Lights Camera Accessibility

I very recently watched the James Bond film in London, actually, and it was so nice to watch a film in the cinema again and watch a film comfortably, but I’ve been to the cinema before with some my friends who are completely blind, and they booked a audio headset, and the head the audio doesn’t work properly, unfortunately. So then we missed half of the film going out to try and get it fixed. And we actually did the end, because we missed half of the film and we got a full refund. So, but we, we shouldn’t have to, you know, complain about it. It was so frustrating. Unfortunately, headsets aren’t fully charged.

That’s why, because I’ve had, like, I’ve known a lot of them that have the same issue, like when they go into like a film to watch it, and it’s like they give them, like, one headset, it’s not charged. You give them another one, it’s still not charged. So it’s like they’re bothered to charge the headset.

It’s like they think they can get away with it by quickly putting them in charge in the office, and then, oh, well, what do? We’ll give you a refund on the film or something that you can come back another time.

Yeah even more inaccessible. But the thing is, they miss the point. You know, it’s not the fact that you know, they can just give us a refund. We were hoping to have a nice experience and watch the film on that day, you know, yeah, or they give you, like, a voucher for another film.

Speaker 1 2:48
The problem with that is that I’ll come back again next week for that same problem. So what’s the point? Oh, like no, my headset won’t work. I’ll just try and shuffle through a dark room of you know people and try and find where the hell you are and try and ask you for another headset. I’ll be with you for about five minutes until you actually are convinced that it’s not working, and then, like, get another headset, go back into the room, try and find my seat again, and then have the same problem, walk back out again and just go and then out. Hokey cokey again.

Kaya 3:13
Funnily enough, exactly the same thing happened again when we watched the film A week later. So, yeah, even then we had called up before the film about, like, a day before, saying, like, just to warn them, like, we asked if all the headsets were fully charged and all of that. And yeah, unfortunately, it’s just frustrating. Really.

It’s really annoying. So just to bring people up to speed on exactly what we are talking about in cinemas, I’m sure everybody has experienced this. If you want audio description, where, when, when you’re watching from a DVD at home or on a on a TV set, the audio description comes through the same audio output device that the rest of the soundtrack of the film or TV show comes through. Whereas when you’re in a cinema, they’ll give you headsets, so the audio track of the audio description will come through the headset, whereas the rest of the film’s audio will come through the cinema speakers. That way you can listen to audio description without annoying everyone else who does have sight. You can see what’s going on, which, to me, is really, really good, because you don’t have that whole you know, you can watch, you feel comfortable watching the film, but also you don’t feel that you’re putting everyone else out of point, because you know, a sight person doesn’t know, why? Why? Why is this on?

Zenny 4:51
Why is this annoying posh sounding voiice, like, annoying my movie. What have your experiences been like in cinemas?

Camille 5:06
I never, I never go. No, literally never go. It’s always too fast. And I’m like, oh, it’s all the same in theatre as well, isn’t it? Like, I’ve always the same in like, you know, when you go to like a theatre to watch, like and sometimes, all the time, the audio description doesn’t work and stuff, and it’s like, really annoying.

Speaker 2 5:28
Rare now that it does happen. Oh, sorry, it’s very rare that it happens now these days. I mean, there have been a little bit more on point. So last time I went in to watch a film, and they gave me a headset. And I mean, my only thing is, I’m often or not, the headsets are pretty broken so, but they give it to you either. What is it? These in the headset comes with a sort of Bluetooth device, if that makes any sense. So you can unplug the head set they give you just plug your own in, which is which is more which is more fun. And I tend to book my films in advance and then just let them know that I am coming on that day. So can they please have a headset set charged up for you.

Zenny 6:16
I mean, what would have to do? This is a thing, book it in advance. And like, because sometimes we think of, like, if we wanted to be spontaneous or something, well, for example, say, like, if you had sighted friends, right? You’re like, I’m sorry, but like, a lot of the time, like, from what, from my experience, like, a lot of my sighted friends don’t plan stuff, like, a, you know, few days in advance. We plan stuff, like, spontaneously. It’s like, oh, did you come to cinema? Stay, yeah, you know, you know what. You know me, like you, and then you go in and like, you’re like, kind of having to struggle, whilst everyone else kind of, like, just doesn’t matter. You try me, I don’t know when you do ask in advance, even they say, Oh yeah, we’re gonna charge it. And you go the day and there’s nothing like, they’ll be like, Oh well, no one told us. Yes, I did.

