logo Sign In

Help Wanted: Star Wars films with audio description. Can anyone help out?? — Page 5

Author
Time

CatBus said:

Yipe, scared him off. Probably shouldn’t have mentioned the Kardashians.

But seriously, I’m looking at this as the only way blind people are ever going to be able to experience the Star Wars trilogy, so I don’t want to half-ass it. I want it to sound as close to a professional job as we can get with our limited resources. It would be a little underwhelming to have some amazing A/V experience like the DeEd’s accompanied by a YouTube-quality voiceover, where you can hear the guy breathing into the way-too-close microphone.

I understand entirely. I’m trying to see what the best quality I can squeeze is. I do have a dedicated mic and stand, but it’s a Rock Band PS3 mic. I HAVE heard people get great tracks out of these so I’m doing what tweaks I can, but it’s looking like I might not have good enough a setup.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Oh, well thanks for looking into it. Some mics do a better job of this sort of thing than others, and I’m afraid I don’t know what mics to suggest more specifically other than try what you’ve got and see.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

Author
Time

Hint: sometimes the soundcard makes all the difference. I’ve plugged the same mic into an onboard card and later into a Soundblaster live 5.1, the difference was night and day. The onboard Realteks and the like add disgusting amounts of noise. Apparently because there is such a thing as being too close to the motherboard or the cpu.

Author
Time

Leonardo said:

Hint: sometimes the soundcard makes all the difference. I’ve plugged the same mic into an onboard card and later into a Soundblaster live 5.1, the difference was night and day. The onboard Realteks and the like add disgusting amounts of noise. Apparently because there is such a thing as being too close to the motherboard or the cpu.

Yeah, actually I used to have a laptop where you could hear when somebody was scrolling text, because the sound card picked up EM interference from the video card. Crazy, but I think discrete is generally best if you can swing it. For laptops, USB audio may work for better EM isolation.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

RonSolo, you have a PM.

I think we’re going to give this a shot. The only criticisms I had of the sample were low recording level (-12dB peaks) and slow pacing. This sort of voiceover is generally pretty brisk, not a leisurely storytelling pace, probably so that it squeezes more easily between the dialogue and sound effects in the film itself. Even for the crawl, you want to get the words out quickly, because the John Williams score is the real attraction of the first few minutes.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

Author
Time

CatBus said:

Hm, need_93’s stay here was brief, but interesting. My offer still stands: if you know anyone, send them my way. Like if you happen to have Sarah Vowell in your corporate rolodex or something. For instance.

Dang, it looks like need_93 was all part of this:

http://www.afb.org/community/announcements/conde-nast-is-seeking-the-biggest-star-wars-fan-in-the-nyc-area/12

Too bad, I thought I was a special snowflake for just a second, or maybe that we at least had an in with some large media conglomerate, but apparently they’ve (maybe inadvertently) spammed everyone out there that some computer algorithm has linked to both Star Wars and the blind community, hoping to find their blind Star Wars superfan.

Apparently they’re a little new to the topic too–one of the questions was “What color do you imagine Yoda is?”. Uh, green, because that’s what the descriptive audio says?

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

Author
Time

FWIW, I’ve gotten radio silence from RonSolo for quite a while, so I’m assuming we’re in a holding pattern waiting for another victimvolunteer to be our voice talent.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

Author
Time

It occurred to me to do a COVID bump for this thread.

Are you stuck in your house with nothing but the sound of your own voice to keep you company? Do you have access to recording equipment? Do you have any experience at all in radio or voice performance work? Do you think getting paid is overrated? Do we have an opportunity for you!

Seriously, though, it’s a lot of work. We have some scripts you’d need to read, and they are long, because they cover six hours of movies. The recordings need to be good quality, with no background noise. You might be asked to do some of the lines over again. But in the end you’ll be helping the visually impaired enjoy these classic films.

Send me a PM or respond here if you’re interested.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

Author
Time

Still alive, old friends…!

Those original audio recordings have gotten me through some tough times… I’ve listened to them on airplanes, while giving blood, seriously. Amazing stuff. The 2011 blu-ray tracks just don’t have the same charm somehow!

I hope you find people to help out, this worthy project. Unfortunately my job requires me to talk 8 hours a day so that’s usually the last thing I’d want to do. But Godspeed and MTFBWY

<i>TCBOO</i>

Author
Time

Good to hear from you! Yes, I’m not knocking on every door/window just yet, but I’m still willing and able to put work into it as soon as we get the voice talent lined up.

I’m honestly seriously kinda hoping somebody named Hark Mamill or something like that stumbles across this thread and decides to give it a go. But I’m not gonna be picky.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)