Randomly joined-up thoughts on Audio Description (AD), as a describer

Ahead of a talk I’m just about to deliver to a group of hugely supportive, generously-minded fellow Voice Actors (please read that bit again, my fellow WoVovians) I thought I’d try to capture some of the experiences to date, as well as some of the learning from research undertaken prior to presenting my introductory thoughts. They will be brief, for my ink, inspiration and time are all in short supply today. However, if anything is worthy of greater thought or expression I may follow up with something rather worthier in a few weeks’ time. My sincere thanks meanwhile to those who made time to speak to me, by whatever channel, during my prep.

-??????AD is surprisingly little known in the voice acting community, despite not being new.

-??????The describing is very much dependent on the script, which in turn, of course, depends on the skilled eye and pen of a writer.

-??????If there is currently a global need for ‘more’ it is for writers rather than describers, though that is not to say that the market is even close to being mature let alone flooded.

-??????The writing too depends on the attention to the movie/video action, the actual action as it were, not what a writer interprets, adds or guesses at. What am I actually seeing? What detail is truly salient?

-??????Though AI is, as in so many areas, perceived as a ‘threat’ there is much to commend in the now-established thought that “Artificial Intelligence (AI) will not replace humans. However, those who use and utilise AI may replace those who do not.”

-??????The crystallised thoughts of one experience describer I talked to put it this way “Offer value over and above what a robot can.” Amen to that.

-??????Scene sensitivity is becoming increasingly important – the nuances of articulation and expression that help to match the mood of a particular scene, or at the very least not jarring with it. These are true actors' skills.

-??????The golden rule of AD is that it should never, ever clash with any of the dialogue. Sometimes, maybe often, this is a significant challenge. After all, the movie script is not (so far) written or performed with AD in mind. AD needs to blend, and always will.

-??????Many describers, including myself, value the extra benefits derived from our work to those whose sight is challenged, or those who have no sight. It needs to pay, yes, but there is an element of in-built job satisfaction that other, more standard, voice acting jobs can’t always afford.

02.05.23