LiveDescribe Weeks 15&16

LiveDescribe Weeks 15: August 10th - 14th, 2009. Week 16: August 17th - 21st, 2009.

I’ve been running into some problems with the LiveDescribe program. I accidentally lost a full 95% completed episode of the Office somehow, and I have no idea how. I closed the program due to an issue with the microphone, before which I saved my work. When I went to re-open the program it was unable to locate any of my descriptions. It is all gone, and I’m very upset by it, because it was a good episode!! And now must be re-done, which is annoying to say the least.

While working on an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, while recording an extended description, the program froze, and now every time I go to open this episode on the program, it freezes once again. I have not pin-pointed the problem.

Just to keep you all posted otherwise, I’ve been doing a lot of writing and recording lately. I am fully aware that it has been a very long time since I last posted episodes. There are many reasons for this! One of the reasons is that we have run into an uploading glitch that is being fixed, so until then, I won’t be posting any new episodes. But just so you are aware of my progress…

The following episodes have been recorded/described, just need to be briefly edited before being posted:

- The Office Full Season 1 – Episodes 1 through 6

- It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Full Season 1 – Episodes 1 through 7

- Friends Season 1 – Episodes 1 through 6

The following episodes have been written:

- Full House Season 1 – Episodes 1 through 6

- Degrassi High Season 1 – Episodes 5 & 6

Soon, more described episodes of: 30 Rock, Being Erica, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Saved by the Bell, Degrassi, Flashpoint, and Dawson’s Creek – will all follow!

So that’s all good stuff you can look forward to! I will let you know once they’re all up!

LiveDescribe Weeks 13 & 14

LiveDescribe Week 13: July 27th - July 30th, 2009. & Week 14: August 4th - August 7th, 2009.

The Office (US) is still on its way!! They're almost done. I want to post the episodes up at the same time. I just have some editing to do.

Describing:
I'm realizing that these days, my details are not as specific as when I first began describing. Little details that don't further the story are being omitted. I've begun to do this naturally without giving it much thought because I just know that they don't progress the story at all and are distracting. Specific details such as "she is taken aback" are evident already in the tone of voice. I need to trust the tone of the voice and the silences in between dialogue in certain situations because they are great story-telling devices, and I don't want to be sharing information that is already obvious. I've had to ask myself what details don't need to be explained.

This last week, I've been going to help out at a Clay and Paper Theatre Company Production - - A show in a park! This production company organized their play to integrate audio description into their show, and also offer a Touch Tour before the show. If you don't know what a touch tour is: it is an opportunity for individuals to be guided through the show's costumes, props, sets, masks, etc. The touch tour is led by the actors, and audience members are able to talk to the actors about their characters, their character voices, and touch all of the items involved in the show. This is an amazing opportunity for blind or low-vision audience members to gather as much information about the show as possible before experiencing the live production.

As for the audio description used, it was absolutely seamless. I hadn't really experienced audio description of this sort. The script was adjusted to integrate description. For example, through dialogue, it was always clear who entered the scene, who was speaking. For Example: "There's the marine biologist", etc. However, if you were not a blind or low-vision person aware that audio description was to be provided, as a sighted person, the audio description easily went unnoticed.

I was working at the show to survey individuals about their experience with the touch tour and the show.

This experience of seamless integration of audio description has really got me trying to think of ways to make my descriptions less intrusive to the experience. It's very difficult to achieve this as someone not involved in the original creative process. I think it's so great that Clay and Paper Theatre Company decided to make their show accessible and made the necessary adjustments to create a seamless experience.

LiveDescribe Weeks 11&12

Week 11: July 13th - 17th, 2009. Week 12: July 20th - 24th, 2009.

EXCITING NEWS IN LIVEDESCRIBE:

Ryan has worked the program to be able to combine the original audio and descriptions together as one single combined audio file! This way, the video with the description can be played in other programs other than just the Livedescribe player, and it can be created into a DVD. Last week, I was asked to describe 10 slideshow videos for the Disabilities Centre at Ryerson. I worked through those videos, and then needed to put them on a CD for them so that they could play it at the event they needed them for. Now with the new abilities of the program, we were able to do that!

