Film Me Mad

Filmmaking Mistakes, Episode 2: Scout your locations!

2011-11-02T19:59:00.000-07:00

This episode is part of an on-going filmmaking mistakes hunt that I'm determined to discover, explore and learn from. To join me along this journey, feel free to begin here.

Scout your locations early!

When I wrote the short film we shot last month I had a very specific location in my mind, it was the easiest location I could think of... a friend's house of course. Although I hadn't visited that friend for a while (I was busy writing my films, okay?) I had vivid images of what everything looked like so I knew exactly what each scene would look like. Because I was familiar with the location already I didn't bother scouting it before the shoot. You see where this is going.

Big mistake! The rooms I recalled were bigger than they really were. The furniture weren't what I remembered, they had a freaking flat screen TV! I swore they had a kitchen table against the east wall but it was a countertop instead. The detached garage was a lot higher than I remembered where I planned to have an actor climb the roof then jump off the other side. I wasn't prepared for the single location swamp cooler which didn't do a good job cool off a room full of lights and actors. We were sweating pigs. Good thing I brought lots of water!

I asked for permission to use the house and we just showed up the day of the shoot. All you professionals are shaking your heads, I know it! The good news is, it all worked out, the owners and their house were fantastic! We had to tweak the script to make it work and it worked out just fine. In fact, some scenes worked out a lot better than I planned and it certainly made the story more realistic and funnier.

There was one location I never found during the week of our shoot, an apartment. I kept putting off those scenes for a long as I could. I texted everyone I knew (between shots) for help to find an apartment to shoot in. At the very last minute I realized something stupid, "Why did it have to be an apartment?" We asked a neighbor near our existing location and the guy was more than thrilled to let us shoot there. Coincidentally, he was a crew member for the movie High School Musical, cool eh? He even got free cleaning service from us afterwards.

Another thing about location is, with a low budget film, you really need to be considerate of other's time and gas. While I was perfectly fine with driving an hour each way to the location every day, it got old very fast for everyone else and I really felt pressured to pay for their gas (which would have gobbled up 25% of the budget). Free food suddenly lost its value on the set. I winced every time I gave crew members the address to the next location. I'm fortunate that they were very forgiving.

Aside from the grumblings from the crew it worked out, we got through the week and finished the shoot. I swear I'm gonna scout locations better next time. Keep everything within a 10 mile radius. I learned for low budget films, you really have to be open to changing the script to fit the location not the other way around.

Now, go film yourself mad!

New Blog Series: Filmmaking Mistakes

2011-10-23T14:36:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna start a series of posts that specifically illustrates mistakes I (and undoubtedly many other indie filmmakers) when making movies. I've been making short films and other video projects since I was 13 years old and I'm nowhere near the realm of success where I want to be. I'm determined the reason is because of the many mistakes I make.

On a positive note, I don't consider myself a failure, otherwise I would have stopped making movies a long time ago. In fact, I look forward to making as many mistakes I can just so I can learn from them, hopefully you will too.

So here I go, publishing a series of my humiliating filmmaking mistakes are for your benefit. These mistakes aren't necessarily in order, they are not prioritized in any way. I will be writing them as I make them. Most will be actual mistakes while some will be that "dude-that-was-almost-bad" kind of mistake. I may also post mistakes made by other filmmakers.

Recommended Reading:
Episode 1: You're not gonna win the Oscars

AppleTV 2 Adds Subtitle Support for Netflix

2011-10-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Apple released AppleTV Software Update 4.4 that adds several great new features. The Holiest Feature of All? Subtitle (aka Closed Caption) Support for AppleTV's Netflix app!

A little bit of history here, subtitles have been supported on very few devices and players like Wii, Roku and the Netflix iOS app for iPhone and iPad. I own all of these and can say that the implementation of subtitles on AppleTV for Netflix is by far the best I've seen. Here's why:

Wii - The subtitles are just ugly. I personally don't like yellow text especially if you can actually see the pixels. You also have to select subtitles for every movie. On the upside the text is really large, almost too large for me but it sure makes reading easy.
Roku - While this is nice, it seems buggy because some movies with subtitle options work and some don't. Take Prison Break TV series for example, subtitles work on the internet and iOS but not on Roku. As a result I had to hook up my iPhone to the TV to watch it. Plus you have to turn it on each time you pick a movie. Another negative is the captions are white without a drop shadow or black outline. This makes it really difficult, if not impossible, to read on bright backgrounds.
iOS - I love the fact you can watch subtitled streaming movies anywhere. But, it's still annoying that you have to turn on subtitles for every movie. The text are yellow too but not so ugly. The text are tiny though.
AppleTV - Finally, you can turn on subtitles for all movies! You also have the option to turn it on for each movie. Best of all the subtitles are white with black outlines which makes it easy to read on any background. The text is also really sharp and clean. Someone did their homework when developing this. The only downer that I can see is the text is sized medium, while it's perfect for me, I know people would wish for a larger size.

Ideally I'd like to see the option to choose color and size in a future release for all devices and players.

So, for you lucky AppleTV 2 owners out there, here's how to turn it on, you have two options (sorta):

Always on Subtitles (where available):

On the AppleTV's Home menu page, go to Setting>Audio and Video> Subtitle Language and select "English". That's it! (If you don't have an iPhone, this is your only option.)

Selecting Subtitles on a Per Movie basis:

You'll need the Remote app for iPhone to have this option. Simply play the movie that has Subtitles and on the remote (make sure you're in the touchscreen mode) and press the little outline icon to the left of the "Menu" button. Netflix will pause the move and take you to the subtitle option screen. Select "English". Then you're done!

Kudos to Apple and Netflix for making great progress towards this captioning challenge! Now, let's watch some movies!

Should ASL Videos be Captioned Too?

2011-09-15T19:41:00.000-07:00

I produce a lot of ASL videos such as Viral Signs and DeafPod. I'm also a strong advocate for more online content to be closed captioned such as Netflix, iTunes Movies, Hulu, and even Youtube videos!

I know I'm not alone, there are a lot of others in the Deaf Community who push for more captioning online as well. Many of us publish ASL videos regularly for one reason or another but very few include subtitles or closed captions. Most videos are on YouTube which already has a built-in tool that allows you to add closed captioning. But most of us don't add subtitles/CC to our content, doesn't that make us a bunch of hypocrites by asking (or, in some cases demanding) others to include captioning and then not make our own content accessible to the ASL-impared community?

