--- Forwarded Message from John DuQuette <[log in to unmask]> ---
>Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:18:41 -0400
>From: John DuQuette <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
>User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 (Macintosh/20070728)
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum
<[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #8651.5 (!) "Clean" movies
>References: <[log in to unmask]>
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
Hello All,
Anything like this requires a human editor, human intervention. One
possibility is to give the students who want "clean" versions a copy of
the DVD to watch. Have them watch the full movie and keep a record of
any part of the film that they find objectionable. Have them take note
of the point in the running time and also the DVD chapter, as well as a
description of the event or word they object to at that point. When
watching the movie class for class they should use their own notes to
skip these chapters or skip over these time markers. They can then
inform the professor that they didn't watch those chapters or sections
and explain why, I'm sure most professors would be understanding. They
can also offer to make copies of these notes for anyone else who wants
them -- but it's probably best to have each student compile their own
list as opinions may differ.
The type of services that you were inquiring about do or did exist, in
fact I met a guy who started one of the companies, out of Utah... they
were being sued by Hollywood. (I don't quite understand that either,
considering that TV networks and airlines do similar - I guess maybe
because in those cases they have permission.) With these services they
make the decisions and editing -- they type that I am suggesting your
students do or that Daniel (below) suggests you do in iMovie. (By the
way, you will have to do some work to get the subtitles back in after
you do that -- if you want them.) I don't really know if these services
are still in business, but he told me they were doing great. I do doubt
if you will find Pedro Almodovar, for example, or many other foreign
titles in their offerings, considering their intended audience
(Americans with children).
There were two types of services, one where they just recut the films...
and one that used a special type of player that utilized a companion
disk that included the edit decisions. I just found the answer
(http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/Congress-approves-Family-Movie-Act-to-allow-DVD-ce
nsorship.html),
the former type of service was ruled illegal, so familyflix.com and
cleanfilms.com are no longer with us. However the latter type lives, see
the contraption here:
http://www.clearplay.com.
(I don't see any foreign language films in their list of "filters" --
and you'd need a "filter" for the film you want to watch chopped up. You
can make requests for specific films but I don't see any way to create
your own "filter." Also their FAQ states that they don't filter the
subtitles per se.)
Theoretically it's possible for a DVD player to pre-scan captions /
subtitles for certain words and do something when those words appear
(not show them, mute the audio, skip the chapter, etc.). It would be
quite a chore as they'd have to use optical character recognition in
many cases since one popular form of captioning with DVDs involves
captions as images, not as text. I have never heard of such a DVD player
existing, but I'd be curious to know if it does.
What you can do on your own, regarding subtitles... you can "rip" the
DVD (using something like "Mac the Ripper") and then also "rip" the
captions/subtitle data out of it using a program that does that for you.
(You'll find it all if you root around online a bit.) You can then use
a program that can convert this caption data to text file with time code
info. Then, using a simple text editor, find whichever words in the
English translation you want to change, and change them. You can
re-assemble the film and your new captions using DVD Studio Pro or the
like and burn yourself a new copy. Keep the original in a safe place as
your legal "back up." I am skipping a few steps and necessary software
but all the info you need to do this is found online. Legally it's all
kind of gray area, but as long as you are not making more than one of
these new versions for each copy that you actually legally purchased, I
doubt anyone will bother you and personally I don't think you'd be doing
any harm. (Though of course law is not my field.)
Finally, I did find this very interesting article online "DVD: A New
Medium for Language Classrooms" from "The Language Teacher" (september
1996):
http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/files/96/sept/dvd.html
/It will also be possible for teachers to program DVD players to show
either G, PG, PG-13, R, or NC-17 versions of the same movie (Toshiba,
1995a). With a digital code, teachers (and parents) will be able to
lock-in or lock-out selected ratings levels. The DVD player will
automatically censor portions of the movie according to the ratings
level selected.
/
Does anyone know if Toshiba actually ever built such a DVD player? Or if
any DVD with this feature was ever produced? I've never seen one but
maybe...
Our own practice is not to censor any of our online video content. We do
have products that are heavily used by k-12 schools via group group
accounts (e.g. Yabla Ola at http://ola.yabla.com). For these sites we
simply not include what we (subjectively of course) deem less
appropriate for a k-12 audience. For universities we give them the
choice of this or access to a product with a full video library. The
University of Iowa, for example, specifically requested a change to the
full library, whereas a small university in PA switched to the more
limited library.
Good luck with finding an option that works for your school.
best,
John DuQuette
yabla inc.
http://lomastv.com (spanish)
http://clic.yabla.com (french)
LLTI-Editor wrote:
> Hello everyone:
>
> I mean no disrespect in this response, but I have to agree that censoring
words
> out from movies and editing movie content would alter the meaning and intent
of
> the message of the movie. But please remember, Vanderbilt is in a very
> conservative area of the United States and is deep within the "Bible Belt"
where
> such concerns regarding morality have a greater influence than in the rest of
> the USA. That being said, however, we have seen time and again that movies for
> television have been altered and edited to suit audience/time/rating
> specifications.
>
> If you have the staffing and time to import the movies into something like
> iMovie, you can indeed censure the material by reducing the audio tracks to
> "zero" during the "bad words" being spoken, but one would have to master the
> technique to minimize the editing so as to not destroy the intent of the
message
> of the movie.
>
> Unfortunately, there is not going to be an easy or magic way to do this
without
> spending a lot of time and effort to achieve your desired result.
>
> ====================================
> Daniel E. Meyers
> Interactive Language Resource Center
> Irvin Hall 47 - Miami University
> Oxford, Ohio 45056
> ====================================
>
>
>
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Teaching
> and Learning (http://www.languageconsortium.org/).
> Join IALLT at http://iallt.org.
> Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask])
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