AMI was thrilled to partner with Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and present, for the first time, a series of accessible films. Describing projects from the 2016 Hot Docs Film Festival was a real coup for AMI. It was the first time a world-class film event consciously addressed the blind and low-vision community, making festival history by including this audience in their celebration of phenomenal ‘films for curious people’. AMI described seven films covering a myriad of topics ranging from animal rights to music to wrongful conviction to disability.

In another first, AMI embarked on its first ever multiple narrator project. For the film Natural Disorder, a cast of five in-studio voice actors portrayed 18 characters as well as translated the two-hour movie from Danish. It was a high energy session of top industry professional talents collaborating at what they do best. AMI DV Specialist, Emily Harding provides some insight into this unique opportunity.

By Emily Harding, AMI Described Video Specialist

One of my tasks as a Described Video (DV) Specialist is training AMI staff and external production companies on how to create content that is inherently descriptive. We call this process Integrated Described Video (IDV). Presenting at the Hot Docs festival was a new experience for us. It allowed us to reach beyond AMI programming to filmmakers who can begin to implement the art and strategies of writing content for the blind and low vision community in their work. 

In order to train someone on IDV, they have to have an understanding of traditional described video. How do we choose what to describe is one of the questions we always get. It’s true; a picture is worth a thousand words!  We have to use our observation skills to pick out the relevant details. First, we focus on setting, characters, body language, and action. Descriptions have to be clear and concise because we are always limited by time. Our descriptions must fit into gaps between dialogue, which can be tricky. And every program presents new challenges. 

We began our Hot Docs session with an audio clip from a Hot Docs’ film to illustrate how much of storytelling is visual and how much one might miss if they can’t see the picture. It’s a great way to put everyone into our audience’s shoes and experience television in a whole new way.

Previously, the only option to make content accessible was to add DV to a fully packaged program. This traditional form of description is scripted in advance and narrated for AMI broadcasts such as Downton Abbey, House, Matlock and CSI New York.  

Another form of description that stemmed from the DV best practices is Live Described Video where narrators describe the action live to air. You’ll hear this DV approach on Blue Jays baseball games, Paralympic Games coverage, award shows, election coverage and pretty much any live event. To prepare, narrators research and rehearse with similar content prior to the broadcast.

Integrated Described Video

This brings us to IDV. When we began to create original programming for AMI we had to make sure everything was adequately described. So, we’d create a program, add description then air it. This process works, but we discovered that with a bit of planning we can create a highly descriptive program specifically for the AMI audience. We can air it without adding traditional DV. IDV is a great fit for Hot Docs filmmakers since the style is a good fit for lifestyle and documentary programming. Using this method, guests and hosts introduce themselves and set the scene, sound can enhance the listener’s experience and tell part of the story, and text onscreen is incorporated into the audio track. The result is organic and seamless programming that is in line with our core value of Inclusion.

The presentation was very well received with enthusiastic participation from the producers, writers and directors in attendance at our session.