Project Website
Duration
2017-2019
Principal Investigator
Pablo Romero Fresco (UVigo, GALMA)
Participants
Pablo Romero Fresco (UVigo, GALMA)
Louise Fryer (UCL, GALMA)
Josh Branson (University of Roehampton, GALMA)
Jo-Jo Ellison (Archer’s Mark)
Funding body
British Film Institute
Budget
€5,000
Background:
In an increasingly interconnected, multilingual world, a monolingual approach to filmmaking is certain to leave behind not only foreign and sensory-impaired audiences, who require additional soundtracks or subtitles, but also the viewers of the growing number of films which in their original version include more than one language. Over 50% of the revenue obtained by most current films comes from translated (dubbing, subtitling) and accessible versions (subtitling for the deaf, audio description for the blind), yet normally only 0.1%-1% of the budget is spent on these additional versions. To make matters worse, the professionals creating these additional versions usually work under intense time pressure and with small budgets, for little remuneration, and traditionally have no contact at all with the creative team. This can result in a version of the film that is artistically compromised: large, brightly lit subtitles may ruin a dimly lit and subdued scene; an inaccurate AD track may fail to establish plot points effectively; worse still, the representation of characters can be affected. The result is a vastly inferior product that betrays the filmmaker’s original artistic vision. In an effort to avoid large sections of the audience experiencing an inferior product, Accessible Filmmaking encourages close collaboration between filmmakers and translators/media access experts.
Description:
The accessible filmmaking guide is intended for filmmakers and other professionals within the film industry who wish to become accessible filmmakers. The approach is supported by both the EU and the UN, and has been tried and tested successfully in research, training and professional practice. The authors, Pablo Romero Fresco and Louise Fryer, drew on their own academic research in the field as well as their extensive practical experience as filmmakers and accessibility experts in the UK. The guide provides a general introduction to the areas of dubbing, subtitling, subtitling for the deaf and audiodescription for the blind; it also outlines which steps filmmakers should take at the different production stages (development and pre-production, production, post-production and pre-distribution); a further chapter presents an accessible filmmaking workflow broken down into 17 steps, some essential, others optional, depending on the production; and the final section offers an overview of the costs involved in making a film accessible following this approach.
If you are interested in receiving an e-copy of the Accessible Filmmaking Guide free of charge, please fill in this short form and we will send you the guide as soon as it is ready.
