At present, more than 500 volunteers from 100 colleges and universities participate in public welfare projects, and "Bright Cinema" produces 104 barrier-free movies every year covering the whole country
Telling movies for the visually impaired, this "cultural blind road" is not easy to walk
The movie "1921" was released in China on July 1, and on June 28, the barrier-free version of "1921" dubbed by the "Guangming Cinema" charity project team of Communication University of China has realized barrier-free movies and theaters. Movies of the same schedule will be screened simultaneously in Beijing.
Established in 2017, "Guangming Cinema" is composed entirely of teacher and student volunteers. It insists on producing 104 barrier-free movies every year, so that the visually impaired in China can enjoy two movies every week for 52 weeks throughout the year. The opportunity to reach or exceed the average viewing frequency of non-visually impaired people, Cai Yu, a 2019-level PhD student at Communication University, said, “We hope to establish a cultural blind channel to teach movies for visually impaired friends and allow them to enjoy spiritual and cultural achievements on an equal footing. ."
"Bright Cinema" is a public welfare project for barrier-free film production and dissemination jointly initiated by Communication University of China, Beijing Gehua Cable, and Dongfang Jiaying.
The project uses the film as the carrier, inserting the sound narration of the picture between the film's dialogue and the sound effect, to make a barrier-free film that can be copied and transmitted.
The visually impaired friends can "watch" the film through the dubbing narration online or offline.
And how long does it take to write a barrier-free movie with an average length of 120 minutes?
What type of accessible movie is the most difficult to make?
What kind of movies do visually impaired people like most?
With these questions in mind, a reporter from the Beijing News interviewed several volunteer teachers and students of "Guangming Cinema" and asked them to tell how to successfully make a barrier-free movie.
Volunteers of "Bright Cinema" "Generate Power for Love"
On June 28, the barrier-free version of the movie "1921" premiered in Beijing, and 100 visually impaired friends watched the film.
The screening of barrier-free films in "Guangming Cinema" will be supported by the Disabled People's Federation and the Blind Association every time. They will gather the visually impaired and the volunteers of "Guangming Cinema" will be responsible for the docking.
Li Chaopeng, head of the Screening Promotion Team and Video Team of Communication University of China, said that from the time the visually impaired people get off the bus to when they enter the theater, there will be volunteers to receive and guide them. After the film is over, the volunteers will send the visually impaired to the bus. car.
The barrier-free movie screening of "Guangming Cinema" has covered the whole country. Li Chaopeng has been to more than a dozen provinces, including Inner Mongolia, Daliang Mountain, Luliang and other regions to show barrier-free movies for the visually impaired.
During the screening, there were many impressive things.
Once it was screened in a school for the blind in Beijing, a blind kid grabbed a volunteer after the film was screened and said, "My sister, don't leave. Can I listen to it for a while?"
These visually impaired friends live in their own world, and once they come in contact with the outside world, they will especially cherish it.
The "Bright Cinema" charity project is composed of teacher and student volunteers from Communication University of China. Li Chaopeng said that the school has three to four hundred volunteers, plus the volunteers recruited by 100 universities across the country, the total number exceeds 500. Both can carry out barrier-free movie screenings.
All volunteers of "Bright Cinema" are free for public welfare. In the words of Cai Yu, a 2019 PhD student of Communication University, "use love to generate electricity".
The production process is like a pull film, it is best to be able to write and dub
Chen Xingang, an instructor of "Bright Cinema" and an associate professor at the School of Television of Communication University of China, said that at the beginning, a few teachers led student volunteers to make barrier-free movies. It is the students themselves who are operating.
The production process of barrier-free movies is mainly divided into writing, dubbing, post-production and other steps.
The early writing is the most time-consuming. Volunteers have to watch the film repeatedly and understand the background of the plot, otherwise there will be problems with the manuscript written.
Chen Xingang gave a few examples. Before, a volunteer wrote a barrier-free version of the movie "Titanic" (1997). "Whether the Titanic is traveling in the Pacific or the Atlantic, the classmates made a mistake in the beginning."
Another volunteer wrote a barrier-free narrative of "Game of the Brave: Battle in the Jungle" (2017). A previous game console box appeared in the film, and the students didn't know what it was.
Cai Yu said that a picture needs to tell a lot of content, and it is necessary to constantly make choices.
For example, if there is a person drinking water in the movie, there can be N kinds of interpretations: you can describe his action of holding the cup, you can also say who served him the cup of water, if the cup of water is not important, you can ignore it and say He is sitting in a certain scene...The narration of each picture must be judged based on the development of the plot before and after.
Because the narration can only be inserted between the film's dialogue and sound effects, which may only take 5 seconds, it is necessary to filter the information and extract the most critical information.
