whenthepatientforgotthetechnique.There- cialtohervisionrehabilitation,becauseheno fore,wereviewedcorrectsightedguidetech- longer ascribed her odd visual symptoms to niqueswithherson.Hehadbeenguidingthe other stroke-related cognitive issues. patient from her right side. Although this ar- rangement placed her left eye (which she re- CONCLUSION ported had “much” better vision) on her un- I hope to inspire a discussion about the impor- protected side, her left hemianopia had to be tanceofnonmeasurablegoalsinvisionrehabil- considered. If the patient’s son guided her itationandlowvisioncare.Anysuchdiscussion from her left side, it would place her remain- should begin by simply acknowledging that ing field on her unprotected side, but she such goals exist, at least on the part of the reported that the quality of that remaining patient or any professional attempting to pull field was quite poor in her right eye. It was, togetherthepiecesofthepatient’slifethathave therefore, not clear from which side her son been fragmented through vision loss. should operate. I instructed him to guide the patient from whichever side she reported had REFERENCE the worse field of vision when moving, ac- Yoonessi, A., & Yoonessi, A. (2011). Func- tional assessment of Magno, Parvo, and knowledgingthatthesepreferencesmightnot Konio-Cellular pathways; current state and always be consistent, since she reported that future clinical applications. Journal of Oph- simply walking changed her vision drasti- thalmicandVisionResearch,6(2),119–126. cally. Given my difficulty with making a de- finitive recommendation, however, it was doubtfulthatthedistinctionwouldbetremen- GreggBaldwin,O.D.,optometristandlowvision examiner, The Virginia Department for the Blind dously significant. In keeping with a primary and Vision Impaired, 397 Azalea Avenue, Rich- goal of the low vision exam, I explained this mond, VA23227;e-mail:[email protected]. situation to her son thoroughly. Idemonstratedvariouslight-coloredlenses Creative Description: Audio and page filters indoors, but none improved Describing Artistic Films subjectivevisionbyreducingvisualclutteror for Individuals with decreasingglare.Ialwaysdemonstratecolors Visual Impairments across the spectrum, since there is no corre- AgnieszkaWalczak lation between a disease process and the spe- A udiodescriptionisaserviceaimedatwid- cific wavelengths that may produce bother- ening accessibility to visual media such as some glare. Outdoors in bright sunshine, film and television for all individuals, espe- medium plum sun-wear with side-shields re- cially for people with sensory disabilities. duced glare and improved comfort. It offers people who are blind or have low Providing a better understanding of the id- iosyncratic nature of the patient’s vision loss I owe a great debt of thanks to Agnieszka to her son was a primary goal of the low Szarkowska and Wojciech Figiel, University of vision exam. The success of that goal was Warsaw, for their advice and critical comments, dependentonthepatient’sson,specificallyon and to Joanna Maria Kwiatowska for her help in hisattentionandlevelofconcern.Thegoal’s translatingthePolishaudiodescriptionscriptinto subjective nature did not make it less impor- English for the purposes of this report. This re- search was partially supported by the European tant.Thecasemanagerlaterreportedthatour project Hybrid Broadcast Broadband for All discussion did help the patient’s son better (HBB4ALL)fromtheFP7CIP-ICT-PSP.2013.5.1 managebothhismother’sandhisownexpec- #621014.ItisalsopartiallyfundedbytheCatalan tations, and that it was immeasurably benefi- Government funding 2014SGR027. 387 ©2017AFB,AllRightsReserved JournalofVisualImpairment&Blindness,July-August2017 vision“averbalscreenontotheworld”(D´ıaz for them and enabled them to gain “a better Cintas, Orero, & Remael, 2007, p. 13). The understandingofthemotivationsofthecharac- oft-quoted golden rule when preparing audio ters” (Szarkowska, 2013, p. 386). description for film is, “What you see is Thisreportexaminesacreativedescription what you say” (Snyder, 2008, 2014). It is prepared for an artistic drama, The Mighty required that the text be “as objective as pos- Angel (2014), a Polish-language production sible”;subjectiveorqualitativejudgmentsare from the acclaimed Polish director Wojciech deemed “unnecessary” or “unwanted” (Rai, Smarzowski. The film is said to be “a pow- Greening, & Leen, 2010, p. 76). Employing erful and skillfully crafted tale of alcohol- technicaltermsinanaudiodescriptionscript, ism,” that portrays “the Polish reality with such as camera angles, “is discouraged and grim, gritty, social-realism” (Larsen, 2014, should only be used very sparingly” (Rai et p. 1). Smarzowski does not spare the viewer al., 2010, p. 8). However, literal and suppos- nauseating images. According to the Inter- edly“objective”descriptionsmaynotpresent netMovieDatabase(IMDb,2015,p.3),“you blind and visually impaired users with an get to see all the puke, soiled underwear, bar “experiencethatisequalorequivalenttothatof fights and pissing in the street of real alco- sighted persons” (Udo & Fels, 2009, p. 179). holics” (IMDb, 2015). Such graphic images In order to give the