Because of “Bright Cinema”, many visually impaired people enjoyed the first movie in their lives – looking for light and sharing hope
“Bright Cinema” volunteers are with the audience.
“Bright Cinema” student volunteers are communicating with children.
Up to now, “Bright Cinema” has conducted public welfare screenings and promotions in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, and sent barrier-free film and television products to 2,244 special education schools around the country.
Barrier-free movies are not just about telling the picture, but also helping the visually impaired friends understand the meaning of the picture. Only by carefully polishing the words and sentences can they present a feast of “visual” and listening.
In the past five years, “Bright Cinema” has provided rich spiritual and cultural products for many visually impaired people from conception to implementation and then to “spreading branches and leaves”. Today, this cause of improving the quality of life of visually impaired friends has more and more like-minded people.
“Use sound to convey color, use listening to perceive art, welcome to ‘Bright Cinema’, the movie I bring to you today is “The Wandering Earth”…”
Closing her eyes and raising her head slightly, Madeli listened carefully to the commentary, not wanting to miss a single word. Encountered a thrilling plot, she nervously grabbed the armrest of the seat. The companions Tang Fami and Wang Huirong beside them also “watched” with fascination.
Ma Deli from Dechang County, Xichang City, Sichuan Province runs a massage shop for the blind. After being completely blind, she rarely went out, let alone watched movies. When she heard the news that the Sichuan Provincial Association for the Blind was going to screen barrier-free films, she immediately decided: the massage parlor was closed for one day, and we went to “see” the film together!
The film that Ma Deli is eagerly looking forward to, from production to screening, was completed by volunteers from the “Bright Cinema” public welfare project team of Communication University of China. In the past 5 years since its establishment, “Bright Cinema” has attracted more than 500 teacher and student volunteers, and has produced more than 500 barrier-free films and 46 episodes of barrier-free TV series “Old Tavern”, involving animation, reality, science fiction, history and other types of themes . Up to now, “Bright Cinema” has conducted public welfare screenings and promotions in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, and has sent barrier-free film and television products to 2,244 special education schools across the country.
Making accessible films that make sense to the visually impaired and draw them into theaters
Outside the south gate of Communication University of China, an east-west blind road is laid on the sidewalk to facilitate the life of the visually impaired.
At present, there are more than 17 million visually impaired people in the country. “We have built one blind road after another, how to pave a ‘cultural blind road’ leading to the soul?” Walking by the blind road, the teachers of the “Bright Cinema” founding team fell into deep thought.
Studies have shown that more than 80% of the information obtained by ordinary people comes from vision. Movies are called “a feast of light and shadow”, and losing vision means that all plots, beauty and imagination derived from light and shadow, as well as the vast and splendid world in light and shadow, all return to chaos. Not being able to see is the helplessness of the visually impaired when facing movies.
How do you make accessible films that the visually impaired “see” understandably and draw them into the cinema?
In the conference room of the Television School of Communication University of China, a heated discussion started. At the beginning, the teachers decided to use the “recording and editing” method to tell the original one-to-two-hour movie in about half an hour. After some in-depth discussions, this plan was abandoned by everyone. “Ordinary audiences can enjoy movies in the cinema and feel the ups and downs and suspense of the story, and visually impaired friends should also be able to experience movies in the same way.” said Zhao Xijing, an associate researcher at the Department of Journalism and Communication, Communication University of China.
In the end, “Bright Cinema” determined the basic form of barrier-free movies: in the gap between movie dialogue and sound, insert the narration of the movie screen, depict the content of the screen and the emotion and meaning behind it.
“The implication of ‘Bright Cinema’ is to help the visually impaired find light and gain hope.” said Fu Haizheng, deputy dean of the Institute of Barrier-free Information Communication, Communication University of China.
On May 20, 2018, the 28th National Day for Helping the Disabled, a special film preview was held at the Guangwai Nanli Community Cultural Station in Dongcheng District, Beijing. More than 50 visually impaired people enjoyed the barrier-free movie “Wolf Warrior II” and witnessed the official opening of “Bright Cinema”. “I never thought of being able to ‘watch’ a movie before, but today I really feel the vivid storyline and vivid characters.” Wang Jiaji, the first audience of “Bright Cinema” and a visually impaired person, was overjoyed.
A 2-hour movie, with a narration of more than 20,000 words, took more than a month before and after production
Cao Jun, vice chairman of the Beijing Blind Association, is a film enthusiast. He said: “Many of my visually impaired friends have never been to a movie theater.” Because they cannot see the picture clearly, it is difficult for the visually impaired to fully understand the content of the movie just by listening.
In April 2019, Cao Jun first met “Bright Cinema”, and many of his visually impaired friends walked into the cinema for the first time to enjoy movies specially made for them. That time was also the first time that Li Yiying, a doctoral candidate at Communication University of China, participated in the production of barrier-free films. Li Yiying said: “We need to watch each screen of the movie more than 10 times before it can be transformed into a narrative script. To make a barrier-free movie, you need to press the pause button at least 3,000 times.” Film selection, writing, review, revision, recording , Editing, mixing, exporting… a 2-hour movie, the narration is more than 20,000 words long, and it took more than a month before and after production.
