Title
Audio description and film experience. Design of a reception study
Conference name
Arsad 2015
City
Country
Spain
Modalities
Date
19/03/2015
Abstract
Film experience is a sensory, sensual, emotional and cognitive experience that engages the viewer in a phenomenological process as “she finds herself ‘living’ [the film]” (Casetti 2011: 53). Film experience is intrinsically multisensory as films contain audio as well as visual elements, and “the filmmaker can affect the spectator through all of the various parameters of film style, from shot composition, to movement, to editing, to colour, to sound and music” (Plantiga 2010: 94). Yet, in essence, movies are created to meet the eye and the lack of access to the visual channel is bound to deeply affect the film experience of visually impaired persons (VIPs). Audio description offers itself as an invaluable help to bridge this gap, but the shifts in modes and channels as well as time limitations may not allow for an entire transfer of the film experience. As part of my doctoral thesis on the transposition of film language in AD, I am conducting a reception study to explore the film experience of VIPs and how it is affected by the interpretation of film language in AD.
To serve this purpose, three different audio descriptions of the short film Nuit Blanche (2009) have been drafted. The ADLAB AD guidelines (Remael, Reviers et al. forthcoming) and an indepth film analysis including a bottom-up matrix following the ADLAB project’s proposal (2014) have provided a functional framework for the creation of three test ADs that differ in their degree of interpretation of film language.
A further aspect of the design of the reception study with VIPs is the development of an experimental design including an online survey and focus group interviews. Each of the three test groups is to watch a different version of the audio described short film and answer a questionnaire on their film experience. There will be a comparison of the results between groups as well as with reference data provided by a survey conducted among sighted viewers on their film experience watching Nuit Blanche.
In my presentation, I am going to discuss all aspects of the reception’s study design, in the light of the broader context of the overall research project.
To serve this purpose, three different audio descriptions of the short film Nuit Blanche (2009) have been drafted. The ADLAB AD guidelines (Remael, Reviers et al. forthcoming) and an indepth film analysis including a bottom-up matrix following the ADLAB project’s proposal (2014) have provided a functional framework for the creation of three test ADs that differ in their degree of interpretation of film language.
A further aspect of the design of the reception study with VIPs is the development of an experimental design including an online survey and focus group interviews. Each of the three test groups is to watch a different version of the audio described short film and answer a questionnaire on their film experience. There will be a comparison of the results between groups as well as with reference data provided by a survey conducted among sighted viewers on their film experience watching Nuit Blanche.
In my presentation, I am going to discuss all aspects of the reception’s study design, in the light of the broader context of the overall research project.