Hi,

I've been doing AD for a few years now, and I've tried a few AD-specific programs (Cadet, Closed Caption Creator), but mostly I use Aegisub to draft my scripts. I sometimes use other programs to QC, if they're available.

What does everyone else use? Or do you just do spreadsheets/word/etc? I've been kind of operating in a vacuum for a number of years. o_O

So happy to check out this sub, though! :)

~M

Hello, just looking for examples (partial or whole) of AD scripts for theatre. Digital, or scans of marked up documents, either is fine. Anyone got any pointers or old scripts laying around?

Hi! I currently work for an organization that works with the Deaf and Blind community in my area. I have been tasked with finding a live audio description service for presentations and conferences. So far, I have found very limited services that can complete something like this live. I am only seeing LiveVoice, accessiBe, and Vitac, and these companies give barely any information on their services and procedure.

Any insight into where to look, what to look for, or any good companies/services would be greatly appreciated!! Sorry if this is not the subreddit to ask this, I am happy to direct my questions elsewhere. Thanks!!

Hello, everyone! I’m new here. I’m looking for online AD training for video (not for live events). There are two trainings of note in April but they are both on the same weekend that I can’t do.

Does anyone know of any others? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you!!

Hi!

What are your opinions related to the audio descriptions available for films which are very rich in information conveyed visually as well as very rich in voiceover narration, such as Anderson's movies? In these cases, it seems to me that an audiodescription would potentially be extremely detailed and long, but there is very little time to fit it in, and the voiceover narration does somewhat already convey the gist of what is happening. Do audio describers simply give up on conveying all the information, and let the voiceover do the talking so as not to overcrowd the experience?

For instance, in The French dispatch, a journalist narrates her account of a young man's death becoming a symbol for counter-culture throughout the world. While she says in a voiceover: "his likeness (mass-produced and shrink-wrap packaged) will be sold like bubblegum to the hero-inspired", a fast-paced montage of the character's picture appears, showing it first as a film reel, then as an advertisement for cigars (which the character is often seen smoking), then as the main picture of a newspaper article detailing how he died, and, finally, as a print on the t-shirt of a young adolescent playing with his friends. Both the montage and the voiceover are so beautiful and rich with interesting information that I would not know how to satisfactorily convey all of it: do existing audio descriptions do a good job in cases such as this? What approach would you prefer?

I'm really sorry if my post is worded in a confusing way or if I ask anything that is ignorant or offensive: English is not my first language and I know very little about this topic.

I'm writing a course paper on nonverbal elements of communication in audio description of comedy movies (I chose home alone). For that I need to attach the script of the movie and the transcript of the audio description. Does anyone know if there is a text version of the description available anywhere? I already have the audio file and I can transcribe it myself, but it would be so much faster if I had the text already made...

Big thanks to anyone in advance!

So when adding audio descriptions to a webinar, how do you describe a row of data in a data table? Is it just “the cell in row 5, column 1 (Name), contains “Jerry”. Or can I do “Row 5 reads left to right: (Name), “Jerry”?

I have vision issues but I’m not blind, so I’ve never thought to use audio description, I just happened to wander across it and it’s amazing!

I do other things when I’m watching tv, as such I do not watch a lot of action oriented movies, but with audio description it’s telling me the damn scene so I don’t have to stare at explosions, I can do other things…

These movies are terrible so maybe I’m just not into action movies, but I could follow the story as I stitched up the dog bed.

Hi all,

I'm currently writing some AD for a film from the early 1980s, where the main performers titles overlay the opening scene.

Fortunately it's a scene with minimal action, but it helps set the mood of the film.

My concern is that literally stating what is happening on screen will mean action description is awkwardly intercut with a name that doesn't relate to that action. Is it acceptable to instead, set the scene when there are no titles, read all of the titles as one short block, then focus on the action as it happens?

The film is Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, if anyone is familiar with it. It's a great one-room piece, adapted from a stage play. Very claustrophobic, hot, dusty, and with intense character focus. I think it will work well with AD in part because it doesn't need a huge amount, the story is character-driven, and the actors in it are excellent.