I'm guilty here too. Sometimes I add subtitles/CC to my content, sometimes I don't. Here are some reasons I don't (even though I should) add captions to some of my content:

Intended Audience

Maybe the content isn't created for the hearing audience. For example, I was tired of getting email forwarded to me that included a hilarious video that I couldn't understand so Wing and I created Viral Signs. It's not subtitled or captioned because we pull the content from others that include audio. The target audience of Viral Signs is not for the hearing community. But without realizing it, there are Hard of Hearing people out there who don't know ASL and still can't understand the video. This leads to my next reason

Proficiency in English
Every time I caption something I misspell a word or miss a comma. Sometimes even when I have someone else proofread the captions. It's kind of embarrassing to find out that there's a typo after the fact that the video has been released to the public. In my "VP3D" PSA video I spelled "message" as "massage"yeah, that got a few of my friends snickering. I corrected it but I couldn't re-publish it because I didn't want to reset my personal record-breaking view count. Besides, I shouldn't really care, people understood what I meant and honestly, even professional captioned TV shows and movies contain a few typos (note the post image from TV series, "Lost"). My point here is that it's no secret that the majority of the Deaf population are not proficient writers and to add on top of that, translating ASL to English is not a walk in the park.

Cost/Time
When I was in college I took an interesting technology class that was focused on Accessibility. We had an assignment where we had to add Closed Captioning to a 10 minute clip. They had the equipment and the transcript ready, all I had to do was match the line with the dialogue in the video. Easy enough but I'll be the first to say this, it was probably the most boring assignment I've had in my entire college life. So, whoever puts the CC together for TV or movies has, in my opinion, a pretty dull job. But at least they get PAID to do it! Regardless, when I want to expand the target audience, subtitles/CC is important. One thing I've learned is that it is literally time consuming especially when you don't have a transcript to work with. As they say, time equals money and if it takes 4 hours to transcribe and subtitle a 5 minute clip (for free), it's a real drag.

So, these are some of the biggest reasons I could think of why ASL videos do not contain subtitles/CC. The question remains though, we ask the world to caption their content for us, should or would the world expect the same from us?

Where the Sky Ends: A Story of Beginnings

2011-04-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

This ASL movie entitled "Where the Sky Ends", directed by Sean Christopher, who also wrote The Blue Box and has been involved in a big or small way in nearly all my other projects. We shot this film within a few days using an HVX200 camera and basic lighting. This is an inspiring story about a young boy who is given a birthday present that will change the rest of his life!

We all have moments in our lives that set in motion a series of events that creates the person we become. While this story isn't based on my life, there are striking similarities between the young lad and myself. When I was 13 I had a hearing friend, Mike who always talked about making movies. I still remember reading, "Dude, we should make movies or something." from his lips over and over again! That was the first time I wondered about filmmaking and developed a growing desire to learn more about filmmaking.

Mike moved away a few years later and I started hanging around with my Deaf friends more often. One haunted Halloween night after a party I don't remember, I found my car on the side of the road where I parked it in very bad shape! Someone scrapped their car along the side of my car. Turned out to be some drunken lady whose excuse was that she dropped her keys and was looking for them while driving and hit my car (uh, the keys where in the ignition slot lady!). Anyway, long story short, the insurance company gave me two choices, $1500 to total the car or $1300 for me to get it fixed. My dad was confident he and I could fix it so we took the $1300 and ended up spending only $300 or so fixing it. My mom and I shared the car so we split the money. Don't worry, I have a point to this story.

Christmas was coming up and my parents asked what I wanted. I said, "I want a camcorder!" My dad laughed (our usual Christmas limit was around $100, if I remember right) he said it would cost too much money. I gave him the $500 from the accident and said, "I want a camcorder, get me the best you can find with this money". So I got my first camcorder, it was a VHS-C JVC camcorder and it was awesome! I took a filmmaking course in High School. My friends and I made our first film: "The Blob" .

I've copied this video so many times and the quality has seriously deteriorated! Looking back, I wished I preserved my videos better. At the time we didn't have any editing system, we eventually added music and titles when we had access to an editing system in High School. Anyway, we had a blast! We couldn't stop making movies. So, that's the story of how one car accident presented the opportunity that led to my aspiration to become a Deaf filmmaker.

Lance

How to Add Closed Caption to Movies for iOS Devices (AppleTV/iPhone)

2011-03-29T15:34:00.000-07:00

Over the past few months I've seen a few interesting opinions in the Deaf community regarding Apple's iTune, Apple TV 2 and iPhone's lack of Closed Captioning support. I'm writing to clarify a few things as well as to show everyone how to utilize Apple's products and make them "Deaf Friendly".

First of all, Apple products fully support CC and is not responsible for Close Captioning movies. Think of Apple like a TV manufacturer whose responsibility is to ensure that the their products support Closed Captioning like the CC chips built into every TVs today. The producers of video content then makes sure their movies and shows are captioned in a way that is compatible with the CC chip. Likewise, movie and TV producers must also make sure their contents is captioned for other streaming technologies such as Apple, Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube.

Anyway, here's how to caption your iOS/iTune movies. First, you need the following:
1. A DVD that you OWN (As a filmmaker I'm against pirating).
2. An Apple computer with DVD reader and OS 10.5 or later.
3. iTunes
4. A dedicated hard disk space for storing your movies.
5. Latest Handbrake program.
6. An iOS device (iPhone, iPod, AppleTV, etc.)

Here are the Steps:
Load the DVD into your computer and then open Handbrake. The DVD will likely run automatically using the built-in DVD player, just quit the DVD player and go back to HandBrake. Handbrake will ask you to pick the movie you want to convert, if it doesn't then click the "Source" icon at the top left corner. Select the DVD and click "Open".

Handbrake will scan the DVD chapters, sometimes this can take some time. When the scanning is complete, select "AppleTV 2" under "Apple" in the right "Preset" tray (unless you specifically want the movie only for iPhone or iPod then select "iPhone"). If you don't see the tray, click on "Toggle Presets" icon in the top right corner. These are pre-configured settings so you won't have to worry about adjusting all those mumble-jumble settings that most people don't understand.

The AppleTV 2 preset is configured to convert your DVD to a high quality format that will work with Apple TV. However, Subtitles or Closed Captioning is turned off by default. You simply need to turn it on.