audience a more en- should not be inaccessible to visually im- gaging and entertaining experience, in this paired audiences. report I propose a new type of audio descrip- What follows is a presentation of the cre- tion for describing artistic films: creative de- ativedescriptionforTheMightyAngel,which scription. By including emotive vocabulary was written by the author of this report after andfilmterminologyintheaudiodescription discussionwithavisuallyimpairedaudiode- script, “the feel of the scene” (Udo & Fels, scription consultant. In order to prepare im- 2009,p.181)canbebetterrecreated,andcan mersive audio description that would sound thus increase people’s immersion in the film. credible to the audience, the elements of the original screenplay written by Smarzowski CREATIVEDESCRIPTION were incorporated in the script. It was not Creative descriptions have already been em- copied,butservedasapointofreference.The ployed in a wide variety of media genres, challenges encountered in the process were including television (TV) programs (Fels, grouped under two categories: the language Udo, Ting, Diamond, & Diamond, 2006a), of the film and the language of the audio films (Matamala & Remael, 2015), theatrical description. For the purposes of this report, plays (Udo, Acevedo, & Fels, 2010), and examples of the creative description have fashion shows (Udo & Fels, 2010). Studies been translated from Polish into English. have shown that participants are in favor of theunconventionalsolutionsproposedbythe THELANGUAGEOFTHEFILM describers, be it a first-person audio descrip- In what follows, I provide a brief analysis of tion narrative (Fels, Udo, Diamond, & Dia- film techniques employed in the film, along mond, 2006b), audio description with ele- with examples illustrating how they were ments of film language (Fryer & Freeman, handled in the creative description. 2012),oraudiodescriptionbasedonascreen- The first example deals with a sequence of play (Szarkowska & Wasylczyk, 2014). shots used by the director to emphasize how Many individuals have expressed a preference repetitive the life of an addict may become. for creative descriptions, claiming that “juicy His actions are similar, if not the same—the andvividdescriptions”weremoreentertaining only element that changes is the setting. This 388 JournalofVisualImpairment&Blindness,July-August2017 ©2017AFB,AllRightsReserved emphasis was marked in the script by the lying on the bed, naked, in the fetal phrases “a series of shots” or “cut-in shots” position. He’s trembling. insertedbeforetheactualdescriptionofascene: Byincorporatingtheelementsofcamerawork 1. A series of shots. Jerzy drinks succes- into the script, the visual style of the film is sive shots of vodka. Only the back- translated into words for the audience. Al- ground changes: the flat... the hospi- though this practice is rather uncommon for tal... day... night... conventionally written audio descriptions, it 2. Cut-inshotsfromhospitallife:epilep- hasalreadybeenshownthatvisuallyimpaired tic seizures . . . therapy sessions . . . audiences respond positively to the use of cinematic terminology in audio description canteen... breathalyzer... (Fryer & Freeman, 2012). The second example is a closed-circuit video THELANGUAGEOFTHEAUDIODESCRIPTION feed, a special camera technique that allows The language used in the dialogues through- the audience to see the patients from a detox out the film is particularly strong and infor- center while they are receiving their treat- mal, with numerous profane words. What ment. It was directly stated in the creative Smarzowski presents to his viewers is a description: brutally realistic portrayal of alcoholism, of- ten depicted in graphic, unflinching detail. In View from a closed-caption televi- ordertokeeptothevisualimage,vivid,emo- sioncamera.Ahospitalroom.Jerzyis tional,andbluntexpressionsareincorporated tranquilized. He is lying on his bed, into the creative description and are used to tightly strapped down with belts. describe the characters, their actions, and the scenes that are crucial to the plot. Other techniques frequently used in the film Although a conventionally written script weremeanttohighlighttheinternaldilemmaof would use neutral descriptions of characters, themaincharacter(“acraneshot”)ortoportray suchas“drunk,”“drunkard,”or“abitdrunk,” theworldfromhis“drunken”perspective(“the the creative description prefers more collo- camera is spinning around Jerzy’s head”). In quial language: “tipsy,” “shitfaced,” “wasted,” onescene,inordertointensifythevisualeffect or “hammered.” Such an intensified vocabu- and show an addict’s craving for alcohol, the lary also added a touch of realism to the camera simulated an intake of liquor. It was actions of the characters: “Jerzy barfs on the rendered in the creative description as follows: floor”or“Jerzypissesintothecloset.”More- over, the creative description went for an ex- Jerzyemptiestheglassofvodka.The plicit rendering of the scenes: camera, together with the liquor, en- ters his mouth, passes by his teeth, 1. Joannawakesupsmearedinshit,piss, enters the abdominal cavity, and and vomit. She can’t connect. goes into the intestine. Inside there 2. The room