Speaker 2 6:57
Well, to be fair, I have booked one films on that day for the only reason, simply reason because it’s so much more cheaper to book online than it is to waltz in, because they’ll charge you double the price of what you can get online. Work this out. So you go in to watch a film, and it’s like, they want, they want 13 quid or 12 quid. I can get that exact same film online, you know, exact same time for seven quid. So I’m saving a fiver right there by just, you know, booking it a couple of hours beforehand, not to mention the amount of money they want to charge you for popcorn and drink and all that.

Kaya 7:29
So yeah exactly. But another thing that I find really useful when watching films on TV in general are the TV glasses, which you can buy from places such as the RNIB. And these glasses have magnifiers on them. So it helps to watch the TV more comfortably, because my normal glasses don’t really, you know, add that much difference to my from my eyesight. So I find these really useful, which I don’t know if anyone else has used their TV glasses before, but I really recommend them.

Camille 8:10
I did that before.

Kaya 8:17
I know our thing is talking about TV accessibility, so I know it’s not exactly to do with audio description, but Amazon just released a new echo device called Alexa TV, which is meant to be really, really good. So instead of having an it’s basically a huge TV. I don’t know how big it is, to be exact, but it’s actually got Alexa integrated with it as well, so you can use the Alexa as well as the regular TV. Now, how that would work regarding changing channels?

Yeah, I

Speaker 2 8:59
yet. I’m not really sure at the moment, I know the only other sort of provider that have managed to make their TVs accessible is sky. Virgin are slowly getting there, but sky are sort of at the leading point, at a moment of TV accessibility. That’s a huge game changer, right there. Sorry, Kaya , go on.

Kaya 9:20
I have a LG TV, and I link it with my Alexa speaker, and I can say, like, Alexa, turn on channel one on LG TV, and it just does it like you can link it to it, and it’s really helpful, actually, whoa, which is really good. But also, like come back to the cinema, you can also get a disabled person cinema card, which is called a CEA card, which is really useful.

Speaker 2 9:59
They do get quite. a few perks in it. Yeah, it depends on how often you go, though as well, like to the cinema. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 10:08
No one really wants to go to them anymore, because everyone can just get the films off. Like, kind of small,

Speaker 2 10:16
but, yeah, but I think it’s the whole idea. I think because covid, obviously, it’s put paid to a lot of this, but I think at the same time, it’s just nice to grab a load of mate, come on, let’s go cinema like it’s one thing, just sitting doors, watching it on a on a laptop or on your TV, just at home. And, you know, grab a couple of bits. Also nice to have that sort of whole going out, because not just the cinema, yeah.

Zenny 10:40
So you know ifeel like it’s better at home. Like, imagine getting a because the thing is, right, in the cinema, you can’t really talk about it. Like, a lot of, I know, like, with my friends and stuff, we get, like, you know, get like, a pot for one pound. And you can feel like a whole, like six people with that, like, if you just send me, like, when you put, you know, the popcorn

Kaya 10:55
when I’m watching the film, I want to, yeah, want to,

Speaker 1 11:05
because, like, everyone could feel, you know you can, like,

Kaya 11:10
if you need to.

Speaker 2 11:13
Its so annoying when I’m sitting there trying to watch a film and I’ve got a person next to me go Oh !

Kaya 11:21
let me watch my film,

scary film, because and bring popcorn. Because one time someone did that and they threw they threw the popcorn in the air and went everywhere. So thank almost, but also, like Amazon Prime Now has like voice, like speech when you’re browsing the actual when you’re browsing it, which helps a lot as well. I don’t know if any Yeah,

but I think they’ve Sky’s just released a new sort of television and that’s coming out now, and Sky Q is integrated with that. So instead of getting a box, you get a whole brand new TV.

Camille 12:08
Yeah, never really,

Kaya 12:10
but take like, audio description aside, I think what’s so nice about going to the cinema, I mean, because I don’t use audio description, what’s so nice about going to the cinema, like I can watch a film comfortably. And, you know, I don’t need to wear, like, any of like the TV glasses, which I do at home, because

Alex Man 12:30
the screen is a lot bigger, exactly, screen. So, yeah, that’s, that’s my next question, actually, for those who has some working vision, is it better to what to watch it on a cinema screen or TV screen, because for me, who has a little bit of vision, I prefer an iPad screen rather than a TV screen or cinema screen.

