a corpus-based approach to the language of audio description

saw the projection of the audio described film “De Zaak Alzheimer” to the
Ghent International Film festival, thanks to the efforts of a local association.
In Italy, the first audio described film was broadcasted by RAI in 1991,
the Italian Television Broadcaster. The film “Spartacus” by Stanley Kubrik
was described by Sergio d‟Ottavi, head of CTT, the company which still
provides audio description at television and invented the so-called Teleaudio
system. This system allowed visually impaired people to access the audio
description on medium waves radio frequencies. The system was produced
thanks to the commitment of the Head of the Unit, Lidia Sacerdoti and
Giovanni Boldati, coordinator of Radio Rai, on which the audio description
was transmitted. The idea was to duplicate the original audio track, to mix it
with the recorded audio description, and to send the audio described film on
radio frequencies. The experiment was a success and since then RAI has
provided audio description for some movies weekly. The Italian blind
audience seems to be generally happy with the type of service provided,
although they complain about the scarcity of audio description and the fact
that only movies and some fiction episodes are audio described, while talk
shows and other entertainment programmes, such as sport or music
programmes, have neither audio description nor live commentary. As far as
cinema is concerned, there is not a single audio described film. However, a
number of films have been audio described for festivals, in particular for the
Venice Film Festival, for the Rome Fiction Fest and the International Film
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