Amazon thought it would be a good idea to not include subtitles in a film made entirely with sign language.

468 points · 115 comments · view on lemmy.world

115 Comments

ruuster13@lemmy.zip · 113 pts · 22h (11 replies)

No info about film in thread: mildy infuriating.

FluidBeef@quokk.au · -10 pts · 21h

It’s from Lollywood, you’ve probably never heard of it.

sanitation@lemmy.today · -35 pts · 22h (9 replies)

U haven't seen that movie?
A quiet place

ruuster13@lemmy.zip · 19 pts · 22h (8 replies)

U have seen this one?

Zarobi@aussie.zone · 12 pts · 21h (1 reply)

I cri evere tim

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 12h

Failed to Load Media makes my favorite videos

sanitation@lemmy.today · -4 pts · 22h (5 replies)

No. What's that? It looks sad

Jimbabwe@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 21h (4 replies)

I believe it’s called The Rural Juror

EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 11 pts · 21h (3 replies)

The... Rurrershurr?

tempest@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 20h (1 reply)

No Rrrrrrewwrjerrr

jaybone@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 19h

They Turk er Jurrr.

cybervseas@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 19h

The best days of my flerm…

HoneyMustardGas@lemmy.world · 72 pts · 1d (10 replies)

Is that Jim from The Office!?

UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 60 pts · 1d (3 replies)

CIA Jim, yes

AmyAye@nord.pub · 8 pts · 21h (1 reply)

Didn't he also play CIA Agent Jack Ryan?

faintwhenfree@lemmus.org · 4 pts · 12h

He does a good job of it

01189998819991197253@infosec.pub · 5 pts · 21h

He couldn't stay in Athlead forever.

DisasterTransport@startrek.website · 16 pts · 15h

Yeah season 21 is crazy, they took a hard sci fi turn about 10 seasons ago and now everyone is split up. They made a whole cinematic universe and its very confusing. Jim was a CIA agent for a while and now he's a post apocalyptic survivor. IMO they're making the character do too much, bir I guess that's what happens when you run out of ideas ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

FluidBeef@quokk.au · 5 pts · 21h (4 replies)

I want there to be a film with both Tim and Jim sitting at a desk pulling reaction faces to camera at everything going on.

jaybone@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 19h (3 replies)

Who’s Tim?

MycelialMass@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 17h

Original Jim from the UK version of The Office

ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 17h

I believe his name is Bilbo Watson

Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 19h

Big reaction face guy.

k0e3@lemmy.ca · 64 pts · 13h (10 replies)

I mean if you have a better way to make viewers understand what people with hearing impairments go through every day, then I'm all ears.

PlaidBaron@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 13h

Phrasing.

11111one11111@lemmy.world · -61 pts · 12h (8 replies)

Yeah, dont piss away Millions of dollars on a movie noone will watch. Nobody fucking cares what struggles anyone goes thru. You wanna make fuckin movie for every type of cancer victem, diabetic, or retard who lost an arm or leg?

BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 12 pts · 8h

MAGA film criticism.

Tiger666@lemmy.ca · 11 pts · 12h

Wow.

Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 10h

Guy whos never watched movies or felt empathy:

qwerty@discuss.tchncs.de · 8 pts · 12h

🤣

echodot@feddit.uk · 8 pts · 8h

The literally is a movie about people suffering from cancer. And one about somebody who's lost a limb. I'm surprised someone as clearly educated in the film arts as you doesn't know that.

mriormro@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 1h

I’m always surprised by how stupid people can get.

Congrats!

MaggiWuerze@feddit.org · 3 pts · 2h

Yeah, god forbid you might gain a new perspective and develop *gag* empathy for people that live different lives or have different problems than you do

nomy@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 1h

Have you seen the trash currently being turned out? What could it hurt? Tell someone elses story, maybe it'll be entertaining.

JackTea@piefed.world · 47 pts · 23h (13 replies)

That's not going to work for me. I can't read. Can they do a dub?

Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 45 pts · 23h

That’s called audio description, they do it for blind audiences.

chiliedogg@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 23h (11 replies)

My Dad is incredibly dyslexic, and it's a legit issue for him.

Growing up, if a movie or TV show had subs we had to take turns reading it out loud for him. I still have to catch myself trying to do automatically it when we're watching something with other people.

anguo@piefed.ca · 13 pts · 23h (6 replies)

I grew up in a country where movies are rarely dubbed. I was reading the subtitles out loud for my siblings who couldn't read yet for entire movies.

Zarobi@aussie.zone · 9 pts · 21h (5 replies)

I read video game dialogue out loud for kids like a storybook. Also anime subs that have no official dub, it can get pretty silly

Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it · 5 pts · 14h (4 replies)

Do you do make voices too for each character? XD

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 12h (1 reply)

why would you not?

Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it · 3 pts · 12h

I would 100%

Zarobi@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 14h (1 reply)

Of course lol. I try and copy the Japanese voice actors

Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it · 3 pts · 14h

That's so cute

cobysev@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 22h (3 replies)

if a movie or TV show had subs we had to take turns reading it out loud

I do this for my wife, because she spends most of a film on her phone.

She's listening to the audio and can mostly follow what's going on by glancing at the screen and reading subtitles every now and then, but if there's a foreign language with subtitles, or a text description (Paris, 11 AM or 10 years later, etc.), she'll miss it and then be completely lost.

I can't tell you how many times I've had to pause a movie and give a quick recap to get her caught up with the plot.

huppakee@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 22h (2 replies)

I believe Netflix order movies to be understandable to people who are not paying attention. Maybe they have something that is good enough for you, it would save you from having to recap stuff.

Carl@anarchist.nexus · 6 pts · 16h (1 reply)

Second Screen Viewing, yeah. Basically, Netflix is dumbing down their scripts so people can understand the plot even when it’s just playing on their second screen while they do other stuff. Apparently our attention spans have shrunk so much that people can’t even be expected to pay attention to the movies they put on.

Fluke@feddit.uk · 4 pts · 12h

Yeah. Fuck all that shit.

I'm living in the "how it happened" stages of Idiocracy. What the fuck is this timeline?!

FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website · 43 pts · 23h (4 replies)

I am conflicted here. On the one hand, I agree that subtitles would have been nice. On the other hand, I think folks with hearing disabilities get shut out of other content so much that I don't think this somewhat solitary case makes it good mildly infuriating material. It's most likely just an oversight. Much less likely a clever scheme to highlight ableism.

TheTechnician27@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 23h (1 reply)

On the one hand

heh

FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website · 3 pts · 17h

Eff me, that wasn't intended!

drcobaltjedi@programming.dev · 9 pts · 19h (1 reply)

I mean, by US law (back when analog TV was standard) all TV broadcasts had to include closed captions on scanline 23(?) for people with hearing disabilities. it was part of the vertical blanking interval so it didn't interfere with the regularly visible broadcast. It is good to include subtitles for all dialogue, spoken in the local dialect, in a foreign dialect, and even the various sign languages. That's isn't to say that yes, I fully agree that differently abled people should be able to take part in the dialog and should have accommodations where needed.

Semi related, did you know American sign language is closer to French sign language than it is to British sign language?

FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website · 3 pts · 17h

Yes, I did hear that before.

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 33 pts · 9h (6 replies)

The worst is when you're watching something with subtitles (in your own language because it's hard to hear sometimes), then someone on screen speaks a different language with the subtitles hardcoded into the video.

Great, right?

Well no, because Amazon's (or Netflix etc, they all do it) subtitles have a big "[Speaks German]" up the entire time, blocking the hard coded subs entirely so you cannot see what they say without temporarily disabling subs. Like bitch, I KNOW THEY ARE SPEAKING GERMAN, MOVE THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY SO I KNOW WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

It's so fucking stupid and infuriating. How have they not addressed this shit?

Doom@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 7h

I get a special kind of mad when I watch a foreign film in its original language. Turn on that language's subtitles and the subtitles don't match what's being verbally said because apparently the subs have been translated into English then back into the original language so nothing matches and everything sucks. Or worse when they've translated some idiom for American audiences and have translated that idiom back so what's being said makes zero sense.

alternategait@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 8h

This is an accessibility issue and the FCC takes it pretty seriously. Captions must be accurate, complete, synchronized (or as close to as possible), and (this is the important one in this case) cannot obscure important information on the screen.

It's a pretty easy form, but they do want a lot of details.

https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=36040

SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 8h

Yeah I remember Man in the High Castle was really terrible with subtitles. It didn't have hard-coded subtitles at all and the programmatic ones didn't work reliably. So I'd be sitting there and and thinking "ok am I not supposed to know what they're saying?" After the scene goes on for a while it becomes "yeah I definitely supposed to know what they're saying well I guess I have to mess with subtitle settings." Sometimes it wouldn't work at all and I'd have to open a ticket with Amazon Prime and wait until they got it working.

So I guess they gave up on fixing subtitles and just baked them in. But still fucked it up anyway. Apparently a company as big as Amazon still can't do QA on the use case of someone who's an english speaker just watching on their platform. It's sad.

yuknowhokat@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1h (1 reply)

Sometimes for fun I'll watch it foreign language movie I'll turn on English dubbing and run subtitles as well. It's really hilarious how different the two will be

JackbyDev@programming.dev · 1 pts · 30m

Oh I hate that. Netflix animes are super bad about it. I wish they'd have the subbed English dub as well instead of a translated sub.

