Ep. 1: The Launch

Welcome to The Dark Room! Listen and learn about our background, eyesight and love of cinema!

Questions? Email us at darkroomfilmcast@gmail.com
Search for Audio Description availability for any title on the American Council for the Blind's Website!
Find transcripts of our episodes on our hosting site, Buzzsprout!
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!
Support us on Patreon!
Follow us on Instagram!
Find us on Facebook!

Transcript

[Music] 

Lee Pugsley:

what's up everyone welcome to the dark room where two blind cinephiles illuminate the sighted I'm Lee Pugsley 

Alex Howard:

I'm Alex Howard 

Lee:

And this is a podcast hosted by two legally blind guys for film lovers of all abilities this is really exciting Alex this is our first podcast 

Alex:

yeah I know we've been trying to get this off the ground for almost a year now so I'm really excited we finally are getting going 

Lee:

and we're so glad that you decided to come along with us on our journey in this podcast we plan to bring you movie reviews film news Awards chatter top 10 lists and possibly a few other surprises as well as talking about a very um specific component uh which is audio description we'll get to that in a minute but we just kind of wanted to talk about how visually impaired people experience movies because there's a common myth that visually impaired and blind people don't watch movies or they don't watch many movies and that's simply not true

Alex:

yeah I think it I think this podcast will give a good like our experience watching movies the low vision experience watching movies if you will so I think you know kind of an oxymoron a blind movie fan but I think um this will prove that we do enjoy movies and hopefully you know spread awareness that way and also we just love talking about movies we have phone calls all the time talking about movies so we thought you guys would like to participate in the conversation 

Lee:

and I think the thing that's so great about film and one of the reasons why we love it is that it's such a universally connecting um experience for all of us all of us can relate to going to the cinema when the lights begin to dim and the magic happens on the screen and stories are so impactful and enlightening and entertaining that it's something we can all connect on 

Alex:

yeah and the the Escape Factor too I think helps especially now dealing with you know the pandemics on the tail end but we're still in it and the their Wars and everything going on in the world I think movies help people escape and even different situations I was watching hustle last night on your recommendation and there's the part where Adam Sandler says um you know passion beats Talent every time and I he was talking about basketball but I was thinking like it works with movies like I I live and breathe the entertainment industry you know listen to podcasts from every waking moment when I go to bed it's like always on the mind and so I feel like you know the passion that quote kind of applies to everything not just basketball so you know there are different things people can take from different movies 

Lee:

100% and speaking of the idea of passion what movies inspired you?

Alex:

 um so I think well when I was a kid my my eyesight started going when I was very very little and um I had a contact lenses when I was a baby and um so I actually had to patch my eye when I was in preschool and patching is when you put a sticker over your good eye to strengthen your bad eye when your eyes are still growing and so the only way my mom could get me to sit still with the patch since I was so little was put me in front of the TV and watch Disney movies so we had you know those um those book VHS tapes of the Disney movies so I I grew up watching those and I slowly just developed my love for movies through that I mean I have obviously my childhood favorite movies but I think yeah I started going to the movies a lot in high school and it's just I loved the hearing different stories and you know just the idea that we have thing with movies as long as humans have been around with cave drawings and comics and Shakespeare and I just I love hearing stories and different perspectives and I feel like you know crying in movies is one of my favorite things to do if a movie can make me cry it remains one of my favorite movies ever so yeah I just I love not to get cheesy but Nicole Kidman you know heartbreak feels good in a place like this like I love the feelings that movies give us and the escapism but also you know the understanding that they give us with what everyone else is dealing with too. 

Lee:

yeah I totally feel you on that uh also just a side tangent for anyone who does not go to AMC Theaters there's this promo before every AMC movie with Nicole Kidman and one of her most iconic lines and that is heartbreak feels good in a place like this it is cheesy but to your point Alex I think it's actually um pretty true as well but it does feel really good to go into a theater and experience like an emotional cleansing if you will or just having that cathartic moment of release it's very freeing and sometimes even healing 

Alex:

yeah and I know the first movie I remember going to I think it was either Toy Story or Toy Story 2 but my mom took me to the El Capitan and they had the characters up on the wall the El Capitan for people who don't know is the the Disney theater on Hollywood Boulevard the Disney owns it and they always decorate and have a um an organ?

