Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Braille Movies?

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Posted by Edwin Schwing (Member # 1270) on 01-19-2008, 05:27 AM:

Has anyone heard of or have any experience with Braille Movies? A woman came in the other night wondering if we had them. I had never heard of them.

Anyone?

Thanks
E

Posted by Peter David Bruce (Member # 4447) on 01-19-2008, 05:29 AM:

This is a new one on me. Id love to know too.. anyone?

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 01-19-2008, 06:31 AM:

I've seen a braille computer 'monitor'. It was a box about 500mm wide x 300mm hich with a matrix of pins each of which could be made to move out through a hole in the front plate to form braille characters. I don't know how it worked; I doubt there would be room for a solenoid to operate each pin. In theory you could give somebody one of these and plug it into a socket in the seat with subtitles on it, but there would be several problems:

1. The device I saw was very expensive, several thousand pounds.

2. it was quite noisy, not likely to be popular in a cinema auditorium.

3. It was heavy and bulky.

4. If somebody had such restricted vision as to need to read braille, then how mush would they be able to get out of watching the film anyway?

It would only really be of any benefit to somebody who had enough sight to be able to make out something of the picture, but not enough to read subtitles, and who also had hearing too poor to be able to make use of infra-red headsets or induction loops.

We do have a braille printer at the college where I work.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 01-19-2008, 01:11 PM:

The only thing remotely close to what your describing:

Descriptive Video Service

I have two of these systems at my theatre. The patron wears a special set of head phones that describes what's going on in the movie.

About 15 years ago I had a regular blind customer who always came in with his 'seeing eye dog'. He loved sitting in a movie for two hours and hearing the magic of the movies.

Posted by Wayne Keyser (Member # 2420) on 01-19-2008, 04:00 PM:

On a personal note, my first great (failed) romance was a blind woman who loved going to movies - depending on the movie, my job as "seeing-eye narrator" might be almost impossible or really easy.

We were at the old AFI theater watching the old "The Thing From Another World" and you could just turn the projector lamp off, it was so much like a radio show on film. Every time I would get ready to say "He's tearing those dogs apart with his bare hands," a moment later a character would step up and say "Look! He's tearing those dogs apart with his bare hands!" I could just coast.

Posted by Ron Curran (Member # 3631) on 01-19-2008, 05:59 PM:

Yes Dennis, we have regular unsighted customers whose dogs can sit through a 2 hour+ movie. If only those trainers could work on children.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 01-20-2008, 12:23 AM:

quote: Edwin Schwing
Has anyone heard of or have any experience with Braille Movies?

Huh?! That's got to be a gag.

Posted by Edwin Schwing (Member # 1270) on 01-20-2008, 01:32 AM:

Supposedly there is a hand held device that describes the scenes etc using braille. I guess that the "bumps" go up and down on the device as the movie plays.

I am skeptical, but I was told that they may have it in Germany.

Thanks
E

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 01-20-2008, 02:52 AM:

misthread a sprocket and any film becomes a "braille movie".

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 01-20-2008, 10:59 AM:

We had a regular customer who came with her friend who described visuals much like Wayne explained. She loved movies and came to all our major engagements. We have a huge house so we could seat her and her companion far enough away from the prime audience areas -- they did not disturb anyone.

At first I was skeptical of how this could work well enough to be satisfying to a blind person. Her companion evidently had a good command of the language because she really enjoyed her afternoons with us. It was great seeing someone who loved movies that much to sit patiently thru 2hrs having to rely on a verbal description.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 01-20-2008, 01:58 PM:

I mentioned the defunct Nostalgia Channel in another thread. They had a regular movie program that was descriptive for the blind. I thought that was cool.

Posted by Edwin Schwing (Member # 1270) on 01-20-2008, 11:06 PM:

SO,

I gather that there is NO SUCH THING?

I wasn't the manager on duty when the woman came up and asked about it, but from what I hear she was dead serious about it.

I had no idea about it, thus my original question. Does such type of device exist?

A couple of my employees laughed when she asked about it. (What's next, Braille drive in Movies?) HA HA

Sorry, that wasn't funny....

The lady was not happy that we "laughed at her".

We weren't laughing AT her, they were laughing at the idea.

I reconcile that the idea may be possible, but is it probable? Is it a reality? Is there such a thing?

E

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 01-21-2008, 09:39 AM:

Can I steering just a tad off topic....does anyone know if there is a Federal ADA enforcement agency that one could lodge a complaint when a theatre is not in compliance with the ADA regulations? We have four theatres in our complex -- all of them were outfitted with infrared systems about 7 years ago. They all look to me like they were home-made, certainly low bid. The infrared transmitters were a nothing more than a bunch of LEDs stuck thru pegboard which was cut to fit into a Radio Shack plastic kit box. After only about a year not one of them work; no theatre is in compliance with regard to hearing assist systems. Which means if anyone comes into any of our theatres asking for a headset, they get zilch....you know those far-off, glazed over stares you so often see from service representatives after you've asked a question which imediately tells you that you could have just as well asked it in Latin.

There is also another venue where I work, ironically it also is a city run entity and THEIR hearing assist units don't work either. In fact, just a few months back, I got a call in the booth from the floor telling me that a woman had a complaint was insisting that she speak to the projectionist. They said she was deaf (she wasn't, she was only partially deaf, but the floor person at the time evidently doesn't know the difference). The woman was very polite, not someone with a chip on the shoulder, but she was evidently had seen the eyes glaze over downstairs, so she was quite firm about seeing me and stating the fact that she was supposed to be able to get a headset to hear the film.

I apologized (there is not much I can do except relay the complaint -- I am only freelance there); I told her she should notify the museum director. She took out a note pad and took down my name and the director (which I was all too happy to supply). I didn't hear any more about it even thou at the time I thought all hell would break loose -- she didn't look like someone who would just let it go.

So at both these city-run facilities....no hearing assist systems for at least 6 years. I would have no problem blowing the whistle on this travesty. Both are non-profit city organizations -- college and museum; they should be the at the forefront of making sure the ADA regulations are in place and complied with.

So, the question: does anyone know if ADA is a federal group of statues, and if so, what agency should be contacted. There must be some regulatory muscle out there to force complance, no?

Posted by Charles Caron (Member # 3247) on 01-21-2008, 09:23 PM:

Frank: There's nothing more fun than setting two burocracies at each others throats [evil]

...Kind of like two tasmanian devils in a gunny sack...Sounds like some fun...Please keep us informed. [thumbsup]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-22-2008, 12:21 AM:

quote: Edwin Schwing
Supposedly there is a hand held device that describes the scenes etc using braille. I guess that the "bumps" go up and down on the device as the movie plays.

Have you guys seen the movie "Sneakers?" They had a doohickey in there that would read-out Braille exactly like that, except it was reading out a computer monitor. I wondered if it was a real thing or not. I don't see how you could read the moving "bumps" fast enough to keep up with movie dialogue.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 01-22-2008, 10:44 AM:

Most of the time translations are not literal. If you've ever watched closed captioning on TV, it's not always word-for-word.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 01-25-2008, 10:17 AM:

I've had the calls as well.....Braille movies....they called it RADIO back in the 40s and 50s. Better wait for the audiobook! (portable cinema for the blind.) Louis