Camille 12:49
Yeah, Yeah, same. I use my iPad all my all your TV bullets. Um, I want to know it’s like more than like regular TV anyway. Yeah. Oh,

Speaker 1 13:04
sorry, I like my phone. And my like, oh, I don’t have an iPad. Yeah, keep it up to my eye and just like, watch it. You know, my bed, like lying down, and if I want to go to the toilet, I can pause it. And if you have to go toilet, it’s like, you can’t pause it. Get up and try these, like people, because, you know, squeezing through chairs isn’t most fat people like me, so you have to, like, squish through, squish through, and then they try not to fall down those weird steps that are there on the side. Exactly

Kaya 13:34
what you mean, yeah. But also, I don’t know if any of you have had about their TV license concession, you can get about 50% off, which is also really useful to have,

Speaker 3 13:57
even if it’s on catch up. Yeah, that’s why I’ve had to be fair.

Kaya 14:03
And also, Amazon Prime is good as well. I like Amazon Prime.

Alex Man 14:08
So which platform? Which platform do you guys prefer when it comes to audio description content? Or do you prefer to buy the DVDs themselves rather than using streaming services?

Speaker 2 14:18
I do prefer to get the DVDs or watch them from, like streaming services and things like that. I mean, I don’t know. I find that audio description on movies and things that are a lot better than audio description on TV shows, because I find they miss a whole lot of stuff out. Yeah, they do series, or they just talk really, really slow. It’s like you the guys on the guys on the movie, they pack more explanation into a scene than the guys who do the TV series and things like that. So like EastEnders, his dark materials, Coronation Street, few other things, dramas as well. Like, you know, TV dramas, they’re there, but they do miss a hell of a lot out.

Speaker 1 15:12
Yeah, they do, and they sometimes get the names wrong and stuff as well. On the TV level, I’m like, Huh, no, wait, doesn’t sound like that person that you just said it was, and then I watch it on my phone, and I can see, kind of like, who’s Oh, okay. But like, yeah, that’s funny, right? Like, I don’t know if any of you guys are the same, but when I was younger, I was quite in denial of my blindness, which is really bad. I didn’t like the kin, I didn’t like audio description, um, but now, like, if, if I can’t get audio description I get, like, really, like, disoriented when it comes to like movie, or like TV,

Kaya 15:47
yeah, used to it, I guess, as well

Speaker 2 15:50
Yeah, first, there are certain like things I don’t know if any of you guys have heard of upstairs, downstairs. Oh, yeah. I it’s set in sort of like early 1900s London, and it’s basically about, it’s a drama between, like servants and and house owners and things like that. And it’s just basically loads of, it’s more fun then I’m, I’m sort of explaining it, but you don’t need it’s more fun than explaining it basically, but you don’t need audio description to sort of watch it like, you know, there are certain little it’s sort of just self described, as well as certain sitcoms as well, that you don’t really need Audio Description to sort of guess what they’re doing. Yeah,

Alex Man 16:43
that’s an interesting topic. Actually, I did talk on a panel a few years ago where we was talking about audio description. Would you prefer audio description or accessible narrative, where the description will be in the speech, rather than having an extra track just for visually impaired people. So, for example, maybe in the dialog it will say, Oh, this is a really lovely view. It’s got, you know, you can see trees and stuff like that, rather than little descriptions, you know, blah, blah, blah, standing next to a window with a whip

Kaya 17:22
Well, it’s kind of like built into it.

I think it depends, to be honest, because I feel like, for example, like in a horror movie, when he’s about to kill something, oh, this is a really nice view, you know, like, of a dark room and, you know, a candle. And, like, No, I mean, I don’t know. I feel like, and I feel like people might, I don’t know, it might just be me, but I feel like it depends on the film and stuff and or the TV show, because, like, it might not be relevant, like, to the what’s going on. Like, and it’s kind of unrealistic as well, a little bit, because you’re not gonna, like, usually, in conversation, for example, like with EastEnders, you’re not going to have someone kind of going, oh, like, don’t mean, I don’t know if it’s just me, but I feel like all the desriptions fine as it is,

Alex Man 18:10
that’s runs into the issue of, when I did creative writing at university, a lot of like, A really good technique is show and not tell. So you sort of like, tell the story about obviously making it too obvious for Yeah,

Kaya 18:28
yeah. I

Speaker 1 18:29
feel it’s very difficult to do in like conversation. If that makes any sense, it’s easier to, like, write it, I feel, but in like conversations a little bit difficult.