We ran into a couple of uploading the single audio file onto the website but now it works!! You can now upload just the audio files! This is really exciting because it makes the descriptions so much easier to access, and play-able on a variety of media players. There is an issue with the combining of the two audio tracks in that sometimes the description is much higher in volume than the original description and there’s no way to adjust it once the audio has been combined. However, the improved accessibility of the descriptions is a huge advancement!!

I am now starting work on The Office!!! I am very excited about working on this series because of its format. The format gives me some really cool creative options in terms of how to go about describing the TV show. Since the camera is actually set up to depict a documentary format, and the characters direct a lot of their attention and dialogue to the camera, it really creates a character on its own, so I’m excited to record as the “camera person”!

Goal is to complete the complete first season of the Office in the next couple of weeks! I’ve finished writing almost the entire first season, and I’m hoping on having the full season recorded and posted by the end of next week!!

Upon request, in this blog I am including some more of the information we handed out to the individuals that attended our LiveDescribe Workshop last month. I have already posted my handout on audio description in an earlier blog. The following is taken directly out of the rest of the handout created specifically for the workshop. There was also a handout on the steps to using LiveDescribe. I will use that to create an Instructables Tutorial, and I will post the link once that is completed.

Excerpts from Workshop Handout:

Notes on Audio Description:

— Used in film, TV & live theatre

— Insert descriptive words between dialogue

— Do not describe over dialogue

— Describe important and meaningful visual information & stimuli

— E.g., facial expressions, actions, set, costumes, etc.

— Not sound (e.g., sound effects)

— Conventional AD

— Use monotone, non-emotional voice in 3^rd person

— “describe information”

Our Approach:

— Watching a show is about entertainment

— not only information

— AD is a creative process; it’s about being concise, precise and entertaining

— AD should fit with the style and ambiance of the show

— Use an approach that fits

— 1^st person, new character, emotion

— Amateur AD has been happening for much longer than professional AD

— Our studies show amateur AD can work

— Tiring and intense process

— Software tools can help

ALSO THIS WEEK:

***Newly Posted Episode:

- Degrassi High - Season 1 Episode 4 - Dream On by katerinag

LiveDescribe Week 9&10

Week 9: June 29th - July 3rd, 2009. Week10: July 6th - 10th, 2009.

The last week I've run into several technical difficulties with my work laptop that has severely delayed my work, but I am catching up, so bear with me!

The Instructable Website suggestion sounds really exciting! It’s got me thinking and excited, and I will begun work on that shortly to begin creating that for the website. I didn’t even know that that existed! Thank you very much for your input! Also, as for a transcript of the workshop itself - - I don’t know if I can make a transcript available, however, I can post the collection of notes we handed out to all of the attendees of the workshop! I will work on getting that up here for my next blog post.

Description Roadblock:

I just ran into an example of having to describe something that is directly connected to the dialogue that is extremely difficult to describe. I still haven’t made up my mind about how exactly to go about it. In an episode of “Being Erica”, Erica’s boss makes “air quotes” with her fingers while saying certain words. It is significant and needs to be described in order for jokes later on in the episode to make sense. Furthermore it contributes to this character’s obnoxious personality, and it is commented on later by Erica. I still haven’t decided how to insert a description for it. Will let you know what I come up with when I do!

I’ve been thinking more and more about what I’m doing as a describer and how to approach the work. The following question needs to be asked: Are describers: informers? Guides? or storytellers? As informers, we are like journalists, news broadcasters. As guides, we help an individual experience the story. As storytellers, we take the audience member on a journey, on an experience. That’s so much more exciting than just being an informer, or a guide. This way we have an opportunity to affect the audience in the way that the TV show or film or whatever is being described was meant to affect.

