Might be a good excuse for a holiday trip to one of these cities
for disabled kids and adults...
>
> From Wired News, available online at:
> http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,48375,00.html
>
> The Fully Accessible Harry Potter
> By Kendra Mayfield
>
> 2:00 a.m. Nov. 17, 2001 PST
>
> With Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone hitting movie theaters this
> weekend, millions of fans who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind or visually
> impaired will be able to watch the first-run blockbuster debut on the big
> screen.
>
> That's a drastic change from just years ago, when many deaf and blind
> movie fans had to wait months for a film to be released in theaters that were
> equipped for them.
>
> "I didn't want to wait once a year to see a movie," said Nancie
> Link-Ellis, who is deaf. "I wanted to go when everybody else does."
>
> The Potter film will play with both closed captions and narration
> available, for the entire run of the film, in select theaters equipped with
> Rear Window Captioning and DVS Theatrical systems.
>
> The film will also be released for open-captioned screenings in select
> cities.
>
>
>
>
>
> See also:
> Potter Fans Should Love the Film
> The Trouble With Harry Potter
> Can Pottermania Save Toy Sales?
> Films Look to Captioned Audience
> Lights, Camera, Hollywood Tech
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> "With Titanic, we first got a taste of captioned films," said Nancie
> Link-Ellis, executive director for Tripod Captioned Films. "Harry Potter has
> gone way beyond that."
>
> The film will no doubt be eagerly anticipated by those who are blind
> or visually impaired and have already read the Braille versions of the books,
> which were released simultaneously with each new Potter book.
>
> "Descriptions make the magic of this film come alive," said Mary
> Watkins, outreach manager of Media Access at WGBH's National Center for
> Accessible Media. "J.K. Rowling did not want illustrations in the books, which
> led every reader to conjure Harry, Hogwarts and the rest of the story in their
> own minds. Descriptions for this film equal the playing field for kids and
> adults with vision loss."
>
> The film may also prompt a new generation of children to read the
> books.
>
> "This is a film that is going to encourage deaf or hard-of-hearing
> kids to read," Linke-Ellis said.
>
> Warner Brothers Pictures is working with public broadcaster WGBH's
> Media Access Group to distribute the films with closed captions and
> descriptive narration.
>
> Rear Window and DVS Theatrical systems are currently installed in
> theaters in Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Philadelphia,
> Baltimore, New York City, New Orleans, Milwaukee, Clifton, New Jersey and
> Springfield, Virginia.
>
> Nineteen of the 21 currently equipped theaters will play the movie.
> Canada's largest theater chain will also install five of these systems to
> coincide with the film's debut.
>
> But there are only 70 specialty movie theaters in the United States
> that currently have closed captioning. That's only a tiny slice of the 3,672
> theaters that will show the Potter film nationwide.
>
> DVS Theatrical allows blind and visually-impaired moviegoers to listen
> to descriptions that are delivered through infrared or FM systems to headsets.
> Through these headsets, they can hear narrated information about actions,
> settings, scene changes and special effects that are vital to the Potter film.
>
> The Rear Window Captioning system allows deaf and hearing-impaired
> patrons to read closed captions without distracting others in the theater who
> aren't using the device that displays the captions. That eliminates the need
> for special prints or separate screenings.
>
> Moviegoers who are deaf or hearing impaired can attach acrylic panels
> to seat cup-holders in order to see reversed captions reflected from a
> light-emitting diode (LED) text display installed in the back of the theater.
> The reflective panels are portable and adjustable, so the caption user can sit
> anywhere in the theater.
>
> "Closed captions stay with the film, so as long as it's playing in an
> equipped auditorium, each and every show will be accessible," Watkins said.
> "The patron decides when to go, where to sit, who to bring, and has an
> independent experience."
>
> However, some hearing-impaired moviegoers find the Rear Window system
> disorienting.
>
> "Many, many people don't like closed captions because it's just words
> streaming across," Linke-Ellis said.
>
> Instead, they often prefer open captions: text, similar to subtitles,
> burned onto film with a laser and then projected onto the screen. All audience
> members can see the open captions.
>
> "Aesthetically, it's a much more enjoyable way to watch a film,"
> Linke-Ellis said. "The words are right on the screen with no black box
> blocking the picture. It's much more in the vein of how a filmmaker wants a
> film to be shown."
>
> With open-captioned films, viewers can read the dialog beneath the
> person who is speaking on the screen. So a hearing-impaired moviegoer can get
> a true sense of what's going on in the film.
>
> However, hearing audience members sometimes object to open captions,
> and so open-captioned films are shown at off times or during the weekdays when
> it's tough to get to a theater, Watkins said.
>
> Some movie theaters are reluctant to pay to install the systems. The
> cost of the equipment for providing both Rear Window captions and DVS
> Theatrical is approximately $11,000.
>
> Studios are also reluctant to foot the bill. It costs approximately
> $2,000 to caption and $9,000 to describe a two-hour film. Also, theaters want
> to see more of a steady stream of films being released with closed captions
> and descriptions.
>
> "Right now, it's a matter of economics," Linke-Ellis said. "It's
> prohibitive for the theaters."
>
> "When digital comes, all this equipment will be obsolete. The question
> is who's going to pay for it. Right now, the studios and theatres are coming
> to terms with who is going to pay for digital."
>
> Despite costs, the demand for captions and descriptions is insatiable.
>
>
> "The number of potential users of this equipment is indeed high, and
> we hear from virtually every state (as well as from Canada, Britain and other
> countries) who so want to have these systems available closer to home,"
> Watkins said.
>
> More information about films that will be released with closed
> captions and descriptions is available at www.mopix.org. Upcoming Tripod
> open-caption films are available at www.tripod.org.
>
> Related Wired Links:
>
> Potter Fans Should Love the Film
> Nov. 16, 2001
>
> The Force Is With Harry Potter
> Nov. 16, 2001
>
> The Trouble With Harry Potter
> Nov. 15, 2001
>
> Can Pottermania Save Toy Sales?
> Nov. 8, 2001
>
> Monsters, Inc. Used Monster Tools
> Nov. 2, 2001
>
> Web News Still Fails Blind Users
> Sep. 27, 2001
>
> Disabled Access Now, More or Less
> June 25, 2001
>
> Fed Opens Web to Disabled
> Dec. 21, 2000
>
> Films Look to Captioned Audience
> July 28, 2000
>
> Web Closed Captioning Simplified
> March 31, 2000
>
> Copyright (C) 1994-2001 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved.
>
>
>