Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Audio Description - Can I Do It Myself? (self.Blind)
submitted by MessyConfessor
Question instigated by Daredevil on Netflix, I guess.
I'm sighted, but Daredevil drew my attention to the existence of Audio Description. Shortly thereafter, I started searching around to see which of my favorite films and shows had Audio Description tracks available. Probably not a surprise to you guys, but I was disappointed to find how many of my favorites just weren't accessible.
So my question is, is it possible to get into producing Audio Description tracks on a volunteer basis? Some of these works, like the Jimmy Stewart film "Harvey", have meant a LOT to me. And it makes me sad to realize that they're not as easily experienced by some folks.
Is there any legal reason I can't assemble my own tracks at home, using a good mic, and make them available online? Is there any point to it, like would people actually use them? Is there a distribution method that would be best?
Thanks in advance.
I'm sighted, but Daredevil drew my attention to the existence of Audio Description. Shortly thereafter, I started searching around to see which of my favorite films and shows had Audio Description tracks available. Probably not a surprise to you guys, but I was disappointed to find how many of my favorites just weren't accessible.
So my question is, is it possible to get into producing Audio Description tracks on a volunteer basis? Some of these works, like the Jimmy Stewart film "Harvey", have meant a LOT to me. And it makes me sad to realize that they're not as easily experienced by some folks.
Is there any legal reason I can't assemble my own tracks at home, using a good mic, and make them available online? Is there any point to it, like would people actually use them? Is there a distribution method that would be best?
Thanks in advance.
fastfinge 2 points 7y ago
Yeah, I'd love to hear fan produced audio descriptions! Unfortunately, what you're doing would be against the law. You'd be distributing a modified version of the audio track to a movie, and the movie studio owns the copyright to that audio. There are no exemptions for audio description; I'm a member of several...shady websites...that specialize in distributing audio described movies, and I can think of at least three of them that were shut down over the last few years. That's despite the fact that they only distribute described audio, and don't include the picture at all. The only one that seems to have any staying power is $1, probably because they don't offer downloads.
MessyConfessor [OP] 2 points 7y ago
Oh, well I think I didn't explain myself very well. My intention is not to distribute the audio of the movie itself, but rather a separate track that can be overlaid to an existing copy of the film, in the style of Rifftrax. I understand what you're saying, there, re-distributing the actual film audio would be wildly illegal, haha.
fastfinge 1 points 7y ago
Could be done, I guess. Getting them in sync would be crazy difficult, though. Plus every film these days seems to have a directors cut, a TV version, the regular version, a slightly different version for blue-ray, a UK version, a US version, and so on. So even if they started off in sync, they wouldn't stay that way.
geoffisblind 1 points 7y ago
I think making an overlay would be 100% fine. You would maybe even have a case for fair use in using the original audio since you would be modifying it but production companies don't have a great reputation for respecting fair use and I'm not completely sure it would fall under that. Either way an overlay, even put on YouTube with a countdown perhaps so that one can start a movie and the track at the same time would be so helpful. I was thinking about this just this past week actually. I was trying to watch Interstellar and Inglorious Bastards but without audio description I missed a lot, especially in Inglorious Bastards with all of the French and German which had subtitles that I couldn't read. I think you should definitely go for it and please keep us updated because I know that I would for sure use the content you make.
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