SILVERBACK PRODUCTION
WORDS Robert Shepherd IMAGES BBC
amounts of this material to English. “With the help of French-speaking researcher Cora Coomasaru, we decided to leave those translations on screen, aligning the subtitles so they exactly reflected the words being spoken at that moment in time,” Chambers adds. “This work was completed before being sent through to the editorial team, allowing them to create sequences that were coherent and accurate. They were able to search for specific words in either French or
English. This was vital, as we were also delivering this in French for co-production partner France Télévisions. The team not only grappled with linguistic challenges, but also confronted numerous hurdles from an audio perspective. Chambers explains how the logistics of natural-history filming mean that much of the subject is shot using long lenses or with the camera running ‘slightly off-speed’. He continues: “Both of these mean that the sync sound is
not usable; on a long lens, all you need is one grasshopper between you and the distant gorilla and the recording is dominated by the insect. The distance means it may be out of sync with what the camera is seeing and, if the camera is off-speed, the sound does not get recorded anyway.” For those sequences, the production relied on a talented team of sound editors to source the correct sound effects and synchronise them with
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