When describing (audio)visual products in general and movies in particular, audio describers are faced with two basic questions (What do I describe? and How do I describe it?), which are asked necessarily in that order. The reasons why the question ‘What do I describe?’ is so difficult to answer, are at least twofold: on the one hand translating visual images seems to be more problematic than translating verbal messages because most translators never formally learn how to read visual language. Consequently, they find it more difficult to determine the exact message, that is, the relevant content that has to be translated (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996; Kress, 2003). On the other hand, there is no list of priorities that tells describers what to describe first when there is no time to describe everything, a situation that occurs fairly often in film.
Drawing on insights from general and film narratology, however, it should be possible to tell what is relevant and what is not, and what narrative elements should take precedence over others in a description. Films tell stories, so for describers to be able to select the (most) relevant information, they have to know how stories are constructed and how the visual content of a film contributes to and interacts with the other semiotic channels that together constitute the filmic narrative. According to Bal (1985), a narrative text is a concrete rendering of an abstract story, which, in turn, is a particular (abstract) presentation of a fabula, a “series of logically and chronologically related events caused or experienced by actors” (Bal, 1985: 5). In other words, film makers start from a certain fabula, which they transform first into a story and then into a narrative by organising the different elements of the fabula (events, actors, time and space) and presenting them in such a way that the effect they want to achieve is reached. Viewers take the exact opposite journey. They are first presented with the narrative text and will have to reconstruct the logical and chronological fabula from the story it tells. It is then the describers’ task to make sure that the blind audience gets all the information it needs to bring that reconstruction to a favourable conclusion.
In the present paper, I will look – on a general level – at the different possibilities authors have to move from the fabula to the story, and what techniques film makers can use to translate this story into a movie. Based on this information I will then try and see if it is possible to determine priority levels helping the describers to create an optimally relevant description which allows the audience to move back from the narrative to the fabula.
References
Bal, M. (1985). Narratology: Introduction to the study of narrative. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. London: Routledge.
Kress, G., & Van Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. London: Routledge.