Maverick Entertainment Uses CaptionSync by AST to Close Caption Films Distributed to Top Cable, Internet and Retail Outlets
“In 2012 we decided to stay ahead of the FCC deadlines for 2013-14, and began closed captioning all lms, whether PPV or VOD or DVD. We are proud to distribute fully accessible entertainment.”
-Melissa Mackenzie, Senior Vice President Worldwide Film Acquisitions & Creative Development
Since 1997, Florida-based Maverick Entertainment Group has acquired and distributed niche lms from independent producers for home entertainment. Maverick has grown its catalog of titles as the market has evolved, and widened its distribution beyond North America to include Western Europe and Asian. Now a leader in acquisition of original content for DVD, PPV and VOD viewing, Maverick works to educate its customers about the technical requirements for producing “curtain ready” programs for both digital viewing and theater distribution. Maverick has long distributed lms with both subtitles for foreign language content and closed captioning for accessibility, in compliance with U.S. FCC regulations.
The Situation
Maverick acquires original content for its growing catalog of niche lms. They often work with rst- or second-time producers, who do not know that captioning requires separated music, e ects and dialogue audio elements. “From the acquisition standpoint, we try to educate our producers about requirements, so they deliver all the components to meet the tight deadlines typical of our distribution schedule,” says Melissa Mackenzie, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Film Acquisitions & Creative Development at Maverick. With the exponential growth of video streaming over the Internet, Maverick distributes “A” titles in multiple formats to many markets. The manufacturing schedule is a tight 6-7 weeks for delivery of “curtain ready” content. It must meet the programmer’s format requirements for delivery, whether PPV or VOD via cable provider, or streamed from Internet sources such as Hulu, Amazon and Net ix, etc. Maverick stays ahead of technical innovations, and FCC regulations and legislation. In 2012, the company began closed captioning all versions ahead of the FCC’s 2013-14 deadline.
“AST gives us fast turnaround and consistent quality, which helps us get a film to the curtain state and out to our customers on deadline.”
The Solution
With CaptionSync, Maverick is able to automate the process of captioning full-length lm and TV series content in record time. They have also begun to caption older catalog les, as opportunities arise to provide the product to VOD, where some lms have never been. An added bene t of captioning is that it makes that content searchable and indexable. Maverick found, Doug Schwab, a video veteran in the entertainment business and a driving force for innovation in the industry has made streamlining operational processes a priority. AST is able to help Maverick’s talented lmmakers fast forward their entry into the viewing world.
The Result & Future
CaptionSync provided an easy-to-use, exible and scalable resource for Maverick. With giants like YouTube and Net ix producing original content, Maverick is focused on getting product to wider markets to showcase new talent. AST continues to provide low cost captioning, expanding services for video content production, including translation for foreign subtitles, and transcripts to reach foreign markets.