Mark Wright 18:39
I guess all that kind of touches on a question I wanted to ask, which is, from your experience as individuals, are there certain movies or certain genres that just don’t work, in your opinion, in terms of audio description, where you feel like you’re missing a lot of the experience, or does pretty much everything work with it? Do you think,

Kaya 19:00
I think one thing, because I studied French to a level, and we had to study some films and subtitles are so difficult for visually impaired people, and it’s just so difficult because they’re written in such small fonts, and it just doesn’t work so well. Teacher had to almost, like, read it out as we read the film, which was, you know, it was quite difficult, really, but yeah, that was definitely a difficult one.

Alex Man 19:33
That is quite interesting, actually. Yeah, I’m not sure, because I don’t really watch that many foreign movies or things. So when it comes to subtitles, how does the audio description handle that? Is it, I know, with a certain TV show called squid games, originally it was, you know, in Korean, and it’s subtitles, there’s English track now, but obviously there’s no audio description. I don’t think so. If it’s something like. Like a foreign film. How do they manage?

Kaya 20:02
And we didn’t have audio description on it. It was just, we were just watching it as it was, but it was the subtitles were just so difficult because to follow, because, like, it’s not like, it’s the fact that they’re not written in like a large font, either or they don’t read it out almost. But also, like we tried watching it in in like an English version, because it had been translated into English. But was it really the same?

Alex Man 20:36
Has anyone watched a foreign film in subtitles, audio description as well.

Zenny 20:44
Yeah, like when I was studying Spanish, he used to make us watch these films that didn’t have any audio description. And so it was very difficult because they had a subtitle as well. Like to see it, the slightly people did, but then you care her little old me sitting there like trying to distance the teacher whispering. Because, what the whole thing? So she’s sitting there trying to whisper it to me. I’m trying to focus on the film and her, you know, in one ear. So excited.

at exactly the same thing.

It really didn’t work, because then these, like little, those little sheets afterwards going, oh, so what happened at this part? And what are they saying? Like, I don’t know.

Kaya 21:40
I mean, fortunately, fairly the language fairly well, but you know very well the, I think it would be really quite difficult to follow the whole film.

Zenny 21:57
Yeah, it really is,

Mark Wright 21:59
Because we sometimes come up with interesting things. So I want to ask, maybe everyone, what’s because I like to start off on a negative tip, what’s the worst experience you’ve had, say at cinema, whether it was around the audio description or whether it was on anything else, but in terms of accessibility generally, as a VI film goer what’s the kind of worst experience you’ve had, and how did you talk?

Speaker 2 22:23
I think the main thing for us is, basically, when we’re trying to watch a film and things ain’t working and they’re less the staff are very unhelpful, in a sense of, you know, they think they can just palm you off with a voucher, and it’s like, oh, well, thanks for the voucher. Yeah, great. But what about the same issue again ?

Kaya 22:49
You know what’s, yeah, what this is it? What’s the chance of us, you know, coming back, giving you back this voucher, and then I still having the same issue, so it’s not that voucher

Zenny 22:59
to use, and I’ll come back again, have the same problem,

Kaya 23:02
yeah, like the example I gave, yeah, exactly. I think that’s the problem. They it’s like, they think it’s okay. They think it’s okay just to give you a voucher for an edge of the film again. But it’s almost like, then this point, you know that it’s like, it’s almost like, oh, you know, they don’t even apologize the fact that the audio headset wasn’t working. There was no one actually in the film, like, who was working there to help us. We had to run around to find one and be in three visually impaired people at the time. You know, it’s not exactly the easiest to do,

