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September 2009 - Posts
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Below is a press release that was forwarded to me while I was away. I thought I'd post it for those interested. It's kinda neat - grin! SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT PARTNERS WITH WGBH MEDIA ACCESS GROUPTO DELIVER DESCRIPTIVE VIDEO SERVICE ON HOME VIDEO TITLESCulver City, Calif. (Sept 3, 2009) – Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will partner with WGBH Media Access Group to release select film titles on DVD with Descriptive Video Service®, or DVS® as an optional feature for audiences who are blind or have low vision. Descriptive Video Service provides carefully crafted narration of key visual elements inserted into natural pauses in dialogue. Key visual elements are those which viewers with vision loss would ordinarily miss and include actions, costumes, gestures, facial expressions, scene changes and onscreen text. On DVD and Blu-ray™, the DVS track is an Audio option, listed alongside alternative languages, where the menu selection will read “English Audio Descriptive Service.” The ability to enjoy movies with descriptive narration on DVD and Blu-ray Disc™ is extremely important to the nation’s 12 million movie fans with vision loss, and is the single most requested service of the Media Access Group. Among the first Sony Pictures Home Entertainment titles to be released with the description feature are The Taking of Pelham 123, The Ugly Truth, Julie & Julia and District 9. Sony Pictures has been a leader over the last decade in providing descriptive audio for theatrical releases in movie theaters equipped with WGBH’s Motion Picture Access, or MoPix® systems. Beginning in the fall of 2009, all Sony Pictures theatrical releases with descriptive audio will also include the feature when they arrive on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. About The Media Access Group at WGBHThe Media Access Group at WGBH includes The Caption Center, the world's first captioning agency, founded in 1972; Descriptive Video Service (DVS), which has made television, film and video more accessible to blind and visually impaired audiences since 1990; and the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM), a research and development entity that builds on the success of WGBH's access service departments to make existing and emerging technologies more accessible. Members of the Media Access Group's collective staff represent the leading resources and experts in their fields.Additional information about the Media Access Group at WGBH can be found at www.mediaaccessgroupwgbh.org <http://www.mediaaccessgroupwgbh.org/> . The Media Access Group maintains a list of DVDs with DVS at this page of its site: http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/resources/accessible-dvds.html Follow the Media Access Group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Media-Access-Group-at-WGBH/91628220291?ref=ts About Sony Pictures Home EntertainmentSony Pictures Home Entertainment is a Sony Pictures Entertainment company. SPE is a division of Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPHE’s global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; digital contest creation and distribution; worldwide channel investments; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of filmed entertainment in 67 countries. Sony Pictures Entertainment can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sonypictures.com <http://www.sonypictures.com/> . Contacts:Jason Allen Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Jason_allen@spe.sony.com 310- 244-3502 Mary Watkins Media Access Group at WGBH Mary_watkins@wgbh.org 617-300-3700###
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I'm STILL working my way through all the e-mail from when I was away. Below is an announcement that I thought might interest some - especially with all the Mac vs. PC debate on the HPS Adults listserv! Grin! SAVE THE DATE
October 19, 2009
The Computer Center for Visually Impaired People at Baruch College Invites You to a Technology Workshop on
“The Accessible Mac”
Time: 7:00-9:00 pm
Where: Baruch College, 17 Lexington Avenue (between 22nd and 23rd Streets, on the east side of Lexington Avenue), Room 1220
What: Come take a look at the growing selection of Apple products that have accessibility features built in to them. See how they function and how they can work for you. The Mac Book, the iPod and the iPhone will all be presented and discussed.
Reservations: Call 646-312-1420
Thanks to all of you who came to our last workshop in September. We had a great turnout and hope to be hearing many new voices joining us for future workshops
If you are unable to join us in person, watch it on the web at the address below:
http://media.baruch.cuny.edu:7070/mediacenter/live/ccvip_demo.sdp
Also mark you calendars for Thursday, November 19. We will be presenting a workshop on accessible book readers such as the Victor Reader Stream and the Book Sense.
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The following information was in the NORD (National Organization for Rare Disorders) newsletter. I thought I'd pass it along to the HPS and CHS communities as we definately qualify as orphan diseases. EveryLife Art Contest: Empowering Artists Affected by Rare Diseases
The Kakkis EveryLife Foundation is inviting artists to participate in the first annual EveryLife Art Contest. The competition is open to all artists affected by a rare disease ages five and older, as well as close friends, family members or care-takers of those with a rare or undiagnosed disease. Entries must be received by 5pm on Friday October 30, 2009. For more information: http://www.kakkis.org/ Documents/ EveryLifeRareDiseaseArtContest .pdf
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As many of you know, Donna has represented the HPS Network on the Public Advisory Board of the American Thoracic Society for years now - two of which she was president. The ATS publishes a newsletter aimed at lung disease patients of all kinds. They are trying to increase awareness of the newsletter as well as work to bring together the lung disease community as a whole. Here's the link. Check it out: http://www.thoracic.org/sections/about-ats/par/newsletter-and-archive/subscribe.html
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 Outside of the Mummy ride, they had these men on stilts. Ashley and I got our photo taken with one (on Donna's camera). I looked up at this very cute guy and said, "You know, I've always been into tall men." He didn't seem to have much of a sense of humor.....grin! I thought it was funny.
