Subtitle (captioning)

Subtitles are derived from either a transcript or screenplay of the dialog or commentary in films, television programs, video games, and the like, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen, but can also be at the top of the screen if there is already text at the bottom of the screen. They can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a foreign language, or a written rendering of the dialog in the same language, with or without added information to help viewers who are deaf and hard of hearing to follow the dialog, or people who cannot understand the spoken dialogue or who have accent recognition problems. The encoded method can either be pre-rendered with the video or separate as either a graphic or text to be rendered and overlaid by the receiver. The separate subtitles are used for DVD, Blu-ray and television teletext/Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) subtitling or EIA-608 captioning, which are hidden unless requested by the viewer from a menu or remote controller key or by selecting the relevant page or service (e.g., p. 888 or CC1), always carry additional sound representations for deaf and hard of hearing viewers. Teletext subtitle language follows the original audio, except in multi-lingual countries where the broadcaster may provide subtitles in additional languages on other teletext pages. EIA-608 captions are similar, except that North American Spanish stations may provide captioning in Spanish on CC3. DVD and Blu-ray only differ in using run-length encoded graphics instead of text, as well as some HD DVB broadcasts.

Dick Maas

Dick Maas (born 15 April 1951, Heemstede) is a Dutch film director, screenwriter, film producer and film composer.

Maas achieved notoriety after the success of his music videos for the Dutch band Golden Earring, including "Twilight Zone" and the controversial "When the Lady Smiles," and his films De Lift,Amsterdamned and Flodder in the 1980s. Lately the Dutch director attracted international attention with his controversial Christmas slasher Sint (Saint Nick).

Personal life

Maas is married to fellow film director Esmé Lammers, a granddaughter of Max Euwe, World Chess Champion 1935–1937.

Filmography (as director)

Music Videos

Shorts

Features

1988

1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (dominical letter CB) of the Gregorian calendar, the 1988th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 988th year of the 2nd millennium, the 88th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1980s decade.

In the 20th century, the year 1988 has the most Roman numeral digits (11).

1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United States (NSFNET) and Europe (Nordunet) as well as the first Internet-based chat protocol, Internet Relay Chat. The concept of the World Wide Web was first discussed at CERN in 1988.

The Soviet Union began its major restructuring towards a mixed economy at the beginning of 1988 and began its gradual collapse. The first extrasolar planet, Gamma Cephei Ab (confirmed in 2002) was detected this year and the World Health Organization began its mission to eradicate polio, a feat that is nearly complete as of 2015.

Amsterdamned

Amsterdamned is a 1988 Dutch horror movie about a serial killer who hides in the canal system of Amsterdam. The film was directed and written by Dick Maas, and stars Huub Stapel, Monique van de Ven, and Serge-Henri Valcke.

The film revolves around a serial killer who uses the famed canals of the Dutch capital to strike random people. A hard boiled detective in charge of the case teams up with an old friend to stop the killer. He soon realizes that his new girlfriend may be linked somehow to the murders, but not what one would expect.

Plot

Opening from his point of view, a murderer looks around the city of Amsterdam at night through the canals the city is famous for. He sneaks into a Chinese restaurant's backdoor and steals a butcher knife while the cooks aren't looking. The killer finds his first victim in a local prostitute who, after refusing advances from a cab driver, gets thrown out of the cab. A baglady watches from a distance as the killer plunges the knife into the hooker and drags her back into the water. The next morning, a tour boat on the canal collides with the body of the prostitute, who has been hung on one of the small bridges. As the tourists scream, the body drags on the top of the boat until an opening shows her bloodied body and face.

De Lift

De Lift (also known as The Lift and The Elevator) is a 1983 film by Dutch director Dick Maas about an intelligent and murderous elevator starting a killing spree on random people.

In 2001, an American remake, Down, was made and was also directed by Dick Maas.

Plot

In a building in Amsterdam, an elevator inexplicably begins to function alone. A lightning storm causes a power failure, trapping four people in the elevator. The elevator will not open, even after a subsequent power restore and the passengers almost suffocate. Subsequent malfunctions prove fatal: an elderly blind man falls to his death when down the elevator doors open to an empty shaft, a night watchman of the building is decapitated by the elevator doors, and a janitor is snared in the shaft, his body dropping through the elevator ceiling hatch. Felix Adelaar (Huub Stapel), a technician from the elevator company Deta Liften, begins to examine the electrical system in an attempt to find any anomalies. During the course of several inspections, he meets Mieke De Boer (Willeke van Ammelrooy), a journalist for The Nieuwe Revu, a local tabloid that Felix remarks he often finds in his friends' cat litter.