Scene transitions are very important and sometimes the specifics of them can be overlooked. For example, sometimes a scene switches between 2 locations quickly back and forth, and often this switch can be identifiable by the character`s voices or other sounds, but sometimes they require more description than that.

NEW IDEA for LIVEDESCRIBE:

What if: Extended Description: You can indicate the amount of space you want to fill in with continuous dialogue. That way there won’t be silent spaces in between extended description??? Since one way or another it describes on top of a certain amount of original sound. I discussed it with Ryan so we are going to see if we can figure something out!! I will keep you posted!

Newly Posted Descriptions at www.livedescribe.com :

Degrassi Junior High - Season 1 Episode 2 - The Big Dance by katerinag
Degrassi Junior High - Season 1 Episode 3 - The Experiment by katerinag

LiveDescribe Weeks 7&8

Week 7: June 15th – 19th, 2009. Week 8: June 22nd – 26th, 2009.

We held a workshop last week to teach others about the LiveDescribe program, and audio description itself. It went well, the use of the program was received well, and many of the group members that were involved found the program easy to use. So that’s exciting, that it is found to be accessible and usable.

The Program:
- I often run into issues of cutting off my voice when recording - - I need to be sure to allow an extra moment after my dialogue during recording before clicking the stop button.

- Also, I still get the “failed description” pop-ups. Sometimes they appear, sometimes they don’t. I don’t understand why it happens.

Description Issues:
- I find that sometimes when I’m describing some things I get a bit ahead of myself, for the simple reason that I already know so much about the show. For example, I was recording description for the 1st episode of Degrassi Junior High. When the character of Yick is first introduced, for a first time audience-member, his name is still unknown. I found myself describing him as Yick, but then I had to remind myself that he is a new student, and any viewer who watches this episode does not know his name until the character introduces himself. This occurs early on into the scene, but I think that the experience of an audience member collecting information for themselves is important, and that as a knowledgeable describer, I should not mess with the series of events that lead to certain information being revealed to the audience member. It is important to remember to give information as it is meant to be received, not give the information just because I, the describer know that it is so.

- Another issue that I’m running into is the following: as I am working to find an exciting, entertaining way of describing, I find that I sometimes sound over-dramatic. This may come from a concern of sounding monotonous which I am trying to avoid at all costs. I just hope that it does not reach a point of over-doing it to the point where the description isn’t taken seriously. I need to trust that the point is being sent across without needing to over-emote in my voice.

- Clarity is extremely important in descriptions. When describing it is important to be aware of the most important words in the description sentence so that the point of the description is not missed. For example, in my Daybreak Episode, I recorded the following sentence: “Detective Hopper bends down to pick up the papers revealing a gun inside his jacket”. Listening back to that recording, the word “gun” gets lost in the sentence. I need to always ask myself: what is the important word or subject that drives the sentence that should not be missed during the description?

Newly Posted Descriptions at www.livedescribe.com:
- Degrassi High – Season 1 Episode 3 – Breaking Up is Hard to Do
- Degrassi Junior High – Season 1 Episode 1 – Kiss Me Steph

LiveDescribe Week 6

Week 6 – June 8th – 12th, 2009.

Week 6! This week - - I did a lot of writing rather than recording. Several new recorded episodes will be posted early next week, because this week I did all the writing for them!

LiveDescribe Program: Still getting “Failed Description” Messages. Don’t know if this is just a bug, or if it is actually a mistake that I am making in my utilization of the program.
Thank You for the Comments! It’s really interesting to read about your thoughts. The points made on character use were interesting points. I completely understand how the creation of a new character describer may not be taken kindly by those who have original creative control over the show. However, when a show is telling a story that is comedic or heartbreaking: does a purely “state-the-facts” monotonous description do the show justice? Is that sort of description preferable to a voice/character that is supportive of the experience that the writer and director originally were trying to create for the audience? I’d love to hear more opinions on this! If you are interested in checking out some of my descriptions at livedescribe.com, I’d love to get some feedback.

