(Ester) Hej Per! (Per) Hej Ester!
(Ester) Can you talk about how MovieTalk works?
(Per) I can certainly try.
The first thing you need to do is install the app.
Then you start the app.
Then, you can download an audio package for a movie.
You choose from a list what movie you want to download for.
On the right, you see what channels the audio package contains.
Whether it's for audio descriptions, audio subtitles, or both.
(Ester) The eye symbol means audio descriptions and T means audio subtitles?
(Per) Yes. (Ester) Doesn’t it get confusing
(Ester) if you watch with audio descriptions and audio subtitles at the same time?
(Per) You can choose what channels you want to listen to.
Maybe you only need audio descriptions or maybe you only need audio subtitles.
They are coordinated of course so they don't speak at the same time.
(Ester) How does it work exactly?
How do they ensure they don’t talk at the same time?
(Per) They record different audio channels.
So there are separate audio files for audio descriptions and audio subtitles.
Then you switch in the app between the channels you want to listen to.
There are buttons for this on the app's play screen.
(Ester) Okay. And are they recorded using human voices?
(Per) For the most part.
But speech synthesis can also be used to record an audio file.
So far, it’s been mostly human voices.
(Ester) Where do you download the audio files from?
I see them in the app, but where are they stored?
(Per) They are stored at Bio Guiden.
This is the movie industry’s online service for cinemas and such.
So they are...
They are centrally stored for the movie industry.
(Ester) You also said before
that this works at the movies, on TV, DVD,
video-on-demand and pay services.
(Per) Exactly.
It depends on the frame rate of the movie you are watching.
At the movies, it's 24 frames per second.
On TV and DVD, it’s 25 frames per second.
So they are separated
to ensure they are correctly synced.
(Ester) And the synchronization is taken care of by the app?
(Per) It is automatically taken care of by the app.
It recognizes the movie audio and plays back in sync with it.
(Ester) Maybe we should have a look at how it might be
with audio subtitles and audio descriptions.
We will show a movie called “Sintel”.
The movie is in English.
But the subtitles are in Swedish.
The audio subtitles and descriptions are also in Swedish.
(Ester) That was audio subtitles. Now let’s see the combination of
audio subtitles and audio descriptions.
(Per) As you can hear, there are different voices reading the audio subtitles and audio descriptions.
So you can hear the difference between the voices and the services.
(Ester) When you combine audio descriptions and audio subtitles in a movie,
what should the description narrator or the audio description producer
and audio subtitle producer keep in mind?
(Per) The most important thing is that the speech doesn’t overlap,
that is, the description narrator and the subtitle narrator.
It is all recorded in a studio so they have quite a bit of control
over how the voices interplay.
(Ester) How do you deal with movies with intensive dialog and lots of talking?
Do you squeeze the audio descriptions between
the audio subtitles and regular subtitles?
(Per) You have to put the audio descriptions where there is space.
There is a rule to not speak over dialog.
You need to be able to hear what they say.
Audio descriptions are only meant as an aid.
(Ester) If I'm at the movies using the app,
what would those...
...those sitting next to me say? The people sitting beside me.
(Per) Nothing, hopefully. They shouldn’t be able to notice.
(Per) You start the app,
and choose which audio track you want to use. Then you can put your phone away.
It will listen to the movie audio and play back to you in the headphones
you're using to hear.
(Ester) Can you listen without headphones?
So that I can listen with a friend?
(Per) Then you will have to share the headphones.
The phone’s speaker should be blocked by the app.
So you can’t listen to it.
(Ester) Thanks Per.