Aneb@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 8h

It happens on Jellyfin too but probably because the subs and videos are pulled from the same source

Rug_Pisser@piefed.zip · 33 pts · 19h (2 replies)

Sometimes, and specifically on Amazon prime, if a show / movie has hard coded subs (for sign or other foreign languages) you will need to turn off the optional subtitle setting.

Of course then, when someone does speak out loud you won't get your normal subs until you turn the setting back on. I used to put in a new complaint for each show that it happened on until i canned prime altogether and went back to pirating all their content.

Carighan@piefed.world · 5 pts · 14h

Germany adds the funky police that sometimes only German subtitles are allowed no matter the audio language you pick. So if there are no German-language subtitles because none were ever made, well you're shit out of luck now, fuck you and your subtitle needs! 😐

yermaw@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 14h

Its really weird that they do that. Like I would have assumed that the hardcoded subs were part of the video.

FluidBeef@quokk.au · 32 pts · 21h

This film would never work for second screen viewers because the characters would have to nonstop be saying “I’m being really quiet” or “we can’t make any noise, even loud breathing, or the monster will get us”.

bhamlin@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 18h (10 replies)

🫵🤏🤞🤞🤘☝️👍🤌👍🤞🤌🫱🫲🫷👉👐🫶🙌🫶🤛

rovingnothing29@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 18h (1 reply)

Kolanaki@pawb.social · 9 pts · 14h (3 replies)

This made me curious how many words in ASL (and other sign languages) can be made just using the hand emojis. 🤔

PlaidBaron@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 13h

Not many.

KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 8h (1 reply)

afaik 🤟 is the only emoji based off an ASL sign so I don't think there's many

CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 8h
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ThrowawayPermanente@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 9h

Directions unclear, stealing third base

StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 8h (2 replies)

⬆️⬆️⬇️⬇️⬅️➡️⬅️➡️🅱️🅰️ [START]

Redfox8@mander.xyz · 1 pts · 1h (1 reply)

Great band!

StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 45m

The Konami Code?

Kolanaki@pawb.social · 24 pts · 14h (2 replies)

I see this more and more with shit on streaming services where, for some fucking reason, they strip the subtitles out for the non-native language parts even tho they are supposed to be subtitled for the audience. Like for example I wanted to see the new Ghostbusters the other day since it was on HBO which I have, but half-way through I had to stop it and pirate it anyway, because all the scenes with just the bad guys talking was supposed to be subtitled but they took the god damn subs out. They didn't even translate the dialogue in closed captioning even tho the audience is supposed to know what they are saying!

Wispy2891@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 12h

I was watching rental family (an american guy moves to japan to be an actor and speaks a very little japanese) and somehow they decided to ignore all the parts in japanese and from the subtitles there was only the english parts. In the beginning i was like "ok, it's to let the audience know that the protagonist does not understand what they're shouting to him - then finally i had to pirate a sub from opensubtitles to understand was going on as the dialogues were 95% in japanese

immutable@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 6h

My favorite is when services will put a caption like “[speaking spanish]” over top of the English subtitles that are in a film for a Spanish speaking character.

The film maker put the subtitles in there so if you can’t speak Spanish you can understand what the character is saying and then you can’t read it because Amazon decided to helpfully inform you they are speaking.

tigermountain@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 7h (8 replies)

What pisses me off about subtitles is when they start displaying lyrics to songs playing in the background.

kip@piefed.zip · 9 pts · 3h (1 reply)

SDH subtitles (subtitles for the deaf & hard of hearing) describe all the relevant sounds in a scene including background song lyrics, there is likely to be another plain subtitle track if you don't want that

JackbyDev@programming.dev · 1 pts · 31m

Oh if only. I've seen two tracks on occasion on streaming services but it's extremely rare. I think it was on Netflix or Prime and it's been years since I've seen it. As someone who is not hard of hearing but just has a little trouble understanding sometimes it's very useful to have the option that's exclusively dialogue.

explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 1h

Although I love it when they subtitle the inaudible-but-foreshadowing news anchor in the background.

Ellvix@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 6h

If the song lyrics are relevant to the scene, sure I could see them being there. Like those songs that are custom written to do a sort of 4th wall breaking live commentary on the characters. But a lot of songs? Not needed at all.

glitchdx@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 3h (2 replies)

Or there's no lyrics but the subtitles keep repeating "heat" or "scary".

tigermountain@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 3h

That's hilarious.

swizzlestick@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 2h

I've not had scary yet, but heat does come up a lot for me in autogenerated subs when it can't figure out wtf is going on.

Gentle backing music:

Subtitles: Heat

Landless2029@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 25m

I don't mind stuff like that when it's at the top of the screen like a fansub

captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 16 pts · 3h

That's either "sign language doesn't work with our speech-to-text algorithm and we'll be throat fucked if we hire an actual person to do a job" or some massively pretentious statement about accessibility in media.

ohulancutash@feddit.uk · 13 pts · 23h

Maybe you missed the point.