Netflix, Prime, Hulu, Apple, Disney Plus, and to an extent, Crave. All of these services technically offer audio descriptive content. But there's no telling if a service will include it. And unless there's an extremely good reason someone can illuminate, this needs to stop. Example: Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among thieves was just released on netflix. without AD. I found it on SERO, which means it's described somewhere. That somewhere in this case is Apple TV. So why does Netflix, a company who is actually generally pretty good about audio description not have it? They even had audio description for Squid Game, a Korean series. Most foreign Netflix originals daine to include AD for only the original language track. While Squid Game did English. And that's another thing. It's fantastic that the original language has AD. There's almost none of that out there for non-english speakers. But I've lost track of how many Netflix originals have "Japanese" or "Korean" audio description, but not English.

This isn't just a rant, I genuinely want to know if I'm being unreasonable. It's out there, it exists. So why not include it whereever the movie/series is? And why not include English as well for content which is dubbed into that language?

Hello everyone, Are used in Google Bard to ask for a description and transcript of the following trailer for the flash. I would like to know would this be a viable starting point for a script for audio description for this trailer? The response I got from Google Bard is posted below: Sure, here is a transcript and description of what is going on in the movie trailer for "The Flash" from YouTube:

• The trailer opens with a shot of Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) running through a city, with a voiceover saying, "In a world where heroes are celebrated, one man will discover that even the fastest man alive can't outrun his past."
• We then see a montage of clips from the movie, including Barry fighting crime, Barry interacting with his friends and family, and Barry meeting with Michael Keaton's Bruce Wayne.
• The trailer also features a brief appearance by Sasha Calle's Supergirl, and a voiceover from Barry saying, "I'm the Flash. I can run faster than the speed of light."
• The trailer ends with a shot of Barry running towards a dark figure, with the voiceover saying, "But when a new threat emerges, Barry will have to team up with his friends and family to save the world."

Here is a more detailed description of the scenes in the trailer:

• The first scene shows Barry Allen running through a city, with a voiceover saying, "In a world where heroes are celebrated, one man will discover that even the fastest man alive can't outrun his past." This scene is set in Central City, Barry's home city. We can see that Barry is wearing his Flash costume, and he is clearly moving at superhuman speed. The voiceover suggests that Barry is trying to escape from something, but we don't know what it is.
• The second scene shows Barry fighting crime. We see him running down a street, chasing a group of criminals. Barry quickly catches up to the criminals, and he easily takes them down. This scene shows that Barry is a skilled fighter, and that he is using his powers to protect the innocent.
• The third scene shows Barry interacting with his friends and family. We see him sitting at a table with his mother, Nora Allen (Michelle Pfeiffer), and his father, Henry Allen (Billy Crudup). Barry is also seen talking to his best friend, Iris West (Kiersey Clemons). These scenes show that Barry is a loving and caring person, and that he is surrounded by people who love and support him.
• The fourth scene shows Barry meeting with Michael Keaton's Bruce Wayne. We see Barry and Bruce sitting in a coffee shop, talking about something. Bruce is wearing his Batman costume, which suggests that they are talking about crime fighting. This scene suggests that Barry and Bruce will be working together in the movie.
• The fifth scene features a brief appearance by Sasha Calle's Supergirl. We see Supergirl flying through the air, and she is wearing her Supergirl costume. This scene suggests that Supergirl will also be appearing in the movie.
• The sixth scene shows Barry running towards a dark figure. We can't see the dark figure's face, but we can see that it is wearing a red and black costume. This scene suggests that Barry will be facing a new threat in the movie.
• The seventh and final scene shows Barry running towards the camera, with the voiceover saying, "But when a new threat emerges, Barry will have to team up with his friends and family to save the world." This scene suggests that Barry will need to use all of his powers to save the world from the new threat.

Overall, the trailer for "The Flash" looks very exciting. It looks like the movie will be a mix of action, adventure, and drama. I'm looking forward to seeing how Barry Allen uses his powers to save the world.

I'm doing tech stuff for a small film festival and we want to have it be accessible as possible.