Now, when tackling a character description, I’ve been asking myself certain questions. If I`m taking liberties as a character – could I permit myself to make conclusions such as (in Degrassi High): “he totally likes her”. Would that form of conclusion at all offend the listener or put them off in any way?

I ran into a concern today in terms of description for a blind person vs. a partially blind individual. I find myself having to describe something just a moment sooner than when the event occurs visually on the screen for the purpose of finding the time I need for the description in between natural dialogue , or to set up the scene before dialogue begins. For a blind person this would not in any way interrupt their experience, however, for a partially blind individual who is following the show visually, if I describe something before it occurs on screen, it may cause some confusion for the individual. I had not even considered this previously. It is something important to be aware of.

I will be participating in a workshop on the use of this program, and I have compiled a list of some things to consider when doing description and when approaching the LiveDescribe Program. Here are the lists:

Audio Description

Before Describing:
- What is the story about?
- What is the purpose of the story?
- What type of story-telling is this? For example: The Office vs. Law & Order

When Describing:
- Location – description of the place. What is the environment like? Paint a picture. Can you do this during the natural breaks in dialogue, or is extended description required?
- Physical Appearance of Characters? - - Does anyone look a particular way that is significant to the story?
- Who is speaking?
- Sound Effects – what background noises are significant and should not be overwritten with description?
- What details can be omitted? What details are indisputably vital to the story?
- Is Extended Description needed? Or is there enough time in between the natural dialogue to create the description.
- How can you describe in a way that supports the entertainment value of the show, and is still interesting.
- Liberties - - How can you take your own approach to it?
- Allow yourself to be expressive, and creative.

LiveDescribe: Reference Sheet

Using the Program:
- Import
- Select Capture Device
- Notice the automatically identified “description spaces”
- The Description and Spaces Box at the top right hand section of the screen identifies several lists. The 1st is a list of all of the spaces with their time frames. After you’ve written descriptions, there is also a 2nd list of all of your text descriptions. The 3rd list in the box is that of all of your extended descriptions used in the video.
- Check the description spaces: Do any adjustments need to be made? Are they where you want them to be?
- Description Spaces are easily adjustable with the mouse.
- To create a new description space, use the space mark in/out tool on the left end of the Timeline.
- Watch the clip: Familiarize yourself with the video
- Write the descriptions in the textboxes. Be sure to save after creating each text description!
- Is the Extended Description tool necessary?
o Extended Description pauses the original video and audio, inserting description. Original video continues after extended description concludes.
- Test the volume of the microphone before recording.
- Record the Description! Play it back!
- Save! Save! Save after every description (written and recorded)!

Like I said at the start of today’s blog - - There aren’t any new episodes posted, because I spent all week writing several episodes, so check back next week for the recordings on livedescribe.com! Thanks!

LiveDescribe Week 5

Week 5: June 1st – June 5th, 2009.

Week 5!!! I’m learning more and more about the program, and exploring new territory!

Here are some little issues I’ve run into with the program:

- Sometimes in the description list, it says that there’s supposed to be a description, when there isn’t
- Extended Description: Turns out, after an episode with extended description was posted on the website, the LiveDescribe Player wasn’t playing the extended descriptions! Therefore, if you have viewed any of the videos recently, they were probably missing descriptions, and also your version of LiveDescribe Player didn’t read them. Ryan fixed it, so now, with the new version of LiveDescribe Player, extended description does play properly. Thanks Ryan!

I’m beginning to explore characters! Is a character describer effective? Not a character in the show, but a character that is the observer? For Degrassi High and Degrassi Junior High, I decided to use a student character named Caroline. I introduce the show as “Caroline”, and continue the rest of the description as “Caroline”. I don’t really use a character voice, except that my voice tends to resonate in a higher register, and sounds younger. I don’t know if this contributes to the experience, or if it is a distraction for the listener, or if it’s just completely pointless. Would it be better to just use this younger sounding voice to describe the show, without introducing it as “Caroline”? Not sure. I wonder if it does increase the entertainment value. I’m worried about the voice being annoying. I think that that is my biggest concern - - being obnoxious.

