Stephen Letnes: Composer/Disability Advocate

04/14/2023

Got picked up at LAX and had a fantastic Argentinian dinner with friend Roy Samuelson (narrator for HBO’s “The Last of Us”).

[Picture ID: Steve and Roy are standing in front of a Lexus in a parking lot with palm trees in the background. Steve has longer hair down to his shoulders wearing aviator sunglasses, and Roy has a big smile wearing a trendy  gray sweatshirt. The sky is overcast . ]

01/21/2022

Tomorrow is going to be awesome. Come hear about what we’re working on at – and how 2022 is going to be THE YEAR for Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities! https://youtu.be/PRb9ArYcBMI
Image description: RAMPD
Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities
Launch Party
FRIDAY
January 21, 2022
Live on YouTube
With Special Guest Performances
ACCESSIBLE
FESTIVALS
Live-Streamed with Captions
More Information at RAMPD.org

11/22/2021

Experience quality audio description.

December 7th
5:30 Pacific
8:30 Eastern
Screening of our film, “Say His Name: Five Days for George Floyd”, with open Audio Description, followed by a panel discussion with the director, Cy Dodson, and the audio description team.
RSVP: [email protected]

“Say His Name” premiered at the 2021 Big Sky Documentary Festival, and was Academy qualified at DocEdge Festival in New Zealand for Best International Short Documentary. It opened the 2021 Dances with Films festival. It’s now qualified for documentary short for the upcoming 2022 Oscars. Beyond that, this doc had audio description added by the director Cy Dodson of Triumph Pictures The AD team made of writer, narrator, quality control, and mix, were blind and low vision talents.

11/17/2021

Film/TV/streaming media is not complete until it is completely accessible. Thank you, Manori Ravindran, for the interview and article.

(alt: a "cc" logo is placed near the AD logo of
a "now playing" marquee)

When a fire alarm was triggered on Sept. 25 at London’s Red Bee Media — the company that’s the distribution hub for many U.K. broadcasters — the BBC and Channel 4 went off air for a few hours on a …

11/14/2021

To my fellow disabled composers and musicians, the industry is beginning to listen.

Thank you for the write-up, Tim!

Winners of the 93rd Academy Awards were unveiled April 25, a day that included another notable announcement: The creation of 1in4, an advocacy group to help disabled workers starting out in enterta…

07/27/2021

Recently, Roy Samuelson invited the team who created the audio description for our “Say His Name”  documentary on to his podcast to discuss the process and share their experience. I joined as well. 

Director Cy Dodson sees the importance in having our film accessible for all.

Quality audio description can only be done properly by involving those who use it (and are professionals in their own right).

Go beyond - this bonus episode from the weekly Audio Description Network Alliance series interviews your favorite decision makers, creators, writers, and influencers for movies and episodic tv.  

06/20/2021

Demo Reel

Seven short clips from previously released projects; two commercials, two narrative films, and three documentaries.

05/25/2021

Go behind-the-scenes with local filmmaker Cy Dodson, Director of the powerful and immersive documentary 'Say His Name: Five Days for George Floyd.'

Watch Tuesday, May 25 at 9 pm

📺 TPT 2
💻 tpt.org
📲 PBS Video app

The murder of George Floyd by former officer Derek Chauvin on May 25th, 2020, sparked a global uprising. The epicenter was in director Cy Dodson’s Minneapolis neighborhood, where he captured an immersive observation of unrest in the five days between the murder of Mr. Floyd and the announcement of...