Learning to audio describe film
Yesterday I started the process of learning how to get my current and future films audio described for all our blind,low vision and visually impaired fans. I have been wanting to audio describe all Crip Video Productions films for a very long time but due to lack of resources I was unable to provide this type of accessibility,until now. More on this later…
Kingsborough Diversity Festival 2016:
Today (November 2) I(Margot) and our actor Dustin Jones were invited back to the Kingsborough Community College Diversity Symposium/Festival to screen our third film “Crips Not Creeps”. I have done many events at KCC, like presentations, and screening my films for Disability Awareness. If some of you are interested I screened my other film “Only Those Who Limp Allowed” last year for the 2015 Diversity Festival and wrote about it here http://cripvideoproductions.tumblr.com/post/132124383646/kcc-diversity-film-festival
Last year’s screening was what led to the screening today. Originally the plan was to have both me and Dustin Jones do an introduction and then a Q&A after the screening. Unfortunately due to an Access-A-Ride paratransit snafu beyond anybody’s control, I had to take over and handle the introduction and Q&A on my own. The professors,and president of the college who I met in 2015 were incredibly kind,patient and understanding about the snafu for which I am most grateful! I gave an introduction where I said that I was glad Kingsborough was once again including Disability in their discussion of Diversity because Disability is a global issue which effects all races regardless of their status etc.
After the film was shown I sat down in front of the decent sized audience and answered various questions,mostly about the production of the film. One person asked how I casted the films and I tried to explain that because I am friends with many people of diverse backgrounds and abilities/disabilities the characters end of being diverse automatically. When I cast my films my main concern is who the character is and who can best get across that character’s personality and physicality to viewers. I also explained that finding disabled actors to cast required some rather creative methods because there is a relatively smaller amount of disabled actors compared to able bodied ones, and available disabled and even available able bodied actors take time and patience to track down. The casting process can take a few months. That being said I explained that my film productions are generally shorter than most, because I have seen movies that took 7 years to make whereas mine usually take less than a year. Someone asked where we shot the films so I told them the basic NYC locations and how we had to make slight changes to the scenes(followers of this blog can scroll down to the rehearsal and shoot day posts about “Crips Not Creeps” for more details!). One person asked how we edited the film. I explained that I do a basic edit in a mac software called iMovie and then give the rough edit to my editor Rich Brotman who corrects any flaws and makes the entire film better. One person asked why the films were not available for sale on DVD and I explained that because of our process and the films’ short length it was more practical to release the films on youtube. Since my films have been released on youtube they have gained an international following. I have fans in Canada,Italy and India to name a few. It is possible that future Crip Video Productions films will get DVD releases but I cannot give a definitive answer at this time. Another person asked how I researched for the films. I’m guessing they might have meant researching disability specifically. So I explained that I will research a disability online and then speak to someone with that particular disability in some way,especially if it is a disability I have never written about before. I shared that I recently had a wonderful fan of my films allow me to interview her over the phone on October 3 2016 about her disability(s) as a reference. I also spoke to someone with Juvenile Macular Degeneration over email in 2010 about their blind spot which became the special effect in “Drama Sighted”. Someone recognized Dustin Jones from his Uber commercials. I wish Dustin had been there to hear that! I did mention in passing what my new project might be and got a very encouraging response! People were so glad I was doing this work! More on these new film production ideas will be posted to this blog when I deem appropriate so stay tuned.
At the end I met a visually impaired audience member who suggested I add audio description to the films. I have always wanted to add audio description to the films but have never been able to find a way to add audio description. It really bothers me that I have so far been unable to make the films fully accessible. I hope to someday find someone who can help me ad audio description to all 3 of the films so they can be fully accessible to our blind and low vision fans! This person also expressed interest in perhaps doing another screening. I hope this idea comes to fruition at some point in whatever way possible.
Super special thanks to Kingsborough Community College for this amazing opportunity!!! I have full permission from Kingsborough Community College to write this blog post! Dustin Jones also gave me permission to use his full name in my blog posts.
Press 2016:
great that you are raising awareness. Your short films are great and very interesting. I would not be surprised if you have your own show down the line.”
—
-Victoria Soto.
Some feedback from a brand new fan of Crip Video Productions! This quote is posted with her full permission! Super special thanks to Victoria!
