I was lucky to recently be able to attend DOC NYC’s “COLLABORATIVE FILMMAKING, ACCESSIBILITY AND EDITING” with filmmaker Alexis Neophytides (Fire Through Dry Grass), filmmaker Set Hernandez and protagonist/co-writer Pedro (Unseen), and moderator Nefertiti Matos Olivares (Descriptive Video Works, voice talent). The panel covered a range of important information regarding collaboration, inclusion, and accessibility from production to editing to screenings. Some of it was technical, but the most impactful takeaways for me involved a call to consider your audiences throughout the process and your own desire to include audiences with disabilities, rather than needing to tick a technical box at the end of the process.
One point that really stuck with me was the reminder that AD (audio description, for users who are blind or low vision) is - just like all elements of a film - an artistic process. The decisions on who will narrate and how and what they will convey are all considered carefully, but they will be limited in scope by the amount of time between lines of dialogue. If we arrive at picture lock without this consideration, we may be offering a very limited experience to AD users. So, as artists, do we adjust the form of the piece? Recalling (and paraphrasing) Pedro’s words in the conversation, it’s a question we have to ask ourselves, and the answer will be nuanced. But that’s the point – we have to actually consider the form of the piece in these considerations and our own desire to include audiences in the entirety of crafting.
And it can be tricky. For example, different disabilities will involve different needs, sometimes conflicting ones. However, in this example of AD, I am intrigued by the idea of complementary needs. Too often (especially in documentaries) there is a tendency for wall-to-wall talking. I really believe we all need more time to absorb our environments and to maybe fuzz out a little. While the needs of individuals in any audience are going to be different, maybe we can also learn a little bit more about what we all need by paying attention to that diversity. Maybe we can improve the form for all by learning about varied means of perception.
On a similar note, a rich audio design is another layer of non-verbal, auditory information for audiences who are blind or low vision, which also dovetails nicely into an existing goal of wanting that for all hearing audiences. And similar concerns can be addressed for D/deaf and hard of hearing audiences using captions. I have more experience subtitling and captioning films I’ve worked on, and I admit I sometimes notice editing decisions I might have wanted to change once I experience it in the context of captions.
And if we are faced with tough style choices where things don’t all align, we can at least make better informed decisions. There’s always more to learn and (just like we learn from things like rough cut screenings) considering how the film will be experienced by all audiences is powerful information to incorporate into the storytelling process.