Jonathan - Firstly, thanks for the contact details.
I would say that for most of last night's Harry Potter, the AD track was
ok,
it was just when the drama built, and the music got louder, the AD track
stayed the same, and was drowned out. This happened at two crucial stages
of
the film, and if I hadn't already read the book, I'd have had no idea
what
had been going on.
Also over this Holiday period, there was an episode of Coronation Street
where it was as if the voice over for AD was using a hand held mike with
an
over ride button on it, that he kept pressing when he wasn't describing,
thus dropping the programme volume, and releasing it when he was
describing,
thus bringing the programme volume back to full wack, and drowning
himself
out. It was a mess to say the least.
I've just listened to the clip you sent promoting the latest HP Movie,
and I
would have to say that to my ears, the AD is actually louder than the
sound
track, and although the AD is clear enough, the actual movie sound track
is
too quiet.
There certainly seem to be issues here that I would have thought were
pretty
basic to resolve -
Andy
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jonathan" <digitaltoast@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, January 02, 2012 8:07 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Tonight's Harry Potter and AD
There are some links and contact details you might find useful at the
end of my email...
As far as quality goes, I can only speak for ITFC 3 years ago, but the
QA was pretty tight, at least then.
All scripts AND recordings were cross-checked for everything, and
someone had to listen to the entire final thing. Even the crap like
"When cats throw up" at 3am on some obscure satellite channel had to
be perfect.
When the recording is complete, a file of time codes, fade curves and
track names are bundled up and sent to the layback studio, where it
gets mixed with the original track, the level of fade, which is
usually preset, deciding how much the background track is faded. It
SHOULD be the case that the AD and movie tracks are the same volume,
just that the movie track is faded during the AD section.
Did it sound like this?
http://progressive.ifdnrg.com/streams/yourlocalcinema/harrypotter72ad.mp3
There are several companies that do AD though - ITFC, Red Bee, IMS,
Sky to name a few, and it's not always easy to tell who did what.
So it's best to contact the broadcaster themselves - you might find
this
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ouch/2011/01/tv_audio_description_how_is_it.html?page=33
and
http://www.rnib.org.uk/livingwithsightloss/tvradiofilm/television/adtv/Pages/adfeedback.aspx
interesting. In case you don't want to wade through all that, the key
contact numbers are:
BBC - telephone 03700 100 222
BBC iPlayer - email AccessibilityTeam@xxxxxxxxx
ITV - telephone 0844 881 4150 or email viewerservices@xxxxxxx
Channel 4 - telephone 0845 076 0191
Five - telephone 08457 050 505 or email customerservices@xxxxxxx
Sky channels - telephone 0844 241 0333 or email
accessiblecustomerservice@xxxxxxxxx
Hope that helps!
On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 7:02 PM, Kevin Lloyd <kevin.lloyd3@xxxxxxx>
wrote:
It does make you wonder if they have any quality assurance checking at
all
for AD programmes. I know in this case the AD is quiet but I've lost
track
of the number of movies I've stopped because the AD is ridiculously
loud
and
makes the movie unwatchable...
Kevin Lloyd
E-mail: kevin.lloyd3@xxxxxxx
----- Original Message ----- From: "ANDY COLLINS"
<Andy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, January 02, 2012 5:46 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Tonight's Harry Potter and AD
Thanks Pele - I'll give that numbrer a try this week -
Andy
----- Original Message ----- From: "Pele West"
<pele.west@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, January 02, 2012 10:40 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Tonight's Harry Potter and AD
Hi Andy
I entirely agree with you. The mix between the film and the audio
description was not very good, but then, neither was the film.
A few years a go there was a problem with Audio Description in our
area
on ITV where the sound would break up when something was being
described. I
reported it and after a few months ITV engineers identified the
problem
and rectified it.
My first contact was the ITV Duty Office on 0844 881 4150.
I have no idea if this is still a valid number, but it is worth a
try.
Pele West
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