If you are deaf or hard of hearing and love movies, Captionfish lets you know about every captioned film in your area.
The Captionfish Instant CC Film Finder enables visitors to find captioned movies within 30 miles of their location.
Viewers can search any geographic region, sort by title and captioning type (Rear Window Captioned, open captioned, etc.) and customize results for up to 7 days out or up to 60 miles away.
The site also has many features to enhance film knowledge among the deaf and hard of hearing community and make accessing information about current closed caption films easier.
Captionfish Website Features
Trailer Directory: Featuring captioned trailers for new releases, recent, and upcoming films and information on DVD releases and foreign films.
Captioned Movie Indicator: Above the poster on the right of each movie page, Captionfish indicates caption availability for that film.
Map/Directions: Captionfish provides maps and directions to theaters in its Theater Directory.
Mobile Edition: The Captionfish website is optimized for mobile phone searches. There is also an iPhone app.
Blog, Email Notifications & RSS Feed: Users can receive email notification on captioned films in their area and track the latest film results on their preferred RSS reader.
Using Captionfish to Find Films
When you first browse Captionfish, the system posts captioned film showtimes for your area. It fixes your location based on IP address. When this fails, the default listings are in the Captionfish home city of Seattle. You can change the location by entering a new zip code in the location box.
Captionfish does not list showings more than seven days in advance. Theaters typically wait to see how films do over the weekend before planning the next week's schedule. Theaters don't always know when they'll received captioned prints and the DVDs needed to project the captions.
The films theaters screen use different types of captioning technology. Captionfish sorts film searches by caption type so viewers can find showings in their preferred format.
The five main captioning methods are:
- OC: (Open Captioned) -- Text is superimposed over the screen images, i.e. everyone sees it.
- RW: (Rear Window Captioned) -- A transparent panel attached to the seat reflects captions from an LED display at the back of the theater. Viewers watch the film through the panel. Captions appear at the bottom. The Media Access Group at WGBH in Boston developed this technology.
- USL: (USL Closed Captioned System) -- The CCS uses a single infrared emitter that broadcasts closed-captioned text and two audio channels. Patrons use special eyewear or a display to read the captions. CCS is designed to enhance film viewing by those who are hard of hearing.
- CV: (CaptiView Closed Captioning) - This is a small OLED display on a bendable support arm that fits into the seat's cup holder. The screen provides a high contrast display and comes with a privacy visor. It is positioned directly in front of the viewer with minimal distraction to others.
- ST: (Subtitled) - Text of the dialogue displayed in English at the bottom of the screen.
About 1-2 new captioned movies are released every week. Different theaters receive them at different times. Some get them the first week of release; others a few weeks later.
If there are no captioned showings in your area, the site advises contacting theater chains offering captioned films and request it add showings to theaters in your area.
Captionfish hopes the deaf and hard of hearing community will note showtimes, see films, and send them feedback. Their goal is to inspire a broader selection of captioned films and more showings at accessible theaters.
