In Focus November 2003 This article reprinted by permission of the National Association of Theatre Owners, © 2003.

InSight Cinema is celebrating its first anniversary in November, and although executive director Nanci Linke-Ellis would like to throw a gigantic bash in its honor, she laughs and says she simply has too much work to do to pull it off this year. Thanks to her tenure as executive director of Tripod Captioned Films, Linke-Ellis' name may be more familiar within the movie industry than that of her new company. In 1998 she spearheaded, with eight Paramount-provided "Titanic" prints, the first successful direct-studio distribution of an open-captioned movie. Before the success of the open-captioned "Titanic," which encouraged other major studios to re-examine the box office potential of open captioning, Tripod mostly relied on donated films. Between 1993 and 1997 the total number of films donated to Tripod stood at 25, with three to five open-captioned prints per title. Linke-Ellis, who grew up in Greater Los Angeles' Toluca Lake, was by age 10 diagnosed as "profoundly deaf" and began using hearing aids that enabled her to hear roughly 30 out of every 100 words spoken. In 1993 she lost her hearing entirely, and the following year was fitted with a cochlear implant. Today the device, which restored some hearing, augments her ability to lip-read. Born into a showbiz family, Linke-Ellis was raised with an awareness of the power of the motion picture, but it wasn't until she saw "The Bodyguard," her first open-captioned film, that she realized what she, and some 30 million other deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) Americans, had been missing. "I literally pulled the car over and cried after I left the theatre. I understood every word, I knew who the characters were," she recalls. In November 2002 Linke-Ellis left Tripod to form InSight, a new non-profit open-captioned film distribution company. Based in Los Angeles, InSight has already partnered with 10 studios and 35 exhibitors to oversee the release of 50 titles. Despite her years with Tripod, Linke-Ellis discovered the launch of InSight demanded its own learning curve. "It was trial and error getting to the point where we were establishing a real voice and a real strategy as to how we saw ourselves within distribution and exhibition ­ and how we plan to find our place," she says. Amid the tsunami that was this summer's films, she says, InSight was able to demonstrate -- to both the movie industry and members of the DHH community -- that a dedicated open-captioning enterprise was not only still around, but back with a vengeance.

"For the first time ever, we are going to be able to do this the way it should be done in terms of how we book, how we educate, how we identify and target audiences, how we service the studios and how we service exhibition," she says. Another challenge has been dispelling some of the myths surrounding open-captioned films and educating both the hearing and the DHH community on the benefits these offer. Open captioning converts a movie's dialogue, noises and sound effects into white text, and superimposes it over the screen images. The sound is normal, and the captions are visible to all.

Unlike TV's closed-captioned text, the text on InSight's prints is not surrounded by clunky black boxes. Instead, says Linke-Ellis, captions are more artistically integrated onto the screen, and are so unobtrusive that they are actually welcomed by hearing patrons who sometimes can't quite make out certain bits of dialogue. "Many people who have stumbled into an open-captioned film have discovered that they have really enjoyed the experience. I don't believe that most people are offended at all by captions -- all the lessons that I have learned over the past 10 years have debunked that myth," she says.

Open captioning is likely to grow in popularity as baby boomers creep into retirement age. According to the "Self Help for Hard of Hearing People" Website, the number of people experiencing hearing loss is expected to double by 2030. Linke-Ellis predicts that aging Americans will embrace open-captioned films as their hearing ability lessens, and they begin to miss more and more dialogue. She also points out that older Americans typically have more disposable income and leisure time than other demographics, additional factors that could increase the demand for open captioning. InSight also plans to reach out beyond the DHH community, to adult illiteracy groups and to those for whom English is not a first language. This latter group accounts for nearly 30 million Americans. In the former category, there are roughly 27 million illiterate adults, 12 million young children learning to read and 4 million remedial and learning-disabled readers. Many, says Linke-Ellis, could benefit from open captioning. "Movies are what we have in common as a country," she says. "As a society these are the threads that bind us now." Marcus Theatres head film buyer Mike Ogrodowski has booked 137 open-captioned titles since 1998, but in the last year, he says, "InSight has moved everything up to a higher level." With access to more prints from InSight, his circuit is generally able to book an open-captioned movie much closer to the opening date of its uncaptioned counterpart. InSight's efforts also make it possible to post showtimes on the open-captioned section of the circuit's Website at an earlier date, affording the DHH community more notice and confidence in showtime reliability.