A decision-making issue I’m running into is having to describe an important action that occurs directly over important dialogue that does not have long-enough natural breaks. In cases like this, extended description would severely interrupt the dialogue, but the action occurring during the description is extremely vital. In situations like this, I need to find the most appropriate moment to slip in an extended description so that the important dialogue is not ruined, but that the action is described so as not to lose any part of the story.

On the other hand, at times with Degrassi, I’m finding that there is a lot of background dialogue that is audible, but really doesn’t further the story at all, but the action occurring overlapping the dialogue involving other characters, does further the story, so I have to describe over the insignificant dialogue. Not to say that it’s insignificant, but I just have to choose which is more important.

Something that I’ve been thinking about a lot this week is how much I can allow myself to make conclusions on behalf of the listener. Again, this all brings us back to whether or not a describer should be simply giving the facts, or if the describer should be allowed to take liberties in terms of perspective and delivery. If I take on a character-describer, when I am describing certain characters on the show or certain events, a particular perspective is inevitable. For example: “geek” vs. boy with glasses. The character is a boy with glasses, but among the student body, he is viewed as the “geek”. Therefore if my character describer is a member of the student body, then the perspective of the description is bound to describe that person as a geek.

Something that can be forgotten is that as describers, we are writers. And more often than not, we really have to have a complete understanding of the story, and what the story is about. Specifically, research-wise. The describer must be considerate of terminologies, meanings, etc. For example: Little Mosque on the Prairie. I need to have some understanding of Muslim expressions, and terminologies in order to be able to effectively describe the situations according to what it all really means and is. I have to describe it as somebody who knows what it is about. I can't afford to be ignorant.

New Episodes up on www.livedescribe.com :
-Degrassi High – Season 1, Episode 1. A New Start Part One

The Following episodes will be up as of Monday:
- Degrassi High – Season 1, Episode 2. A New Start Part Two
- Degrassi Junior High – Season 1, Episode 1. Kiss Me Steph

Check out the new episodes, and check back next week for more!

LiveDescribe Week 4

Week 4: May 25th – 29th, 2009.

Week 4!!

I have been learning more and more about decision making when it comes to descriptions. I’m finding myself having to decide which descriptions are necessary and which are not. Sometimes, there is enough room in between dialogue to include certain descriptions, but when I go back to evaluate the description, at times I realize that it is simply not necessary at all. So, thus the debate is: Do I include all the description possible to fit into a space, or do I only include what tells the story?

A few things to think about:

Can silence be a storyteller as well? - - In Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister there was a moment, where there was a sombre silence for less than 3 seconds, and I had the choice between describing an audience member`s reaction or allowing the silence alone to hit the listener. I chose the silence because I felt that that had more purpose and served the experience more, rather than describing an audience member’s reaction.

In studio audience types of shows: I find that the reactions of audience members are nowhere near as important as describing reactions of people in dramas for example. In fictional shows, they further the storyline, while in audience-interactive shows, rarely does a reaction of an audience member change the direction of the show.

Again, I am running into a huge problem with group scenes - - how to make them clear??? Does naming the characters help? Or is that distracting? Can the listener already distinguish between voices? Do I assume they cannot distinguish between the voices? I was having such a hard time keeping all of the Degrassi characters straight, I had to go to a website with character profiles so that I can figure out who’s who, before going in to do the descriptions.
Show introduction descriptions: description aside - - what is the purpose of introduction? What is the purpose of the images and the titles? It’s to give the viewer information about the show. So, when describing an introduction, should you just describe what the visually impaired individual cannot see? Or do you create a show introduction to serve the same purpose as it would for a sighted individual?

For the purpose of Degrassi’s show introduction - - it plays a song, that is representative of the time, the audience, the characters represented. Listening to it, I believe that it gives the listener the introductory information necessary, that if I were to speak over it to offer my own introduction, it would take away from what the introduction’s audio already offers. I have the option of possible describing characters throughout the song’s intro, but A) it would lose the song in the process and B) it would be so much information thrown at the listener at once, that it would probably not be helpful anyway.