Lee:

 they have an organ which is really cool and they also do a lot of like Disney movie premieres there as well 

Alex:

yeah so I I remember going to that as a kid so obviously you know sticks out in my memory because of my love of movies and I had I mean I grew up with Toy Story I had all the toys and everything too but what about you like what what fueled your passion for the entertainment industry and movies in particular?

Lee:

So it's funny because I feel like we can definitely we definitely connect on Disney movies because when I was younger Disney movies were such a part of my childhood as I'm sure they were part of most people's childhoods the first movie that I remember really embracing was The Little Mermaid and then it was the Disney Renaissance Era so there was like The Little Mermaid Beauty and the Beast Aladdin Lion King and so on and so forth and I used to watch those movies over and over and over again and I think what those movies illuminated to me was the power of Storytelling and just how imaginative and creative stories could be so after my Disney experiences it made me want to see what other kinds of content were out there so you know I grew up watching other cartoons as well but then some of those uh family films like Mrs Doubtfire or those old Disney classic live-action movies like Davy Crockett or Old Yeller some of those were very fond movies for me and what really kind of I guess boosted my uh love of Cinema was uh Titanic actually because it was such an immersive experience for me when I first saw it and just seeing how all of the technical elements of Cinema which I hadn't paid attention to before worked together to really put you in the middle of the sinking ship experience

Alex:

That's funny because my the movie that made me love Cinema was Terminator 2 which is also James Cameron and the technical and you know just the creative story it's funny that James Cameron had that much of an impact on both of our experiences growing up and I think yeah the movies that really stuck out to me growing up were the you know kid befriends creature whether it be Air Bud or Iron Giant or E.T or things like that really um connected with me but you know T2 was the primary one for me and it's great the Titanic was the same thing for are you gonna go see the re-release you think?

Lee:

I'm so excited about the re-release I will be there on the biggest and best screen which uh for those people living in La we all know is either the Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard or Universal CityWalk AMC IMAX which is right by the universal the Universal Studios theme park. 

Alex:

Yhat's awesome/ 

Lee:

Are you gonna go see the re-release? 

Alex:

um I probably I went two or three years ago I think when it was re-released and now it's being re-released again so yeah I mean I if I have time I would definitely look to get to it 

Lee:

What will be interesting though for me watching this re-release is uh watching it with my vision in its current state so to give everyone a little bit of background when I was born with the eye condition glaucoma and when I was younger up until the middle of college I could see pretty well I would say I wasn't able to read like blackboards and school or overhead projectors or anything but watching movies I felt like I got the full picture I could even read subtitles on the screen and pick up little details but in college the vision in my right eye started to go and I lost that completely and then right after college the vision and my left eye started to go and then the movie viewing experience became pretty different and definitely different phases of adjustment as the vision in my left eye has continued to decrease what about you Alex I'm curious to know what you said that like you know you're you had to patch your eye when you were younger but how would you describe your visual changes over the years so and how that's affected your uh movie watching experience 

Alex:

So subtitles have always been difficult I think I remember even in high school we watched um I think it's a beautiful life 

Lee:

oh Life is Beautiful 

Alex:

Life is Beautiful yes sorry uh I in high school I watched life as beautiful in class and the teacher gave me a copy to bring home to watch so that I could you know pause it and read the subtitles so yeah I've always had trouble with subtitles but I think as an adult more than when I was in high school my eyesight has become more of a barrier so now it's harder to um it's harder to enjoy the fast cutting action scenes the the dark scenes the like in horror if it's you know too dark it's definitely difficult um I think the way I like to explain it is that like every time it cuts it I have to reorient myself of where I am in the room and so it takes me a minute to process where I am so I mean I'm a sucker for long takes but I think there is a tool that we're going to touch on that I think audio description helps a lot with all of those things that I you know struggle with and I know it probably helps you too 

Lee:

yeah let's actually now that you brought it up why don't we just dive into audio description so what audio description is is it's a track on most films there are some that don't have it but audio description is a track on most films that narrates what's happening on screen when there are moments without dialogue so for example [Music] if you know we're watching a horror movie and there's no dialogue the audio descriptor might say a woman comes downstairs the room is dark and we see a table in the middle of the room with a skull on it 

