Joanne Kwon: Midterm Portfolio – #1 Captions

Project Description:

This project involves incorporating closed captions to an already existing movie scene to enhance accessibility without compromising the cinematic experience. I worked on adding captions to the final scene of Disney’s film Elemental, ensuring that the captions are accurate and carefully crafted to complement the film’s style and preserve the emotional resonance of the scene.

Documentation:

Transcript:

Wade: You know, I… I’m not really one for tearful goodbyes.

Brook: (Sobs) Oh, Wade.

Oh, you big liar. (Sobs)

(Singing) Drip, drip, drip

Both: goes the baby boy (Both Bawling)

Bernie: Uh, are you sure about this one?

Ember: I’m sure.

Dad… I’m sorry the internship is so far away.

I mean, it’s the best glass design company in the world, but who knows if it’ll become a real job?

I’ll be back in a few months anyway and it might not end up being anything…

Bernie: Ay-yah. Shh. Go, start new life. Your mother and I will be here. Now, with more time for hanky-panky.

Cinder: (Speaking Firish) Ê shútsh!

(All laughing)

(Ship Horn Honks)

(Sentimental Music Playing)

(Sentimental Music Continues)

(Breathes Deeply)

(Music Fades)

reflection questions:

In the final scene of Elemental there’s surprisingly a lot more tension when nothing is said. This is because the background music and actions of the characters line up to bring the perfect amount of positive tension in the scene. For example, when Ember turns around to bow to her parents the background music picks up, inducing a mix of emotions from awe, wonder, comfort, nostalgia, love, etc. It was through this particular scene that I came to understand how significant music is in immersing the viewer, which is why it’s important to consider sounds outside of simple dialog when adding captions.

A majority of the time, captions will line up exactly as what’s being said by the characters a film, word-for-word. Therefore, what you see and what you read in the captions are closely intertwined. In this particular part of the final scene, however, the captions attempt to capture what’s being heard to it’s best attempt. Because instrumental music cannot be translated into words, the captions read (Sentimental Music Playing), showcasing how the captions and image do not align perfectly. Instead, the text and image make subtle contact to relay the emotional impact.

Speech is a powerful tool because we’re able to express our thoughts in a variety of ways from tone, voice inflection, intensity, and emotion. However, when speech is converted to text, we inevitably lose all those underlying auditory cues, causing us to miss out on the emotional context of what’s being captured in text.

Another thing to consider is that captions are not made accessible for all, especially for those who are unable to see/read the captions. This could be for a number of reasons, including blindness, color blindness, low-vision, dyslexia, learning disability, etc. If I were to try and address the inaccessibility of captions for dyslexic people, I would first think to look at the font. Font plays a huge role in readability and for those with dyslexia sans serif fonts are the most accessible as the letters may appear less crowded. I would recommend fonts like Verdana or Calibri. By picking these fonts we’re able to improve readability, but it makes me wonder how it will impact those without dyslexia. Accessible fonts like Verdana aren’t necessarily considered aesthetically pleasing font styles, so it may create more of a negative experience for those who do not have dyslexia. It would be interesting to look into font and readability to see if there’s a middle ground to find an aesthetically pleasing accessible font.

Overall, I’m curious to learn more about what other captioning techniques there are and whether there’s every too much variation in style or color, making it difficult for the viewer to follow along with the captions. Is it better for captions to sit in one place? Is it better to keep them all one color? Is it better for them to have the same font and style? How would different styles affect different people? Things to look into and think about 🤔