TV Shows Watched: What We Do In THe Shadows: S6E2 (Hulu) with Audio Description, Shrinking: S2E2 (Apple Plus) with audio description, Papa’s House: S1E2 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Lioness: S2E1 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, The Daily Show: Monday’s Show (Paramount Plus) no audio description, and Only Murders In The Building: S4E10 (Hulu) with audio description.
Podcasts: The Breakfast Club (Interview again with Kamala Harris)- Charlemagne isn’t happy that Trump is implying that he has his endorsement, so he’s doing a second phone call with Kamala to clear that up for his listeners.
YouTube: The Awards Contender: his Top 10 films
Movies Watched: Leaves Of The Tree (Tubi) no audio description.
I know I have a reader who emails me sometimes about timing, was there enough time? When I ask for more, is it even possible? Today, there’s a little scene in Lioness, where I feel like the timing wasn’t quite given as much consideration. And, I totally think things like this are in the weeds, so to speak, but it gave me enough pause. I was thinking… what if that was a jump scare? There’s a scene in the season premiere where the good guys are sneaking up on the bad guys and we get the audio description in advance of them tactically shooting all of those bad guys. There’s a noticeable pregnant pause, where we’re listening to it about to happen after, and I’m thinking if you’re going to tell me before something happens, it should be as close to the thing as possible, especially if characters are getting killed off. It was like being told a jump scare was coming, and then waiting even longer for it.
I have my reasons. Don’t run away just yet. The way we consume audio description, I like to frequently remind Hollywood, is with other people. We have to have our audio description telling us certain things or the bridge isn’t happening for us with the material. Ineffective audio description leaves us asking our friends and family too many questions, and realizing we’ve missed out on too much.
But for something like Lioness, which has zero chance of being consumed theatrically with us having headsets and our sighted companions not, perhaps we should also remember that we’re essentially running open audio description in our homes, and by revealing things in advance, it is spoiling it for those who watch with us. Is this the hill to die on? No. Is this the show where spoilers make all the difference? No. But it is worth mentioning not revealing something like that too far in advance, especially in a situation where the odds are more than likely we’d be doing an open audio description type viewing. So, in a somewhat weird situation, I might have shifted that block of narration forward a second or two to put the revealing spoiler closer to the action.
Hello. I’m deep in these weeds. they are very tall, and someone should definitely mow this lawn. Thanks for hearing my nonsense today.
