Captioning at Sydney Film Festival using rear wndow system
Posted June 2nd, 2009

The 56th Sydney Film Festival in partnership with Accessible Arts will
trial the Rear Window Captioning (RWC) system at two of its film
sessions at the State Theatre, 49 Market Street Sydney.

RWC uses a reflective plastic panel mounted on a flexible stalk that
sits adjacent to the viewer’s seat.  An LED display is mounted on a
rear wall that displays caption characters in mirror image.  Viewers
move the panels into position, below the movie screen, so they can
read the reflected captions and watch the movie.

The following two screenings will have RWC:
- Cheri Friday, 12 June at 9:15 pm.  A romantic adaptation of the
novel by French scribe/bonne viveuse Colette is an immensely
entertaining portrait of love bought, found and lost among the
rarefied courtesan circle of the Belle Époque.  Starring Michelle
Pfeiffer and Kathy Bates.

- Prime Mover Monday 8 June at 4:00 pm.   A little bit of truck-love
burns a lot of rubber in this diesel-charged Australian romance about
a dab-hand at the repair shop, who has a crush on the roadhouse girl
from across the highway and hankers after a chromed-up prime mover of
his own. Starring William McInnes and Ben Mendelsohn.

To book RWC seats please call the Sydney Film Festival office on 9690
5390 or email tick...@sff.org.au.  Please note, seats are limited and
subject to availability.

if anyone goes,

Had the opportunity to trial the new RWC (Rearward Captioning) system
at the State Theatre in Sydney. It was definately something new.
Whilst it was the first time to be presented / trialed in Australia,
it was not without its faults. But thats the same with anything that
is new.

RWC is making its appearance at the Sydney Film Festival and will be
used tonight 12June @ 9:30pm for Movie 'Cheri'.

it works by having an adjustable 'refelector' device in front of you
which you position so it is just below the movie screen and reflects
the captions which are displayed behind you near the projection booth.
Whilst it may be a bit fiddly at first, once positioned properly, it
takes about 5-10 minutes to get used to reading the subtitles and
watching what's on the screen. Then it becomes second nature just like
watching any captioned movie.

It may seem like a gimmick at first, but it has widespread implication
when it comes to making cinemas more accessible to those who are hard
of hearing.
Whilst there are films with captions built into the screen - cinema
programmers may only show them at selected sessions. so us hard of
hearing can ony go at certain screenings. Once RWC becomes more
commonplace, they can be used in all sessions as those who want
captions and those who don't want captions can still sit in the same
session.

The RWC people said there are some more than 300 cinemas with RWC in
the US and is growing in the UK too.

With thanks to Sydney Film Festival and Media Access Australia and
Screen Australia and a host of other associations for organising this
demonstration.

I encourage you all to check out this website: http://ncam.wgbh.org/mopix/
which shows how the technology works.