Zenny 23:49
Its always a struggle, though, in terms of, like, not even just film, but like, accessibility around, like, you know, theater rooms, or like cinema rooms as well, because so like, even if you don’t have, like, it’s even if you don’t have sight, so you don’t need the whole light thing, because obviously one of the issues I have is the whole light and dark thing. But even if you’re like, fully, like, if you don’t have any it’s still trying to get through the little tiny rows, and you’ve got these stairs on the side, and then it’s like, you don’t want to interrupt, because obviously, everyone’s trying to watch the film, and it’s like, I don’t know if you have this, but sometimes they put you, like, right at the front, which makes everyone else really annoyed when you’re trying to walk past your cane, making a lot of noise, trying to find the door, trying to get to the bathroom. Obviously, the blind person. So it takes even longer, because, like, it just takes us longer to find our way around as well, like, just in general. So we’ve missed the whole film by then because we’ve been trying to look for someone to help us the bathroom, or trying to locate ourselves, and then trying to go back into the like, trying to find the right screening room, and then trying to find our seat again, and then getting past a bunch of angry people who are, like, annoyed at you for like. Know, Like walking in front of them.

Kaya 25:06
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean by that. Is difficult, especially with the screen, like trying to find your screen, because I noticed that’s one thing they always have at cinemas. Like the they have a really, they’re having numbers, but then they have, like, in really small writing, what the name of the film actually is. So, yeah, that’s one thing I find really difficult to find. How have you found it? How do you find cinemas if you had any problems.

Camille 25:43
I mean, I never really go, because I’m not looking trying to normally, just choose, always too fast, and I literally never like to go. So like, once in a while I’m good because I’m on the module, but many I’m really good.

Mark Wright 26:00
I suppose in the interest of balance, I should then ask if that was the worst or the negative experiences people have had. What have been the positive experiences that you’ve had? What are the ones where you thought, yeah, these people really, really know how to do it. And maybe it’s a chance for you to big up any venues that you’ve been to where they really provided a good service. What have we? What do we think about that ?

Zenny 26:29
To be, fair, like just in the normal way you went to with, we went to when

Kaya 26:32
went to watch, oh, yeah, vue in Westfield. Yes, that was it, but they’ve always been good with us. Like, you know, I’ve been, there’s only been a couple of times where I’ve been up there and I’ve had problems. But I think at the same time, it’s not about, you know, how much they can do for you is what to be expected at the same time. I mean, I would always if a staff member goes above and beyond, then I will, you know, say thank you, give them a tip or something like that, because at the end there, they didn’t have to do X, Y and Z, when they’ve done it anyway. But it’s just nice. It’s basically just going over and your problems. Because I was saying that it’s not just about going to the cinema. There’s a whole thing to it, like, you know, you got beforehand or afterwards,

Speaker 1 27:22
into the room, then, you know which I mean, like them being on hand when you need them if you want to go.

Kaya 27:28
But, yeah,

that’s the thing. When you have, like, a nice experience at the cinema being vision impaired it’s such a nice feeling. I don’t know if you find this then, because that yeah, when at the beginning of this month, I when I went to see the James Bond film, it’s just everything was just perfect. We had really good seats at the front so I could see the film really easy. And it’s just so nice as a regime hand person, to be able to enjoy a film. I think that’s what’s really nice, actually,

moving back to Bond film yet, because I still, I’m still yet to go and see it. I’m going to, I think I’m going to go some soon. I was going to go yesterday with a friend of mine, but he went ill, and we had to cancel, unfortunately. So we’re gonna, because it’s, I’m hoping it’s still going to be in cinemas in a couple of weeks, but I’m guessing it will, because it’s such a big film, they’re not going to

say the biggest film of the year, pretty much. Yeah,

Zenny 28:33
all I’ve been hearing is James Bond

Kaya 28:37
from every person. Are you not a fan

Speaker 1 28:39
James Bond, um, you know what? Yeah, like, I get this all the time. So what happens is, when someone picks up a film or something too much, I just don’t want to watch it because I’ve heard too much about it. So I’m not a fan, but it’s just that because I’ve heard so much about it.