Ogrodowski has learned over time that the most important factor in screening open-captioned film selections is consistency. "We play open-captioned prints on the same day of the week, pretty much at the same showtime. [We] keep it very consistent and that's the best way to reach the deaf community -- and you don't want to deviate from that," he says.   From the beginning, Linke-Ellis remarks, some of the most common complaints involved showtimes. Marcus Theatres, which screens open-captioned films at seven of its sites, offers at least an afternoon and an evening screening of each title, and tries to move the print to another location with different showtimes. If someone misses the movie in one town, he or she can refer to the Website and know it's going to resurface at another location with a slightly different showtime. Ogrodowski says he finds success in repeating the open-captioned screenings at the same facilities, possibly because seasoned managers and staff are more sensitive to the DHH community and more comfortable serving their needs. Randy Smith, Regal Entertainment Group senior vice president of human resources counsel, says that as InSight receives more prints, he is able to offer open-captioned films in different areas of the country. During the week of Aug. 21, Regal offered open-captioned titles in 73 cities. Smith agrees that consistency is an extremely important aspect of screening open-captioned films, and since the core audience tends to be smaller, it works better to have the films at designated sites, rather than risk confusion by shifting them around. He adds, however, that Regal does get requests for different locations, and often honors those requests. When a site is slated to receive open-captioned prints for the first time, Regal's film department sends out a packet regarding the needs of the DHH patron. Smith, who has been attending open-captioned screenings for years, believes that adapting to the DHH community mostly requires a little sensitivity and common sense. Staffers, for example, will learn to make sure their mouths can be seen while speaking, and to keep pens and paper handy at the box office and concession stand. "[Deaf] people are completely functional and can do anything they want -- it's just a matter of the communication breakdown," says Smith. In order to maintain the lines of communication, Regal works closely with InSight to supply visual cues by utilizing the company's new "InSight" one-sheet snipes and stand-up marquees, listing open-captioned films in local newspapers and linking its Website to InSight's. In addition, Smith notes that the circuit also offers at least one showtime during the prime evening time as well as one matinee. Smith believes that the open-captioned film world remains a work in progress, and that the biggest hurdle, as with any movie, is getting people to fill the seats. More open-captioned films are available now than ever before, and Smith believes that as awareness of this fact grows, so will audiences. During InSight's second year of operation, Linke-Ellis hopes to bring a more diverse slate of films to open-caption audiences, while making open-caption moviegoing more accessible and spontaneous. At some point in the future, as digital cinema becomes more prevalent, Linke-Ellis envisions a bridge technology that would allow open-captioned movies to become more readily available and accessible. "The most important thing for theatres is that they let their [DHH] patrons know that they really want them there, and that it's okay if [cinema employees] don't know how to sign, and it's okay if your communication is fractured," says Linke-Ellis. "The very fact that you're attempting to service them because you want them to come in and enjoy the show means everything in the world."     This article reprinted by permission of the National Association of Theatre Owners, © 2003. Secrets of Size Penguin Pop That Old Bat Magic Making Moviegoing Magic The Quest for Quiet Lost Son of Krypton Impossible Movie Force Kudos Edition! Multi Tasking Multi Plexes Have Cinema, Will Travel The Cult of Corn Fun with Dick and Jane and Judd Hearing Products Report: Gaining Some Insight by Nanci Linke-Ellis Three Dimensional Thinking Bringing a Voice to Silence -- The Citizen, © 2004  Finally, big-screen movies for the deaf -- By BRAD BURKE of the Journal Star July 9, 2004