1 - The Rocky Horror Description Show

Join Describer JJ Hunt for this Rocky Horror Picture Show Audio Description primer! In this episode, JJ breaks down the visuals of the RHPS, describing the costumes, the characters, the sets, and the overall look of the world's most famous cult film. Then, he wraps things up with a no-fail, step-by-step guide to the Time Warp!

The material in this episode was originally created for the Disability Collective's 2024 production of the RHPS, as part of the Toronto Fringe's Next Stage Theatre Festival, presented at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. To hear the complete, prerecorded preshow notes as delivered to audio description users, including descriptions of the Disability Collective's all-Deaf shadow cast, and the visuals of Performance ASL, check out episode 2!

For more information about The Disability Collective, or to learn about our upcoming events, please visit TheDisabilityCollective.com

Chapters

• 2:11 Movie visuals
• 4:57 Characters
• 11:44 Sets and locations
• 15:33 Time Warp step-by-step
• 18:58 Outro

Transcript

JJ Hunt: Welcome to The Rocky Horror Description Show, an Audio Description primer for The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I'm your host, JJ Hunt. On Sunday, October 27th 2024, at Toronto's Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, The Disability Collective is presenting Rocky with an all-Deaf shadow cast as part of the Toronto Fringe's Next Stage Festival. My wonderful friends at The Disability Collective reached out and asked me if I could provide Audio Description.

And of course, I said yes faster than Frank can pull on fishnets. Because the show will feature the movie, a live shadow cast, and full audience participation both before and during the performance, we anticipated that there wouldn't be any opportunity to provide Audio Description pre-show notes in the theatre. Instead, we opted to pre-record the notes and send them to description users in advance of the show. Then we got to thinking, some of these notes might be of interest not just to folks attending our show, but to the community as a whole.

There just isn't a lot of Rocky-related description out there. So, as a Halloween treat, we're releasing all of our pre-show notes here on this podcast. This episode will focus on the movie alone and will include podcasty things like bumper music and theme songs and whatnot. The second episode will be the pre-show notes as delivered to theatre goers. That episode includes all of the same description of the movie visuals, but it also includes description of the shadow cast performing ASL and information about the theatre experience and the disability collective's offerings on the night of the show. Both episodes will be capped off with a descriptive step-by-step breakdown of the time warp for those whose pelvic thrusts really drive them insane.

Let's start describing, shall we? The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a campy, sexy musical tribute to early B-movie sci-fi and horror films. It's the story of a young newly engaged couple, Brad and Janet, whose car breaks down on a rainy night. They go to a nearby castle to find a phone so they can call for help, but there, they discover a mad scientist, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, hosting a strange convention of sorts. It turns out that Frank-N-Furter is a self-described sweet transvestite, and he's been working to create a muscle man to act as his personal plaything.

And wouldn't you know it? This is the very night that muscle man is destined to be born and revealed to the castle's gathered guests. One of the key things to remember about this film is that it's a low-budget 1970s movie, paying homage to earlier B-movies, so it looks pretty cheap by today's film standards. And this is an intentional design choice, albeit a convenient one for a low-budget film. Some of the sets look more like backdrops from SCTV or Saturday Night Live. There are lots of flashing lights and funny sounds in lieu of complicated visual effects.

Sometimes the camera work goes handheld, which means the image is a bit shaky. Sometimes we quickly zoom in on an actor. There are even a few moments when actors break the fourth wall and look directly at us.

These are all nods to early sci-fi and horror films. Between the scenes there are transition wipes. With wipes, instead of abruptly cutting one scene and starting another, a filmmaker takes the audience from one scene to another with flair. The simplest wipes are from side to side, so the next scene literally slides onto the screen until it entirely eclipses the previous scene. But sometimes The Rocky Horror Picture Show editors use a shaped wipe, so we'll zoom in on the next scene inside of a heart shape or a question mark shape. Or the last image in the scene will rise like a curtain, revealing a new scene behind it. Unsurprisingly, this is called a curtain wipe.

Again, all of these wipes are very campy nods to early sci-fi. Visually, what really makes The Rocky Horror Picture Show are the costumes. They are outstanding. It's like the coolest 1970s rock and roll high school kids rated all the London and New York thrift shops for awesome vintage clothes. And they found a box of corsets and boas from a trashy Moulin Rouge drag troupe.

They then brought all that clothing back to their party flat and got dressed up, doing their makeup while watching glam rock videos. A lot of the characters from The Rocky Horror Picture Show are kind of iconic, but we're going to break them down one at a time.

Barry Bostwick plays Brad Majors. He's Janet's fiance.

Brad: Hi, my name's Brad Majors.

JJ: He's a tall, thin man with light skin tone and dark side parted hair. He's got big square glasses that were dorky in the 70s, but are now kind of back in style. He arrives at the castle wearing a tan windbreaker and blue gray slacks, but then gets stripped down to high-waisted, tighty whitey underwear.

Susan Sarandon plays Janet Weiss. She's Brad's fiancé.

Janet: I can't believe it. An hour ago, she was plain old Betty Monroe.

