Wheelchair Worries - Sherlock or A Quiet Place?

My eyesight is pretty poor and my eyes don't stay still, which in general isn't too much of a problem. This is only an issue when they're trying to focus on something. Then my eyes flick side to side and up and down. Fortunately, subtitles are easy to see, and I always have subtitles on. Oh except when I watch football. I'm too busy trying to follow the ball, which is rather small and constantly in motion. 

The Gentlemen (2019)

They do a decent job of making television accessible for us partially sighted folk nowadays. We have the option of putting subtitles on for most programs or films. We can change the size, the font, background or no background, font colour and background colour. All televisions, streaming services etc allow this level of customisation. Mostly. Netflix, Apple and Disney seem to make it mandatory that anything that appears on their platform has subtitles. Amazon don't. Although to be fair to them, they do when it's Amazon original content. A lot of the content on Amazon is content that hasn't been distributed by Amazon; meaning the availability of subtitles depends on the licensing agreements with the original content owners. 

I don't know about you but I always check if there's subtitles available, it's non availability can be a deal breaker.

Closed captioning is a legal requirement for all nationally broadcast media in the UK, including satellite television, cable companies, movie theaters, and DVDs. The Media Act 2024 also established minimum quotas for subtitles and signing on on-demand services.

Source: Google search - "are subtitles a legal requirement"

I didn't ask about the UK solely though, a bit presumptuous there Google

closed captioning is a legal requirement in the United States for many types of media,

Source: Google search - "are subtitles a legal requirement in America"

 

Shrinking S2 ep 9

So subtitles are a legal requirement. Interesting. Shouldn't text that is displayed on screen in any form - text message, note, letter - follow the same rules? It would appear not. The mobile phone appears in just about every program/film nowadays, which is fair enough, they are barely out of our hands and we are constantly interacting with them. So it's realistic that people are always reading things on them. Surely that should mean the director /editor /producer /tea boy? (I'm not sure how these things work), are aware of how something is displayed on screen. 

My basic knowledge comes from documentaries or 'the making of..." docs. The director always seems to be watching what's happening in front of him, on a TV screen. I accept this is the equivalent of watching Instagram to keep up with what's happening in the news though. Mr Spielberg & co may not be responsible... But somebody is

Ironically old Nokia's used to have the perfect display. Before technology advanced to allow colour, Our choice was very limited. There were a few different fonts to choose from, but the level of customisation was so basic, virtually every set up we could choose ticked all the boxes. Then technology started to get better and Blackberry's started to take over. Mobile phone's still weren't a must-have item until the dawn of smartphones. With smartphones came colour screens. Smartphones were still compliant and each phone could be customised to help with any visibility issues. But, the smartphone doesn't ship with these settings by default and as most of us have the same setup, this is how it looks when it's shown on the television. The option is there to have your text large etc, but it doesn't look very appealing on camera, so the default more appealing setup is used. None of the boxes are ticked, but that's ok if steps are taken, meaning we're not constantly having to rewind and pause to read these tiny messages for the brief moment they're on screen.

Steps aren't always taken though.

Based On A True Story S2 ep 5

A good example - In Based On A True Story S2 ep 5, Ava's phone buzzes several times. Her phone screen is filled with alerts but they're too difficult to read without pausing. however, she is with her husband - who also wants to know. She turns on the news to show him and we see the story she was alerted to. From the dialogue they have, the viewer is under no illusion as to what is happening. The briefly and barely visible phone screen wasn't the only way of getting this information.

Based On A True Story S2 ep 3

However, the same show also has a bad example. Earlier in episode three Ava is in an apartment she shouldn't be, when a cop comes in. Ava's phone vibrates and the noise it makes alerts the cop who goes to investigate. The cop finds nothing and leaves. Ava checks her phone to see why it vibrated, and we the viewer see the text message as if we are looking through her eyes and it's too small to read. Ava stares forwards as if she's just had a realisation. Unfortunately I had to rewind and pause to get the chance to have the same realisation.

