This is the Caption Action 2 newsletter for June 2011.
Two New Additions
May was a disappointing month. There was only one new addition to the list of closed captioned web series: Anyone But Me. The description: "Anyone But Me is an award winning, critically acclaimed drama about a new generation of gay, straight, and ethnically diverse teens struggling with identity and modern relationships."
However, we expect several more to be added in the coming months. Caption Action 2 has contacted more than 200 web series producers to date, and out of those, more than 60 have responded positively. Some are working on adding captions now.
Read more:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/posts/778156
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Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Webby Awards Host's Web Series Lacks Captions
This week, the big news in the web series biz was that the Webby Awards will be held on June 13, 2011. The selected host is Lisa Kudrow, whose web series "Web Therapy" is an award-winning web series, having won two webby awards this year: best comedy and best individual performance. The series' description is "Lisa Kudrow stars as a therapist with limited patience for others' problems in this original improvised series." "Web Therapy" has even been picked up by the Showtime TV channel.
However, "Web Therapy" is NOT a closed captioned web series. Produced by the L Studio, an arm of Lexus, it does not have closed captions on EITHER YouTube or the web series website.
Caption Action 2 has contacted the producers of "Web Therapy" twice to ask for captions and has not had a single response. How popular is that web series? Popular enough that the esteemed actress Meryl Streep made a guest appearance! (Meryl Streep appeared in episode 46.) The series has had at least three seasons already, and only the first two seasons are on YouTube. The video player used on Lstudio.com is incapable of showing captions, so our only hope is to convince them to caption on YouTube.
We deserve and must demand, captions on this very popular web series. Especially now that the star of that show is the host of the Webby Awards! How can you help? Contact the producers, Is or Isn't Entertainment, at info@isorisnt.com. On Twitter, send a tweet to @LisaKudrow.
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However, "Web Therapy" is NOT a closed captioned web series. Produced by the L Studio, an arm of Lexus, it does not have closed captions on EITHER YouTube or the web series website.
Caption Action 2 has contacted the producers of "Web Therapy" twice to ask for captions and has not had a single response. How popular is that web series? Popular enough that the esteemed actress Meryl Streep made a guest appearance! (Meryl Streep appeared in episode 46.) The series has had at least three seasons already, and only the first two seasons are on YouTube. The video player used on Lstudio.com is incapable of showing captions, so our only hope is to convince them to caption on YouTube.
We deserve and must demand, captions on this very popular web series. Especially now that the star of that show is the host of the Webby Awards! How can you help? Contact the producers, Is or Isn't Entertainment, at info@isorisnt.com. On Twitter, send a tweet to @LisaKudrow.
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Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Blip.TV Redesigns Web Site, Does Nothing to Improve Accessibility!
Update: Blip has now updated their player to include captioning!
Today there was big news in the web series industry. Blip.TV announced it had redesigned their website to showcase the best, most professional web series. Not only that, Blip had raised $18 million in new funds.
Blip.TV claims it has support for closed captioning. A message on the Blip.TV support forum from Blip.TV staff on February 23, 2011 states:
"The blip.tv player supports closed captioning in .SRT or .TT format. Just upload your file as a secondary format on the Edit Episode page."
Another, much longer support forum thread discusses Blip.TV support for captioning.
However, where are those captioned videos on Blip.TV?! When Blip.TV redesigned their site, they did NOTHING to make it easier to find the captioned videos! AND the video player STILL does not prominently display a CC button like the one you see on YouTube videos.
Via Google, we found this Blip.TV file:
http://blip.tv/spacegeek/closed-captioned-the-pope-freud-seti-202162
When we played it, we observed that there was no CC button to enable hearing people to turn the captions on and off. Therefore, we can't tell if it is hard coded subtitles, or if it is truly CC.
Blip.TV needs to spend a FEW of those $18 million dollars to improve their website and video player's accessibility!!
There are other sites like Universal Subtitles, Videohelp.com, Doom 9, and Bill Creswell's that can help with subtitle creation and/or have tools to create them.
Join Caption Action 2
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Today there was big news in the web series industry. Blip.TV announced it had redesigned their website to showcase the best, most professional web series. Not only that, Blip had raised $18 million in new funds.
Blip.TV claims it has support for closed captioning. A message on the Blip.TV support forum from Blip.TV staff on February 23, 2011 states:
"The blip.tv player supports closed captioning in .SRT or .TT format. Just upload your file as a secondary format on the Edit Episode page."
Another, much longer support forum thread discusses Blip.TV support for captioning.
However, where are those captioned videos on Blip.TV?! When Blip.TV redesigned their site, they did NOTHING to make it easier to find the captioned videos! AND the video player STILL does not prominently display a CC button like the one you see on YouTube videos.
Via Google, we found this Blip.TV file:
http://blip.tv/spacegeek/closed-captioned-the-pope-freud-seti-202162
When we played it, we observed that there was no CC button to enable hearing people to turn the captions on and off. Therefore, we can't tell if it is hard coded subtitles, or if it is truly CC.
Blip.TV needs to spend a FEW of those $18 million dollars to improve their website and video player's accessibility!!
There are other sites like Universal Subtitles, Videohelp.com, Doom 9, and Bill Creswell's that can help with subtitle creation and/or have tools to create them.
Join Caption Action 2
Join Caption Action 2 on Facebook!
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