[Nfbwv-talk] Huntington Area Chapter met yesterday

[Brad Hodges]

Greetings Federation Family:

yesterday was a busy day for the Huntington Area Chapter. We changed up 
things a bit from our customary third Saturday meeting at the Public 
Library. I was pleased to host members for breakfast in my home followed 
by an expedition to the Cinemark Huntington Mall theater to audition the 
recently installed description technology.

Breakfast was lively and productive as we furthered our plans for the 
NFB Huntington Tri-State Seminar scheduled for May 11 at the Public 
Library in Down Town Huntington. We encourage everyone who is interested 
in participating to make plans now to join us on that Saturday. also 
remember that GW Micro and NFB Huntington will present Windows 8 
Survival training for using a screen reader at 1:00 PM on Friday May 10, 
also at the Public Library.

We will circulate preliminary press and schedule information shortly.

After we finished our meeting we headed to the Huntington Mall and the 
recently remodeled Cinemark Theater. Mark Robertson has held an abiding 
interest in audio description for movies for some time. At his urging we 
decided to find out what the recently installed description system could 
do and judge it's effectiveness.

I haven't talked with members yet, but speaking for myself I really 
think the technology is credible and enhanced my experience. As some of 
you may know, I find audio description embedded in TV audio to be a 
distraction which detracts from most TV viewing.

SO what is the big difference which has turned me into a fan? Simply 
that the description is given separately from the regular audio playing 
in the theater. The Cinemark system uses comfortable on the ear 
headphones and a small box which resembles a garage door opener remote. 
The description is clear and well placed in portions of the film in 
which there is no dialog. More importantly I could adjust my listening 
of both the primary audio surround sound content and the description. I 
placed the headphones just in front of my ears at quieter times and 
during extended dialog. For very loud action sequences I placed the 
phones on my ears and even had to cover my ears to hear the describers 
voice over the booming and sound effects.

On a personal note, the movie which was described is Oz, The Great and 
Powerful, Which I think might be more accurately titled Oz, the Dull and 
Hapless. Where are Judy Garlind and Harold Arlen when you really need 
them? While even the description can't turn a cinematic sows ear into an 
Oscar worthy silk purse, thanks to Mark for introducing me to the 
technology, and rest assured that I will plan to pay closer attention to 
David Edelstein's reviews in order to plan my return in the very near 
future.

Our next chapter meeting will be April 20 at the Public Library.

Brad Hodges