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Help Wanted: Star Wars films with audio description. Can anyone help out?? — Page 4

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Cool, the US version has the narrator actually read off the ending credits of ANH...

 

The newly uploaded ESB copy sounds like it has the full ending credits music (rather than choppily cutting it off like the old version).


Shame there isn't a ROTJ recording of that quality (yet)...

 

I'm looking forward to hearing the Prequel ones. I imagine they will have their hands full trying to describe all that ADD cgi! ;)

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Looks as if I have run out of options... I don't think any libraries are offering the 2001 TV recording of the audio described Episode I.

 

The two copies of the 1995 audio described Star Wars labeled "DVS Audio" (pan 'n' scan, US) would be no different than a recording I already have. I'd like to see it, but it's checked out currently, and I have a feeling that unless they put the audio on a seperate SAP track (I have one vcr capable of producing SAP), it's been mislabeled and is just the regular tape.

 

So if anyone else can help... if anyone knows of somebody who recorded it back when it was shown on TV... Episode I and possibly Episode II may be the last "holy grails" of the star wars audio description universe.

 

So, Episode I (and probably II) are broadcasts and we'll need somebody's private recording of it.

 

Here is the info on the VHS tape if anyone is curious about it (though we already have the audio from it):

Star wars [videorecording]  [Audio described ed.]
  1 videocassette (124 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in.
  [New York, NY] : CBS Fox Video : [Boston, MA : DVS Home Video, c1995].
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Kurgan said:

Well, thanks to Allan (and since the previous links by adywan weren't removed) here are some more files, which will hopefully be useful for our visually impaired friends and for the curious and makers of custom DVDs!

;)

 

UK (1997 SE) version of ESB... COMPLETE (the music at the end is still abbreviated, but fades out appropriately and the whole recording starts with the 20th century fox logo rather than "A long time ago..." as the one previously uploaded). Additionally, the missing segment with the Probe droid being discovered, listening to the recording of the transmission, etc. are present:

 

Complete ESB UK (1997)


A New Hope, the full-frame/pan'n'scan, "Faces" (non-SE) US version:


ANH US (1992/95)

 

(these are audio files only)

 

Thanks again to Allan for uploading these!

 

 

Could you upload the ANH US audio again?   It's only been a few months but it's already gone.

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I realised last night that Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition has as track 6, a commentary for visually impaired (possibly using files from this thread)....

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Harmys-STAR-WARS-Despecialized-Edition-HD-AVCHD-DVD9-and-NTSC-DVD5-AVAILABLE-see-1st-post/topic/12713/

That alone is brilliant news but it gets better. Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized is GOUT synced. That means that the audio descriptive track can be very easily taken from that version and added to your favourite other GOUT synced project or even simply the GOUT itself. Personally I simply tried it out on the Dark Jedi V3. That way, I have the best video source available alongside the audio descriptive track for the times that I need it.

Are any of the other available audio descriptive tracks available as syncronised tracks to any of the retail or project DVD's out there??

EDIT  Am I right in thinking that the Blu Ray has audio description tracks for all six films??

4 - 5 - 3 - 1 - 6 - 2

Discuss…

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That would be fantastic indeed! I'd still like to have a GOUT synched descriptive audio custom or two for casual viewing/listening.

 

 

EDIT  Am I right in thinking that the Blu Ray has audio description tracks for all six films??

 

 

I couldn't remember so I looked it up. Sure enough, yes http://www.noblemd.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23&Itemid=26

 

Not sure if this means these are new tracks or previously released ones. I guess in terms of length, they'd probably be the 1997 editions to fit the OT. If Episode I existed for the DVD cut on tv (anyone confirm?), it might be the same.

 

Then again, maybe they did do new ones... "The Ewok blinks several times" (lol)

You've got me curious now. Somebody should post a sample to confirm.

 

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All I can assume from the (lack of) responses is that either nobody here has the Blu Ray discs, that they have them but are too scared to play the things or are equally scared to admit owning the things in the first place.

Personally, I have asked "Santa" for them for Christmas. "Santa" questioned why I wanted Star Wars again when I already had 50 or 60 different other versions in different formats and did not actually own a Blu Ray player!! I then asked for a Blu Ray player.........

Should "Santa" get me what I want, I will update this thread over the holidays with what the Audio Descriptive tracks are like - unless of course someone dare admit to owning the Blu Ray's first and beat me to it.