Extended Description:

COOL TOOL - - Extended Description - - minor glitch!! It is a bit delayed in the recording, and doesn’t always show up in the audio line, which makes it very difficult to edit. But Ryan is fixing it! Also, as extended description plays, you can’t stop it - - you have to wait for it to finish before you can pause. I’ve found that the extended description works well, but it does cut off milliseconds off of dialogue on both ends of the description, so you have to be very careful when considering placement.

I’m beginning to have a much better understanding of what is necessary to be communicated to the listener, vs. what is just empty information. It’s not about following any sort of rules, it’s about telling a story. Good motto to go by when describing comedy? - - Don’t tell me how funny it is... make me laugh. The describer has to remember that shows are supposed to be entertaining, and that should not be lost because of description.

Newest Episodes – Check them out! @ http://livedescribe.com/wiki/browse.php

- Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister 2008.
- Rick Mercer Report March 10th, 2009.
- Rick Mercer Report March 17th, 2009.

LiveDescribe Week 3

Week 3: May 19th – 22nd 2009.

Third Week. Today we solved some more bugs!! There was one bug that kept coming up, that made my project crash... TWICE!! Which was very annoying, because the only way to get rid of it was to close the program, which means any unsaved info was lost... again, I’m reminded to SAVE, SAVE, SAVE!!!!

More Program News - - YEAYYYY!!! New discovery has been made - - extended description!! I did not know that this existed! If a description is long - - too long to fit in the dialogue pause, but is very important, and MUST be described, you have the option of using the extended description option. In the record box, you can check off the “extended” checkbox, and wherever your scroll bar is, you hit record, and you record your description from there. This pauses the original video, so your description can be as long you need it to be. However, be aware, that this PAUSES the original video, including background noise, and the only thing heard will be the description. This means that this cool tool must be used with care in a way that does not disrupt the experience of the show, but supports and contributes to it.

**Note: Shows without a background score are easier to use Extended Description on, because it doesn’t sound like it is pausing the original video or delaying it in anyway - - like in The Office - - except for, of course in the cases of background noises other than score, which still one should be wary of, in terms of deciding when it is appropriate or not to use this tool.

I’m finding that even after only doing descriptions for a little while, I’m already catching myself using the same vocabulary over and over again. I have to be really conscious of this. Because not only should I be careful to not be repetitive, but I also have to change up the way I write based on what kind of show I’m writing for.

It is a really big challenge to make the description a part of the entertainment. I am describing what is going on, and I manipulate my tone of voice to support what is going on. However, I am concerned that if my writing isn’t properly complimenting the style of the script-writer, that it may negatively affect the experience of the listener. I wonder if it takes them out of the story.

My next big challenge: Comedy - - how to interpret visual comedy with an audio experience that can have the same effect or similar effect as the visual humour. Does this mean I must resort to the appropriate words to use, or could it be possible use of sound effects?

I’m reaching a point where I’m going back on descriptions I’ve already written, and feeling the need to re-do them because I am unsatisfied with their comedic quality. With the descriptions I wrote for the Friends episode, I feel that even though I’m trying to adjust my tone to the comedy, it is still detached, so I need to seek out a different approach.

I have come across a new particular dilemma when it comes to describing certain shows, such as Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister, which has a studio audience. There are so many shots of audience members, and a lot of the time their reactions aren’t that meaningful, but occasionally there are some really interesting audience member reactions - - but often they happen so quickly, and we see several little quick, diverse reactions in the audience one after the other with no time to describe. This is either because the break in dialogue is too short, or because the reactions are occurring during dialogue. When coming across a situation such as this, I have to decide how important these reactions are. Do they support what is happening on the stage? Or, if I were to describe these reactions, would it simply disrupt the listener’s experience, and hinder their opportunity to have their own individual reaction?

