Accessible version of Everything Everywhere All At Once

August 3, 2022 8:57 AM

I really want to watch Everything Everywhere All At Once but I can’t watch things with flashing or strobing effects. Is there an edit or a way to watch the film that cuts or modifies the flashing/flickering/strobing?

If the effect is a small part of the film, I can just cover my eyes when it starts and the person I’m with can tell me when its over, but I’ve heard it happens very frequently in this film.

I’m open to suggestions like “obtain a non drmed version and run it thru program x with filter y.”

I’m interested in solutions for this film in particular, but also general solutions since this is a problem with more and more media.

posted by congen to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

I use DaVinci Resolve to edit violence and swearing out of stuff that arguably should be more kid-friendly than it is, e.g. Mandalorian. Free version is available but I upgraded to paid.

I would happily make this edit for you but distribution is... frowned upon, legally speaking. It's really a shame. Non-flashing-lights version is something that should be available to people. Your idea is good-- automatic filter that can do this as a tool for photo-sensitivity. Maybe one does actually exist.
posted by cape at 9:36 AM on August 3, 2022 [3 favorites]

I think the deal with this movie is less that it's 'gratuitous' and more that this movie is incredibly fast-paced by it's visual narrative nature and the transitions/environments change dramatically and often, sometimes every few seconds, which makes it very flashy/flickery. It's a more a result of the storytelling/editing than an unnecessary effect. I'm not sure there's a way to avoid it without losing the overall intent of the movie.

Note that I'm coming at this from a commercial film producer prospective and don't have any sensory issues that I can speak to. I'm very interested to know if there are any post tricks/programs to run things like this through to make video more accessible.
posted by greta simone at 10:07 AM on August 3, 2022 [9 favorites]

One the one hand, I'm absolutely sure that the film could be edited to remove the flashing and flickering without ruining the presentation of the story. On the other hand, I don't know of an automatic process that would be very reliable and so someone would likely need to spend hours creating the edit and that editor would need a pretty specific sense of what your tolerances are. One editing trick that may work well for you would be to reduce the frames per second of the video, maybe down to 10 FPS or lower -- this would make he movie play like a series of still photos and reduce any sense of flashing or flickering.

Have you considered watching the movie with the brightness on your television turned way down, or listening to just the audio? You would miss out on some praiseworthy visuals but I think you'd still be able to follow the story just fine, especially if you watch with a friend who can explain things as needed.

A friend with epilepsy just mentioned to me to that they often find flashing videos easier to watch when the video doesn't fill up their field of view, like when a YouTube video is at its normal size rather than put into fullscrwen mode. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to watch a short clip ot a busy scene in a smaller video window and see you impacted by it?

I have some time I could spend trying to make an edit for you over the next few days, so let me if you'd like that sort of help!
posted by chudmonkey at 11:06 AM on August 3, 2022 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Not what you are asking for, but https://www.audiovault.net/ has an audio described version available to download if you want to just listen to it / listen to the parts you can't watch.
posted by hankscorpio83 at 11:12 AM on August 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

Building on what chudmonkey said, watching it with bright illumination in the room, so the screen is very washed out, would reduce the contrast of any flashes significantly.
posted by nickggully at 12:11 PM on August 3, 2022

There are sequences where the camera focuses on one person's face and then the background keeps changing rapidly to show the same person in many different environments. This happens fast, so the effect is strobe-like. It happens a lot!

It's in the trailer at timecode 0:53 and 1:46 and 2:28, if that helps you calibrate with a test view. The trailer also has a scene where the ceiling lights flicker a lot, starting at 1:12.

I think there's an above-average amount of flickering in this film so I agree that this is a big task, I wonder if it would help to find others who want the same thing to pool energy in making it happen.

Someone should make software that does this automatically!
posted by nouvelle-personne at 12:23 PM on August 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

This may be more effort than is practical for you, but if you have access to a projector, you could take the 'dim screen in a brightly lit room' suggestion even further and have a great deal of control over the size and brightness of the image.
posted by Glier's Goetta at 1:18 AM on August 4, 2022