4 - 5 - 3 - 1 - 6 - 2

Discuss…

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I just had an idea (maybe not new) about how to create GOUT-timed audio descriptive tracks from the SE-timed audio descriptive tracks.

You may be able to use a tool like Audio DiffMaker (or maybe even something more purpose-built) to take the SE-timed descriptive track and the SE-timed regular soundtrack and extract the differences (i.e. create a new track with just the descriptive narration and no soundtrack).

You could then slice and re-time this narration track to match GOUT timing, and then merge it into a GOUT-timed soundtrack, and you've got yourself a GOUT-timed audio descriptive track.

Assuming the whole diffmaker process actually works reasonably well, this could work really well for Empire, but there may be a large gap in Jedi during the Lapti Nek scene, depending in what's described there.

Anyway, I thought this might be worth at least pursuing. Now someone who's not me needs to volunteer ;)

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Has anyone checked the Blu-Rays to see how the Audio Descriptive tracks sound?

 

How do they compare with previously released versions? Has anyone ripped those?

 

PS: I notice the links posted in this thread are all dead. Would somebody repost them?

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By that I mean "besides on the news groups". ;)

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Perhaps some folks on the forum with good voices would like to put together a "fan audio description" of the movies? It wouldn't be a preservation, but it would sure be cool.

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Kurgan said:

Perhaps some folks on the forum with good voices would like to put together a "fan audio description" of the movies? It wouldn't be a preservation, but it would sure be cool.

There's a joke in there somewhere about faces made for radio...

If anyone has the audio descriptive tracks for ESB and ROTJ, and the normal non-AD counterparts of the Blu set, I could take a stab at extracting the description and splicing it into a GOUT stereo track (no promises, could be a miserable failure...).  But I'm not doing any narration myself, sorry.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Nothing quite like a good thread resurrection, but there's actually something to report on this front, so it's not your typical necrobump.

A while back, in Harmy's ESB thread, there was a discussion about descriptive audio tracks.  It turns out, Harmy had official (British TV?) descriptive audio for the Special Editions of ESB and Jedi (not sure which versions of the SE, or if they're the ones previously mentioned, but not sure I care).  Rather than continuing to clutter up his thread with updates on this, I figured I'd move it on over here where it seems to belong.

The thing is that this audio isn't really that usable in the traditional sense (unless you want to watch the Special Editions, I suppose).  Even if you could despecialize it convincingly, the quality isn't great, they use some pretty nasty ducking, and the voiceover mixing levels seem a little out of whack to boot.  However, there is some value in these--the script of the descriptive audio.  I'm pretty certain we're all pretty much amateurs in this game, so having a pre-made script is better than winging it without a sense of what really needs to be described.  Descriptive audio is weird--florid but curt--and it's hard to write like that.  It helps to have something written by people who do this professionally.

So right now I'm transcribing the descriptive audio into a text script file.  I am also despecializing as I go, replacing some British idioms (some of them sound very bad to a US listener!), and making occasional corrections for things that are simply wrong, but more-or-less keeping most things the same.

When done, we will have scripts that our golden-voiced member (Barry White was unavailable, so I'll try to get Mavimao instead) could read.

Then, we could splice-and-dice the audio into a GOUT-timed mono track of audio description only, which could then be blended with whatever audio we like, however we like.  I'd make a stereo track myself, trying to use minimally-intrusive ducking.  But if someone wants to do a 5.1 track, or something like that, it would be totally doable.

Anyway, that's the plan right now at least.  There's always the possibility of some unforeseen roadblock, but the main obstacle really seems to be it's simply going to be a lot of work.  No, I have no completed scripts yet.

EDIT: I suppose I should add that, if this works, we could do the same for Star Wars, but it's a much lower priority, since we have decent GOUT-synced audio already.  The Star Wars audio has issues (low quality, 81 crawl, non-theatrical audio during asteroid scene, volume changes and pitch warbles).  I'm cleaning up the worst parts of this audio up by just patching in '77 stereo audio from a good source, but the best option for the long term would be to re-record the overdub and overlay it over completely new audio, just like the plan for the other two films.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Scripts are well underway, let me know if there are any special requests or things to look out for.  I'm planning to include credits up to a point (basically getting through all the stars and co-stars, but stopping short of the scrolling credits).  That way, pronunciation issues are kept to a minimum, except I'm not sure how to pronounce Leigh Brackett's first name.

