Episode 159 – Trocadero part 1
In this fictionalized account of the start of the famous Hollywood nightclub, a brother and sister try to navigate changing tastes in music to carry out the ambitions of their beloved adoptive father. 1944. Part 1 of 2.
Click here to subscribe
Click here to download directly
Different file sizes/formats from Internet Archive
Associated links
Original movie from Internet Archive
Movie info from IMDB
The real Trocadero @Wikipedia
The Parisian Trocadero @Wikipedia
Other places called “Trocadero”
February 8th, 2011 at 5:53 pm
Very nice job describing during the musical numbers. Too often, describers go silent during a song or dance, and a lot of detail is thereby lost. I don’t know whether it was Valerie’s new software, but her description during the musical numbers allowed us to hear both her narration and the ongoing diagetic sound – sometimes, audio description is an either-or proposition – either you hear the diagetic sound or you hear the narrator as the diagetic sound is suppressed.
February 21st, 2011 at 4:04 pm
Thank you, but just because someone doesn’t describe a musical sequence, that doesn’t always make it wrong. Musical sequences with singing are particularly challenging, because the song is supposed to be in the foreground, as if it were dialogue. Also, when someone is singing, more often than not, they’re not doing anything else of consequence at the same time, in which case, there is simply nothing to say that is more important than the song. The most a describer can do is set the scene of where someone is and if they’re singing to anyone in particular. When somebody is doing something at the same time as people are singing (partially why dance sequences are the hardest thing to describe, next to sign language – don’t get me started…), if it’s more important than the song, it has to be described, and we can only wedge it in as best we can between lines or during some vocalizing. As always, if description is needed (I know, a big difference of opinion on that exists), I’ll put it in. But if it’s not, I won’t.
Also thanks for teaching me the term “diegetic”: “Sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film.” :-)