Alex:

oh yeah and then it would yeah it would be like oh lee picked up his cup and drank you know water in between us talking or um but yeah I think and I don't I hesitate to say most movies but I it ideally me most movies but I feel like every mainstream release nowadays even most independent releases now come with audio description I think where we get into the gray area is probably

pre-2007 even 2010 maybe it sometimes it gets hard to find movies with audio description which studios are getting better about going through their back catalog and giving them ad but not you know older movies are harder to find but like we're gonna get into all of this more later in other episodes about does it have a d what doesn't what needs it what should this will be a regular movie podcast but also you know it's our experience and I feel like audio description plays a huge part in our enjoyment of movies 

Lee:

It definitely does and um in terms of audio description uh for future for the future just know that we're going to reference audio description as a d so when you hear us use the term a d that's what it stands for is audio description but yeah I think you're right Alex that um it definitely I should have I should have like to restate my point all mainstream movie releases have audio description nowadays and if you're watching a streaming service at home like Hulu or Netflix or Disney plus Prime video most of those streaming services uh most of their content on the services also have audio description so if you're a sighted viewer and you've never used audio description and you're curious to know what that is you can just go on to one of those streaming services and go to the audio subtitles menu and you'll see on the audio section you'll see one that says English audio description so if you're curious you should just take a moment and go turn it on and you can experience movies in a similar way to the way that we experience movies and then if you're uh putting in a Blu-ray let's say or a 4K you can go to the audio subtitles menu and most mainstream releases once again on disk will have an Audi English audio description option and then going to theaters is a totally different experience uh why don't you talk about how audio description works in a movie theater. 

Alex:

Yeah so um usually you you go to guest services and ask well it'll say when you buy the ticket if it has it or not um you like we said most mainstream ones should have it but you you know go to guest services and ask for an audio description device and no they basically they give you a little box with headphones or AMC it's a box I think other theater changes like they give you just headphones that it's built into and I think it's like a Bluetooth kind of thing with the projector so it syncs up and you can sit in the theater like everybody else and just have headphones on and listen to the audio description track what gets frustrating is um what gets frustrating is that sometimes they'll get it mixed up because they have a hearing impaired track as well and that just makes the audio of the movie louder which if you get the wrong one or if it just doesn't work at all you have to run out and change it out and you don't know if it's working or not until the movie starts so you have to pretty much miss the first couple minutes of the movie run out switch it out come back but I am see lately they've been really good about it I haven't had to run out in a bit 

Lee:

Yeah AMC uh specifically since that's those are the theater chains that me and Alex go to primarily I'm seeing Burbank is where I usually go and I go to I go to the AMC in Burbank and then I go to the AMC in Glendale as well but they've done a lot better lately at programming um the audio description boxes on the right channel I haven't had to run out for a while either which has been pretty nice um this is a whole nother topic for another podcast of frustrations with you know movie going experiences but I guess it kind of gives you a brief overview of how audio description Works in um a movie theater and then for you Alex how does audio description enhance your movie going experience  or movie watching experience if you're watching something at home 

Alex:

so audio description I mean it'll read the subtitles it'll read the um if someone's texting if they're looking at something on the computer it'll read all of that text which it helps me immensely but it also when there are different things in the background or especially action scenes if ask any action scenes like in superhero movies and John Wick and things like that it'll describe the action really well of like you know grab his arm fire the gun like literally it describes the choreography that's happening in the scene as well as I mean I'm a big horror fan so it describes all of the dark scenes in horror and I really like when they get into all the gore and stuff and you know they have to describe all that's really great we saw we went and saw jackass forever this year with audio description that was amazing 

Lee:

yeah they did a very good job with that 

Alex:

yeah yeah but um how does it help you? 

Lee:

what's the most helpful thing about it for you so in addition to everything you're saying which I totally agree with it helps especially with fight choreography and action movies that's extremely helpful because it's so quick and sometimes I don't catch everything it also is very helpful with locations because it'll be like at so-and-so's apartment or at the office if I didn't have audio description it leaves me kind of guessing and I can infer okay this takes place at so-and-so's apartment but there have been times where I thought a scene was taking place at one location and then finding out it was at another location when I wasn't watching a movie with audio description the other really helpful component of audio description for me is they say the characters names multiple times in their audio description script and sometimes there's a lot of characters in movies like triangle of sadness or Glass Onion are two examples that come to mind right away and it really helps me keep track of the characters and to know their names because they keep repeating them when they're on screen I mean even like you know sighted viewers that I go to movies where sometimes like wait what was that character's name and I'm like oh it's this because the audio description kept reinforcing that in my mind and it also helps keep track of like the time jumps if there is a time Jump or there's a flashback just sequentially or chronologically it helps me keep track of the time that things are taking place in 

