BRISTOL, U.K—Wounded Buffalo Sound Studios is an audio postproduction facility that has worked on countless award-winning TV productions, including “Planet Earth III,” “Earthsounds,” “Our Great National Parks” and “David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet”.
From their facility in Bristol, in the west of England, Wounded Buffalo Sound Studios has carved out a unique niche in the world of audio postproduction. It is known for its exceptional work in natural history documentaries.
Long-Shot Audio
Working on natural history documentaries presents many unique challenges. Since most subjects are shot on very long lenses, you can film something from 400 yards away but you can’t easily capture the sound from that distance.
This often means that when we receive footage, the accompanying audio is sometimes minimal or of poor quality. In the field, audio is rarely a priority, or even available, with shoots often capturing “first-ever” seen footage in extreme environments.
But we do get some atmospheric sound if we’re lucky. Sometimes the production team will leave a remote camera with a built-in mic somewhere, and even though the sound can be pretty terrible, it’s really useful; it lets us know what we’re supposed to be aiming for.
Natural history content requires incredible attention to detail. We regularly consult with scientists and episode producers familiar with the footage or landscapes they depict to ensure the authenticity of the sound. Each layer is pretty fastidiously researched. The wrong bird at the wrong time of day can ruin the authenticity.
The pressure to maintain accuracy is immense. We often work with footage that needs the sound to be reconstructed entirely. This means creating a soundscape that is believable yet captivating.
Swimming In Sound
One of the more surprising aspects of natural history sound work is dealing with underwater audio. Given the important role of clear underwater audio in ocean scenes, we advise recording teams on how to capture it for best effect—for example, stopping the boat’s engine so that the noise doesn’t interfere with natural sounds.
Underwater stuff is actually quite tricky. Swimming generally doesn’t make much noise, but when you see it, it kind of needs to make a sound to look right. So, if you’re underwater and a dolphin swims past the camera and above you, you can follow it with sound.
To address those difficult issues at Wounded Buffalo, our facilities now include three dubbing theaters featuring Dolby Atmos technology and six edit suites:
- Dubbing Theatre A (Dolby Atmos): Avid Pro Tools HDX system with S6 M40 console, and wall-to-wall speakers.
- Dubbing Theatre B: Avid S6 control surface and Pro Tools.
- Dubbing Theatre C: Two Avid S1 modules and Avid Dock.
- Sound Editing Suites: Pro Tools with various plugins including iZotope RX, a powerful noise-reduction software package.
A turning point for us came with the integration of Avid’s S6 control surface, marking a significant upgrade. When the S6 came along, we jumped ship and went to Avid. It’s very versatile.
The integration has been particularly crucial for our work on complex projects. Everything is in one place. The integration is seamless, and it brings forward everything we need for a session.
More information is available at avid.com.
