My interview with KairosCast”Published: Special issue on disability and technical communication
I guest edited a special issue of Communication Design Quarterly on “Reimagining Disability and Accessibility in Technical and Professional Communication” (volume 6, issue 4, December 2018). The issue includes an introduction and three articles on a range of cutting edge topics, including lip reading and interface design, subtitling and video accessibility across multiple languages, and cultivating virtuous course designers.
Browse the special issue: CDQ 6.4 (pdf).
Continue reading “Published: Special issue on disability and technical communication”Published: Designing Captions — A new article on enhanced captioning
Check out my new article on enhanced captioning, just published in Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedaogogy (23.1, 2018).
Read the full article: “Designing captions: Disruptive experiments with typography, color, icons, and effects.”
Cripping closed captioning: Experiments with type, icons, and dynamic effects
Can we open closed captioning up to greater experimentation through the use of color, icons, typography, and basic animations to convey meaning?
Read the full article at DigitalRhetoricCollaborative.org.
Chirp! Captioning BB-8 in The Force Awakens
The release of Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens on DVD and Blu-Ray last week gives us a welcome opportunity to take a much closer look at the closed captions.
The BB-8 droid provides an instructive case study. How do the closed captions convey the changing meanings and emotions of the droid’s electronic beeping sounds?
Read the full post on ReadingSounds.net.
Do sirens always wail?
![A frame from Prophecy 3: The Ascent featuring a cityscape at night and the closed caption: [SIRENS WAILING IN DISTANCE]](https://seanzdenek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Prophecy3-SirensWailingInDistance.jpg)
How often are sirens described as wailing in closed captioning? What else do sirens do in closed captioning other than wail? Does it matter? An analysis of nonspeech descriptions of siren sounds in a corpus of DVD caption files.
Read the full post on ReadingSounds.net.
When a yellow subtitle meets a character from The Simpsons
A comparison of the default yellow closed captions on Hulu.com with the yellow skin color of the animated characters on The Simpsons.
Read the full post on ReadingSounds.net.
Tracking sonic timelines in closed captioning
Every sustained sound in the closed caption track creates a sonic timeline that continues to persist until it is terminated through a change in visual context or a stop caption. Multiple timelines may co-exist, with sustained sounds/captions building on each other. Sound is simultaneous, and one way of creating simultaneity on the caption track is by layering up sustained sounds.
Read the full post on ReadingSounds.net
Closed captions as identity markers (leitmotifs)
When the same nonspeech caption is repeatedly associated with a specific character or recurring context, it comes to serve as a kind of leitmotif for that character or context.
Read the full post on ReadingSounds.net
Subtitles as visual art
Subtitles in foreign language films don’t have to be visually boring, uninspiring, or ugly. But too often, that’s exactly what they are. An analysis of the English subtitles in Night Watch.
Read the full post on ReadingSounds.net.
Reading Sounds: A new book and website on closed captioning
Check out Reading Sounds, my new book on closed captioning. The supplemental website at ReadingSounds.net includes over 500 video examples discussed in the book.
Continue reading “Reading Sounds: A new book and website on closed captioning”
“The main factor that drives captioning quality is what clients are willing to pay for it.”
Recently, I received a thoughtful email from a professional closed captioner with over a decade of experience. Her message raises some important questions about the economics of closed captioning. She’s given me permission to post her message here, provided her contact info is removed and in the hopes that viewers will take a more active role in telling broadcasters and companies what kinds of captions they want.
Drunk speech but sober captions: How manner captions do the heavy lifting
How writing homogenizes speech and how the non-speech manner caption attempts to re-embody speech.
Continue reading “Drunk speech but sober captions: How manner captions do the heavy lifting”
The power of dots and dashes to tell the future
Sometimes, punctuation in captions can provide important clues about what’s going to happen, regardless of how well or poorly timed the captions are.
