What is an Audio Description? Video has two main elements to it, what you see and what you hear. Imagine you go to watch Back to the Future. However, your vision has failed to the point where you can’t see the image. Audio description comes in to make it possible to get the visual cues needed to follow the plot. Let’s take a look at what they do.
Audio descriptions reflect the important things happening visually that aren’t spoken or announced in audio. Back to Back to the Future, one key element of the movie is Doc Brown’s appearance. The Delorean time machine’s design is another. We get some description of Doc as Marty talks about him before he goes to school. We get the idea that he is an outcast from conventional society. An audio description of Doc when Marty meets him at Twin Pines Mall would say, “Doc is tall and lanky. He is wearing an all white jump suit and holding an RC remote. Doc has long wild white hair, held back by a pair of goggles. His movements are extremely erratic.”
Now with a physical description, narration, and other character dialogue we have a complete picture of who Doc is. A good audio description will add speech in between character dialogue to explain the actions happening on screen. Picture the scene in 1955 when Marty meets Bif in the cafe. If audio description doesn’t mention Marty’s vest apperance, the “sailor” and “life vest” jokes fall flat. The following scene has Marty stealing a kid’s scooter. He makes a skateboard to escape Bif. Without description, this would just sound like lots of wheels squealing and yelling. When Bif crashes, we don’t know its a manure truck he hits. And if you are big BTTF fan, you know the importance of the joke.
You can plan your audio description at the time of scripting and story boarding your video. When the script is done, you can lay out the shots. You’ll be able to identify the items on screen that need audio description. Then, make notes. Next, update your script to have lines of the description. Use the updated script to record the description track and add it as a second source file.
We’re not done yet. We have a complete script now. All scenes have been filmed. Editing is done. We have one more job. Update the script with all the changes. Use the script to generate your captions. Use the script with audio description as your transcript.