Transcript: February's accessible DVD releases

Roberta:    According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 97% of Australian children watched a DVD outside of school hours over a reported two week period. This rated higher than bike riding, computer games, arts and crafts and of all things, homework. So the kids may not be doing their homework but to ensure they’re still learning, turning on captions and audio description on DVDs can help improve their literacy and comprehension.

Ally Woodford Media Access Australia’s DVD and Cinema Project Manager is with us today to tell us what new release titles have these features. Welcome Ally.

Ally:    Thanks Roberta. Hi everyone.

Roberta:    Okay, so what G and PG rated titles are there for kids with captions and audio description?                                      

Ally:    Firstly we’ve got The Smurf, those cute little blue creatures from the 80s that have made a comeback last year on the big screen and the DVD version’s got both captions and audio description as do the following PG rates movies. There’s Johnny English Reborn and that’s got Rowan Atkinson in it and it’s a kind of James Bond parity franchise and I guess while we’re on the subject of spies we’ve got Spy Kids 4 and two more, there’s Zookeeper and Monte Carlo.

Roberta:    So these ones can be enjoyed by all the family but what about some dramas and action titles that an older audience might enjoy?

Ally:    We’ve got two dramas this time round. There’s a 2011 adaptation of Jane Eyre and that might be good for the high school kids who are possibly studying it this year. There’s another drama, it’s the Australian hit from last year, Red Dog, which unexpectedly broke many box office records. It’s also PG rated so the younger ones can watch it too.

With action movies we’ve got four. There’s the, it’s the live action, not the animated version of Green Lantern. I’ve got another super hero movie called Captain America and the last two are Priest and Hanna.

Roberta:    I saw Red Dog, did you see it?

Ally:    I did.

Roberta:    Oh it was fabulous.

Ally:    It was very good.

Roberta:    I’m going to see it again.

Ally:    Yeah, great movie.

Roberta:    Yeah, I think I mentioned this before that it’s perfect for audio descriptions isn’t it?

Ally:    Yeah, it is, the setting in the Pilbara and everything.

Roberta:    Exactly.

Ally:    It’s lovely, yeah.

Roberta:    So what have we got in comedy in that department?

Ally:    Lots of comedies this time round starting with, yeah let’s look at the big name movies, we’ve got Bad Teacher, Horrible Bosses, the Hangover 2 and the Change‑Up and we’ve got some Indie movies in here, one is called Submarine, Win, Win, Cedar Wrappers and there’s an R18+ rated black comedy called Super got a bit of a super hero theme and I also put the romantic comedy in this section of, it’s called Friends with Benefit which stars Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake.

Roberta:    Oh, sounds good and what rounds out the list this month?

Ally:    Just a few more to finish, a couple of science fiction titles in Rise of the Planet of the Ape and the intriguingly named Cowboys and Aliens. There’s a fantasy/action movie in the 2011 version of Conan the Barbarian, straight out romance starring the very popular Anne Hathaway called One Day and lastly there’s a horror movie called Final Destination 5.

Roberta:    That Cowboys and Aliens, I’d like to see what they do with that.

Ally:    I saw it on a plane and I lasted about 5 minutes ...

Roberta:    Oh did you?

Ally:    ... with the jet lag and everything it was all a bit too spaced out for me but [laughing] it does have Daniel Craig in it so that’s a ...

Roberta:    Oh that might be something I guess. Well all those titles are both captioned and audio described are they?

Ally:    Yeah, that’s correct and there are so many more titles out there and you can easily identify with them by their familiar AD and CC logos which are on the covers and look, even if you don’t require access features, it’s always a good idea with kids especially, to switch the captions on to help with literacy so the kids are reading the words as they hear the audio and with the ...

Roberta:    Exactly.

Ally:    ... yeah, and with the audio description that can create a more vivid story telling experience which is great for oral learners.

Roberta:    Absolutely.

Ally:    So yeah, so I guess kids, they’re learning when they don’t really know they’re learning.

Roberta:    Best way to do it.

Ally:    Yeah.

Roberta:    Well you can visit the Media Access Australia’s website which is mediaaccess.org.au for more information on accessible DVDs including the searchable database for audio described titles. That’s available there and on the site you can also discover how to turn on the access features on DVDs and TV. Well thank you for all of that today Ally and I’m sure we’ll be talking about more cinema audio described and captioned very soon.

Ally:    Thanks Roberta.

Roberta:    I’ve been speaking with Ally Woodford, Media Access Australia’s DVD and Cinema Project Manager from Media Access Australia and of course Media Access Australia are supporters of this program.