The ADLAB project: An international audio description reception study Iwona Mazur Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan

Overview The ADLAB project Aim and methodology Results Conclusions/Discussion Acknowledgments

ADLAB project Three-year project (2011-2014) Financed by the European Union under the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP) Eight partners from six European countries: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Poland and Germany Coordinator: Christopher Taylor, Italy Aim: to produce sets of comprehensive audio description guidelines (valid across Europe) Eight work packages (WPs) WP3 – Testing (lead partner: Poland) WP3 aim: to test different AD solutions on a group of blind and visually-impaired respondents

AD issues Opening credits (naming actors with protagonists, AD authors) Text-on-screen Naming characters Gestures Filmic language/technique (lighting, camera movement, shots) Intertextual references Information sequencing and fragmentation Describing sounds Explicitation Narration vs. description

WP3: Methodology Materials: clip from Inglourious Basterds (Q.Tarantino 2009) with 2 ADs (one ‘literal’ - cf. literal or ST-oriented translation and one ‘narrative’ - cf. free or TT- oriented translation) questionnaire (34 questions: comprehension, preference; answers: multiple choice, Likert scale, open-ended) Procedure: respondents shown the clip and then interviewed individually Respondents: two groups of 12 VIPs each+ a control group of approx. 12 (per country)

Data Germany: 14 VIPs, 10 controls Belgium: 13 VIPs, 16 controls Italy: 11 VIPs, 12 controls Portugal: 12 VIPs, 12 controls Poland: 12 VIPs, 12 controls Spain – 18 VIPs, 15 controls TOTAL: 80 VIPs, 77 controls

Gender Female Male VIP 47.5% 52.5% CNT 65% 35% Total 56% 44%

Age VIPs CNT a) 18-24 9% b) 25-34 25% c) 35-44 10% d) 45-54 25% e) 55-64 15% f) 65-74 13% g) 75+ 4% a) 18-24 34% b) 25-34 38% d) 45-54 17% e) 55-64 1% f) 65-74 g) 75+

Education VIPs CNT a) primary 4% b) vocational 21% c) secondary 16% d) college/university student 4% e) university degree 55% a) primary b) vocational 5% c) secondary 5% d) college/university student 39% e) university degree 51%

Type of visual impairment blind 63% (31% of them congenitally blind) partially sighted 38%

Gestures (1/3)

Gestures (2/3) AD1 AD2 10:11:29 ‘ages of the children’ (breathing) Landa looks at him and moves his hand and head. Landa looks at him and gestures ‘more or less’.

Gestures (3/3) Show the gesture Landa makes. A: 12% correct (gesture described) B: 30% correct (gesture named) What is meant by the gesture? A: 20% correct Cnt: 50% correct

Filmic language (1/6)

Filmic language (2/6) AD1 AD2 10:11:37 ‘nine or ten’ Fast: Landa writes ‘nine or ten’ next to ‘Amos’. [no AD]

Filmic language (3/6) How old is one of the missing Jews Amos? A: 63% correct (close-up described in AD-A) B: 76% correct cnt: 99% correct Information overload?

Filmic language (4/6)

Filmic language (5/6) AD1 AD2 10:18:46 ‘line from dialogue’ His black boots walk over the hideout area to the door. 10:03:49 ‘wie wünschen Sie, Herr Oberst’ Landa, in a gray coat and black boots, crosses the meadow.

Filmic language (6/6) What colour are Landa’s boots? A: 44% correct (close-up described in AD-A) B: 16% correct cnt: 63% correct

Intertextual reference (1/3)

Intertextual reference (2/3) AD1 AD2 10:16:14 ‘make yourself at home’ Quickly Landa takes out an enormous, saxophone shaped pipe. Quickly Landa takes out a “Sherlock-Holmes- Style”-Calabash.

Intertextual reference (3/3) Did the following description of Landa’s pipe help you visualize it? (Likert 1- definitely not, 5 – definitely yes) A (an enormous, saxophone shaped pipe): 4.1 B: (Sherlock-Holmes-Style”-Calabash): 2.1 Cnt: Did you associate Landa’s pipe with the one smoked by Sherlock Holmes? a) yes 13% Preference question: A: saxophone – 79% B: saxophone – 62%

Conclusions/Discussion (1/2) Gestures – naming better than describing Filmic language – partially yes (information overload) Intertextual references – not helpful in this case Memory/concentration as confounding variables (but recognition vs. recall questions to offset their impact, same condition for all groups) Preference questions – audio books and AD exposure influence expectations Reception studies? (different factors) Applicability to guidelines?

Conclusions/Discussion (2/2) AD = translation AD strategies (on the domestication- foreignization continuum) A functional approach: text type, audience design, etc. ADLAB – guidelines in the form of strategies JewsA with filmic language

Acknowledgements Belgium: Aline Remael, Nina Reviers, Gert Vercauteren, Erik de Snerck, Ludo Schats, Dries Maes, De Markgrave, samenwerkende voorziening voor blinden en slechtzienden (http://www.demarkgrave.be), VeBeS, De vereniging van Blinden en slechtzienden Licht en Liefde vzw (http://www.vebes.be) Germany: Haide Völz, Bernd Benecke, Lothar Völz, Gabi Altenbach, Birgit Roberts, Diana Gaul, Friedrich Schloffer, Katja Schild Italy: Elisa Perego, Christopher Taylor, Selene Sordo, Guido Bettagli Poland: Agnieszka Chmiel, Bartosz Zakrzewski Portugal: Josélia Neves, Manuela Francisco Spain: Anna Maszerowska, Pilar Orero, Anna Matamala

http://www.adlabproject.eu