JJ: Young Susan Sarandon was a very pretty, doe-eyed woman with light skin tone, acute upturned nose, and curly shoulder-length brown hair held back with barrettes. She arrives at the castle in a pink-belted dress with a high button-up collar and flared knee-length skirt and a white cardigan over top. She also gets stripped down, revealing her white bra and slip.

Richard O'Brien plays Riff Raff, butler and handyman. He's the brother of Magenta.

Riff Raff: Hello.

JJ: He's a skinny, sallow man with pale skin tone, sunken cheeks, dark circles around his eyes, and a classic horror film hunched back. He's balding with long, scraggly, blonde hair around the sides and back of his head, and spends most of the movie wearing a tattered, filthy tuxedo.

Patricia Quinn plays Magenta, a domestic. Magenta is Riff Raff's sister.

Magenta: You're lucky. He's lucky. I'm lucky. We're all lucky.

JJ: She's a woman with very light, pale skin tone, blood-red lips, dark circles under her eyes, and extremely long eyelashes. She's got long, frizzy red hair, and she spends most of her time in a ratty French maid's uniform, black knee-length dress with white apron, fishnet stockings, and a small lacy white cap.

Nell Campbell, credited as Little Nell, plays Columbia, a groupie.

Columbia: You're very lucky to be invited up to Frank's laboratory.

Columbia is a quirky character. She's dressed like a sparkly circus ringmaster. She's a petite woman with pale, light skin tone. Short hair dyed cherry red, painted on arched eyebrows, and bright red lips. She wears a short gold sequined tuxedo jacket over a sequined strapless top, sparkly, tight, striped short shorts, and a red sequined bow tie, plus a gold sequined top hat. And of course, she's wearing fishnet stockings.

Jonathan Adams plays Dr. Everett V. Scott, a scientist.

Dr. Scott: Frank, we meet at last.

JJ: He's a middle-aged white man with wire-rimmed glasses and a mustache. He's got medium light skin tone. He uses a wheelchair and generally wears a red tartan blanket over his lap.

Peter Hinwood plays Rocky Horror, a creation.

Rocky: The sword of Damocles is hanging over my head.

JJ: He's a hunky, blue-eyed, white muscle man with a bronze tan and a platinum blonde bowl cut. He's ripped, virtually no body fat, so his every muscle is very well-defined. He spends most of the movie in gold boots and low-riding gold underwear.

Meatloaf plays Eddie, an ex-delivery boy.

Eddie: Whatever happened to Saturday night?

JJ: Eddie is a thick, beefy man with light skin tone, greasy dark hair, and mutton chop sideburns. He wears a leather vest with leopard fur lapels and ratty blue jeans. He rides a motorcycle, carries a saxophone, and has a long, raw scar across his forehead from when half of his brain was removed to make Rocky.

Charles Gray plays the criminologist, an expert.

Criminologist: I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey.

JJ: This is the narrator character. His scenes are all in a formal library or private office setting. He's an older, silver-haired white man with light skin tone who furrows his brow and wears a dark gray suit and a red ascot.

Then there are the Transylvanians. These are the conventioneers at the castle. Quirky folks in tuxedos with bright accent colours. They wear sunglasses and party hats. The Transylvanians all have different body types, some variety in skin tones. They act as the chorus and background dancers throughout the movie.

And most importantly, last but never least, Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, an eccentric transvestite scientist.

Frank: I'm just a sweet transvestite.

Now, I know the term "transvestite" is very much out of date, but it's how the character self identifies and it's in the title of the biggest song in the movie, so I'm going to be using that term tonight when referencing this character specifically.

Frank N-Furtter is a lean man with light skin tone, big dark curly hair, long sideburns and a mouthful of large teeth. He has a fair bit of body hair, leg hair in particular. He's got a tattoo high on his right arm near the shoulder. It's a heart with a sword through it with the title boss above it in imperfect cursive writing. His makeup kind of iconic, pale powder, glossy red lips with a thin black outline and dark purple eyeshadow that goes all the way up to his curvy expressive eyebrows. His primary costume is a sparkly black corset vest that's laced up the front. And he's got matching fingerless gloves that go up to the elbows, a matching garter belt and black panties. He wears thigh high fishnet stockings, a choker of oversized white pearls, and wears black and white sequined high heeled shoes. Frank carries himself with a rough and tumble sassy confidence. He sways his hips and walks with an aggressive stride. He's a cigarette-smoking, hard-gazing man who wears pearls, black lace corsets and ripped fishnets over his muscular hairy legs.

Okay, let's talk about some of the locations that are found in the film. So first of all, the castle. We don't get many glimpses of the exterior of the castle. It's always dark outside. But through the rain, it appears to be several stories tall. It's got spires, towers, arched, leaded windows.

And there's a geodesic dome peeking out from behind the main stone and brick building. Throughout the interior, the castle houses reproductions of famous artworks, the Mona Lisa, American Gothic and statues of Michelangelo's David. The castle foyer is covered in dust and cobwebs and packed with eccentric decor, taxidermied animals, a coffin grandfather clock, porcelain statues, bronze sculptures, and an ornate staircase railing.