Carry On

There was nobody else in the room for Ava to explain what she's just seen. We, the viewer, have to rewind and pause to read the message. The NetFlix film Carry On is a good example of what to do here. Ethan receives a text and as he reads it the message is blown up on screen so we can see it. Simple. 

Why couldn't they do something similar on Based On A True Story? Instead of viewing the message through Ava's eyes, the camera could have been in front of her, the message is blown up and then she stares into the distance in realisation. Seriously, Mr Spielberg & Co, I'm available.

Another example of a show that doesn't have any consistency, is shrinking. I have put a few of the examples I found whilst watching it. There are a couple of good examples. The whole screen is taken up by a closeup of the phone screen. The message is large and easy to read. Then there is a post on Twitter, the post is flashed up on screen but is too small to read, fortunately, Liz reads it out. It doesn't matter that we couldn't read it because it was read out to us. Then there are three examples of hard to read text. They are readable if you pause on the screen. We have to see the characters face and that they are typing/reading a message. Therefore the phone is at an angle. Again, couldn't we use the Carry On approach and have the display of the phone blown up next to them? We could read the text conversation and see their reaction. Finally we have Alice sending a text to Paul. Paul's phone is momentarily flashed up on screen at an angle that is difficult to read. Paul is visibly peeved at whatever the message says and writes a reply while muttering his reply. His mutter is inaudible and the camera switches back to his phone at an angle so the message can't be read. The phone is the only thing on the screen though, so why couldn't just be at a readable angle? I had to rewind and pause, take a picture because it was still unreadable and zoom in. Again, couldn't we use the Carry On approach? (For the older readers I mean the 2024 film, I don't mean reading the message and then grimacing cheekily at the camera and saying "Ooh! Matron")

A Quiet Place: Day One

These aren't the only options and neither might fit it in with a project, take A Quiet Place: Day One for example. The solution here was, "sod it, it's not my problem". I should say I don't know for sure if that's what they thought, but for the purpose of this post I'll pretend they did. A Quiet Place: Day One is the third installment in the A Quiet Place franchise. The premise is, you can't make a noise because you will alert the aliens who have ultra sensitive hearing, to your presence. The humans communicate by writing messages, but they can't read them out loud or even whisper them, so the viewer has no choice but to read them. As you can see from the picture, no effort has been made to make this message readable. It says "what meds do you need?" What follows is an intense scene where he's gone to another building to look for medication, something you would be none the wiser to if you didn't read the message.

The rewind button on my controller is looking worn as it's called into action again. The message is still very hard to see however, so I had to take a picture on my phone and zoom in on my picture to read it. What a faff! A faff that could have been saved if they'd inserted a few extra frames, showing a closeup view of the notepad.

As well as Carry On, Sprint is another good example. Is it a coincidence that this and Carry On are Netflix shows? Or is it just because they are the type of shows this look is appropriate for? (That's not rhetorical, it's a genuine question). From the first episode of season one, a lot of social media posts are displayed like this, so that they are clear and easy to read for ALL viewers.

Sherlock

I think the best example of a show being accessible is the BBC show Sherlock. It's fifteen years old now having first aired in 2010. It was the first show I'd noticed that integrated the reading of text messages or notes into the drama on-screen. It was seamless and the design of it was brilliant. This was a show where Mr Spielberg & Co were joined by Mr or Mrs make-things-look-good-but-also-practical-so-that-all-can-enjoy-it. 

As there would be written clues that Sherlock and Watson would get

Sherlock

throughout and text messages and notes, it would need to illustrate how Sherlock's mind works differently from ours. There was a consistent design throughout. Texts would always be white. Subject headings would be bold, while the body of the text would be smaller. The text would appear next to the person receiving it. Illustrations of how Sherlock was thinking was more free form, but would appear around an image of him thinking.

So you have three options. There is the *shrugs shoulders* not my problem approach. The get it right some of the time, but also shrug your shoulders when you can't be bothered. Or smash it outta the park every time. There needs to be some rules in place, similar to subtitles meaning all forms of text on screen have to be readable or audible for all viewers. We call that doing the Sherlock.