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This was the only roller coaster I rode. I’m not a huge fan of roller coasters, but Mervin talked me into it and so I rode with Julie. It’s based on the movie “the Mummy.” You travel through the tomb tumbling across various hazards that send you dropping and angry spirits that throw fire (real fire by the way) at you.
The graphics and characters were extremely realistic, and even though the roller coaster is contained within a building, it was plenty of dropping and turning and spinning for little old wimpy me.
I must confess, I enjoyed it, although not enough to attempt another roller coaster. It’s amazing Julie still has working ear drums after sitting next to me screaming, “Oh God, Oh God…” And no, I wasn’t saying it the way some people do casually. It was a heartfelt prayer of panic! I felt a bit dizzy when we got off and figured maybe I shouldn’t push it. Mervin and Julie were much braver, but more on that in another entry.
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Disaster was another must-do ride at Universal. It’s in the part of the park that is made to look like San Francisco. Disaster is supposed to be a film company that specializes in disaster films. All through the experience and the ride the staff is playing various characters involved with making movies.
When you enter and are waiting to get in, a character playing the role of a director’s assistant/casting agent comes out and gets volunteers from the audience to play the roles of actors. The volunteers are taken away and when you go into the next room they are all on stage. The director gives them a small part to play which is filmed by a camera crew.
For example, one little boy was asked to jump off a box and look afraid. Another man was asked to act as though he was falling. Three others were dressed up like corporate executives in hard hats and they were filmed acting as though they were in an earthquake with falling foam rocks coming at them.
Poor Donna got picked from the audience to be “the screamer.” The problem is Donna had a treak (sp?) several years ago that damaged her vocal cords and thus her voice is very low and she actually can’t scream. I couldn’t read the expression on her face to tell if she wanted to be rescued or if she was up for the gag. I judged wrong, but leave it to Donna to go with the flow as usual. She screamed her very best!
The last part of the ride you’re in what’s supposed to be a subway. They are filming a scene with a subway caught in an earthquake. The car moves side to side as the director tells you to look various ways. Real fire and explosions go off around you and water gets splashed around.
In the end, they took the video clips of the “actors” and edited them together with the video clips of the train ride and made a fake trailer for a disaster movie that was a riot! It was a lot of fun!!!!!
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Twister at Universal Studios is one of the attractions that’s more experience than ride, but it was very well done. As you stand in line you’re treated to video interviews about the history of the film, how it was made, some stories from behind-the-scenes about some real tornados that happened near where the film was made, and stories about real storm chasers.
I didn’t know, for example, that the movie creators essentially destroyed 12 city blocks of a real town that had been hit by a tornado years before to make the movie.
You then enter a movie set of a small-town scene. There’s a gas station and a diner, and then the storm starts. The rain comes and the wind builds up. The lightning strikes the power lines creating sparks that start real fires. The gas station has a real explosion and the heat that hits you is very real – it makes you take a step back for sure.
Living in Kansas and having experienced tornados, the only detail they didn’t manage to create was that feeling in the air right before one hits. It doesn’t get windy. It gets still – very still – and the sky turns greenish.
But, perhaps that feeling isn’t possible to recreate on a stage. It was still very good!
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Another fun activity we did at Universal Studios Orlando was the Beatle Juice Graveyard Review. I was continually amazed at the quality of the productions we saw both at Universal and at Disney. I felt as though I got to see several Broadway shows within two days.
The one thing I will say about the Beatle Juice show for some of my conservative friends (and you probably already know this if you’ve seen the movie) is that the characters make a number of double meaning adult jokes. Kids would love the costumes and the lights and the dancing and singing, and probably would completely miss the jokes anyway – but I’m just letting you know.
I loved it. The review had a number of rock’n roll classics played by various graveyard characters such as Dracula, Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein – and of course Beatle Juice himself.
I had wondered if they were just acting the parts and not really singing because the singing was so good. It was so hot and the costumes plus the lights – it must have been so hot and to be dancing and singing up there at the same time without the least bit of breathlessness. But then I noticed they all had headset mics on, so they weren’t just lipping the words. Amazing.
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