Click on the "Subtitles" button. Under the "Track" column you'll see a drop-down that lists the available subtitles/CC options. Keep in mind that there is a difference between English subtitles and Closed Captions. For example, if you select "English" the English subtitle will be converted to appear (or burned) on the compressed movie permanently (i.e. "open captioned"). Selecting "Closed Captions" will write the captions in a way where the viewer can turn it on or off just like they do on a TV (yes, even Apple's products can turn CC on or off).

So, if you want the subtitles permanently on the video, select "English" if you want it optional then select "Closed Captions" (you may see variations of what they call these such as "English SDH").

If you have a lot of movies it's easier to create your own Preset. This is pretty easy, in the bottom-left corner of the Preset tray you should see a "+" button, click on that and a small window will appear, simply name the new Preset - I call it "AppleTV 2 CC" then save it.

You can also set your newly created Preset as the default preset so that every time you open a movie in Handbrake that preset is automatically selected. Click the "Gear" button on the right side of the "+" button then select "Make Default" (ALWAYS check your subtitles settings before converting, sometimes it changes because of the subtitle name variations).

Once you've selected your subtitles click on "Start" icon and it'll start converting! This part actually takes a long time depending on your computer. Usually an hour per movie.

Once the conversion completes, drag the movie to your iTunes Movie library and from there you can connect your iPhone or iPod and add the movie to your device. With Apple TV you will need to set up "Home Sharing" and connect it to your iTunes library.

Done? Not really, you may be trying to play your movie but don't see the CC. That's because you haven't turned it on!

For iPhone/iPod, go to Settings > "iPod" then tap on it. In the iPod setting you'll see "Closed Captioning" under "Video", turn it on.

In Apple TV 2 go to Settings > Audio & Video > Closed Captioning and turn it on.

In iTunes, go to the top menu click on Control > Audio & Video > "Show Closed Captioning".

In QuickTime player, go to the top menu and click on View > "Show Closed Captioning".

As you can see, Apple did a great job integrating Closed Captioning in their ecosystem and it looks great! You can see what it looks like in one of my older post here. BTW, I highly recommend the Apple TV 2 especially if you already have an iPhone or an Apple Laptop. If you have any questions leave them in the comments below and I'll try to answer them.

Lance

David After The Dentist: Interpreted

2011-03-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

When I first saw the original video on YouTube I chuckled even though I didn't understand a word this kid said. The title: "David after the Dentist" said it all for me and seeing the kid's expression was pretty hilarious. Now, with Wing interpreting this, it's not only funny but it is actually funnier for us than it is for a hearing person because Wing seriously brings a whole new character!

We shot a ton of Viral Signs episodes over a couple of weekends and will be releasing them over time (as I find the time to edit them). But we would seriously appreciate it if you can send us videos share to you by those ignorant hearing friends without any kind of captioning! It doesn't have to be one of those million hit videos, it should to be interesting, funny, or shocking enough for most people to enjoy. That way we can just focus on making more stuff rather than spend time looking for videos to interpret. If you got a video you want interpreted, simply post it in the comments below!

We love doing this and especially love the response we're getting! Keep them coming! Meanwhile check out the Viral Signs Shows at DeafTV.com for more laughs!

Lance

Toilet Texting: The Movie

2011-03-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the funniest movie ideas come from the most embarrassing moments. Not that I'm saying this movie was inspired by actual experience, maybe it did, maybe it didn't... Anyway moving on, a couple of months ago I was "inspired" with an idea for a short film and wrote the script (BTW, I use Celtx to write scripts, it's free, compatible with Mac, and there's an app for that). I showed a few people the script and they thought it was hilarious! I figured the short film would be easy to make, I mean it's almost all in a bathroom stall.

Lesson #1: For comedies, write a good script and if people laugh while reading, you're on the right track.

Before production I set a goal to accomplish three things:
1. Learn how to use Apple's Color program.
2. Learn how to track motion and apply it for objects to follow.
3. Make a higher quality video than I've ever done before.

So, to begin production I got a couple of friends together, one of them is my best friend and someone I've used as an actor in all my high school movies. It was a fun reunion!

The production only took two hours; however, I didn't draw up a storyboard because, frankly, it's to much work for a short and I intentionally wanted a lot of different angles. I figured I would wing it. But at the last minute I decided to at least have a shot list. Looking back, I wished I was more detailed because I missed several shots and things I needed the actor to do, but luckily I'm an okay editor to fix all of those issues.

Lesson #2: Write a detailed shot list with some acting notes (what you want the actor to do).

After getting home and digitizing the footage I can't tell you how many times I've cursed myself for many production mistakes. Notably, white balance issues. Keep in mind that I was a one man crew and that definitely caused me to forget a few technical things. Some shots were beautifully white balanced, others had too much blue. That's okay though, I wanted to learn color correcting with Color anyway.

Lesson #3: Avoid doing everything yourself, I'm sure there is a friend or two who would love to learn how to do this stuff!

I hit a snag, motion tracking was easy using Mocha but there are so many tutorials out there that were different! So I tried them all until I understood Mocha pretty well. It took about 8 hours to figure out how to do the first text message. Then things went smooth until I wanted to use a text bubble with the message being typed like a typewriter AND motion track it. There wasn't a tutorial for that but luckily I've tried all the tutorials I could and had just enough knowledge with After Effects to pull it off.

Lesson #4: Use online resources or books to learn tricks. Don't go to school to learn a software (go to learn principles).

Color was an interesting program, when I first opened it I had absolutely no idea what to do. The program felt like it was designed by color nerds who made it for themselves, not for the students. Thanks to some tutorials I was able to figure it out eventually. It's a pretty powerful program and with it I was able to match colors across all clips.

About a month later (working on it a few hours a week) I finished it! I'm pretty happy with the results and appreciate everything I've learned from a simple two minute video. Sure, there are mistakes, even Hollywood makes mistakes! I had a friend tell me that he thought there were too many feet shots but others tell me the feet clips were their favorite parts. I may have even offended some very private people who don't like bathroom humor. Oh well.

Lesson #5: You won't be able to please everyone, so don't try. Otherwise your movie will never finish.

Wow, you actually read this far down, thank you! I hope that my mistakes will help you or someone else avoid them.

Lance

Viral Signs, the Hottest New Videos

2011-03-03T21:03:00.000-08:00

Every time a friend forwards me an email with a video claiming I had to watch this video because it was hilarious or when someone posts a funny video on Facebook from YouTube, I'm always disappointed when the video is really just funny for hearing people because there were no Closed Captions. Yeah, I'm aware that YouTube has this awesome Transcribe Audio feature but frankly, it's still pretty bad and humorously inaccurate. But it's better than nothing, right?