"Making a barrier-free movie is also a process of pulling the film, especially to train students' understanding of audiovisual language, and know how to explain the content of the screen to the visually impaired friends." Cai Yu said that the writing part is the most difficult part, and it is a new addition. Volunteers need to be trained.
Li Chaopeng said that when recruiting volunteers, a written test must be conducted first, and a 5-minute movie clip is given and written into a narrative.
After the written test, there is an interview, which is mainly a voice test. To see if it can be dubbed, there are hundreds of volunteers who sign up for "Bright Cinema" every year, and only 30 or 40 people are left.
Regarding the dubbing requirements of barrier-free movies, Cai Yu said that Mandarin is relatively standard, and it has affinity and appeal. It will not require volunteers according to the standards of professional announcers.
Cai Yu hopes that volunteers can not only dub, but also write manuscripts. Because they don’t know how to write manuscripts, they can’t understand what the film wants to express, and the film is not good enough. “As a barrier-free film producer, you can’t just stand in the audience. To understand the film from the perspective of the director, we must also start from the perspective of the director, so that we will understand more."
It takes 30 minutes to compose a one-minute movie clip
In Cai Yu's view, writing is the most critical part of barrier-free film production. The narration is finalized, and the subsequent dubbing and editing are also available.
Take the section of Mao Zedong's running in "1921" as an example.
This scene adopts a more romantic technique, showing Mao Zedong's running in different scenes and different time and space, and encountering different people in the middle. It is extremely difficult to explain clearly to the visually impaired friends.
Mao Zedong ran from the streets of the French Concession in Shanghai and ran to Nanjing Road, with a rickshaw driver on one side and a dazzling array of goods in the window.
There is about 6 seconds to fill in the narration. Cai Yu tried it over and over again. He controlled the time while chanting. When the time was over, he would delete words and add words if there was more time.
Running out of Nanjing Road, the picture came to the mountains of Shaoshan, Mao Zedong in his youth, his father Mao Yichang chased him with a stick, and his mother told him to run.
Due to time constraints, Mao Zedong’s mother was too late to introduce it, but when reviewing the manuscript, it was found that Mao Zedong’s mother was named Wen Suqin in the subtitles, and this information had to be added to the narration.
As a result, he moved the whole body, and the narrative draft had to be changed from Mao Zedong's running on Nanjing Road.
In a few seconds, the volunteers may have to read it 20 or 30 times.
"The dubbing of a barrier-free movie can basically be completed in four or five hours, but the narration may take hundreds of hours, and the number of words is between 20,000 and 30,000," said Cai Yu. A one-minute movie clip, It takes about 30 minutes to write a barrier-free version of the manuscript.
A 120-minute movie requires 60 hours to write the manuscript, which is not considered a later revision.
Volunteers are not full-time creators. They usually have to attend classes. They spend 4 to 5 hours a day writing a manuscript, which takes 15 days to write.
After the first draft is written, a special reviewer will come to review the draft.
The reviewer opens the movie and the manuscript file at the same time, just like a rehearsal, telling the movie from beginning to end.
Any language errors, too long or too short sentences in the manuscript will be marked, and feedback of the manuscript will take another week.
The students who wrote the manuscript had to start from the beginning again, and corrected the screen according to the feedback. For those who were mature in writing, the manuscript can be finished by reviewing the manuscript once, and it takes about a month to complete the manuscript.
There are also repeated revisions. The most strenuous time Cai Yu encountered was a total of 6 or 7 revisions.
Selection
First choice patriotism classic film, "Wandering Earth" and other popular
Starting in 2018, "Bright Cinema" has produced 104 barrier-free movies every year.
Regarding the criteria for film selection, Chen Xingang, the instructor, said that he will focus on several situations. First, it will be combined with the recent patriotic propaganda themes of the party and the country. 70 classic films in the year; 2020 is the final year of poverty alleviation, "Guangming Cinema" has made 20 poverty alleviation films; 2021 is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, "Guangming Cinema" has made another "100 Years" classic film.
In addition, not all movies are suitable for barrier-free versions, such as those action movies that rely on graphical expression.
This year, "Guangming Cinema" and some schools for the blind in Beijing launched a "January 1 Shadow" theme screening event. Every month, they will go to the blind school to screen a "Hundred Years Hundred" film. Hundred Regiments Battle.
Cai Yu was particularly impressed. When the Japanese army was defeated in the end, the reaction on the scene was extremely intense. The visually impaired friends were especially happy and applauded warmly. "They have no descriptive elements, they are all very real feedback, which will make people very moved."
Cai Yu said that the visually impaired friends are very willing to participate in such activities. After participating in these thematic educations, they understand more about the love of the party and the country, and they have feelings in their hearts.
