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Text-to-speech audio description of voiced-over films. A case study of audio described Volver in Polish
Szarkowska, Agnieszka
Jankowska, Anna
2012
Abstract
Given that the production (esp. recording) of AD is quite costly, there are not very many
audio described films available on the Polish market. Moreover, there is practically
no audio description to foreign films in Poland since it has been assumed that blind
and partially sighted audiences will not manage to assimilate multiple soundtracks
(original soundtrack in foreign language, voiceover and audio description). In order
to overcome the cost hurdle, we propose text-to-speech audio description (TTS AD) as a
cheaper alternative to traditionally produced AD. We will demonstrate how TTS AD can
be combined with voice-over to produce AD to foreign films on the example of Volver by
Pedro Almodovar. We will also present the results of a survey conducted among a group of
blind and partially sighted audience after a screening of voiced-over Volver with TTS AD.
The results of the survey demonstrate that the participants are quite open to the idea of
TTS AD both as an interim solution – until there are more audio described films available
– and as a permanent solution.
Publisher
EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste
Source
Agnieszka Szarkowska, Anna Jankowska, "Text-to-speech audio description of voiced-over films. A case study of audio described Volver in Polish", in Elisa Perego (edited by): "Emerging topics in translation: Audio description", Trieste, EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2012, pp. 81-98.
Languages
en
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