Sticking pretty tightly to the American script for Star Wars (the one included with the DeEd, which I've decided sounds bad enough to just go ahead and redo with the others) and the UK scripts for Empire and Jedi (the Alex Newman/James O'Hara ones, despecialized), but I am going through and fixing occasional things that sound wrong or are bad descriptions (by my judgment).

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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I think "Leigh" is pronounced like "Lee".

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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I posted this and some other pronunciation questions in a new thread here:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/How-to-pronounce-the-names-of-the-creators-of-Star-Wars/topic/17138/

Figured there are plenty of people who probably know the correct pronunciations, but few of them who are also interested in this somewhat arcane topic.

I have two scripts complete, the third (Jedi) may be harder than the others, due to big chunks of video missing in the SE.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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CatBus said:

So right now I'm transcribing the descriptive audio into a text script file.  I am also despecializing as I go, replacing some British idioms (some of them sound very bad to a US listener!), and making occasional corrections for things that are simply wrong, but more-or-less keeping most things the same.

When done, we will have scripts that our golden-voiced member (Barry White was unavailable, so I'll try to get Mavimao instead) could read.

We need an OT.com Hall of Fame for stuff like this.

CatBus: You rock and deserve to be in it because contributions like yours are what make this community such a special place.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Post 102 is worth more.

I’m late to the party, but I think this is the best song. Enjoy!

—Teams Jetrell Fo 1, Jetrell Fo 2, and Jetrell Fo 3

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I get the feeling transcribing is the easy part--doing the voice recording and putting together the audio tracks is where this thing will really go off the rails ;)

Thanks for the kind words, though. The genesis for Project Threepio was an SDH project for a deaf friend. It just didn't seem right not to extend the same courtesy to the visually-impaired, once we had the materials to make it happen.  Heck, once we have the scripts, we could translate the descriptive scripts into other languages and then merge them into the dubs and then... argh, no. Someone else will need to do that part!

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Okay, we have scripts. I've put out feelers for some voice talent, but if you know of anyone with a radio-friendly voice (and preferably experience, but you can't have everything) who'd be willing to help, let me know.

Complete trilogy commitment is needed, I want to avoid mix-and-match voices if I can help it. The scripts contain pronunciation cues for some of the more obscure Star Wars names (Rieekan, Ozzel, etc), so they don't even have to be a big Star Wars fan to do it, although I'm sure it wouldn't hurt.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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The De-specialized editions were so good, I finally bought the (used) Blu-Ray saga set. I haven't listened to the descriptive audio tracks yet, but apparently they are brand new for this set (well, for 2011 anyway).

I may have to give these a listen. It's too bad I don't have any for the non-SE's of ESB and ROTJ... but I am curious how the prequels fare.

I would LOVE to hear the old recordings from SAP of the original unaltered trilogy and Episode I if they still exist anywhere though...

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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.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Is there a way I could ‘audition’ as it were? I have no pro experience but I am a theater nerd who was always the one the English profs loved to have read the material, so I think I might have what it takes vocally. 😃

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Heh, it’s not really as much an “audition” scenario so much as a “short straw” scenario. Let me fill in some blanks, to see if you still want to volunteer.

I’ve got some scripts typed up, and basically all you need to do is read them into a microphone and send me some audio files. “Radio experience” is more of a catch-all term for a bunch of unrelated things: you may have access to, or know someone with, better recording equipment than your standard webcam microphone, you understand intuitively which rooms are best for making voice recordings (hint: don’t try this in your kitchen). You may have some experience adjusting recording levels to avoid clipping or overly quiet recordings. You know how far away your head should be from the microphone (for sibilants, etc). You can read in a very clearly enunciated, level, and unexcited manner for a long time without being monotone and dull. And you can read three two-hour long scripts, probably with multiple takes for some lines, without going hoarse or insane. It’s the whole trilogy or nothing. Now, you don’t actually need to have all of this experience right now, but you need to be willing to get some experience with it, make some mistakes and do-overs, etc.

Then comes the phase where I try to splice these bits into the actual soundtracks, and you might think you’re done, but I might need something re-recorded, maybe at a faster pace to fit into a small timeframe, that sort of thing.

Then and only then comes the phase where you become a huge Internet celebrity and regularly have scones with the Kardashians.

If that all sounds good (Kardashians notwithstanding), let me know. I’ve got some scripts for you.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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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.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)