“What color is red?” A crisp child’s voice came from the crowd at the end of a screening, which made Hu Fang, a postgraduate student at the Communication University of China, suddenly realize: “For people who are born blind, color is a color that can only be understood visually. Concepts don’t exist.” The volunteers discussed for a long time and decided to associate colors with touch and smell. Since then, in Hu Fang’s narration, the questions of the visually impaired children have been answered: red is the color of flames, and they are warm and enthusiastic.
“Barrier-free movies are not only about telling the picture, but also helping the visually impaired friends understand the meaning of the picture. Only by carefully polishing the words and sentences can we present an ‘audio’ feast.” Hu Fang said.
In addition to production, on-site guidance for screening activities is equally important. Where is the most convenient place to get off for the visually impaired? How many obstacles are there along the way? How many meters is it from the elevator to the theater? Need volunteers to maintain order every few meters? Before each screening activity, the students will formulate a careful workflow and walk the activity route several times in advance. They know that every detail is related to the experience of visually impaired friends. Once, “Operation Red Sea” was screened at Chaoyang Theater in Beijing. In order to ensure the safety of visually impaired friends, hundreds of “Bright Cinema” volunteers formed a “human-shaped safety passage” more than 100 meters long, guiding them from the place where they got off the car into the cinema until they were seated.
Because of “Bright Cinema”, many visually impaired people have their first movie tickets, which are special movie tickets issued for them, which is also a special sense of ceremony. “Seeing them caressing the movie tickets with their hands, laughing and crying with the plot of the movie, all our efforts are worth it.” Li Chaopeng, a doctoral student at Communication University of China, said.
Volunteers cast a “beam of light” for the visually impaired friends, and the visually impaired friends also brought them warmth. In June 2019, “Bright Cinema” came to Qinghai. During the exchange, Tian Qimin, chairman of the Qinghai Provincial Association for the Blind, heard the voice of Cai Yu, a doctoral student at the Communication University of China, and said her name, and then said: “I am your fan! I have heard your dubbed movies. “Like a beam of warm light, these words “shone” into Cai Yu’s heart.
104 barrier-free movies are produced every year, and 2 new movies are guaranteed to be enjoyed every week
“Mr. Ru, what movie are we going to watch?” When the movie was approaching, the children would always surround Ru Tianzi and ask non-stop. After watching the movie, they will discuss with great interest for many days.
Ru Tianzi is the deputy director and art teacher of the Student Development Center of the Beijing School for the Blind. As a movie lover, she once tried to show a movie to students and explain it herself with a microphone. “The voice of the explanation is often mixed with the original soundtrack of the movie, which is time-consuming and laborious, but the effect is not very good.” Ru Tianzi said frankly.
On November 7, 2018, “Bright Cinema” entered the Beijing School for the Blind and screened the barrier-free film “Coco” for children. Since then, the last Thursday of each month has become a regular screening day for schools. “Special thanks to my brothers and sisters for showing me the colorful world…” student Sun Minghan wrote a thank you letter in Braille.
Ru Tianzi’s grandparents lost their sight at an early age. Accompanied by Ru Tianzi, her grandfather once went to the cinema to watch “Hundred Birds in the Phoenix”, but her grandmother has never been to the cinema. The 76-year-old grandma “watched” the CD-ROM of the barrier-free movie “The Wandering Earth” intently, and repeatedly sighed: “The children in the blind school have caught up with the good times!”
During a screening, Li Qianya, a graduate student at Communication University of China, helped a gray-haired aunt to the bathroom. As soon as she walked out of the theater, the aunt’s pace became hurried: “This movie is so interesting. I wonder if they can successfully prevent the earth from being hit in the end? I can’t miss the key plot.”
At the end of each movie viewing, the volunteers of “Bright Cinema” will also conduct a questionnaire survey to collect feedback. People always ask if they can play martial arts movies, science fiction movies or cartoons, and some people care about the experience of 4D movies. Every feedback is the expectation from the bottom of my heart, and the volunteers feel the trust and responsibility.
“Through the narration of the volunteers of ‘Bright Cinema’, we have experienced the infinite charm of movies, and the visually impaired and ordinary people have shared basic public cultural services.” said He Chuan, vice chairman of the China Blind Association.
The volunteers of “Bright Cinema” insist on producing 104 barrier-free films every year, so that the visually impaired can enjoy 2 new films every week in 52 weeks of the year, reaching or even exceeding the average viewing frequency of ordinary people .
In September 2022, the “Bright Cinema” public welfare on-demand area will be launched on cable TV across the country, covering more than 200 million households across the country. They will also continue to promote the production of barrier-free versions of movies of the same period, and at the same time produce barrier-free versions of documentaries, TV series and other film and television works.
In the past five years, “Bright Cinema” has provided rich spiritual and cultural products for many visually impaired people from conception to implementation and then to “spreading branches and leaves”. Today, this cause of improving the quality of life of visually impaired friends has more and more like-minded people. Beijing International Film Festival, Hainan Island International Film Festival, China Changchun Film Festival, and Silk Road International Film Festival have all set up fixed public welfare screening units.
The volunteers of “Bright Cinema” kept walking. They hope that in the near future, more and more visually impaired friends will be able to “see” the world in light and shadow. (Shi Fang and Yu Feiyang)
All pictures are provided by Xiao Hong Drawing: Siru Zhao