[Chloe Rodriguez]: Midterm Portfolio – #4 Audio Description
The Project
Insert your project elements here.
Project Description
Your text here
Documentation
First, I began by taking time to write an audio description while watching the video. This was more difficult than I expected since there is so much dialogue in this video. I was trying to make the lines very concise to fit in between dialogue or other audio cues but quickly realized that it would be incredibly difficult so I settled on doing a fully extended audio description. Another issue I ran across was not knowing what to describe and what not to describe. I wanted the audio to describe the details that were significant to the narrative rather than focusing on every single detail but that felt exclusive. I tried to describe some of the details but really prioritize the key details in the audio description. Once I finished the script, I went through and watched again to pick up on any details I might’ve not noticed and tried to incorporate them into the final script. Then I went to the bookstore
When I got back, my roommate was gone so I decided to record the audio description. I like to think I am generally good at reading aloud and public speaking but I kept wanting to call Cindy “Sydney” so I had to redo a few lines but I was able to get it all in less than four minutes. I watched the video again and tried to see if there was anything that I wanted to include after the fact and I wasn’t able to find anything. So I called it a day.
The next morning, I wanted to get the audio description in the project. I added the audio track to my video in premiere and cut it up by each line I had on the document (subtle foreshadowing). I then cut the video at the points where I wanted to insert the audio. I put the lines within the video and wound up with more lines than spaces in the video. This was because I had split the lines that said the text on screen which were meant to be in the same line of the audio description. But I am a busy bee and had an event to go to that morning so I had to say goodbye to the project for the time being. When I returned to the project, I tried to think of the best possible way to fix my problem and realized there wasn’t one so I went through again and fixed all the audio tracks between the cut video.
At this point, I realized that I had no clue how to insert a freeze frame. I looked it up but none of the tutorials were working for me so I decided to export the frame as an image into the timeline. I had to do this for all the clips which was very tedious. In terms of my process, I am absolutely certain that there are simpler methods to achieve this result but it was fine.
Reflection Questions
The theme of etiquette video itself revolves largely around societal expectations and conforming to those in the mid twentieth century; the additional accessibility modality adds to that thematically by casting a larger net for the societal expectations to reach. This is expressed by allowing low vision/blind individuals receive the same societal expectations that seeing individuals do. The description emphasizes the importance of these expectations and helps blind low vision individuals to grasp these expectations. The audio description really captures the movements, particularly of the fairy godmother, which is paramount to understanding the video. It also helps to bring the scene to life for blind low vision audiences. Within my project particularly, I believe that the setting details are lost. Sometimes, the physical appearance of settings is a very important element that individuals enjoy so I feel like leaving that out could potentially lose some viewers. The audio description itself excludes deaf/hard of hearing, though there are captions. I think perhaps some learning/intellectual disabilities could be excluding simply because the modality interrupts the flow of the narrative which can impact attention span but I am not entirely sure. I think using inline audio description could help with this. But also the language could possibly be simplified for this as well.
Additional Modality (if applicable)
What modality did you apply?
How did you decide on this modality?
What does the beholder gain from this additional modality? Why?
Does the beholder lose anything from this modality? What?
Show documentation of this modality, and describe it if it’s not accessible on a screen (ie, if it’s tactile if it’s a scent)