Crip Video Productions has continued to get good press. Crip Video Productions has some new fans in Canada,New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio and California for which we are most grateful!!! We have been told our description of Cerebral Palsy on our site has helped a parent understand her child’s diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy. We have had nursing students and occupational therapists show great interest in our work because it shows people with disabilities living independently. We have also met older people who have become disabled later in life and relate to our films. We have plans to hopefully do more outreach in spring 2016 for disability awareness. More updates coming soon!
Our crew members have also been getting good press. Dustin Jones who plays the character Frank in “Crips Not Creeps” has been featured in another ad https://youtu.be/3HOTjqWOKg0
Our director who has spastic diplegia Cerebral Palsy(Me) attended a screening of the movie Enter The Faun (which used to be known as “The Faun Experiment” and later as “Anatomy of a Faun”) on March 12 2016. You can hear her speak briefly in this video of the Enter The Faun Q&A at roughly 26 minutes into the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbKLoVaXYwE Enter the Faun is a new documentary. It was created by Tamar Rogoff and is centered around actor/dancer Gregg Mozgala, bodywork, and Cerebral Palsy. Please note that the body work mentioned in Enter The Faun is NOT a cure for Cerebral Palsy! My writings about the screening were featured on the official Enter The Faun blog here http://www.enterthefaun.com/teach-me-teacher/ I have written for the Enter The Faun blog once before in 2015 here as wellhttp://www.enterthefaun.com/whats-in-a-brain/ (EDIT: The “What’s In A Brain” post was re blogged to Tamar Rogoff’s other blog here http://tamarrogoffpp.blogspot.com/2015/06/whats-in-brain.html ) If you like the writing style of Crip Video Productions films you should definitely check out those posts! Super Special thanks to Gregg Mozgala and Tamar Rogoff! However be warned that they do contain spoilers for Enter The Faun!! All press links are posted to this blog with permission!
March 5 2016:
Somebody shared our Charity Event and self advocacy post on a site called Tagdrope. Special thanks to whoever posted this from us at Crip Video Productions!! We are especially thrilled that people are taking interest in our work during Cerebral Palsy awareness month 2016 !
March 5 2016: Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month
March is Cerebral Palsy awareness month. Many of the characters in our films like Brandon have Cerebral Palsy. Cerebral Palsy (often shortened to "CP") is a brain injury that happens before, during, or shortly after birth. It can be caused by lack of oxygen to the brain or conditions such as a fetal brain hemorrhage, which is similar to a stroke, but in most cases the reason for the brain damage is unknown. Cerebral Palsy affects the motor areas of the brain in a vast amount of ways depending on where the damage in the brain occurs. It usually causes the muscles to be too tight (spastic) or too loose or a mixture of tight and loose (Athetoid CP) because the brain signals are constantly being misfired throughout the person's entire life. The misfiring can lead to issues with balancing, coordination, speech, proprioception, body alignment, and even a life long retaining of certain infant reflexes such as the Moro Reflex. The Moro Reflex is the startle reflex in babies and usually disappears when the baby is under 6 months of age but people with CP can have this reflex as children and adults. It is essentially a built in pre programed fear of falling. CP can affect one side of the body (called hemiplegia) or both sides of the body. Every case of Cerebral Palsy is unique and can range from being so mild that it is almost unnoticeable to being so severe that the person uses a wheelchair full time. Most people with Cerebral Palsy in media are portrayed as having the more severe types so we at Crip Video Productions are interested in raising awareness of the experiences of those with more mild to moderate cases of CP. A lot of people still don’t seem to realize CP can be mild. I think the internet is a great place to show the reality i.e the good, the bad, and the ugly of living with disabilities and it is my hope that my films do just that. I was also surprised to learn that March is Traumatic Brain Injury awareness month. In October 2015 I gave a talk about Traumatic Brain Injury http://cripvideoproductions.tumblr.com/post/130787737671/brain-injury-presentation where I showed the trailer for Crips Not Creeps http://www.cripvideoproductions.com/cripsnotcreeps.php I was surprised to discover the many similarities between Cerebral Palsy,Traumatic Brain Injury and Stroke. I met people with types of brain damage that I had never even heard of before, such as brain damage that effects sleep patterns and thalamus damage that effects sensory processing. These types of brain damage are almost completely invisible. The above information can be found on our website here as well http://www.cripvideoproductions.com/about.php
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