Weird Weekend: Providing Audio Description in Non-Theatrical Cinema Spaces

In this blog, Matchbox Cine’s Sean Welsh explains how they’ve managed to reliably and consistently produce and present optional audio description at their Weird Weekend events, which take place in an ‘emerging’ non-theatrical space.

Like most exhibitors[1], we’re keen for our events to be as accessible as possible – hardly anyone is anti-access[2]. As professional access practitioners[3], though, we’re in the unusual position of also having the practical tools to deliver that provision ourselves. We realised very early on that if we could, we should, and we committed that all our own events should have descriptive subtitles on-screen by default. It’s also why, for the past several months, we’ve been dragging a flight case full of audio description equipment back and forth to Weird Weekend’s Glasgow host venue, OFFLINE, from Edinburgh, where it normally lives. The use of that kit is part of our solution to how to host a non-theatrical screening for a general audience which also welcomes Blind and Deaf audience members, as standard.

OFFLINE is an ‘emerging’ venue, effectively still being built around us. With the intent to stage a monthly screening series leading into a full film festival in October of this year, we were faced with a steep learning curve – how to present all of our programmes with reliable, optional (professional quality) audio description, as standard, in a venue that barely has electricity. Not to mention a programme of films (and our specially-curated supporting material) that do not come provided with audio description.

Where they can’t be sourced, we create our own mono audio description tracks for both our feature presentation and our supporting programme (including a 15-minute pre-show), which we manually trigger from a portable digital audio player[4] to sync with our digital screening materials[5]. That player is plugged into a radio unit which broadcasts to nearby handheld receivers (with basic headphones plugged in) tuned in to the correct channel, all loaned from Audio Description Association (Scotland). As paid-up[6] members of ADA (Scotland), we are given free loan of this kit, facilitated via the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, where the kit lives when it’s not hired out. Since the kit is primarily used for live theatre, it also comes with a microphone headset, which we keep as back-up, in case we need to deliver our pre-prepared AD script live.

Our programmes are purposefully on the niche end of the repertory cult film spectrum. We want as many people to see these films as possible and we want our events to be open to all, as much as is practically possible, and we don’t want to silo our audience. We don’t programme specifically to a Deaf or Blind audience, but we presume that Deaf or Blind audience members are as likely as anyone to enjoy the strange cinema we celebrate. What is unique about the theatrical experience – no matter what’s being shown – is that it’s immersive and communal, and that informs our approach to access materials as well as our event delivery.

Audio description, designed to allow the same kind of access for Blind audiences, is much less discussed, and much less employed than descriptive subtitles. There are many reasons for this. Like descriptive subtitles, AD is an additional expense, but even more so. AD requires a script to be written – a different skillset to subtitling, but not entirely dissimilar – but also recorded, and professionally. So, AD takes longer to make and is more involved, often requiring multiple people and certainly multiple stages.

The editorial aspects of audio describing are not as well-known nor as readily apparent as those of descriptive subtitling arguably are. The technical aspects are also more challenging. If you’ve watched a DVD commentary or toggled the audio language on a Netflix film, you’ll understand ‘sidecar’ audio operates in much the same way as ‘sidecar’ subtitles – both sync with the film and are designed to work with it, but are not necessarily switched on by default. They’re also not generally intended to be viewed or used without the film. But while subtitles can be burned-in to a video with relatively little expertise and sidecar subtitle files (the most common format is .SRT) can be opened and played on top of videos with most video players (VLC, for example), the same isn’t true of AD files (the most common format for which is .WAV).

Audio description, in cinema, is typically packaged within a DCP, it doesn’t come as a separate track. Instead, the AD track sits alongside the sound mix of the film, not audible to the general audience but designed to be listened to on separate headsets while the film’s 5.1 soundtrack booms all around the auditorium. For that reason, the AD track is prepared with only the audio description, none of the film’s soundtrack mixed in – if you were to listen to that track in isolation, there would be long periods of silence to avoid clashing with the film’s dialogue or dramatically-relevant soundtrack and sound design. So, unlike ‘open-captioned’ screenings, general audiences can attend audio-described screenings without noticing any difference from a standard screening.

Another thing to note about audio description via DCP is that since it plays with the film’s sound mix, it will automatically sync perfectly, with minimal latency. If the film is stopped, it will stop and resume at the same point the film does. In this sense, it’s similar to the live audio description you might get at a theatre or other live event. Venues’ audio description broadcast systems can be radio-based, infrared-based or internet/WiFi-based[7]. Audio description online, on TV broadcasts, or on disc works differently. In any of those contexts, choosing audio description is a little like choosing a dubbed language track, in the sense that you can’t listen to two languages at once. Similarly, the AD must be combined with the film’s soundtrack to create an optional mixed AD track.

So, the challenge with non-theatrical screenings, which often rely on disc or digital screening materials rather than DCPs, is that the available audio description track is a) mixed and b) can’t be played at the same time, through the same equipment, as the main sound mix – it’s either/or. However, while mono AD tracks are not readily available commercially, they are one of the key deliverables for producers, funders, sales agents and distributors. While often only the lab or post-house reliably knows what each file is and what it’s for, it’s worth asking for these materials, since they do exist – and, since they’re comparable small and are made before the DCP is packaged, are actually easier to give access to than the entire DCP.

Although there are strong arguments that establishing and continuing to maintain reliable access provision will bring new audiences to a venue, festival or other regular event, accessibility can’t and shouldn’t be justified as an expense – it’s a fundamental aspect of life. Like descriptive subtitling and wheelchair ramps, audio description has an associated cost, but it is practically possible to deliver, where there is sincere intent and, of course, the requisite funding. By modelling how to provide audio description in a venue still being built around us, we hope others with better infrastructure, larger audiences and bigger budgets can look to do the same, and give Blind audiences the choice they deserve, which is simply the same as everyone else.

Sean Welsh
Matchbox Cine / Matchbox Cinesub / Weird Weekend

matchboxcine.com
makeitweird.co.uk

sean@matchboxcine.com

Header image by Ingrid Mur

[1] Matchbox Cine have programmed, produced and presented Weird Weekend, Cage-a-rama, KeanuCon, lots of standalone events, collaborations and screening tours.
[2] Sociopaths, nihilists and misguided purists are the only overt enemies of access.
[3] Access materials for distributors like Dogwoof, Sovereign, Vertigo; festivals like Sheffield DocFest, Glasgow Short Film Festival, Abertoir; many individual films, including via ICO’s Screening Days slates.
[4] This doesn’t need to be expensive, and any music player with a headphone jack will do; it’s useful to have the ability to scroll through tracks, in case the film is stopped and needs to be re-started at a particular point.
[5] From laptop, using VLC.
[6] A very modest annual fee for “corporate members” gives access to a number of benefits: adascotland.com/membership.
[7] All of these have pros and cons, though the WiFi/internet based systems like Sennheiser’s MobileConnect seem likely to be the way of the future, though one of its potential strengths is also an obstacle – it requires use of an app and the user’s own mobile phone. It creates a learning curve for the audience member and puts the onus partly on them to avoid or resolve technical interruptions.

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