How to combine subtitles with audio description in multilingual feature films
Since the introduction of audio description (AD) in The Netherlands in 2006 (cinema and DVD) it has been a struggle to find a way of integrating subtitles with the AD-track and make foreign language productions accessible for the blind and partially sighted people.
The immediate cause of the discussion was the AD-production of Zwartboek (Verhoeven, 2007), a Dutch spoken movie about WWII which contains German and English dialogues as well. The producer and distributor had previously made the decision not to record the German dialogue in Dutch. In hindsight, this was not a good decision and since film excerpts featuring foreign languages are usually subtitled, we thought it would be rather easy to add the subtitles to the AD track.
The Netherlands does have a long-time tradition in audio subtitling (AST) for television. Nowadays there are several systems to make foreign television programmes accessible. But all those systems are based on the use of synthetic voices. A technique that is not really appropriate for feature films with a high quality soundtrack and a comparable AD-track.
Taking the existing range of audiovisual products combining AST with AD into account, several very different approaches can be distinguished (such as Synthetic voice, AD voice after dialogue, AD voice during dialogue, AD voice and other voices during dialogue, Dubbing).
Last year the movies Bride Flight (Sombogaart, 2008) and Oorlogswinter (Koolhoven, 2008) were provided with AD and AST. Those two projects were part of a research project on AD with AST as well. Goal was to find some practical solutions for existing AST problems. One of the challenges, for instance, was to provide effective and understandable AST in combination with the audible (foreign) dialogue in cinema. The outcomes of the research have led to a number of recommendations, which will be the topic of this paper.
Since most films on offer in the Netherlands are spoken in English, the technique of applying AD and AST to foreign productions is a good way to make these English-language films accessible to the blind and visually impaired. In subsequent studies on the improvement of the quality of audio description, these techniques and the accompanying production process require further research. |
Mereijn VAN DER HEIJDEN
Soundfocus, Netherlands
mereijn@mereijnvanderheijden.nl
Mereijn VAN DER HEIJDEN is owner of Soundfocus, an audio-postproduction studio specialised in accessible media. His company is involved with all the major audio description projects for film, TV, theatre and internet in the Netherlands.
Furthermore, he works as a researcher at the Utrecht School of the Arts. He started researching film accessibility for the blind and partially sighted during his MA studies in Music Technology and his studies in Sound Design (Mmus). Currently he is working on a PhD about the sound-related aspects of AD. Because of his background as a sound designer, the improvement of sound quality is always an important factor in both production and research. Mereijn is involved in several international projects dealing with accessible digital media and he collaborates with institutes and organisations for the blind and partially sighted in the Netherlands and abroad.
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