The Writers Guild of South Africa will be running an introductory workshop to Audio Description on 25th October 2014. This marks the first of many more public workshops to introduce the concept of Audio Description to media practitioners in South Africa. By Yolanda Mogatusi
Audio Description was designed to accommodate the visually impaired in accessing mainstream media and is basically an audio track, detailing non-verbal action during a film so that the film can be more comprehensive to one who cannot see the action. Audio Description has been law in Europe and America for many years, but is still relatively new in South Africa. In April this year, it was published in the Government Gazette that the inclusion of a percentage of Audio Description (AD) in entertainment media and public service announcements would become compulsory from next year in South Africa as well. The WGSA, along with AudioDescribe (Pty) Ltd (ADSA), is very excited to be part of this progressive project.
Weve been lucky to be able to tap into existing international expertise, but it is nevertheless a brand new industry and job creator in SA, with ADSA as the driving force. says Harriet Meier, WGSAs chairperson and the facilitator of the WGSA Audio Description workshop. Harriet Meier was trained in audio descriptive writing by the American guru of Audio Description, Joel Snyder, when he held workshops in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town in 2012. Since then ADSA, in conjunction with WGSA and North West University, have done another two training courses, one in Durban and one in Johannesburg, specifically for Zulu speakers.
We will continue with more courses in ethnic languages to build a diverse pool of audio describers to do the scripts, voice artists to speak them, and quality controllers - blind people who have been trained to check the translations and make sure that all the important parts of the movie or TV show are described, says Harriet. We are presently doing audio description for Sticks and Stones , the first local TV series ever to get a full audio description soundtrack for country-wide broadcast on several media platforms, including television. The audio description is in Zulu and was made possible by SABC1 and SABC Special Projects, she adds.
WGSA will continue its affiliation and collaboration with ADSA, especially in affording our writers the opportunity to learn a new craft and access a new source of income in an industry which will eventually not only cover all forms of entertainment, but also tourism, arts and culture, healthcare and education, says Harriet. We know that government and all local broadcasters are watching our progress.
The WGSA Introduction to Audio Description workshop will be held on Saturday 25 2014 from 9 am until 1 pm in Johannesburg. For more details, please contact the WGSA on admin@writersguildsa.org
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The Writers Guild of South Africa will be running an introductory workshop to Audio Description on 25th October 2014. This marks the first of many more public workshops to introduce the concept of Audio Description to media practitioners in South Africa. By Yolanda Mogatusi
