My First Job On A Student Film

When I was studying film in college I took a film production course. For the final project, we had to make a film together as a class. The first job assigned to me was to put on a set of headphones and listen to the dialogue to make sure they were saying their lines correctly or following the script. I also had to make sure it sounded right, because what I hear on the headphones would most likely be what it will sound like on film. I forgot the name or title for this job.

I looked at the teacher and thought, "Really? You think I would be the best person for this job? Really?"

The trooper I am, I went ahead and gave it a try. I held up the right portion of the headphone to my right ear, being that my left ear is useless in hearing dialogue or anything really. Their voices going directly in my ear while background noises were blocked out, helped tremendously. I experimented with looking at the actors and reading their lips and looking solely at the script, reading along. Reading along helped the most. I did not hear all of the nuances of their speech sounds, and I could only assume that they were saying their lines correctly by matching their speech sounds with the written words on the script. It was pretty obvious when they forgot their lines or if they did not sound right. I had to stop them at one point because I thought one of the actors sounded too quiet.

I did pretty well. It was not so bad.

The point is, don't opt out of certain opportunities because of your deafness. You might surprise yourself. 

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*Check out this interesting blog about deaf women in film:  http://dwif.blogspot.com/

Link to this post:  http://ehwhathuh.blogspot.com/2010/05/my-first-job-on-student-film.html