Then it hit me one day, why not create a series of viral videos that are interpreted in ASL for the Deaf? Heck, I'm deaf and I want to know what's so funny about the popular Patty Cake Cats video or Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" video.

So I met up with one of my favorite interpreters, Wing, and told him about the idea. He loved the idea and agreed to shoot a couple of pilot shows. Head on over to DeafTV.com's Viral Signs channel and check it out! We are very pleased with the outcome so far, Teen Dream had over 1000 hits within the first day!

We are now working on many more videos. If you want to be informed when new shows are posted Join DeafTV's Newsletter

Click on this image to watch Catty Cake

And this image to watch Teen Dream

Here's the link to www.DeafTV.com for many other ASL Videos.

Enjoy,

Lance

Limited Viewing: The Blue Box

2011-01-17T18:59:00.000-08:00

DeafTV.com is showcasing my short film, The Blue Box for free on their website. The video is only up for one week. This is my first short film under my, then new venture, R.E.M. Films where I wanted to experience writing, producing, directing, editing, and distributing a film. Ever since then I kind of took any risks and opportunities that came to me with this short because I wanted to learn what works and what didn't.

Update: The limited viewing is over now. Sorry!

Why is it so Hard to Make a Decision?

2010-12-17T20:43:00.000-08:00

So, why don't you just make a movie? You know what you want to do, you know how to do it; or if you don't know how, you know you'll be able to figure it out. What's stopping you? What. Is. Stopping. You? Everyone who knows you keep asking you that nagging question that makes you feel like a loser who is all talk and no action.

That question is exactly the same question my best friend, Joel keeps asking me, "What are you waiting for?" and "Why don't you just make it?" He's been asking that question for a long time. I have a great script, I have the camera and equipment to make this film... What's stopping me? After really thinking about that question for a few weeks (weeks of time-wasting) I think I've nailed down why I'm such an idiot and I'll share it with you although your reasons for being an idiot might be different than mine.

Reason #1: Time.

My life is so crazy right now. I have a full-time job that is pretty demanding. It's not a mindless factory job either, I'd have left a long time ago if it was. I enjoy my job, it pays the bills with a little extra to fund some small experimental projects. It's a great job with a great company. I have a wife and 3 young kids and let me tell you, raising kids is a full-time responsibility. This is the kind of family I'm keeping forever too. These two factors are extremely time consuming leaving me with only 2 - 4 hours to myself per night.

My situation makes it complicated, people in the industry want you to think that filmmaking has to be your absolute passion. I agree to a limit, you have to be passionate but not at the expense of your own family, their love, nor their health -- that would be just plain selfish and probably the reason why divorces are so high in Hollywood. No thanks, I'll make it without sacrificing my family and the job that supports my family. That's why we're focused on getting out of debt so that I will be able to fund my own films. Speaking of money...

Reason #2: Money

While the cost of making films has drastically dropped it's still pretty expensive for the average Joe. I have a completed script all the reviewers love it and I keep using "funding" as my excuse for why I haven't started making it yet. I realize that funding isn't an issue, I have money saved up and I know people who, when seeing the pitch would invest in it without much convincing. Because I really believe that the film will payoff. So Why don't I just make this movie? Read on...

Reason #3: Fear

Yes, I'll admit it. I'm afraid of failure. I really am, this is a really bad trait I have. I'm a perfectionist in denial and failure discourages me more than anything. I was building a wood project the other day (I'll tell you about that in another post) and I messed up on one measurement that required that I re-do a complicated cut. I just gave up that night and went to bed. The next day it took all the energy and motivation inside of me to work up the will to try the stupid cuts again. The end result was absolutely satisfying. The thing is, I knew I would succeed if I'd just try again and still gave up the night before. I was just so mad I didn't care about succeeding, I just wanted to be mad and do something else.

Anyway, back to fear. A while back, a phrase I read or heard somewhere kind of stuck with me, it was something like, "If you're not willing to invest your own money in something it likely won't succeed" So I waited, and waited, and waited till I felt that willingness to invest in it which never really happened.

Today I woke up and read a blog discussing the idea that wealth = capital+risk+time. Doesn't really have to do with filmmaking but reading it just inspired me that there's really only one reason why I haven't made this movie yet, it's because I haven't made the decision to do it yet. It's that simple, I need to decide to make time for this film, heck, I even have a month's worth of vacation I can use. I need to decide to pitch this film to potential investors and be willing to fund it myself as well. I have to decide to make this film a success - failure only happens when you decide something failed.

For me the decision has been made. So make yours.

Lance

A Filmmaker's Journey: The New Direction

2010-10-31T21:26:00.000-07:00

This blog started out as a personal place for me to write about whatever I wanted without any particular goal or direction. As a result it's been kind of abandoned because I honestly think about a million things a week and always wondered if I should write about this or that. My wife started writing more in her blog and it inspired me to get back into writing. Only this time, for the sake of my own sanity, I'm focusing on one topic: My journey as a filmmaker.

Why?

Let's face it, there's probably a few million people out there wanting to be a filmmaker. All of us feel like nobodies trying to figure out how to make it into Hollywood or get our name on the big screen. Most of us end up working in some cafe in L.A., or if you're lucky, you're assisting someone on the big set, or if you're one in a million, you're actually making movies that earn you a decent living.

By the time you reach this blog you're probably desperate right? Not that it's a bad thing here and I'll tell you why. You've read all those script writing, filming, and editing books. You've taken classes, studied, bought more books, heck you've even studied the Canon 5D Mk II manual without even touching it! You're sick and tired of reading success stories about how some kid director got a $30 million contract after making a $30 movie on YouTube and you're thinking after all you've studied you can't even get 1,000 people to watch your video online!

We've all been there and I've been there. Actually, I'm still here and this is my journey. I've learned a lot coming this far as well as made a lot of mistakes and I'm looking forward to making more mistakes. So read on and watch me fail or (hopefully) succeed. Besides, I'm completely deaf and communicate in Sign Language (and speech when I have to). So when I make it you'll be able to say, "If that deaf guy can do it so can I!" and you'll know how I did it.

Subtitles in Theaters - Any Movie, Anytime and Anywhere!

2010-03-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, so as a deaf person who loves movies I have three lame options:
a. Wait till it comes out to a theater with Rear Window Captioning.
b. Wait even longer for the Open Caption version to come out.
c. Suck it up and watch the movie without captions.