Speaker 1 28:53
Nope, you never imagine you watching James Bond, huh? Can’t imagine you watching James Bond. I You,

Speaker 1 29:05
watching James Bond, I heard from someone that all it was about was shooting people and picking up girls. So I don’t know it’s a bit

Kaya 29:15
more to it than that. But yeah,

there’s quite a little bit more to it than that. Like it does have a very distinctive plot. Obviously, I don’t know about this one, but James Bond plots always do have a very sort of distinctive plot. There’s always something happening around

Alex Man 29:33
weird at the end. I won’t spoil it, but it’s a bit weird. I haven’t watched it myself, but someone spoiled it before being already so, oh

Kaya 29:40
no, see, I thought it’s brilliant. It would say the best film I’ve watched in a long time. So, yeah, it is definitely worth watching.

See now, I suppose the question would be, depending on how they’ve ended the plot, when it signal the end of the series completely, or would they. Make put a new because we all know Daniel Craig’s gone after this one. So do you guys know

Alex Man 30:11
what Daniel Craig looks like? Description, he has really small hands. What’s that?

Zenny 30:19
He has really small hands.

Alex Man 30:22
Is that? What told you?

Speaker 1 30:24
No I went somewhere. He

Kaya 30:32
He got blue eyes, isn’t he?

Unknown Speaker 30:36
Daniel Craig? Is he got blue eyes?

Alex Man 30:42
If someone was to create a video or a movie like those indie or students and stuff like that, what’s the best way to make their film a little more accessible when it comes to writing audio description?

Kaya 30:59
Good questionI think it depends on how you want to, sort of like if you want to sort of put it into dialogue. I think it goes back to what we were talking about before. Whether you want to have an over the top audio track describing what’s going on, or you want to pull it into dialog. If you want to pull it into dialog, then you’ll have to say things in a way that comes across as difficult. It would be difficult.

Or you could maybe do a combination of both, good compromise, I think.

Zenny 31:36
What like kind of what, what sticks out to you, like or not you in particular? Like, What would someone gonna do a site like, what would they see first? If that makes any sense that, you know, like, you know, he walks across the checkered patented floor or something, you know, I mean, like,

Kaya 31:58
yeah, definitely. I one thing I think, which is quite difficult from for a lot of visually impaired people to see is, like the actors expression on their face, yeah, and that’s that is obviously a key part in the film, you know, if they’re looking angry, happy or sad, because even, you know, like it’s so and that is definitely and those, those of my friends who are vision paired, said they all find the same thing really difficult to see. That would be really useful in the audio description. I

Speaker 1 32:36
just thought something which is really funny, right? You know how we like talking about how, like, audio description sometimes misses a lot of things that we don’t like, but so I could see that we don’t or whatever. Yeah, well, there’s this one incident.

Zenny 32:48
There’s this one incident with Eastenders Where was it so who was driving? Oh, Whitney was driving her car. So for those of you who don’t know Whitney, some girl in EastEnders, she was driving her car, which wasn’t her car. She drove the car and she hit another woman called Cat. Now, the thing is, audio description kind of said, Oh, she’s hit cat. But there was this online going, Oh, we don’t know who she’s hit. Who does she hit? Who does she hit? Like, no one knew who got hit, because I don’t think we were supposed to know. But then all of us blind people sitting there going, we see something like, you haven’t sorry. I just find it very funny. Yeah.

Kaya 33:42
The other thing with audio description though, like, if it’s out of time, you know, like, if it happens, like, what happens on the screen? That’s really frustrating, yeah,

Zenny 33:55
because it just happened, like, so it ended at that episode, because it ends on cliffhangers and stuff. So everyone all night was like, Oh, who got hit?

Kaya 34:08
but if it happens, like, after, like, what happens on the screen? It’s really annoying as well. Yeah, the other thing I find a

Speaker 1 34:19
bit annoying sometimes is that, you know, like when someone’s speaking, on the audio description, speaking over it, and I’m like, Ah, I can’t hear who’s who and what’s going on.

Alex Man 34:29
I thought they stopped doing that now, unless I think

Speaker 1 34:31
they’re trying to, yeah, they’re trying to minimize it, which is why there’s, there’s less descriptions, because they’re trying to minimize it, because obviously, like, it’s really hard to fit in a description when, like, you’re moving from scene to scene, from person to person, and stuff like that. So I think they try to minimize it, which is why there’s less like descriptions. Yeah,

Mark Wright 34:52
Zinni, I want to ask a question of you, if that’s okay, because I guess you’re kind of in a new, unique position in the group, in that you. Also have experience on the other side of the camera, as it were, as a performer. Do you maybe want to talk a bit about how accessibility has come up for you as an actor, and how that sometimes can be an issue to get around. How do you work with that?