Cai Yu said, "Bright Cinema" will also produce barrier-free movies of different themes and types according to the needs of different audiences.
For example, in order to meet the needs of visually impaired children, high-reputation animation films such as "Big Fish and Begonia", "Nezha's Devil Boy", "Luo Xiaohei", "Crazy Animal City" and "Frozen" have been produced.
Although science fiction films are also a type of movie that relies on visual special effects, visually impaired friends like "watching" science fiction films very much.
Cai Yu said that the domestic science fiction movie "The Wandering Earth" is one of the most screened barrier-free movies. She is very impressed by the narrative: "From space, the earth is like a huge crystal ball." And Marvel. The superhero movie "Ant-Man 2: The Wasp" has also been screened in a barrier-free movie version. The narrator will tell the visually impaired friends the world view of the story in advance at the beginning of the film. The Ant-Man in the movie can be reduced to the size of an ant. Friends with disabilities will accept this setting and begin to imagine.
If it is to show barrier-free movies in the community, facing the middle-aged and elderly visually impaired groups, they may be more interested in movies with historical themes. Each age group has their own preferences, and "Bright Cinema" will try to satisfy them.
challenge
Interpretation must be accurate, and the meaning behind must be clarified
Last year, Cai Yu reviewed a barrier-free version of "Light Blue Amber". It is a very literary film. The heroine recalls the plot with a happier warm color, and the real part is a cool color. , When telling the visually impaired friends, we must distinguish between these two colors.
In addition, the heroine in the film has the details of taking notes. The notes promote the plot later, and they should also be explained to the visually impaired friends. For example, she wrote a formula on the notes. What it means must be clearly stated, which is particularly difficult. .
War films are not easy to write.
In the film, there is often artillery fire for a few minutes. A group of people rushed down from the hillside, the enemy came down from the high ground, and the protagonist hid under a bunker. All must be described clearly.
In addition, the various guns, equipment, and aircraft models that appear in the film must be checked for accuracy. Visually impaired friends may not know it, but they should not write randomly.
"Different types of barrier-free movies are actually the same, each with its own difficulties. I didn't say which film is better to write." Cai Yu said.
Take the historical film, for example, the passage of Mao Zedong's running in "1921". Why did Mao Zedong run for so long?
In fact, there is a lot of meaning behind it. He ran out of the mountains in Shaoshan, experienced a series of labor movement and peasant movement, and ran to the prosperous Shanghai. Running is actually the cohesion of his whole beliefs and the formation of his ideals. He has to do it before writing. clear.
Cai Yu had previously written a barrier-free narration for the suspense film "Silence of Burst". In the end, the little boy drew a picture on the wall with a man holding a bow, a child next to him, and a few sheep. Cai Yu will explain the painting in the narration.
There are a lot of burdens in the film that have to be explained, and at the same time, it cannot be spoiled. It is necessary for ordinary people and the visually impaired to reveal the secret of the story at the same time.
The same is true for comedy films, such as "The Richest Man in Xihong City" and "The Shameful Iron Fist". When making barrier-free movies, the visually impaired and normal people must laugh on the same channel. If ordinary people laugh first, the visually impaired People are embarrassed if they don't know where the laugh is.
Describing color used to be a difficult problem, now there is no need to circumvent it.
There is an unwritten rule among volunteers when writing narrations for barrier-free movies: try to describe colors as little as possible.
Cai Yu said that because visually impaired friends cannot see colors, they have no concept of color. Therefore, when telling movie screens, they reduce the description of color. If you describe red, use "hot" and "hot". This kind of somatosensory word description.
After each barrier-free movie screening, the volunteers of the "Guangming Cinema" have to conduct offline interviews and surveys to determine what they want to watch most through communication with visually impaired friends.
Not long ago, Cai Yu went to the blind school for an interview. Through communication, some visually impaired friends said that they could introduce color in the film narration, because they have a general understanding of color in textbooks or in the mouths of parents and teachers, although they don’t know that blue is What color, but know that it corresponds to the sky.
"They still want to know more, so that when communicating with people, they can tell others about yellow flowers and white flowers. The yellow and white they imagined may be different from the yellow and white we actually know. Yes, but I don’t think there is any need to circumvent it.” This is the latest experience that Cai Yuhe’s team has obtained. The feedback of visually impaired friends is added to the creation of barrier-free movies, so that they will become part of the creation. It will not be explicitly forbidden not to describe the color in the film narration, just treat it with a normal heart.
Li Yiying, a 2020 PhD student at Communication University of China and the head of the "Bright Cinema" propaganda group, said that for the production of barrier-free films, "In fact, we have been exploring to make barrier-free film production have a scientific and unified standard,'Bright Cinema'. I just want to help this matter."
Written by/Beijing News reporter Teng Chao