Here's the problem:

Rear Window Captioning (RWC)
This system reflects captions off a piece of a glass. The text are usually red and to be honest, this is a bad system. I have issues with the glass, I spend half the time trying to adjust the stupid thing and can't seem to get it in the right position. It's supposed to be less distracting for hearing movie attendees but that holder makes a screeching metallic noise when adjusting it (how do I know? People give me an annoyed face when I adjust it). Even when I do find the right position the font is too small and I find myself squinting and leaning closer to the glass while trying not to block the reflection. Maybe you're wondering why I'm adjusting it so much? Gee, you cant expect me to sit still throughout a great movie! But hey, I'm not complaining, I'm glad to have something and it's better than nothing, right?

Open Captioning (OC)
This is the ultimate option for me, you really can't beat OC when it is available. The caption is "burned" into the film so it is permanently on the screen and can't be turned on or off. The problem with it is the limitations. Only selected "worthy" films are OC and you usually have to wait a couple of weeks after it has been released before it becomes available in OC. This system is only available in higher priced theaters so you won't see an OC movie in the $1 theaters. In my area, I have to drive all the way to Provo, Utah (25 minutes) to see a movie in OC. But hey, I'm not complaining. We got something, right?

No Captioning
Movies without captioning is everywhere, even in the $1 theaters. Does a profoundly Deaf guy go to the movies without captioning? I was surprised by how many of my friends do, one friend saw Avatar in 3D without captioning 5 times! It happens but only because we literally have no other choice. Avatar 3D is a great example, we only have two IMAX theaters in Utah and neither has Captioning systems.

The Solution:

Subtitles in the iPhone
After seeing Avatar in IMAX 3D without captions, I loved it so much I wanted my best friend to see it. One day I woke up and had a great idea. I was going to build my own subtitle movie for Avatar and play it on my iPhone in the theater and surprise my best friend with my new idea. So I spent half the day trying to figure out how to accomplish this. I created a 3 hour black video then I added an Avatar .srt file (found online) to the video using a subtitle program, I also had to change the location of the subtitles to appear at the top of the screen. My friend came over and I put the movie file into his iPhone and we went to the IMAX 3D theater to test it.

It. Was. Beautiful!

We loved it, we understood almost every word of the movie, we got to experience the awesome 3D effects on an IMAX screen WITH subtitles! We were excited and I was determined to build some kind of app for iPhone so everyone could experience the same.

Someone beat me to it but that's okay, I had no idea how to build an app and this app was free, it's called Subtitles and it works the same way. There's still one caveat, it doesn't sync with the movie so you kinda have to do some lip-reading or watch with a hearing friend to help you keep the subtitles synced with the movie. My friend and I are both deaf and we managed to keep it synced pretty well while watching Avatar.

So with this app you can watch any movie, anytime, anywhere. Of course Open Captioning is still the ultimate choice however, we are a LONG ways from seeing captioning in IMAX or 3D theaters. I hope this article is of any use to my fellow Deaf Movie buffs, if so, please share your opinion and experience in the comments below!

Lance

Disney Screws the Deaf and Leaves Us Hanging.

2009-11-15T13:35:00.000-08:00

If you weren't aware, Hollywood is trying to find ways to get people to buy their DVDs instead of renting. While Netflix is one of the greatest ideas ever, it's hurting the greedy producers of Hollywood because people are finding the idea of owning movies stupid since they can just have any movie they want dropped in the mail. So some corporate moron had this bright idea of sending rental companies bare bones DVDs specifically for renting purposes which removes special features like they did with the movie Up. Not only that, the same corporate moron decided that Closed Captioning and Subtitles for us was a "special feature".

Disney, you might as well remove the sound while you're at it, I'm sure that will definitely stop people from renting and start buying your movies. [Consumerist]

TVGuardian: A possible key to broaden closed captioning requirements.

2009-03-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

TVGuardian® technology may be what we need to get CC on streaming videos.

If you're deaf like me, you want closed captioning everywhere such as TV, DVD, Blu-Ray, Cable, Satellite, Cellphones (iPhones), and most importantly on the Internet. Broadcasters and Movie Studios have done pretty well with providing closed caption on most of their shows on TV and DVDs. But as we all are aware, they are moving more and more towards online streaming and download services like NetFlix, Hulu, and more recently, Blockbusters via TiVo and thats where we are being left out with no Closed Captioning.

Well, TVGuardian® may change all that. TVGuardian® is a patented, award winning technology that automatically mutes out offensive language... while you're watching your favorite TV shows or DVDs. Here's the exciting part, this technology works by reading the Closed Captioned data transmitted from the broadcasting station or video source such as DVD.

The FCC wants comments from the public on whether tools such as TVGuardian should be required in a wide spectrum of video products, such as: TVs, DVD Players, Blu-Ray players, cable, satellite, computers, the Internet, cell phones, iPods/Mobile Video Players, Gaming Consoles (Xbox/PS3/Wii), DTV converter boxes, and DVRs.

Yeah, TVGuardian® is designed to allow you to choose whether or not you want your kids to hear or read the 1034 "F" words in the movie Departed, thats neat. But if we want Closed Captioning to be made law on all video products then we better voice our support by clicking here.

This is where you can read the full FCC Notice of Inquiry.

Lance

Netflix's Watch Instantly now on Mac! Closed Captioned? Not!

2008-11-05T21:24:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I was really excited about the Watch Instantly feature finally being available on the Mac when I first found out. It is currently in Beta so this is where I'll provide my feedback. A couple of things worth talking about:

Netflix computes your bandwidth and figures out which movie quality to send you. This is actually very nice, it sets your expectations on how good the video will look based on how fast your internet is. I have somewhat slow internet so I get the Basic Quality most of the time. Today my internet was faster so they streamed a higher quality video for me. This is determined automatically. The basic quality is pretty similar to the YouTube quality... well, maybe a little better.

The Watch Instantly library is pretty limited to several thousands of movies that no one really watches anymore. But give it time, the list will grow and Netflix struck some recent deals with television studios such as Starz.

While a lot of streaming movies and TV show web sites are adding Closed Captioned features, Netflix has pretty much ditched us Deafies on this. I understand that studios have the option of providing CC content for the internet and such but Netflix is responsible for providing the technology to allow CC to work on it's streaming video players. So Netflix, we all know you're pretty much the last to do this so pull some strings will ya?

Wait, the snapshop above has closed caption!? Yeah, I figured that while I wait for the CC to be implemented I'll just explore the foreign movies genre where most of them are English Subtitled anyway. I normally don’t watch foreign movies so maybe I’ll discover a newfound interest.