IWW4@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 12h (5 replies)

I am a bit lost here.

I just watched A Quiet Place on Amazon and it had subtitles…

Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works · -4 pts · 12h (4 replies)

Subtitles also describe sounds, they're not just about speech.

Cytobit@piefed.social · 14 pts · 11h

You're thinking of closed captioning. Subtitles is just dialogue.

CanIFishHere@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 12h (1 reply)

That is called described audio.

Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 2h

Well, ackshually...

Nollij@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 9h

That is Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing-impaired (SDH). It is not the standard for subtitles in the US and Canada.

SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 8h

Then there are the shows too cheap to make real subtitles and instead use auto generated ones that can't handle accents or names.

dustyData@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 12h (1 reply)

For a decade tech has fucked sub's accessibility. The landscape is a complete mess, simultaneously stuck with tech that is too old and also suffering from awful implementation of new tech (LLMs suck at closed captioning but everyone insist it is the only way to do it now). Yet context reading to know who needs subs when is still so archaic and depends completely on user input. But then, the content is always innadecuate, specially when it's for the hearing impaired.

webhead@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4h

Yeah I've noticed a lot of llm subs on streaming platforms and I'm like bro wtf the stuff you download is better than this. How can you be the one making the thing and not put accurate fucking subtitles on it. It's pathetic. I mean are have the llm do the heavy lifting but you've still gotta proof it ffs.

skisnow@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 20h
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finley@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 23h
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possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · -37 pts · 23h (19 replies)

Yes but think about how diverse it is

call_me_xale@lemmy.zip · 32 pts · 23h (16 replies)

DEI is a good thing, actually.

ohulancutash@feddit.uk · -7 pts · 21h (11 replies)

Its a bad thing, but it’s less bad than the thing it’s trying to solve. We should look forward to a scenario where DEI is obsolete.

paranoid@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 21h (10 replies)

Why do you think DEI is a bad thing?

ohulancutash@feddit.uk · 9 pts · 21h (3 replies)

Because it only makes sense because employers can’t be trusted to hire equitably. It is a thumb on the scales, and so is an injust act, but is currently necessary due to bad hiring practices.

Hopefully we can grow out of this and employers will just hire the best people for the job, regardless of personal circumstance.

XeroxCool@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 20h (2 replies)

You seem to think DEI is when employers have to meet a diversity quota, when in reality, it upholds laws stating employers can't make any hiring decisions based on race or any other such demographic.

MaggiWuerze@feddit.org · 0 pts · 2h (1 reply)

The D in DEI literally stands for diversity though. But you're probably right and they are thinking of affirmative action

XeroxCool@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2h

Diversity, Equality, Inclusion. The acts support diversity by barring exclusion on grounds of demographics and demanding equality by barring the use of demographic information as part of the hiring process. DEI does not define any minimum diversity metrics.

Warl0k3@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 21h (5 replies)

Oh I sure do look forward to the well-reasoned and deeply nuanced explanation you're certain to get in response to that question.

01189998819991197253@infosec.pub · 6 pts · 21h (3 replies)

Lol i was expecting something, too, but the answer is actually quite reasonable

Warl0k3@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 20h (2 replies)

It's civil which was nice, but it's also an argument that is (charitably) extremely poorly thought through. It's just an appeal towards free-market regulation, which in an ideal world does work great but we have hundreds of years history (and the fact that I do not have a pet dragon) that establishes this is not an ideal world and it would not in fact work great.

It's a good, optimistic, hope-for-the-future thought yes - but they're using that to justify badmouthing DEI policies which is both incredibly counterproductive and pretty suspect.

MaggiWuerze@feddit.org · 1 pts · 2h

They are not really though, they are still agreeing that it is necessary, just that they wish it wasn't. Which the people DEI is supposed to support would probably agree to

skisnow@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 20h
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possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · -16 pts · 20h (3 replies)

Compared to good writing?

We aren't helping anyone by shoehorning random diversity stuff into cheap ass media. Sure we might have 20 out of place same sex relationships but god forbid if they were to touch on difficult topics. The people at the top make wild choices and are then rewarded because is supports the executives ideas about "diversity." In practice diversity is really just a marketing to make us forget about all the systemic problems in the world.

call_me_xale@lemmy.zip · 13 pts · 17h

Compared to good writing?

I'm sorry, I missed the part where its a tradeoff.

Also, what makes a same-sex relationship "out-of-place"? Gay people exist everywhere, my dude.

Warl0k3@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 19h (1 reply)

In what world are same-sex relationships not a difficult topic, because I would very much like to move there.

waldfee@feddit.org · 2 pts · 14h

If anything they're reinforcing that it's a difficult topic

1egg4u@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 20h

1egg4u@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 23h
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