Speaker 1 35:17
So to be fair, like my more recent experiences have been quite good. Like, usually they’re very good in terms of, they’re like, you know, what do you need? What can we help you with? And stuff like that. The only difficulty I had slightly is kind of, like, sometimes, obviously, like, with when you’re sighted, you can see where you have to go. Like, they’ll kind of point you where you to go, like, each scene and stuff, whereas, like, when you’re blind, you kind of had to memorize it because you can’t always see it. So I think that was a bit I had to struggle with. It was in terms of kind of memorizing where I had to go and things like that. But in general, they’re really accessible. Like, like, there was this one that I did recently, which actually had so this is, I had to basically find this door, basically. And what they did was they actually put Braille on the door, like actual tactile Braille on the door. And I was just, I was really astounded. I was like, Oh my God. Like some sighted person who has no experience, like, who hasn’t got much experience with blind people sat there, somehow learn how to write fire door, fire exit door, and put it on the door. I was like, You know what? You are a legend. So sometimes, like, it is good, and then other times it is a bit of a struggle. Sometimes people when to the thing is like, when you’re into a field, like acting, or like any job in particular, when you’re blind, because you’re trying to show that you can do that job, some people think you’re too independent, so they don’t think they have to do much, if that makes any sense. So there’s kind of another struggle as well. But a lot of the time, if you can, if you are assertive and stuff like what you need, usually, if you’ve got a decent client, they’ll, kind of, they’ll do what they can, if that makes any sense.

Kaya 37:06
Yeah, yeah, do the description, but they sound so bored,

Zenny 37:10
I kind of miss all that,

Speaker 2 37:19
What? What? No, I was like, you ever had that? So, for instance, it’s like you’re sitting there, and it’s like this thing’s getting in a he, he opens the door, or or something, oh, you really sound like you enjoy,

Kaya 37:37
really happy. It just killed like someone !

Zenny 37:40
I know what, Justin is saying, so there is a murder scene, right? But, yeah, like, okay, yes, that sentence, there’s a dead body. Like, there’s a certain way to do it, like, you know, for example, like, when I was watching eastenders again, going back to that kind of the audio description, so there was a body on the floor, and he went, there’s a body lying on the ground. It’s Ian, like, he put like emphasis in his voice. And I like that a lot, because sometimes you just get these body lying on the ground. The body belongs to Ian, like you look this really bored founding old women or men.

Kaya 38:21
So yeah, as well. Because if you think about it, people are watching the screen. So obviously the light is shining like the light is sort of reflecting on the on the person’s face, or, you know, the view, the camera view, took hands around, and they’re all getting antsy about it, because, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. And we want that same feeling. So we’re not going to get that. If we turn around, says, two men are fighting in the middle of the street. You want more. Two men are fighting the middle of the street. We want that fighting in the middle of the street,

Justin that. That’s what I mean about the you know, being out like, in the audience description be so good to have like, their like expression on their face, like, with a man with, like, with, and he’s like, an angry or sad or whatever, I think that’d be really helpful. Then that’s saying you can actually understand what’s happening on the screen, yeah, a lot more easily.

Speaker 2 39:19
But I think if you can tell by that, I mean, I don’t know if you, does anybody have audio emotion sensors, like embedded in them, in their brains, and what I mean by that is, you can tell, by the way someone’s speaking, the sort of expression they have on their face, or just about a sort of tone on their voice, that how a 90% accuracy guess on what they’re sort of looking at. You know, I mean, I mean, I sometimes I get this on going off on a tangent, slightly. I get this on phone calls or whatever, or just, even just by text, the way someone talks to you, it’s just like, Okay, there’s definitely something car for you. But Hello, hello, you’re right. It instantly,you know,

Zenny 40:04
I think it depends, because I’ve been told that I have a very aggressive voice.

Camille 40:08
Thats not true,

Zenny 40:10
Ive been told Ihave a really aggressive voice. But the thing is, I have a very like, distinct kind of way of speaking. And I think some people think that I’m really, like, angry, and I’m not. I’m just talking and, like, all the time. I remember I used to always get in trouble by my Mum. Like, Oh, okay. Tone down. I’m like what do you mean !