Continue reading “The power of dots and dashes to tell the future”
Humanizing nameless speakers
The Speaker ID is a powerful tool in the captioner’s arsenal. Care must be taken with it. When used carelessly or applied rigidly, it can do some damage to the integrity of the narrative.
“That whole thing’s your name?” Captioning names in The Fifth Element
On the importance of verbatim captioning, especially when names are involved.
Continue reading ““That whole thing’s your name?” Captioning names in The Fifth Element“
“Subtitles I like to ride on”: When medium awareness extends to subtitles
When fictional characters break through the fourth wall to comment on the subtitles…
Continue reading ““Subtitles I like to ride on”: When medium awareness extends to subtitles”
Captioned hypnosis
Recurring sounds on TV shows allow us to explore questions of consistency and accuracy in closed captioning. Consider the Hypnotoad as a compelling case study.
Closed captioners don’t caption sounds.
Captioners make meaning. They caption programs. They don’t caption sounds.
Busy signal or engaged tone? Captions, language variety, and localized accessibility
How would you caption this phone sound? If it can be captioned in more than one way, how do you choose the way that is best? What if the option you prefer depends on the variety of English you speak?
Captioned silence?
Sometimes, even silences need to be captioned.
Genre-defining sounds, even when they lie to us
Even when music is intended to deceive, it needs to be captioned if it’s instrumental to the genre.
Continue reading “Genre-defining sounds, even when they lie to us”
In a manner of speaking
When a character’s accent is meaningful or when a scene or line of dialogue hinges on how a character speaks, manner of speech needs to be indicated in the closed captions.
Logocentrism: The tendency to privilege speech over non-speech in closed captioning
Just because words are spoken doesn’t mean they need to be captioned.
Captioning the faintest sounds when they’re part of a repetitive series
Does every repetitive sound need to be captioned? What visual cues are sufficient to indicate a repeating sound in the absence of a caption?
Continue reading “Captioning the faintest sounds when they’re part of a repetitive series”
Captioned puns and wordplay
In the case of captioned wordplay, the difference between writing and speaking, text and sound, is obvious. What works in speech doesn’t work — or works differently — on the caption layer.
Captioned irony: How captions manipulate narrative time and viewers’ knowledge
Inspired by the notion of dramatic irony, I begin to explore in this video what I call “captioned irony.”
Continue reading “Captioned irony: How captions manipulate narrative time and viewers’ knowledge”
Iambic pentameter captions?
Should poems and other quoted material be captioned as they were originally written?
[Groan] or Ahh? Series awareness and alternative captions
Should a running gag be captioned the same way each time it occurs?
Continue reading “[Groan] or Ahh? Series awareness and alternative captions”
Sonic allusions and cultural literacy for captioners
How should cultural allusions be closed captioned?
Continue reading “Sonic allusions and cultural literacy for captioners”
The running gag principle: Caption the series, not the episode
What would closed captions be like if diehard fans were in charge of captioning their favorite shows?
Continue reading “The running gag principle: Caption the series, not the episode”
Zoom Zoom: Selling caption space
What if closed captions were bought and sold as a form of product placement?
Captioning 101: When music lyrics trigger an explosion, you just might want to caption them.
When music lyrics are instrumental to a film’s plot, they need to be captioned. It’s as simple as that. If captioners are responsible for captioning all significant sounds, then any sound that’s instrumental to the plot needs to be captioned.
Stylistic standards for closed captioning and data mining
When speaker IDs, musical lyrics, and sound descriptions have their own distinctive stylistic treatments, they can be extracted from closed caption files and studied as separate units of discourse. The only efficient and practical way to study hundreds or thousands of sound descriptions at one time is to use a program to separate speech from non-speech.
Continue reading “Stylistic standards for closed captioning and data mining”
Why that zombie is really moaning (and not groaning)
An analysis of three captions from Shaun of the Dead (2004) suggests how sound descriptions need to be informed by the sounds and captions that surround them. In this case, “moaning” is suggested as a better fit than “groaning.”