Alex:

yeah I would completely agree with that I think uh women talking is another one that a lot of characters Dunkirk was I I don't even think I've seen that with audio description but I remember being very confused when I watched that because it's all the soldiers look the same and their time jumps so it definitely helps out with when there's a big cast of characters it helps you keep track of Who's Who especially when you're low vision like us and you know five or six white guys like Dunkirk you're like wait is this that one or is this the other one so it gets to be a bit difficult 

Lee:

yeah I'm really glad I watched Dunkirk for my first time with audio description because when the movie first came out I wasn't using audio description at that time and I didn't see it in theaters so I rented it from Redbox one day and watched it with audio description and I was like I'm so glad that I did it this way but in terms of your journey with audio description when did you start using audio description and what prompted that for you? 

Alex:

at first I think I found it a bit annoying I mean I know I watch it with my roommate now all the time you know even decided people I find enjoy it because it helps them you know keep track of things also my um my girlfriend was saying that she watched Coda with her family with ad because of the subtitles it just got easier with it but um anyway I think I started using it maybe 2018 or so it's funny because I used to work at AMC and I didn't even use it then when I was working there and I really started using it for every single movie after I worked at AMC because I just found that like it just get it's easier for me it's like I don't have to worry about oh is there going to be an action scene is there going to be something I need it for and even women talking there's not much action but it helps keep track of the characters and so I mean something like Before Sunrise Before Sunset that's something you don't really need it for but really it's pretty rare that there's a movie that it wouldn't help me to have an 80 track now so I mean movies that don't have it kind of deter me at this point um what about you what's your when did you start using it?

Lee:

 yeah I feel like our Journeys are pretty similar because I started using uh A.D in late 2017 I think and before that there were people that suggested using audio description to me whether it was an employee at a theater that asked if I wanted an audio descriptive device or friends that I know that told me that audio description exists but I think I was just I think I was in a similar place to you where I felt like it seemed really annoying to have a voice in my ear through the whole movie and I thought it was going to be more disruptive than helpful and another reason I think I was adverse to using ad was because I wanted to blend in and be part of the mainstream crowd and for whatever reason I thought that using ad was going to put me in a different category and I was worried about people's perceptions and all of that so that was definitely a component as well but once I decided to give it a try just to see what it was like in late 2017 I realized how helpful it was and I realized that there would have been a lot of things in a movie that I would miss if I didn't have audio description so then I started using it more regularly and just got used to it and now just like you said it's really hard for me to watch a movie without any audio descriptive track and it will deter me somewhat from doing that 

Alex:

yeah I always feel like I'm missing something like in the background or they're walking around because they're they're several times with the ad where I don't you don't expect it to give you a clue about something and then for it to pay off later and so when when a movie doesn't have it you know and I feel like it really you talked about like what was the wording you used like not being normal you said? 

Lee:

um just not being part of like the mainstream movie going crowd 

Alex:

yeah 

LeeL

and feeling like in some way that was going to make me less than or there would people would have a different perception of me when I walk in with like that audio device 

Alex:

yeah I feel like it almost helps us be part of the mainstream because we don't have to ask as many questions you know it helps us be more of a part of the conversation because we also know what's going on in a movie so yeah 

Lee:

I totally agree one of the things that's also been really fun and we'll probably do some reviews or some commentary on this later in a future episode is when you go back and you watch a movie that you've seen before that you didn't watch with audio description then you watch it with audio description and realize the little details of things that you might have missed

Alex:

 oh yeah can you think of one because I can think of one uh 

Lee:

what's yours I'm thinking right now so 

Alex:

Pirates two on Disney plus has audio description so I grew up with the Pirates movies you know one and two are awesome kind of falls off a little after that kind of a lot after that but um Pirates two in the beginning when they're on the island and they're in the cages and he I think he says these cages weren't built till after we got here and I always thought that meant Oh the the other crew fell down into the into the crevice and died because they didn't build them well but then the audio description said that the cages were built out of Bones and I was like oh the cages are built out of the crew with the bones of them and it changed the whole like perception of the scene you know?