Kaya 40:32
Oh, my God, this whole scene. I think it just helps to clarify already.

Zenny 40:36
You know what I would want a bit more of, though. Like, in terms of audio description, I feel like they focus a lot on the people, but I would like them to focus a little bit more on like, they’re kind of where they are, because I feel like a lot of the time as well that kind of foreshadows, or like, kind of contrast, or, you know, in in opposite kind of helps with their like, for example, like I really liked His Dark Materials, because I feel like they did that quite well in terms of they kind of described, you know, where they were and, you know what the room had, you know, the fire, the chandeliers, this and that, like, was really good, because it kind of helped to set the mood and stuff. Because sometimes when they just focus on the people, it’s kind of like, Yeah, but like, where you don’t mean I don’t know if it’s just me, but, like, I dont know,

Speaker 2 41:22
I think sometimes it’s good to have a bit of description, but not so. So there’s a bit in one of the Fast and Furious films. Don’t ask how I memorized the lines, but I do. And he said, turns around, says a caption that a caption reads, London, England, this city, at night, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben John drives his car down Whitehall, but and then obviously the dialog starts and things like that, but you sort of get a rough idea of the description, so you don’t get in depth description. But that, to me, is enough

Zenny 42:04
Yeah, you don’t get that in a lot of films and stuff. Sometimes they don’t get Yeah, which is really annoying,

Kaya 42:10
but I think it also depends on the audio description, because they they write it out beforehand, before obviously, recording it. It’s not just spontaneous recording. They write a huge manual script of the out beforehand, before getting the reader involved. I think there’s about two, maybe three, like there’s a whole team of people working on audio describe, on the description itself before it actually does get recorded. So the person who reads audio describe it isn’t necessarily one who writes it, if that makes sense

Speaker 1 42:46
as well. What happens is, so when you read a lot of different scripts, it basically says, basically what each person’s doing, like in all the scripts, anyway. So what happens is, like they Oh my gosh, something really weird. Sorry. But like, where from this is like, so they have the description within the script. They say, who’s doing what, and I think they probably use that. So whoever they choose to be, the audio describer probably uses that.

Speaker 2 43:18
Yeah, ITFC. Audio Description was read by Dia Langford and was written by James O’Hara. So technically, Dia Langford read this audio description for Harry Potter film, but it was James O’Hara who wrote the manuscript, but it was Dia Langford who read it. Now, sometimes you can get the same describer who writes it and reads it, but obviously they they need

Speaker 1 43:42
to probably help find the whole script anyway, though, because you see the same people, so probably to do it.

Speaker 2 43:49
I’m guessing the reason, while why the TV is a little bit less explanatory than movies, is because, with movies, they have essential audio description, audio descriptive place where they go to get them all. Whereas TV companies like ITV, BBC channel four, they have their own in house, audio describers,

Kaya 44:14
like there’s some like TV remotes now, and you can press like a button, and you can say, turn on, like, channel three again, like come back to the night the Alexa speaker, which is quite good. I think it’s quite useful for VI Yes.

Speaker 2 44:31
So Sky Q has that, and Virgin have started implementing that as well in their boxes. So, yeah, it’s basically what you just said. You just tell it you’re funny, but

Kaya 44:45
just know

Zenny 44:46
not that. I mean, my we got into a bit of a carfuffle with virgin

Speaker 2 44:58
But you. Saying you press up. Yeah, it’s now, the good thing about virgin, I don’t know whether sky has this, is that you have a app on your phone called TV Control, which basically you can view the entire virgin TV Guide, and then you can just press the button on your phone and be like on. You can control it from your phone. Actually, you can change the channels on your phone, or if you want to use the remote, well, if you want to use the remote, because your phone actually becomes a sort of wireless remote, if that makes any sense. So you can change the channels, you can hit record. You can do everything that your remote can do just on your phone, which to me, is pretty accessible anyway, because it’s the app is fully accessible with VoiceOver,

Kaya 45:39
Yeah ll, exactly, and it means we can put VoiceOver on which just reads everything out. So yes, perfect, but thank you for listening to another podcast recording. Stay tuned, and I we hope that you keep watching all the films and programs that you Love on the TV and then somewhere. Thank you.