When facing myself with a description project, I need to ask myself some important questions: What would the director want? If the writer were to hear my description would they feel that it was complimentary to their original script or would they feel that it completely ruins their vision for the show??

This week, Daybreak was posted on the LiveDescribe website. Check it out at http://livedescribe.com/wiki/displayFile.php?key=30&size=&sender=genre

Other new episodes will be up soon, so be sure to keep checking back! Thanks!

LiveDescribe Week 2

Second week: I’m working on new episodes. Not all video formats are compatible with LiveDescribe and I’m currently trying to figure out which videos I can use.

Working more with the program, I ran into some things. For the automatically created description bars on the audio line, it would be very convenient and helpful to be able to split them as well as the audio. Being able to type in text descriptions while watching the video would also be helpful for longer sequences that require long, detailed descriptions. Furthermore, It would be helpful if the textbox could be enlarged so as to be able to see the whole text altogether, instead of having to scan it down. Also, while recording or watching, it doesn’t allow you to scan down unless you are using the text record option, which sometimes isn’t always the preference of the user.

Another little thing with the program that could be improved is that after a recording has been made, and I click to begin playing the audio mid-way through the description, I can only hear the original audio, not the description audio as well. I have to start the playback before the description bar in order to be able to hear the recorded description as well. It would be helpful if I can start the playback at any point I would like; it would be useful in order to make little specific changes. This also goes for hitting pause - - if I hit pause in the middle of a description section, and then press play again to continue from there, I will no longer be able to hear the description, and have to start again from just before the description. Also, when audio description is rolling, it would be cool if the text numbers could be highlighted as it is rolling.

I am currently working on the pilot episode of Daybreak, starring Taye Diggs. It is an action-mystery style drama, which is very different from The Lucy Show. There are so many important details in quick short shots, that are vital to the story line, but don’t allow me much time to describe them. Therefore, I have to figure out a way to be quick at getting to the point. This is especially true in terms of clues - - very hard to fit in all of the details, because they are all important. Also, subtle background noises in scenes can be just as vital and important as dialogue between characters, so it is very important to not disregard them or overwrite them with description.

In Daybreak, there are many action sequences. They are challenging to describe because, especially when dealing with fights, the hits and blows are so quick and fast one after the other and so continuous that it is difficult for description to keep up with it.

I am also exploring description with the show Friends. This is a comedy very much based on social interaction. However, my greatest challenge when describing Friends is the fact that the show is about six important lead characters, and there are many scenes in which all six friends are in the scene together. The challenge is being able to use description effectively in order to allow and help the listener to easily distinguish the characters apart. Description must be specific and clear in order to achieve this.

I’m finding the descriptions between social interactive comedy much more difficult to do than physical comedy descriptions. Physical comedy, is very much “it is, what it looks to be” and I am able to aid the comedy with the expressions in my voice, while social comedy has to be described very carefully, and effectively in order for the joke to not get lost in terms of subtle facial reactions. And Friends for example has a lot of sarcastic humour in which facial expressions and physical hand motions aid it along. This can get lost in description if I’m not careful.

The comedy of the description has to somehow match or compliment the type of comedy of the show itself. Different comedies have different specific kinds of comedic tendencies, and if the description doesn’t support that, it can spoil the uniqueness of the show, and its personality.

I am very close to wrapping up both the Daybreak episode and the Friends episode. They will both be online by the end of this weekend. Again, see www.livedescribe.com for audio descriptions!

LiveDescribe Week 1

Week 1: May 4th – 8th 2009.

This was my first week on the job! I’ve been learning about the LiveDescribe Program; how to use it, its purpose, different alternatives in the way to go about working on the program and doing audio description. It’s really interesting, and exciting to know that there are a lot of creative possibilities, if you allow yourself to go beyond the standard description ways. I’ve been reading papers and watching audio description examples. Also, before beginning work on my first description, of The Lucy Show, I made sure to do some research on the show itself so that I could familiarize myself with the show’s characters, the show’s influence, and just get a better understanding of it so that I could adjust my description to effectively reflect what the show is all about.