is a pigsty. Jerzy is lying on are bottles, cans, condoms, pieces of the bed like a wheezing sack, drunk rubbish, leftovers of food, and cock- and covered in puke. roaches. Finally, light appears. The camera goes out through Jerzy’s ear This powerful verbal style intensified the and goes high into the air. Jerzy is visual effect of the scenes and added color 389 ©2017AFB,AllRightsReserved JournalofVisualImpairment&Blindness,July-August2017 to the characters and their actions. It pre- One of them even commented, “I have not sented the audience with the stark and har- listened to such an audio description before, rowing world of alcoholism, giving them a but if somebody decides to watch this film, fuller picture of what was happening on the thisisthetypeofaudiodescriptionheshould screen. expect.” Although the men liked the creative descriptionbetterthandidthewomen,overall USERS’REACTIONS amajorityoftheparticipants(72%)agreedor Thefilmwithcreativedescriptionwasshown strongly agreed that they would like to have to visually impaired users during an informal creative descriptions for such artistic films. screening on the premises of the Vega Foun- dationfortheBlindandVisuallyImpairedin CONCLUSIONS Kielce, Poland. The screening was part of an This report has discussed a new approach to event called “Days of Accessible Culture,” describing artistic films called creative de- organized by the foundation in 2015. Thirty- scription. Its aim is to create an engaging six people took part, 15 men and 21 women, audio description by adding vocabulary from aged21–69years.Alloftheparticipantswere the film and unsavory descriptions of the officially registered as blind or visually im- main elements—characters, actions, and paired. They were informed that the film scenes—to the script for audio description. would be shown with audio description, but Such audio description is intended to allow no details as to the “creative” nature of the the audience to appreciate the film’s inherent audio description were provided beforehand cinematicstyleandfullyimmersethemselves (for detailed comparative results on creative in the story. Judging by the comments we description and standard audio description, received,participantswereenthusiasticabout see Walczak & Fryer, 2016). the creative description, since it made their Inthesemistructuredinterviewscarriedout film-going experience authentic and, above after the screening, many people expressed all, captivating. Their reactions confirmed favorableopinionsofthecreativedescription. that not only visually colorful films, but also Most felt that the information about camera- dark and realistic cinema, which is shocking workwasneededanddidnotfindittootech- rather than diverting, lend themselves to cre- nical.Manypeoplenotedthatthelanguageof ative description. theaudiodescriptionwasinformal,evenvul- Audio description standards (Remael, Re- gar at times, but perfectly intelligible and viers,&Vercauteren,2014;U.S.Government suitable for this type of film. A woman with Publishing Office, 2010) note that the de- low vision said, “The indecent language of scriber should not subjectively interpret the the audio description conveyed the meaning of the scenes, making the whole viewing ex- images, but should instead be like “the faith- perience more credible.” A man with low ful lens of a camera” (Udo & Fels, 2009, p. vision added, “This juicy audio description 179). However, this rule does not seem to be wasexcellent!Thelanguagecreatedtheright applicable to artistic films. In the case pre- atmosphere and made the story real.” All sented above, creative description added fla- agreed that the creative description was vor to the story, made it more realistic, and “blunt, but at the same time more vivid than thus, presumably, more congruent with the the audio description they are used to”; it director’s artistic vision. Therefore, creative allowed for “better visualization of the description is advocated by the author as an scenes”andsimply“fittedthefilm.”Creative alternativewayofdescribingfilmsbelonging description was new to all the participants. to artistic cinema genres. 390 JournalofVisualImpairment&Blindness,July-August2017 ©2017AFB,AllRightsReserved REFERENCES adlabproject.eu/Docs/adlab%20book/ D´ıaz Cintas, J., Orero, P., & Remael, A. index.html (2007). Media for all: A global challenge. Snyder, J. (2008). Audio description: The In J. D´ıaz Cintas, P. Orero, & A. Remael visualmadeverbal.InJ.D´ıazCintas(Ed.), (Eds.), Media for all. Subtitling for the The didactics of audiovisual translation deaf, audio description, and sign lan- (pp. 191–198). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. guage (pp. 11–20). Amsterdam, New Snyder, J. (2014). The visual made verbal: York: Rodopi. 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Pictures painted in words: AgnieszkaWalczak,Ph.D.,researcher,Universi- ADLAB [Audio Description: Lifelong Ac- tat Auto`noma de Barcelona, Edifici MRA 126 - cessfortheBlind]Audiodescriptionguide- Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, lines. Retrieved from http://www. Spain; e-mail: [email protected]. 391 ©2017AFB,AllRightsReserved JournalofVisualImpairment&Blindness,July-August2017