We are running some of the events at local cinemas that allow for using Digital Cinema Packages (DCP) which allows you to add a mono Audio Description track on Track 8 which is synced and gets streamed to infared headphones I believe (it's all handled from their end)

However we are also going to be doing some smaller events with a much more basic setup of essentially creating some .mov files with burned in CCs in a playlist and playing it with maybe VLC (or any video player it doesn't super matter)

The question I have is how would you set up an AD track with a setup doing that and have it be synced and only go to those who need it?

If anyone has any experience in this sort of thing please let me know!

I'm currently working on an AD script for a documentary film which has a lot of voice-over narration, and a fair amount of to-camera speech. I need to try and squeeze in a brief visual description of the different participants, but there is so little space between blocks of speech I can't get it in early enough for it to make sense! The film screening is also unsuitable for an audio introduction, so I can't even do that as a way to make sure each participant is properly described.

Sigh.

The Describer Cafe is a monthly presentation about topics relevant to professional describers and AD students. It is free and virtual. It is sometimes very theatre focused, but often has topics interesting to TV and movie describers too.

The next month's Describer Cafe topic looks particularly relevant to current and aspiring describers. The topic is “Audio Description Standards and Certification for Film and Television: update from the USA”.

You can register here: https://ypmrdw.clicks.mlsend.com/te/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjI1OTMzNSxcImxcIjo4MzU4MzQwNDczNzU2MjQ1MCxcInJcIjo4MzU4MzQwNTkxOTMwNzE1Mn0iLCJzIjoiMDcxNDU2ZjU4YTE5YmRiNSJ9

Once you’ve registered for one, you will be on the email list for all future ones and will automatically get the topics and invites by email. I know there are some interesting topics coming up about blind narrators, live TV description, and video game description.

Hope to see you there!

I'm looking for suggestions for AD training programs and certificates, either online or in person. I'm in Canada, but could travel. I have some experience preparing descriptions for an art gallery context and am looking to professionalize. Thank you!

Last year I did a course in audio description. One thing I was introduced to was the concept of Audio Introductions - supplemental description consumed prior to watching to flesh out the descriptions of some settings, characters and props that there just isn't space for in AD.

I wrote 6 of these last year for the films ALIEN, Annihilation, Dark City, Noise, The Rage in Placid Lake, and Wake in Fright. At this point they are texts, not performed.

You can find them at my website - all linked from the home page.

Any feedback appreciated.

They are all CC-BY-NC-SA so you anyone can record, share or use them, subject to the licence.

I am preparing a project that will include generating, recording, and installing QR codes to access descriptions for pieces in a local art gallery. We are a nonprofit, but we want to start working with businesses to be able to charge for our accessibility services, so we can put those funds back into other projects! I know AD professionals who work in TV/Movies typically charge per program minute. Any thoughts on how to price a service like this for an art gallery or other semi-permanent exhibit?

Hello! We are PhD students at Cornell Tech working on research related to accessibility and technology. We’re recruiting blind and low vision folks and audio description professionals in the NYC area for a paid study! We are conducting a two-part study to learn more about BLV users’ and audio describers’ thoughts on engaging 360° video descriptions. Familiarity with 360° video is preferred, but not required.

Interviews will be one hour long. During the interview, you will be asked to share your experiences with AD and brainstorm ideas for 360° video experiences. Although the interviews will be conducted remotely, we are still aiming to recruit people in NYC who can attend the second part of the study. If you have experience with creating audio descriptions as a blind or low vision person but do not live in NYC, please reach out and we may be able to interview you even if you cannot attend the design workshop.

Design workshops will be ~1.5 hours long and in-person at Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island. The design workshop will focus on discussing and collaboratively designing innovative 360° video description experiences with other AD enthusiasts.

Compensation is $25 for the interview and $50 for the design workshop. We will also reimburse up to $30 in travel expenses with receipts.

Please fill out this Google Form if you are interested in participating or if you have any questions. Thank you so much!

I have been watching Star trek Picard both seasons one and two have it but three does not Is it a cost thing or could they just knocked be bothered ?