Continue reading “Why that zombie is really moaning (and not groaning)”
If it weren’t for Speaker IDs, I’d have no idea what’s going on
An analysis of one scene from Moon (2009) starring Sam Rockwell. The scene’s captions make use of Speaker IDs to identify speakers who are off-screen. But in doing so, the Speaker IDs fill in a major piece of the narrative puzzle.
Continue reading “If it weren’t for Speaker IDs, I’d have no idea what’s going on”
How many TV commercials are closed captioned?
Recently, I conducted an informal survey of two hours of TV in an effort to track which and how many ads were closed captioned.
Continue reading “How many TV commercials are closed captioned?”
Dialogue that wasn’t intended to be read
Speakers don’t need to spell things out for caption viewers when these viewers can read it for themselves at the bottom of the screen. Speakers only need to spell it out for those audio-only viewers who don’t have the added benefit of reading.
What the speaker really says doesn’t matter?
Captioning is not always a simple transcription of what speakers are objectively saying. In some cases, captions are intended to reflect what the protagonist subjectively hears.
Continue reading “What the speaker really says doesn’t matter?”
Captioned thematics: How captions make interpretative patterns visible
Closed captions can help viewers recognize themes and patterns in movies that might otherwise remain latent.
Continue reading “Captioned thematics: How captions make interpretative patterns visible”
Captioning the backchannel: How captions clarify and equalize sounds
When sounds in the background are captioned, they come forward. All sounds become equally “loud” on the caption track.
Continue reading “Captioning the backchannel: How captions clarify and equalize sounds”
Overcaptioning: Which sounds are significant?
Which sounds are significant? How does the captioner choose which sounds to caption? Are some captions unnecessary? Why isn’t it possible to caption every sound in the environment?
Continue reading “Overcaptioning: Which sounds are significant?”
Twilight: Captioning the “gaspiest” movie ever
Featured post from 2009: How should gasps, groans, sighs, grunts, scoffs, moans, pants and other assorted “breathy” sounds be captioned? When should they be captioned? What’s the difference between them? Why does it matter?
Continue reading “Twilight: Captioning the “gaspiest” movie ever”
Prematurely revealing the natives as cannibals in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Movie captions should never reveal information prematurely. In this example, the captions give away a key plot detail before the narrative is ready to do so.
Caption watch: Hulu.com
Over the last ten days, the percentage of full episodes and movies with closed captions on Hulu has actually gone down. Overall, that percentage of cc content is embarrassingly low, hovering at around 4.5% for full episodes and 6.5% for movies — and appears to be on the way down.
Exploring Twilight and music lyrics through closed captions
In this example from Twilight, captioned music lyrics draw meaning out of hiding as the backchannel breaks through into the viewer’s consciousness.
Continue reading “Exploring Twilight and music lyrics through closed captions”
If movie characters could read closed captions, they’d glimpse the future
Caption readers sometimes know what’s happening before the characters themselves. In this way, captions tell the future.
Continue reading “If movie characters could read closed captions, they’d glimpse the future”
How captions tell the future
Captioning technology and conventions allow us to glimpse the future, at least sometimes.
Whispers and other sounds you were never meant to hear
Consider the much-discussed whisper that occurs at the end of Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola’s critically acclaimed and prized 2003 film about two Americans who develop a friendship during lonely stays at a Tokyo hotel.
Continue reading “Whispers and other sounds you were never meant to hear”
Podcasting and embodiment
Mainstream discourse about podcasting rarely discusses the affordances of the body. It rarely makes explicit the minimum requirements for participating, at the level of embodiment, or the bodily differences among users and producers that threaten to exclude some people from profitably using web audio and video.
Audio description as technical communication
So I’ve been thinking about audio description as technical communication, and in particular the value that an audio description assignment might have for technical communication undergrads.
Continue reading “Audio description as technical communication”