Q Media Productions, Inc

07/04/2024

There are many ways to experience art, history, science and nature. Check this terrific approach in Iceland.

Radio Bart starts with Bart Van Peer. Bart has been an employee of the KMSKA since 1992. He used to work as a front-desk receptionist. Although Bart gradually lost his sight, he remained active, for example as a presenter for a local radio station or organiser of poetry evenings at a bookshop. In di...

26/03/2023

So earlier tonight, I posted a couple of pics about a very bu****it day I had a Dr Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. I am angry. Embarrassed. And fu***ng disappointed. In myself. I’ve tried. I mean I’ve fu***ng TRIED, to get people to at least meet with me and members of the blind community in Central Florida to talk about the challenges and solutions to making arts truly accessible for all. And yet.

Today not only was there a fully solvable issue (that wasn’t solved efficiently) but the goddamn police were involved, for a few moments. Thank you, Aaron, for wisely sending them on their way but, goddamn!, this was bu****it from start to finish.

I’m sorry, Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts and Broadway Orlando, but I am angry and embarrassed.

This was bu****it. Don’t fu***ng give me “arts for all” when you won’t even have a meeting with me about how to HELP people who are blind or have low vision.

And I won’t name her name, but the person who could’ve solved the problem with a fu***ng “print” on her computer, was so threatened by 3 60+ year old ladies, one of them blind and holding her freaking CANE, that she somehow got Orlando cops involved? WTF

I had high hopes for a conversation with both Dr Phillips and Broadway Series leadership. I had a good conversation with an executive after the show started, but as I told him, this is not my issue to forgive, I wasn’t slighted or humiliated. It was my friend, my colleague, my sweet fellow arts lover, who needs reconciliation.

I’m embarrassed and pi**ed. And I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to do to reach decision makers. Leaders in the art’s community. They all apparently want to check boxes. Not make changes.

We’ll see how it goes next week. But tonight, I’m just freaking pi**ed. Sorry Larry. I held it together for our conversation, but got home and realized the s**t my friends had to eat to GET IN THE DOOR. And I’m not okay. Not after I begged to come speak with Dr Phillips leadership and have been met with silence. I’m not okay. I’m not assuaged. And most importantly, it’s not my place to be okay or not.

25/03/2023

What a weird freakin’ day. Why, do you ask, am I taking pics of a cop and security gard at Dr Phillips Center for the Performing Arts as I’m trying to enter to see To Kill a Mockingbird with my friends? Because this woman in the second photo paid to see the show, and couldn’t access the freakin’ tickets. It was a true cluster Eff of nuttiness. After a truly botched and ridiculous encounter with a “mamager”, the Dr P employee did his best to salvage the situation and I had the chance to chat with Broadway Orlando leadership, but it was a freakin’ weird experience. One that too many people in our community deal with ever day. I look forward to Broadway Orlando and Dr Phillips Center for the Performing Arts making sure, as I’m assured they will, investing in training and leadership education to be sure this doesn’t happen again. Holy cow. This was some epic bu****it.

23/02/2023

In Knoxville this week working on a new audio tour project for the Knoxville Museum of Art.

28/05/2022

It’s pretty cool the response that the audio described performances at is receiving this year.

For those looking to learn a little more about what audio description is and how it helps people who are blind or have low vision, here’s a link to the Central Florida Audio Description Initiative’s website with a few videos that can help people learn more about it.

Whether you’re an arts leader interested in learning how to make your shows and venue more accessible,

or you’re interested in becoming an audio describer,

or if you or someone you know is blind or has low vision and wants access to live performing arts,

you can learn more on our new and developing website.

Please feel free to share!

Lindsay Taylor Beth Marshall John Edward Palmer Chad Lewis Sheila Aeberli Young Marsha Bukala

Bringing Audio Description to Central Florida’s Live Visual and Performing Arts

13/10/2021

Bringing this oldie-but-goodie back out because it's as relevant as ever for museums, galleries, arts, attractions, etc.:

Visitors to your location who happen to have a disability are visitors, not "special" visitors.

Why, you may ask, am I bringing this up today? Because once again, an arts organization leader just told me how their exhibits are displayed around the state but they "do not specialize in vision loss exhibits."

