The View from a Drawbridge

Most bridgetenders watch at least a dozen movies a week at work. There isn’t much else to do. On any given week I’ll watch anything from Fellini’s “Amarcord” to “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”. (Tell me I’m not well-rounded. I dare you.) And when you have to drown out the roar of traffic and the crackle of the marine radio (not every call is for us, after all), you get into the habit of turning on the captions of the movies in question, so as not to miss anything.

I never really thought about the person who actually creates the captioning for those movies until I became one of them myself. I now have a side job as a captioner.  Oh, I haven’t hit the big time yet. I do cartoons, not feature films. But still.

The beauty of this work is that I can do as much or as little of it as I want, from the privacy of my own, uh…home, of course. The downside is that one is paid by the job, not by the hour, and I think I’ve gotten as good at it as I will ever be, which means I’m averaging about $2.65 an hour. Peanuts, yes, but mighty convenient peanuts, and I have to say it’s a lot of fun. If it weren’t so much fun, I probably wouldn’t bother.

I’ve done a couple of really strange cartoons from countries with such cultural differences that I couldn’t really grasp their appeal, but I have settled on one series that is a modern British version of The Magic Roundabout, and it’s delightful. I’ll be sad when I’ve run out of episodes.

And what is happening is magical, indeed. Since I have to concentrate to do the captioning, I feel as though I’m right in there with the characters, almost as if I’m part of the family. I’ve gotten to know each personality, and can anticipate how they’ll think and react. That helps me figure out what they’re about to say. Being able to practically finish their sentences has increased my captioning speed a great deal.

And I love the idea that I’m actually helping people. Somewhere out there, someone is improving their reading or English skills, or someone who is hearing impaired will read my captions and it will allow them to enjoy the show in question as much as the rest of his or her friends and family.

I want to make sure they get the full experience. I take it very seriously. I want to emphasize the right words using italics. I want to break sentences in logical places, taking into account the way the words are flowing from the speaker’s lips. I want my sound effects to really give you a sense of the sounds. I want the captions to pop up at just the right moment and remain on the screen for a sufficient length of time to be comfortably read.

One thing’s for certain. I’ll never look at captioning in the same way again. Now I’ll always think of the person who did it, and how they’re trying to make a living in a very creative way. I’ll appreciate it when they take pride in their work, and sometimes I’ll say to myself, for example, “I would have dealt with that sound differently.”

It’s kind of an art form, when you think about it.