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.

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

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”

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?

Continue reading “Busy signal or engaged tone? Captions, language variety, and localized accessibility”

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.

Continue reading “Logocentrism: The tendency to privilege speech over non-speech in closed captioning”

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 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”

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”

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”

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”

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”