This paper presents the beginning of a corpus-based investigation into the language used for audio description (AD). The automated analysis of audio description scripts for 91 films was successful in characterizing some idiosyncratic features of what appear to be a special language. This investigation also began to create and empirically-grounded overview and classification of the main kinds of information provided by audio description. The existence of a special language is explained, in part, by the fact that audio description is produced by trained professionals following established guidelines, and its idiosyncrasies are explained by considering its communicative function - in particular that it is being used to tell a story. Encouraged by the relatively high degree of regularity observed in the corpus, the article goes on the speculate about the application of language technologies for 'assisted audio description' and for repurposing audio description as a basis for indexing digital video archives.