Folks, your exhibit (art, show, gallery, history, etc.) is accessible to the community or it is not. Your art, history, theatre, experience is intended for all of your community or it is not. You serve the public, all of the public, or you do not.

I spend wayyyyyyy too much time explaining this to people who--in 2021 and who profess a commitment to DEI--really should know better.

https://www.qmediaproductions.com/because-they-want-to/

A few weeks ago, while attending an opening of a new fine arts museum which presents some of the sexiest modernist furniture ever crafted (Modernism Museum Mt. Dora), a successful, highly articulate, well-respected art expert and consultant and I were standing around hobnobbing. (FYI — The photo a...

03/12/2020

THIS was a ton of fun! Loved reconnecting and spending time with Alice Fairfax on The StoryMaven podcast. I'm all in for ANY opportunity to talk about the tools, process, and sheer fun of storytelling. For anyone who wants to learn more about not only how we tell the greatest stories of our nation, but also why they have such an impact on our client's listeners, take a listen. Thanks again, Alice!

https://www.alicefairfax.com/episodes/find-the-emotional-goal-of-every-story-even-the-true-ones

Show Notes Stasha Boyd is the President and Creative Director of Q Media productions, creating audio tours specializing in museums and attractions. Stasha has written, co-written, directed, and/or produced content on every project. Stasha consults on ADA issues and presents accessibility works

26/11/2019

Finishing up ASL taping today for the Holocaust Museum Houston tour we are producing: three different Interpretive tours in English and Spanish, Audio Described, and ASL. Mandy Nicole David

13/11/2019

Our booth is setup at NAI and we’re ready to talk mobile media tours! Please come see us in booth 100 if you’re interested in adding or updating a tour at your facility.

24/10/2019

Ended up serendipitously passing Kingsley Plantation on our way back to Florida. We literally saw the sign for it as we looked around in recognition of the area. Stopped in and saw NPS ranger Emily Palmer who was on the team in 2010 when we produced the tour. It was an NAI media award winner and still a great tour!

22/10/2019

Touring downtown Charleston tonight with SEMC. First stop is the Aiken-Rhett House. .

21/10/2019

Set up to exhibit at The Southeastern Museum Conference in Charleston, SC. Please stop by our booth ( #3) to hear what’s new with us and if we can help you produce a tour at your facility. ,

16/10/2019

We're exhibiting at this year's SEMC conference in Charleston, SC. Please stop by booth #3 to find out what we've been up to and how we may be able to assist you in your mobile media wants and needs.

10/10/2019

Happy to announce that Q Media shared in the first place win in the NAI Media Awards with the Mt. Rushmore Society and Mt. Rushmore NP (client) OnCell Systems (app platform) and TOURMATE (Touch+ players) on the 2018 redux of the Mt. Rushmore audio tour we first produced in 2006. Mt. Rushmore upgraded their audio tour with photos, videos, audio description, multiple languages, alt text for accessibility, a Junior Ranger game, and automatic triggering. Q Media led the team from overseeing the RFP process, coordinated with the Mt. Rushmore folks to add the new visuals, and created new content. Look for us exhibiting at the upcoming 2019 SEMC and NAI conferences and happy to answer any questions about this award-winning tour project.

Mount Rushmore's Self-Guided Tour is the first-place award recipient in NAI's Interpretive Media Competition. The project, submitted by Mount Rushmore Society, TourMate, OnCell Systems, QMedia, and Mount Rushmore NP, can be found here: http://www.mountrushmoresociety.com/124/audio-tour-landing.htm

17/09/2019

Regardless of how you experience a tour the strength of the story of what you tell ALWAYS reigns regardless of how it is experienced! That’s why QM creates “Stories You Take With You” because you both walk with and away with them.

16/09/2019

The Q Media booth at the Florida Association of Museums conference. Always enjoy attending and looking forward to seeing former clients and meeting new ones.

28/08/2019

QM is on site again at The Holocaust Museum Houston to create the audio described versions of the interpretive tours we produced for them this year.

