ABSTRACT
Television programmes use sound to seduce the listener in to ‘watching’ – many television sets are left on all day and are only watched when something ‘sounds interesting’. Wildlife films are, at best, a contrivance. Many are shot mute. It may be possible to get a miniature camera into a difficult location but it is not always possible to get sound recording equipment into the same small space. The soundtrack may be recorded at the same time but independently of the film, or on a completely different occasion. It may even be totally fabricated from sound effects discs and noises created in the recording studio. Wildlife scripts are mostly recorded in the studio, very often without the voice artist being asked to watch the film. Modern studio equipment such as Timeline can, within reason, stretch or shrink different areas of the recorded script to match the timing of the edited film.