When beginning to work on the episode on LiveDescribe, I started off with going through the bars on the audio line that indicated where voice description was possible/needed. Going through it, however, I realized that there were a lot of adjustments to be made. Although it was done automatically, I needed to edit through a lot of it, if not most of it; either shortening some bars, extending some bars, deleting some bars, or adding extra bars.
Before recording, I went through all of the voice description bars, and wrote in the description in the text boxes to make recording easier by planning out my description. Regarding the text boxes, I learned it’s very important to save after any sort of change, because otherwise, not only will your change not be saved, but you will lose the entire text. This was a little bit annoying, because even if you were to just open the text box without making any changes, if you don’t save, you’ll still lose the entire text. So, the save reminder box that pops up after each text box use is very helpful. Something useful might be spell check for the text boxes. Although at the end of the day, the audio is really the final product - - for the neurotic, knowing that spelling is correct might be nice.

For the recording, having a bit of a difficult time working with the microphone, because each time I record, the volume of the recording changes depending on where exactly the microphone is. It’s still taking some getting to used to, but with more time I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it.

Throughout recording, and often during play-back a message box with some sort of warning kept coming up, but I ignored it, which was not the smart thing to do. It would offer a details, continue, and quit option. Often, even when pressing continue, the message box would immediately come back on, and would take several continue clicks for it to actually continue. Very annoying. Would come up at the most inappropriate moments. At one point, by accident, I pressed quit, and lost an hour’s worth of work. Very frustrating. However, lesson learned: don’t ignore message boxes, and always save. Also a “are you sure you want to quit” message box after clicking quit might be useful in case a person like myself clicks quit by accident.

Another thing I’m having an issue with is the scroll bar, and using it. It would be really helpful if I could just scroll down the audio line, instead of only being able to see certain chunks of audio at a time.

I ended up switching laptops so we had to transfer the LiveDescribe project from one to the other. We ran into an issue with the program. Project refused to open for a while, but then we fixed it. Then, the following day, the project refused to open once again. Turns out it has to do with the text boxes and using the “enter” button within one text box. This was messing around with the program, but once again Ryan fixed it, and then the project opened and is fine!

I discovered some things with the audio after switching computers. The volume of my previous recordings on the old laptop were triple the level of volume of the original video. We went into the wave-pad and halfed the volume of my recordings. Now, the size of the audio on the audio line is within the blue box, while before it was out of the box, meaning that it was too loud.

Afterwards, we played it again, and the volume of the recordings was still much louder. In LiveDescribe, there is a volume adjustment scroll. I would adjust it, and by doing that, I thought I was adjusting the total volume on the computer. Afterwards, I realized that it only adjusts the volume of the video’s audio, NOT the audio of the recordings. The computer’s volume control is what adjusted the total volume of all, and the individual microphone volume controls on the computer were what independently adjust the microphone volume.

The warning box from the previous day continued to appear on the screen during playback, and also during recording on LiveDescribe. I showed it to Ryan, and he understood the problem. Something about the size of the files. Solution is being worked on.
When downloading audio descriptions of the LiveDescribe website. You have to download the original video as well in order for the LiveDescribe player to open it. It won’t open otherwise. But there is nothing on the website that indicates this direction. They are listed as two separate options, which is fine, but a direction to say that you need the original for the description to work would be helpful.

Also, on the LiveDescribe Player, the volume control option that shows up in the player doesn’t work. To adjust the volume, you have to go to the computer’s volume control options. You can’t control it through the player at all.

Something to keep in mind when using the program itself, you have to be really careful with enunciation when recording, because sometimes the ends of words can get lost in the microphone. I have to make sure to carefully sound the “s”’ and “t”s otherwise, you won’t be able to hear them.

I completed my first episode this week! After creating an account on the LiveDescribe Website, I published the episode as well. See http://livedescribe.com/wiki/browse.php?type=&choice=Comedy#here