26/07/2019

Good day in the studio yesterday taping the American Sign Language segments for the ASL tour we are producing for the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. Along with ASL we are producing tours in Arabic, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, and Russian. (For our hometown friends the ASL talent is Mandy David, daughter of Earl Brigham of Earl Brigham’s Barber Shop in the Edgewater Hotel.)

19/06/2019

Today I completed the installation for the George Washington Headquarters Museum in Morristown, NJ. QM produced an audio described audio tour of their Rare Books Room for visitors with low to no vision. The RBR displays pamphlets, literature, books, even currency from the Revolutionary War time. The photos of the white home and bedroom are at the adjacent Ford House which was the place Washington and Martha stayed at during the winter/spring of 1779-1780 while the Continental Army was wintered there essentially at the time making it the White House and Pentagon combined and the bedroom, beyond a doubt, is a place where George Washington slept.

13/04/2019

Q Media attending the kickoff this evening of The Florida Film Festival at The Enzian Theater in Maitland, FL. We saw the premier of “Woman in Motion,” a fantastic documentary about the story of how Nichelle Nichols helped NASA in the 1970’s recruit women and minorities for the Space Shuttle program.

03/04/2019

Walt Disney earned many Oscars in his lifetime (he won 26 —the current record) and in a way this one may be the most significant of a milestone in his life: “Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs.” The film was being described as a folly before its release and the resulting success silenced his detractors and put him on the road for greater achievements in his lifetime. As in many times in his life he staked much on its success and certainly an example of “nothing gambled nothing gained” for sure.

01/04/2019

Q Media is in San Francisco working with the Walt Disney Family Museum to produce new audio tours for it. The new tours will be in English, Arabic, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, and Korean and we are also producing Audio Described and ASL tours.

28/01/2019

Q Media is in Houston working with the Holocaust Museum Houston to produce the audio tour of the exhibits in their new building opening Spring 2019. We are producing an Interpretitive Tour, Children’s Tour, Architectural Tour (all produced in English and Spanish,) an Audio Described Tour, and American Sign Language Tour.

27/01/2019

Auschwitz Survivors Observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Appropriate that we’re in Houston today and this week to start the process to produce tours for the Holocaust Museum Houston. We’re producing adult, kids, architecture, (in Eng and Spn) audio described, and sign language tours. The new museum opens in approx 3.5 months and exhibits are being designed by Ralph Applebaum Associates.

http://time.com/5514070/international-holocaust-remembrance-day/?utm_source=facebook.com&fbclid=IwAR2NwK9RL7KKunrwD2-E3Jx3h_jNV1BHDKey8QxvY7o5BZWaEz8feo90zBo

The U.N. recognized Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2005

10/01/2019

We have a new employee at Q Media: Smokey. He wandered up on our property as a stray and we’ve adopted him and made him our office cat. Besides this news this month we are starting projects in Florida and Texas.

28/11/2018

10 Literary Translators on the Art of Translation

An insight into some of the challenges of translating literary works. QM has produced tours in many languages—from Russian to Korean, Japanese to Portuguese—and maintaining the intent and prose of the original work for foreign language visitors is primary for us and we go to great lengths to be sure it is.

This year, for the first time, the National Book Foundation awarded a National Book Award for Translated Literature. As was no doubt their intention, the prominence of the award served not only as …

27/09/2018

The 100 year old story of the Centralia Massacre is centered on what happened to this man. Member of a reviled union he defended his hall from attackers and in the process killed some of Centralia’s favorite sons. A miscarriage of vigilante justice prevailed putting him here.

25/09/2018

QM is back in Centralia, WA for the client script review for the Centralia Massacre bus tour video content we’re producing for the NW Sports Hub Historical Tours.

23/07/2018

When it rains it pours! QM is starting 4 projects this month in NC, WA, MN, and CA with another project close to home in FL. Busy times and looking forward to traveling to new places, meeting new folks, and learning about new things to tell great Stories You Take With You.

18/06/2018

Expert Insights: Accessibility & Translations

QM’s Stasha Boyd was interviewed for the Culture Connect blog to provide some insight into us and our process and also our approach to translation work and creating accessibility content. Check out the interview here:

http://cultureconnectme.com/expert-insights-accessibility-translations/

Q Media Production’s Stasha Boyd candidly shares what makes for a successful audio tour.