So for all you Mac users with a bit of free-time check it out!

Lance

Why I am voting this time.

2008-10-21T21:23:00.000-07:00

Who will our next President be? Obama or McCain? Man, there's so much information out there, full truths, half truths, half lies, and all lies. Its tough to make a decision with all that crap out there. I wish the signs were more obvious like one wearing a Darth Vader outfit while the other dressed like Obi-Wan Kenobi then the choice would be obvious! Pew Pew!

Personally, I've never voted before, I never planned to. I figured, like more than half the rest of you, the majority will pick who they want and I'll go along for the ride. That strategy worked out pretty well so far in my life - you know how it is, when you're young Presidents don't really have any direct impact on your life so whoever ran the United States didn't matter as long as you could do whatever you wanted. Well that's one of the greatest things about being young. Now I'm almost 30 and have responsibilities and after seeing gas prices push me into the bus everyday, my home value dropping, banks failing, CEOs partying, watching my 401k take a nose dive, and then watching everyone panic! I feel like The Force isn't working with Bush anymore and it's time for a true Jedi to take his place. The worse part is I've actually been affected this time - now that I'm a responsible person.

Being deaf isn't so easy, I'm pretty lucky to actually have a job and can pay all my bills but if these problems keep up that luxury isn't gonna last. So this time I'm voting, maybe my finger on the button will make a difference, who knows. Maybe the person I'm voting for will screw up or he will succeed I can't predict that but at least I'm going to try.

So... (ahem) Go VOTE!

Just for fun I posted a Poll on the right - vote for who you think would be a good actor as Obama in some movie someday - I'll bet that regardless the outcome there will be a movie.

Lance

Article: Fannie Mae's story on the Bailout.

2008-10-05T09:43:00.000-07:00

I came across this excellent article that that describes how Fannie Mae failed. I find it interesting that there were a lot of players involved in the story, even congress, who put a lot of pressure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy risky loans which ultimately failed.

The media seems to point the blame to Fannie/Freddie for popping the housing market bubble while this article shows that Fannie and Freddie were being pretty much threatened to pop the bubble. The article is 4 pages long and pretty easy to read. Let me know your thoughts.

Lance.

The Financial Crisis: Layman's terms of how it all happened.

2008-09-28T12:34:00.000-07:00

A lot of my friends have asked me how this whole financial crisis came about. I've decided to try and explain it in layman's terms because it is pretty complicated but hey, Life is Complicated right? First of all, I'm not a financial guru and don't claim to be any kind of expert in this area but I do have a pretty profound interest in personal finance and I am always on the edge of the economy to make sure I understand how screwed up or corrupted CEO, politics, or even neighbors affect my financial life. Well, believe it or not, the financial crisis today will affect you, mostly negatively but sometimes positively if you know what you're doing.

So, How did this all Happen?

The best way to explain is to make up an imaginary family, the Adams family, and a scenario.

In 2004 Bob Adams got a job in Phoenix, Arizona making $35,000 a year. The Adams Family were living in an apartment. The Real Estate Market started to rise in value, the average home prices in his area went from $150,000 to $200,000 in 6 months and Bob Adams started to worry that if he didn't buy a house now he would never be able to afford one. He decided to jump on the boat.

The Adams family found their dream home at $210,000 and went to their Mortgage Broker, Joe. Joe told Bob that his monthly payment will be $1,430 a month plus taxes, insurance, and PMI which could run up to $1,550 a month. This is more than half of Bob's monthly paychecks. Joe tells Bob about some other options he has such as an ARM Loan with the option to pay only the interest for 5 years which will drop the payment down to about $900 a month. Bob Adam figures that the home value will keep rising to about $350,000 in two or three years so he takes the loan with a plan to sell the house in a few years to make some major profit.

So the Adams Family moves into their new home and enjoy their cheap monthly payment of $900 a month. Their home value increased $20,000 in 3 months and they are thrilled! Bob gets this idea that if he remodels his kitchen the value will increase even more! So Bob takes out a $10,000 loan using his home equity line of credit to start the remodeling project. Another two months pass and their home value increased even more! You get the idea here.

2006 the Adam's Family home is now worth about $300,000 and the Adams Family owes about $230,000 because they picked the Option ARM loan they did not pay off any interest. Plus they went a little wild with their equity line of credit. Suddenly, home values were too high because most people's income were not increasing the same rate houses were. So people weren't able to sell their houses as quickly, then came the drop in home values. Investors saw the drop and started to panic then everyone wanted to sell their homes to make a profit. Now there are too many homes for sale and not enough people with money to buy. So home prices dropped significantly.

2007, The Adams Family panicked, their home value is now at $250,000 so they put it up for sale. Months after months no one bought it so they dropped their price to $240,000 the exact amount they owe. Still no one bought it. Bob, lost his job and now he was desperate. He had to sell his house or lose everything. After 3 months Bob still couldn't sell and could not make his payments so the bank seized the house and Bob was forced to move out and his credit was crunched.

Now, the bank owns a house worth less than they loaned to the Adam's Family. The Bank finally sells the house at an auction for $180,000 losing $50,000.

Now, what happened to the Adams family happened to millions of families, they were forced to bankrupt their homes and the banks had no choice but to sell the house for far less than the amount the bank loaned the family. So now the banks were losing billions of dollars because of bad loans. This hurt the banks pretty badly so other banks.

Now about banks, the economy requires money to flow from one bank to another, they borrow and lend money to each other to keep the system running. So, as an example, Washington Mutual was in trouble, they lost billions of dollars and needed more money to keep the cash flow in their system, the problem was, other banks knew they were in trouble so they wouldn't buy loans from Washington Mutual. Washington Mutual was pretty much dead and failed. This had a domino effect on other banks in similar troubles. Many banks failed because they made bad loans and no one wanted to buy them.

To sum it all up, the financial crisis is here because of greedy banks giving out way too many bad loans to people who couldn't afford it.

What happens now?

Well, the government had to intervene to make sure banks stop giving out bad loans, to people who wouldn't be able to afford it. Banks got greedy during the real estate bubble, they thought that home value was going to keep rising and it was going to make everyone rich, especially the banks. I don't think they cared if they thought the housing market was going to failed because they were counting on people to pay back the loan regardless. So now the government is figuring out whether they should pump in $700 billion or more into banks to get the cash flowing again. Once property values start to rise again (it will but much much slower this time) then banks will get back on their feet again. The government will also make lending much more stricter, so people like the Adams Family won't get loans they can't afford. This is where it affects all of us. Over the next few years it will be harder to sell our homes because it will be harder for potential buyers to get a loan. Businesses will also have a harder time getting loans, if small businesses can't get the loans they need to operate, they may go out of business and that can mean job losses.

