[Nfbf-l] Reviewing Described Movies - "What is a Described Movie?"

[Alan Dicey]

From: the Matilda Ziegler Magazine  Weekly Edition for May 6, 2013
Contributor Robert Kingett - Reviewing in the Dark

Reviewers write what they see in a movie. A film has everything from vibrant 
camera work to catchy credits with high-class animations. My attention, 
however, isn't focused on the shiny effects, the green screen effects, or 
the makeup because I don't see any of that when I sit down to review a movie 
for magazines and newspapers. I'm a blind film critic evaluating a different 
aspect of a movie that many people don't know about. Instead of focusing on 
the stunning visuals, I evaluate the word choice, clarity, accuracy, tone of 
voice, and emphasis pauses to help create a special service for the blind 
and visually impaired called audio description that is now steadily growing 
to a never before seen availability.

Audio description is a service for the blind and the visually impaired that 
describes key visual elements of a program in between natural pauses in the 
movie's soundtrack. Audio description describes costumes, gestures, scene 
changes, and facial expressions.

Creating an audio description for a film is a lengthy process. After the 
filmmakers finish shooting the movie, they send it off to trained describers 
who watch the movie a minimum of three times before carefully compiling a 
script to match the pauses in dialogue. After the script is written it is 
sent, along with the produced movie, to the audio description production 
team where they create a separate digital audio track. Once the process is 
completed, the described film is sent back to the studio where they 
distribute it to movie theaters, and later on DVD, if the studios decide to 
include the track on the DVD. Many don't.

Audio description is a careful practice as it has a lot to review and 
evaluate. Consideration needs to be given to every facet of the audio 
descriptor's work. The description cannot be verbose and it should not 
describe something the soundtrack may already convey. The inflections must 
also be fitting, and the vocabulary age appropriate. The language used needs 
to be precise enough to convey information without detracting from the film. 
A great example is comedy: if there's a hilarious scene happening and the 
audio describer keeps using complicated words to describe a simple witty 
action then the audio description is not good.

A lot of people don't know about audio description, newspapers and magazines 
included. Usually critics are anonymous, but since I'm an audio description 
critic, using a service that's just now making its way into true mainstream 
media, I have to make sure it's available. To ensure theaters have audio 
description I turn to captionfish.com; a service that will find described 
films near you designated by zip code. It takes some effort to establish 
credibility with theaters as there is no standard for audio description 
critics so I'm proud to say that I have patience. It's worth it when I 
arrive and the manager issues me my reviewer's ticket and I strut into the 
theater with my audio description FM headset on, ready to dissect the meaty 
goods of a feature flick.

The people whom I write for appreciate the different scope of opinions. I 
enjoy bringing a new objective opinion to the table about the newest hit 
blockbuster through different eyes. I enjoy using my brain to explore the 
unexpected as well as shed some light on an accessibility angle. Through my 
reviews, editors and readers get a chance to experience a movie through 
different eyes. The reward is not in getting to see a movie before others 
but the reward is lending my appraising ears to a medium that has its own 
form of sight in adjectives, nouns, and pronouns. Continuing on my critical 
road will, I believe, open readers to new sights and sounds, editors to 
unique and different perspectives that many can appreciate, and, overall, 
new beams of awareness involving care for accessibility and careful choice 
of words.

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