Senchant Irene Davis“”Replacement“Premiere on film festivals 25 years ago, but only now get it Theater distribution from Janus Films. Its big screen debut comes in Tandem with its restoration, which Davis calls a “rejuvenation.” As she told Indiewire Filmmaker Toolkit PodcastThe process improved the film: A 4K scan produced details from 16 mm negatively, while the 5.1 -surround track unlocked layered sound design that was “crushed” in its original Mono track.
But for Davis, the biggest improvement is from which open caption technology is now possible. “The CaptionIt was estate, Davis said. “Since back ’99 we were only limited to two dialogue rows, two captions, 31 characters max. You had to condense, even the dialogue, you had to condense it so that it would fit, and it must be at the bottom of the screen. ”
“Replacement“Contains two parallel stories, one in the early 1900s and one at the end. Everyone is about a deaf black woman (actress Michelle A. Banks plays both) and what it means to fall in love with a man (actor John Earl Jelks plays both) who is not deaf and does not know American Sign Language (ASL). Members of the Chicagos ASL community were the key to its production, in front of and behind the camera.
For a movie about communication and the deaf community, Davis adapted the cinematic language in early silent film. This included old -fashioned middle texts and captions. With new open caption technology, Davis worked with difficulty hearing filmmaker Alison O’Daniel (“The Tuba Thieves”) to create entirely new captions that opened the film for a new world of storytelling opportunities. “(O’Daniel) really helped us create the stage to include captions in strategic parts of the frame,” Davis said.
With the ability to use the entire frame and working pictures in the composition, O’Daniel and Davis placed music descriptions in the upper left corner of the frame, sound effect descriptions in the upper right corner and changed positioning of the dialogue. “Alison taught us as a team that we should put the caption closer to the person who speaks, if it is a multiple character scene, so deaf and hearing impaired know who is actually talking,” said Davis.
This made a huge improvement for “compensation”, which often lives in broad images and uses very few close -ups. On the stage in the picture below, Malindy (Banks) talks to other women in a wide shot. The dialogue that is placed near the character clarifies who is talking and helps to clarify what is happening in the scene.
The restoration “Compensation” also used captions in expressionist ways. During a modern scene there is a sequence that Davis refers to as “depression mount.” It uses an optical printer, Eisenstein-inspired editing and an expressionist use of audio design to create an almost underwater effect made even more pronounced with the restoration’s multi-channel surround mix. Davis and O’Daniel matched this formal playfulness with their attitude to new captions for this scene.
“We did some engrossing things with the caption,” Davis said. “Making words big, capitalized, making them go backwards and forwards, making them dive and shine a little. We can use the technology to make you feel what the characters go through emotionally. “
With a movie that attracts deaf and hearing impaired, O’Daniel and Davis focused on captions that would make the film more engrossing and easier to follow. During the process, Davis also discovered a real advantage for the hearing audience by paying attention not only to the use of sound but also the layers of communication.
“It also helps to hear people to actually pay more attention: ‘Oh, these sounds are here. I didn’t think about it, or I didn’t hear that part of that music before. I didn’t think about the music that way, ”said Davis.
“It was a really difficult process to decide – there is a lot of text in” compensation “already because you have to read title cards that were in style (off) silent movie,” she said. “But we also want to make sure that the language was not too burdensome – people are like,” Oh, I don’t want to watch this movie because I don’t want to read anymore. “But the marriage of using the caption on the screen and intertitles really worked. And I think it has a more engulfing experience to watch the movie now, whether you hear or if you are deaf or hearing impaired.”
“Compensation” is currently playing at Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center in New York and Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago. For more information about upcoming play dates in other cities, please Click here.
To hear Zeinabu Irene Davis’s full tool bet interview, subscribe to the Toolkit podcast on AppleThe SpotifyOr your favorite podcast platform. You can also look at the entire interview on indiegees Youtube page.