The castle lab is sort of a pink marble and tile operating theater with curved walls. There's a ramp that runs around half of the space. It leads up to a catwalk where the Transylvanians gather. The catwalk has curving ramps at both ends. So you can run or say ride a motorcycle up one end through this gathering of Transylvanians along the catwalk and then back down the other side into the main space. There are marble statues of male nudes in the lab, specifically nudes that look like Michelangelo's David, but with loudspeakers tucked under their arms. There's also a small curtain stage in the lab, which I admit is unusual for an operating theatre.

There's also a giant steel freezer door. The freezer door and much of the lab equipment is painted a glossy fire engine red that really pops against the pale pink marble and tile.

About halfway through the film, Brad and Janet are put in separate bedrooms. These bedrooms are basically identical. Each one has a canopy bed surrounded by gauzy curtains. When lit from behind, silhouettes of the people inside the bed are projected against the curtains. This provides the audience with a rather titillating shadow play.

Near the end of the movie, we go to the Castle's Theatre, the Floor Show Theatre. This is a large theatre with a proscenium stage. It's got a rectangular stone arch marking the edges of the stage and a draped backdrop that is lower down behind the cast. The draping catches coloured lights that shine against it, so that backdrop can go from being purple to blue to red, depending on the lighting. When that backdrop is then raised up, it reveals a full set on the stage, featuring a practical recreation of the RKO Radio Picture logo.

Now, RKO was a major movie studio in the Golden Age of Film. The image and the beeping of the transmission tower in the logo are very familiar to fans of old black and white movies. The logo and the set features a giant lattice radio tower. It looks kind of like a simplified Eiffel Tower, and it stands on the curved surface of a relatively tiny planet, and it's broadcasting bolts of lightning.

Also on the stage is a built-in pool. It's a rectangular pool with steps leading in and out of the water on all four sides, and on the bottom of the pool is a reproduction of the painting The Creation of Adam. This is the painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, in which Adam and God reach toward each other with extended hands. That, but painted on the tiles at the bottom of a burlesque stage pool, right?

One last thing before we wrap up. The Time Warp is one of the all-time great musical numbers, and it's a fan favourite because audiences are encouraged to dance. During the song, the dance steps are explained in the lyrics, with the Transylvanians demonstrating for us. But the steps can be a little bit hard to hear in the chaos of the moment, so we thought we'd leave you with a quick explainer, breaking down the Time Warp step by step. So it starts with a jump to the left.

Criminologist: It's just a jump to the left!

JJ: That's literally one hop to the left with both feet. If you're feeling rather pro, you can start with your arms above your head and waggle your hands as you bring them down, kind of like you're miming that rain is falling on you, and you can shimmy your hips a bit too. Then, it's a step to the right.

Transylvanians: And then a step to the right.

JJ: Either move your right leg one big step to the right so that your legs are now shoulder-width apart, or if you're up for it, move your right leg back and forth, in and out, just a few times, along with the wavering singers. Then put your hands on your hips.

Criminologist: Put your hands on your hips.

Big broad gesture here. Arms up overhead, spread them open to your sides, be a bit dramatic as you bring your hands back down and slap them on your hips. Next, bring your knees in tight.

Transylvanians: You bring your knees in tight.

JJ: So this is kind of a semi-crouch with your knees touching. Maybe you want to point your toes in a bit if that's more comfortable. And then a pelvic thrust that really drives you insane.

Transylvanians: But it's the pelvic thrust that really drives you insane.

JJ: Now, we all know how to do that. I'm sure you thrust at your friends, thrust at a stranger, thrust in a line, or thrust in a circle. Whatever floats your boat, just thrust your hips back and forth. On "that really drives you insane", you rotate your hips in a big wide circle. Then the chorus wraps up with, "let's do the Time Warp again".

Transylvanians: Let's do the Time Warp again!

JJ: So you've got a couple of options here. First, jump and spin from front to back. So jump and spin on let's do so you're facing one direction, then jump and spin on the time warp so you're facing the other direction. And then on again, you bend your arms in to touch your shoulders over and over again. Or if you'd like, just keep your left hand on your hip and repeatedly point up with your right arm and kick your left leg in unison. So let's do in one direction, the time warp in the other direction, and then again arms into the shoulders, into shoulders, into shoulders, or left hand on the hip repeatedly pointing up with your right arm, kicking your left leg in unison.

But you know what? If any of those moves don't work for you, don't let it hold you back. You do you. Let your freak flag fly. Go, go have fun you crazy kids.

Transylvanians: Let's do the Time Warp again!

JJ: That is it for our Rocky Horror Picture Show Description Primer. If you're interested in hearing these notes as delivered to Description users attending The Disability Collective's presentation of the show, or learning about the visuals of the all-Deaf shadow cast performing in ASL, please check out Episode 2. A gargantuan thanks to The Disability Collective: Emily, Ali, and Nathan for being so open to sharing this material. And to Gaitrie Persaud-Killings, Director of the Collective's all-Deaf shadow cast for being so dang cool. I'm your Describer and host, JJ Hunt. Thanks for listening.