Visualizing film through sound

Speaker Series guests educate students about writing audio description and voiceover

MAJA LOSINSKA Reporter @RoundupNews

Imagine watching a movie but not being able to visualize it. For people with visual impairments, it is difficult to understand the elements hidden within gestures, sceneries and actions of film.

Audio description is a crucial aspect in providing information and visual content, that’s where description writer Justin Sohl and voiceover artist Laura Post come in.

Sohl and Post were featured guests of the first Speakers Series event at the Great Hall on Monday, hosted by the Media Arts department.

Sohl is a lead description writer who has a background in film from the University of Southern California (USC).

‘’Before audio description, going to the movies for individuals who are visually impaired could be a rather unfulfilling endeavor,’’ Sohl said. He has been in the field of audio description for 18 years, starting at WGBH, a National Public Radio provider located in Boston, in 2001.

He said even though he never thought audio description would be his profession, his passion to film industry led him to De Luxe company where he currently works.

“Any film or streaming content you watch, De Luxe has its hands on it,’’ Sohl said.

Sohl gave students a brief history of the company and talked about the audio description process. He said the idea of audio description goes back to the very beginning of Talkie Era in 1929, when people were trying to do live audio description in the New York of Bulldog Drummond film.

‘’Even back then there was a look towards inclusivity for blind individuals in media,’’ Sohl said.

Sohl provided examples from his previous productions he worked on to show comparison of the scenes with and without audio description.

He said there are a lot of visual details that would be totally lost to