How can this be positive for those who know what they are doing? Well, the stock market is down, certain stocks are cheap and that means that if you pick the right stock and get in the right time it can really pay off. For example, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and AIG stocks has made some people a lot of money! My brother knows someone who bought FNM stocks at .50 cents and sold at $2.50 he made 5 times the amount he put in. I wouldn't invest in those stocks now, its too late but the concept is to watch, now is the time to find those opportunities.

Anyway, thats basically how I see this financial crisis. My 401k was with Merrill Lynch and my funds took a nose dive, thats how I've been affected so far but I'm hanging in there because I'm confident that the market will come back, it always has. If not, well, then money will be worthless anyway and I'll wish I owned gold. Life moves on.

Feel free to correct add comments if I've missed anything. My goal is to explain the problem in a way that helps people understand. The more educated we are about this the better prepared we can be.

Lance

Some NBC and Fox Online Shows have Closed Caption!

2008-09-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of NBC's Heroes and I was very excited when I found out that NBC offered Closed Captioning on selected shows (Heroes is one of them)! I'd like to personally thank NBC for making Closed Caption possible on some shows, especially Heroes.

Fox also has some online videos with Closed Caption options available to a limited selection of online videos. But hey, it's a start! I'm just excited to see the CC technology grow. I will continue to hope that the CC video libraries online will continue to grow.

So again, my sincere thanks to the studios that offer Closed Caption. Anyone reading this can check it out at www.nbc.com and www.fox.com. I prefer the NBC Captioning style and TV shows selections better. Now, if only I could figure out how to get those shows with CC into my AppleTV or iPhone.

Lance

Closed Captioning look and feel on AppleTV and iTunes

2008-08-07T19:42:00.000-07:00

Deafmac.org posted a question on what people thought of iTunes Closed Captioning. I don't think a of people knows what it does look like but would like to see. Instead of trying to describe it in words I decided to post pictures and show that AppleTV's closed caption is a bit different from what we are used to. So first off, iTunes does support Closed Captioning as well as QuickTime, kudos to Apple for taking that step for the rest of us. Even beyond that, iTunes Movie Store has a small list of Closed Captioned movies. There is an easy way to find them all, in the Movie section of iTunes Store you'll see "Power Search" in the right column under the "Quick Links Section". Click on "Power Search" and you'll see a check box that says "Search for movies that contain closed captioning". Simply check the box and press the "Search" button. You'll see the list of all movies that are available with CC. Anyway, I bought Stardust so I'll use a snapshot of a scene from Stardust to display what CC looks like:

iTunes Movie window with CC looks like this:

As you can see it looks exactly like the CC we see on a TV! Now, my previous post was about the AppleTV, I actually did have a lot of friends ask about CC abilities on AppleTV and how it looked, below is a quick snapshot of the Closed Caption from my wife's iPhone - keep in mind that this is NOT the actual quality you get from AppleTV, this is just what happens when you take a picture of a TV with a slow camera. But you'll get the point with this image:

So you can see that the CC looks a little different, kinda stylized with shiny edges. At first I didn't like it because it was different and gave me a different feel, but after watching this movie I got used to it and didn't mind too much. So thats it folks, What do you think of the new CC style? I'm curious whether the new look of CC is acceptable or not for you. Personally, I prefer the standard style but I would like to have the option to fade the black background like some TV offers.

Oh and one last thing, Closed Captioning on iPhone looks just like the iTunes snapshot in case anyone was wondering.

BTW, Apple is open to suggestions on this so send them a note if you want to change the look. I think I will too.

UPDATE: 1/2/09 - I feel really stupid now. In the Settings of AppleTV I discovered that there are two modes you can set for subtitles "Standard" and "Enhanced" the Closed Captioning above for AppleTV was set to "Enhanced" by default. When changing to "Standard" the captioning style is just like the image shown in iTunes what we are all used to, very nice.

Lance

Review: Is AppleTV Deaf-Friendly?

2008-07-14T21:23:00.000-07:00

Question: Is AppleTV a Deaf-friendly device? I was skeptical for a long time and passed the first and second generation AppleTV. A friend of mine purchased the first generation AppleTV and after playing with it I couldn't see the benefits of it other than watching my photos being nicely displayed. I never gave up on it though, the idea of having some kind of Home Theater PC has always interested me but I never saw anything out there ready for my needs, namely CLOSED CAPTION!

Then one day iTunes finally announced subtitles support for iTunes and AppleTV. Then I read on Deafmac.org that you could record TV shows from EyeTV which will preserve the Closed Captioning lines and works on QuickTime, iPhone, and AppleTV. Movie studios also started to release movies with CC in the iTunes store. Okay, Apple got my attention. Although, there aren't very many titles with CC, it is a good sign that the industry is supporting this technology and trying to make it work.

The lack of movies being released with CC kept my money in my pocket for a while longer. Then I discovered Handbreak. Handbreak is a little free application that converts your DVD to a format playable on the AppleTV (.m4v) and you can turn the subtitles on so it will playback with subtitles. So I let go of my wallet and bought the AppleTV Take 2.

My first impression was how easy it was to set it up. I did have a problem finding a quick way to transfer my DVD Collection into the AppleTV. The process was easy enough but took forever since it takes about an hour to convert a DVD to .m4v format, then another hour or so transferring and syncing the movie to the AppleTV. Eventually I figured out how to do it much faster (wired instead of wireless). Anyway, because studios won't give me movies over the internet with CC I had to do it myself with the DVD's I own and purchased of course.

The end result: Once I got a lot of movies into my library I couldn't stop. My wife and I became addicted to feeding our new movie library. We now have 50 movies in there with 200 more to go. The quality seems better than DVD (impossible, I know but it's true). I purchased Stardust from the iTunes store so I could get a feel of how the subtitled feature worked and what it looked like. I was impressed although it was a different look and feel than what we are used to. There is a larger black box behind the text and the font is different. At first I didn't like it but I gave it a chance and eventually I found that the font was pretty easy to read and I didn't feel like the design was interfering with my movie. Oddly, when playing the movie in QuickTime on my laptop, the CC looks very normal.