Lee:

 totally totally I guess the one that comes to mind this is probably not the best example because there's not a ton of audio description would be uh the 2012 version of Les Miserables because I knew the material for that movie because I'm a big musical fan going into it but when I watched it later with audio description there were just little details about things that were happening in the background that I was like oh I totally missed that and even though I knew the story and I knew the music backwards and forwards how Tom Hooper decided to depict it visually I picked up on a lot of little details nothing major and nothing that really changed the scope of the story for me but it was kind of fascinating to have little details filled in 

Alex:

yeah um speaking of that Les Miserables do you wanna I think this podcast will be really interesting because you come from more of a theater background and I come from a you know sort of screen background if you will but do you want to talk real quick about your uh background a little bit 

Lee:ß

yeah uh so my background I grew up doing community theater and school theater both in elementary school middle school and high school and live theater stories on stage has always been a huge passion of mine and then I went on to college and got my bachelor's degree in theater and directing and performance and after I graduated I pursued a lot of I pursued a lot of theater related things such as directing and acting although now I'm also pursuing acting for a TV and film but yeah it's interesting because I come from a very theatrical background so movies based on plays I love those generally speaking and movie musicals I'm also a very big fan of as well I'd say that those are probably my favorite genres and then um yeah your favorite genre Alex is horror right?

Alex:

 there's so many feelings that go into horror I think that's what it is that it it just appeals to me so much and more so than I think some of the more quote-unquote real you know um situations I feel like there's a lot of real stuff happening in my own life that I I much prefer the the things that aren't necessarily as realistic that could happen to me does that make sense?

Lee:

 that does make sense and it's so interesting because though we come from different genres that are our favorites I understand where you're coming from as far as like there's so many things that happen in real life that for you horror gives you an escape into a world that kind of has a heightened reality that kind of takes you away from just the woes and struggles of real life things and for me um you know movie musicals are that for me where it takes me away from thinking about real life or you know just like depressing um moments of life because we all have those but it brings me to a place where I can forget about those things for a while and it I guess it's not necessarily those things and music Cults could never happen to me but more so I'm like oh I wish those things would happen to me I wish that we could all spontaneously break out into song and dance and that would be really great 

Alex:

yeah and I feel like what's cool is yeah I mean you and I can I can definitely appreciate the musical genre I mean la la land is my favorite movie of the year when that came out um I feel like we we both can appreciate all kinds of film like I mean superhero movies big Blockbusters but also like really small you know A24 movies I feel like we have a big range of things we enjoy and so I feel like we can have some great conversation 

Lee:

yeah I'm really excited to be discussing movies with you in that way because we both have a wide net of movies that we enjoy and we like all genres but we also have differences of opinions on certain movies so it'll be fun to do like reviews where we may disagree on something and to talk about that and to see where our perspectives are different so yeah I'm super excited about that 

Alex:

yeah and I think if you all want to participate in the conversation as well um you can email us um would you like to give them the email Lee?

Lee:

 yeah you can email us at darkroom filmcast@gmail.com once again that's darkroomfilmcast gmail.com and to reiterate we would love to hear from you and we would love to know the topics that you're interested in us talking about topics that you would find potentially educational enlightening or just fun you know we're open to all possibilities and any suggestions that we get we definitely want to try to implement those into our podcast episodes 

Alex:

yeah and like cited or unsighted if you have any questions about our eyesight if you have any questions about movies because that's what this podcast is about um feel free to email us and we would love to hear from you 

Lee:

and no question as far as I'm concerned is off limits so don't if you're a sighted listener out there and there's a question that you want to ask but you're not sure if you should ask it by all means feel free to ask it me and Alex aren't people that are easily offended and we also want to give people an opportunity to learn along with us because we're still learning as well and we know that in an Ideal World everyone is a lifelong learner so we want to create that opportunity we want to create the opportunity for dialogue and conversation to happen to get a deeper understanding on all sides of the sighted world and the Blind and low vision world as well 

Alex:

yeah I am I think we're both open to being very vulnerable and honest and raw so yeah um we're just here to talk about our experience and our love movies so literally if you have any questions feel free to reach out 

Lee:

yeah once again thank you guys so much for listening to our very first episode it's so great to have you guys here and we look forward to many more to come 

Alex:

yeah and we will talk to you guys later

Lee:

 all right take care