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Hello, and welcome back to the channel.
Today, we’ll be talking about open captions at AMC Theatres.
Last week, I made a short TikTok video and now, here, we will have a full video.
Last month, AMC Theatres CEO made an announcement on Twitter that some AMC locations would start having open captions.
This means that the captions will be on the screen.
They’re not the captions we get from the caption devices.
Naturally, I and other deaf people were excited about this.
Open captions are amazing!
Having to use the CaptiView is awful.
Since that announcement, I've watched two movies: Halloween Kills and Eternals.
Both with open captions, obviously.
I have a few thoughts.
Both good and bad.
But before I explain: when I first watched Halloween Kills,
I made a short video with my thoughts that I’ll show you now.
Hi, so I’m here at the movie theater.
It’s weird because I was just about to drive all the way to Winston-Salem
but I was curious so I decided to take a look at the app again.
It turns out my local movie theater has open captions for a screening now, only at 1:30.
The movie was good.
The open captions were absolutely fantastic.
I was even surprised to see the song lyrics on the screen.
Now that I’ve experienced that, I never want to use the CaptiView ever again.
It’s not worth it.
We need the open captions.
It’s the best kind of captions.
Now let’s explain.
We’ll start with the good.
Of course, no more dealing with the CaptiView.
You had to get that damn thing into the cup holder and then fiddle around with the screen.
Sometimes, it worked.
Lots of times, it didn’t work.
There were a lot of problems with the CaptiView.
Firstly, the battery dying.
You’re watching the movie, there’s still 30 minutes left, and then the battery just dies.
Sometimes, when you first get the CaptiView, the battery’s already dead!
That’s so confusing.
Why?
Why is the battery already dead?
I don't know.
Sometimes, you don’t get all the words or a full sentence.
Half of it’s just gone and you’re like, “What’d they say? What happened? I don’t understand.”
That was the biggest frustration for me.
Also, when you’re setting up the CaptiView, sometimes, it just doesn’t stay still.
Sometimes, it falls over.
Or the screen at the top keeps moving around in circles and it won't stop.
It's very annoying.
Then you go to talk to the boss, manager, whoever, say, “Hey, it’s not working,”
“Words and sentences are missing. The battery’s dead, etc.”
Then they're like, "Oh, I'm so sorry. Here's a free ticket."
Then you're like, "Great. It'll just happen again."
It's a never ending cycle and we're over it.
Although this year, I've actually been pretty lucky.
Most of the time, it worked but... still.
But if I'm choosing between open and closed captions, I'm picking open captions.
That's my vote.
The point is that open captions are more accessible.
I mean, okay, accessibility will never be 100%.
Even if you have two deaf people side by side, accessibility can still be different between the two.
DeafBlind people exist too, so...
Open captions are not actually accessible to everyone.
But...
This is a topic better suited on its own for later.
Now let's talk about the bad.
One of the biggest problems we have with open captions- you know- we've had open caption screenings in the past.
But they were always at really random times.
Like 1PM on a Tuesday.
Who is-
Well, I work from home so for me...
I do hate driving at night so that time actually does work for me.
But for other people...
Some people have 9-5 jobs so they can't just drive to a movie theater on a Tuesday.
At 1PM to boot.
To go and watch a movie.
And then that's the only time and day for the week.
And then the movie theater people will say,
"Well, we don't have a lot of deaf people coming into these so that's why we don't have more times."
Yeah, because it's on a Tuesday at 1PM.
We're working or at school.
You need to move or have more times.
Now we have more times and days as options, but they're still pretty random.
If you remember that short video I showed earlier-
That was a Sunday at... 1:30?
That's at one location.
But if I want a 3:30 show in Winston-Salem, I have to go on a different day.
The point is nothing's the same.
Some movies don't even have open caption options at all.
I really want to see Last Night In Soho, but there's no open caption screenings for it at all.
None.
I don't understand why because it's a very big and popular movie.
There's a movie out with a deaf actor in it.
And it doesn't even have closed captions!
It's so weird and confusing to me.
We really need everything to be consistent.
These open caption screenings are only for 240 locations.
Hopefully, we'll have more in the future.
If more and more deaf people come to these screenings, they'll see that there's a demand for them.
Then maybe we'll get to have open screenings at all locations in the future.
I don't know what number we're on anymore.
Another thing:
The captions don't look the same.
They look different.
The captions for Halloween Kills were very skinny.
No black coloring in the background.
It was just white.
And very skinny.
Font was also on the smaller side.
So sometimes it was a bit hard to see what they said.
Would've been better if there was a black background.
The captions for Eternals were a little better.
There was a black outline with the white font.
The font size was also a little bigger.
Overall, I'm very happy we have open captions now.
I don't think we need to get rid of the CaptiView.
Maybe there are people who prefer it since it'll be closer to them.
Of course that'll depend on where you're sitting.
We like options.
I like people to have options.
But I still prefer open captions for myself.
It's just easier.
Now I don't have to worry about balancing a CaptiView with my food and drink.
Don't have to worry about how I'm going to carry it up to my seat.
I've had that problem before.
I can't do it.
It was annoying.
But now? Who cares!
That's pretty much all my thoughts.
If any of you have some thoughts, leave them down below in the comments.
Thank you for watching.
I'll see you later, bye.
[guitar riff]