Facial Expressions and Physical Appearance of Characters in Audio-Described Movies in Iran[Latin Thesis]

Shirin Sheikholeslami

Audio description was defined as a branch of audiovisual translation. Audio description was considered the main basis of film preparation for the blind and visually impaired audience. The present study was conducted to illuminate what characters’ facial expressions of emotion and characters’ physical appearance features were considered to be described in Persian audio-described movies based on the two selected models. It was also aimed to study the opinions of the blind Iranian audience on described features. To this end, five Iranian audio-described movies were selected and analyzed based on two models. The analysis of facial expressions of emotion was carried out based on Ekman and Friesen’s (2003) model. The analysis of the physical appearance features was according to the model of Wahl and Ivy (2014). After analyzing the data, the results were categorized and presented visually by MAXQDA analytics pro-2020 software. In the second phase, the researcher analyzed the responses after playing audio-described movies. The answers to the questionnaires were analyzed by SPSS software. The findings indicated that the features of emotions needed a more complete and clear description, and some features of physical appearance needed to be described by the narrator. The summary of the findings indicated that the most expressed emotions were happiness and sadness with a frequency percentage of 24% for each of them, and the least expressed emotion was disgust with a frequency percentage of 4%. The most expressed feature of the character’s physical appearance was clothing with a frequency percentage of 22%, and the least expressed feature was modifying the body with a frequency percentage of 1%. The features of body type, weight, height, skin color, facial hair, and artifacts were not described at all by the narrator. Regarding the second phase of the study, after analyzing the questionnaires, it became apparent that the blind and the visually impaired audience confirmed the obtained results in the first phase.