I have a 53" rear projection HDTV made by APEX and in the 4 years that I have owned it, I have never experienced High Definition movies on it. So I decided to download the HD version of Indiana Jones 4 preview. The image quality was stunning and beautiful. I was shocked at how brilliant and how much details my TV displayed. I was very impressed, now if only HD content in iTunes were subtitled!!!

AppleTV can also display photos and play music. Who cares about the music, anyone? The photos were fun to upload and watch. I can also watch Deaf videos on Youtube... uh no comment here.

So is AppleTV Deaf-friendly? *Yes, Apple has prepared their technology for closed captioning and subtitles but the movies available for iTunes are not with the exception of a few, but if you're willing to learn the few tricks and work-around the CC issue and have a little patience then it's definitely worth it and impressive to visitors on movie-nights. If you are Deaf and have the AppleTV but have problems with getting movies with subtitles on it, drop me a line, I'll do the best I can to explain how my workflow works. If you're hearing and don't give a dirt about CC, go get it.

Lance

*Edited - I liked Chad's comment below.

The Blue Box movie update

2008-04-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

The Blue Box short film was completed on March 30th. It is approximately 21 minutes, complete with sound-effects and original musical score. We had a successful private premier on April 1st! The second viewing will be held to the public at the Deaf Studies Today! conference at Utah Valley State College at 3:55 pm. To view the full film festival schedule please visit the website here. The Festival will be followed by keynote speaker Anthony Natale.

We have received a pretty strong number of inquiries about purchasing a DVD for this film. We would love to distribute this film to the public, however, in order to make this possible, additional funding is needed. We are currently open to exclusive or non-exclusive sponsors whose advertisement will be duly added in the DVD release and other means of distribution. For more information please feel free to email us at info@remfilms.com.

Lance

Movie Trailer: The Blue Box

2008-03-13T21:53:00.000-07:00

Here it is! The trailer for my upcoming film, The Blue Box. It will be shown at various Film Festivals, starting with the Deaf Studies Today! Film Festival in April. This is a short film about Lisa who finds herself in the midst of criminal charges including the murder of her own husband. The problem is she doesn't remember what happened. This film was written by Sean Benson and myself and is being directed by me.

Enjoy!

Lance

My Letus 35 is here!

2008-02-07T23:04:00.000-08:00

I couldn't wait to get home from work after my sweet wife told me this morning that I had a package from FedEx. When I finally came home I quickly opened the box to find my new Letus35 Extreme lens adapter along with the Letus Rail Support system. Let me start off with why I picked Letus. I first contacted my usual sales rep, Phil, for video equipment and asked him for some kind of adapter to make my movies look more film-like. Before contacting him I sent an email to Red Rock asking for recommendations but didn't hear back from them for several days. Phil told me that he doesn't sell them because you usually have to by them direct, he recommended alternatives such as Letus35 and the Brevis35. I read both websites and did as much research I could but you'll soon find that there is a lot of debate on which was better. I was leaning towards Brevis because they were somewhat cheaper and they actually had some great sample videos on their site while on the Letus website there was only a sample video with Chess pieces. I still hadn't heard back from Red Rock and already decided not to buy from a company that wouldn't respond to their customers (being kinda new to the industry I need as much support I can get). Brevis and Letus both responded quickly but Letus was more detailed about their product and how they compared to the others. Then I discovered another Letus site that had a lot more sample videos and they looked stunning! I was sold.

So I ordered the Letus Extreme for my HVX-200 and they were able to send me the adapter within 9 days (I had to basically beg them to send it to me since I have a shot coming up soon) which I greatly appreciated. Soon after I ordered I bought a 35mm Nikon lens and a 50mm Nikon lens from eBay to start with.

Back to my story, the packaging was pretty simple, the Letus was safely wrapped in a foam box, I'm used to Apple's packaging style so this was a humbling experience for me. The adapter was lighter than I expected, people say most adapters were heavy but this wasn't too bad. It included instructions and wasn't too hard to figure out, they did hide a screw that attached the rail support to the adapter, I called them thinking they forget to ship that piece but they knew exactly what I was talking about as if this had happened before and told me it was attached to another piece. It took me about an hour to set up (because I'm a slow learner and too careful not because it was difficult). It wasn't long after that that I began to shoot and experiment with the 35mm lens. I will be shooting a short film in two weeks which is when I'll be able to come back with a real review on this. But I've got a video below on what I was able to get out of the Letus in my pajamas in my basement with no special lighting (just my desk lamp from the keyboard shot and the natural window light on my kids).

Please note that I'm not a professional (yet) and my opinion or ignorance is from a perspective of someone who thinks he can make a movie. If you have any questions or feedback I'd love to hear from you.

Lance

Lets Make a Movie! Workshop

2007-12-23T13:22:00.000-08:00

Starting March 27th, I will be hosting and teaching a Lets Make a Movie! Workshop in Salt Lake City, Utah.

This will be a 5 week course with 2 hour class each week. We will spend the first 3 weeks learning about the stages in movie making. The last two weeks we will make a short film.

Stay tuned for announcements!

Lance

Film Me Mad

Filmmaking Mistakes, Episode 2: Scout your locations!

Filmmaking Mistakes, Episode 1: You're not gonna win the Oscars

New Blog Series: Filmmaking Mistakes

AppleTV 2 Adds Subtitle Support for Netflix

Should ASL Videos be Captioned Too?

Where the Sky Ends: A Story of Beginnings

How to Add Closed Caption to Movies for iOS Devices (AppleTV/iPhone)

David After The Dentist: Interpreted

Toilet Texting: The Movie

Viral Signs, the Hottest New Videos

Limited Viewing: The Blue Box

Why is it so Hard to Make a Decision?

A Filmmaker's Journey: The New Direction

Subtitles in Theaters - Any Movie, Anytime and Anywhere!

Disney Screws the Deaf and Leaves Us Hanging.

TVGuardian: A possible key to broaden closed captioning requirements.

Netflix's Watch Instantly now on Mac! Closed Captioned? Not!

Why I am voting this time.

Article: Fannie Mae's story on the Bailout.

The Financial Crisis: Layman's terms of how it all happened.

Some NBC and Fox Online Shows have Closed Caption!

Closed Captioning look and feel on AppleTV and iTunes

Review: Is AppleTV Deaf-Friendly?

The Blue Box movie update

Movie Trailer: The Blue Box

My Letus 35 is here!

Lets Make a Movie! Workshop