Voice-Over Artist Helps the Blind Experience Movies
By Timothy Parker Hollywood
PUBLISHED 10:42 AM ET Jul. 30, 2019 UPDATED 10:54 AM ET Jul. 30, 2019
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – Roy Samuelson is a voice-over artist who provides audio description for the blind and visually impaired during TV shows and movies. His voice describes what people with vision can see.
“If someone’s blind or low vision, they go into a movie theatre and ask for a special audio description headset,” Samuelson said.
Samuelson describes the wireless headset as a device they put on their ears, but it doesn’t make the audio louder. The headset provides a special audio track with a narrator explaining what is happening visually in the movie.
Samuelson has provided this service for many blockbuster movies including Get Out, Jurassic World, and the new Spiderman franchise.
“There’s a real personal satisfaction of getting the timing right because of you’ve got to get the script in within three seconds, and there’s audio cues and video cues that has to fit usually, between the dialogue,” Samuelson said.
It is all worth it for a man who has been in the business for decades, in a job where he is completely in the shadows.
“If the spotlight’s on me and someone says ‘You did a great job narrating,’ I didn’t do my job right,” Samuelson said.
Ultimately, Samuelson says his job has made him more compassionate to those with disabilities.
“And how I can be a better advocate to help, specifically with awareness of what this particular work is and also in other ways too,” Samuelson said.
Ultimately, he uses his words to help movies come to life for everyone.
Audio description is also available for many TV shows. You can access it by using your remote control much like a SAP button.