How to Fix a “Fire Crotch” Controversy

Plus: Accessibility Is Still a Struggle for Hollywood

Author

Steve
February 27, 2024

Aloha Hollywood tech nerds!

In this week’s post:

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How to Fix a “Fire Crotch” Controversy

Variety has a good rundown of the recent Mean Girls “fire crotch” controversy (I am as sorry for typing this phrase as I’m sure you are for reading it). In quick summation, in its recent digital release, a line referencing the term “fire crotch” was excised due to offense from Lindsay Lohan, who had been described as such all the way back in 2006. You can see the revised sequence below:

Tabloid stuff? Sure, but here’s the twist: someone close to Paramount informed me the version of the film with the original scene was actually live for a few days before Paramount scrambled to update it.

This update process is no easy feat: not only does the video for the film itself receive a fix, but so do all of its ancillary related assets, from captions to foreign language subtitles and dubs. Paramount also can’t just give Apple or Amazon new files, they have to be provided by a qualified vendor and then go through another QC process.

These types of updates are not uncommon in digital releases either; a few years ago Peter Rabbit received criticism for a scene that mocked allergies and Sony quickly moved to have the scene removed from its digital release. Sony’s more recent Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse also emerged in different versions during both its theatrical and digital releases.

Of course, the granddaddy of multiple versions is 80s cult classic Clue, wherein the movie ended in 3 different ways depending on the region where you saw it, before all three were combined for its home video release.

Need help figuring out your own versioning issues? My bosses would love to talk to you!

Accessibility Is Still a Struggle for Hollywood

I was truly surprised by this pair of articles from the LA Times and Salon about the glaring issues that still exist for people who are deaf and hard of hearing, as well as their ability to access screenings where they can easily watch a film with correctly-functioning closed caption readers or open captioned screenings.

From Salon:

…the captioning device I ask for every time my family goes to a movie theater… [is] heavy and cumbersome, a rectangular viewer with metal blinders attached at the end of a long, flexible metal pole. The pole screws or fastens into the drink holder of a theater armrest. Yes, this means I and other people who use these devices can't have our own drink. I frequently bruise my elbow banging into the awkward device which hangs over the seat, there's no way to get up until the device is removed, and my non-disabled partner has become an expert at trying to adjust the finicky thing. They're often old and squeaky. Once, one broke in half as we sat there. In theory, captions appear on the device's viewer screen when the film begins, which means looking quickly between the big screen in front of you and the small screen near your lap to follow the action and dialogue. At least, captions are supposed to appear.

It’s astounding to me that technology hasn’t better solved this issue, just as it shocked me post-Super Bowl to learn that only around 33% of TV ads include captions. How is advertising and entertainment so badly serving such a large population? We have to do better.

If you need help with your own captioning or ASL endeavors you can also… contact my bosses.

Here’s a round-up of cool links about Hollywood and technology:

When streaming revenue officially overtakes pay TV. (link)

Is TikTok on the decline? (link)

How an Iowa newspaper’s website became an AI-generated clickbait factory. (link)