ON BEHALF OF: Hoyts Cinemas Limited ('Hoyts'), the Greater Union Organisation Pty Limited ('Greater Union'), Village Roadshow Limited ('Village Roadshow') and the Motion Pictures Distributors Association of Australia ('MPDAA')
Further to the public forums conducted by Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) it is proposed that open-captioning films be made available to be screened in commercially operated cinemas on an ongoing basis.
Trial screenings have already taken place in Sydney and Melbourne, the results of which have been presented to HREOC.
The major cinema chains of Village, Hoyts and Greater Union are pleased to continue to cooperate in this endeavour, and propose the following for the future –
1.Screenings will be extended to Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane and continue in Sydney and Melbourne.
2. In each case, Village, Hoyts and Greater Union will each identify a key CBD location at which open captioned films will be shown to maximise convenience.
3.Where an open captioned film is available it will screen in each location for a two week season at the following session times:
Wednesday 10:00 am
Friday 6:30 pm
Sunday 3:00 pm
Screening times would be reviewed if there was more than one film in the market place at the same time.
4. Films will be subject to Distributor availability, but it is envisaged that they will be major, first-run releases.
5.Following the initial two week run, open captioned films will be made available to other cinemas operated by Village, Hoyts and Greater Union in Canberra, Hobart and Darwin and any other exhibitor who requests them.
6.Captioned film details will be clearly advertised in the exhibitors' newspaper directories and through other mechanisms such as Web sites.
7.A committee will be established with agreed terms of reference with representation from the film distributors, exhibitors and the deaf and hearing impaired community.
The MPDAA proposes the following:
Member Companies of the MPDAA support the campaign to screen open-captioned prints of Feature Films in Australia.
All Companies are presently seeking to determine the titles for which open-captioned prints will be produced and will seek to make these available for screening from February 2001.
Whilst Columbia Tri-Star Films supports the "Closed / Rear Window captioning" system and does not manufacture open-captioned prints of films produced by the studio, there may be titles acquired for Australian release for which open-captioned prints will be sought.
While not legally binding Hoyts, Village, Greater Union and the MPDAA will endeavour to fully implement the proposal.
These notes have been developed by the Captioned Movies Forum to clarify and assist in the implementation of the proposal on cinema captioning
1. The proposal involves each of the exhibitors showing open captioned films in each of their identified CBD cinemas. This means that if three open captioned films are available for distribution in Australia at the same time, and each of the exhibitors has access to one there could be three open captioned films being shown at the same time. In such a circumstance screening times may be reviewed to maximize opportunities for viewing.
2. The issue of Australian produced films being made available in an open captioned format is one that can be addressed by the Committee.
3. The role of the committee is to:
The Committee will include one representative each from:
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission will chair the first meeting after which decisions will be made about the chair for future meetings.
Committee members will be responsible for reporting on activities to their own constituencies. Forum members will be invited by the HREOC to participate in a review of developments in twelve months time (April 2002).