Why do you think Netflix was excited about this project?
Bill Markham: Netflix had done one natural history series and was open to ideas for the next. We had realised that the new generation of low and ultra-low light cameras gave us the opportunity to create a whole new natural history aesthetic – shooting colour at night by moonlight. We could capture the entire landscape, with animals behaving totally naturally, things no human had seen. And the range of dynamics that Dolby Vision
and Dolby Atmos could give, with all the extra headroom of HDR and precision soundscaping for the audio, meant we could have huge yet natural contrasts – from night ambience to the clatter of cities, or full sunsets to dark, detailed forest floors to colourful night long shots of African plains.
Chris Domaille: We got the team in as early as we could, showed them what Dolby Atmos would bring to the series, and encouraged editorially those moments of volume contrast and surround contrast. We discussed timing as well, so after a surround moment you don’t just cut to the next scene, you can hear things disappearing. Having those editorial inputs early on pushed the sound further, made it more heady.
What were the immediate challenges and excitements of natural history at night?
BM: We realised straight away that sound was going to be up there with vision in importance. When we started to talk about making Night on Earth and how we’d be able to see full colour at night, people would pause for a second then say, ‘Oh, the sound!’, because at night our sense of hearing is heightened. So we get not only to see through the darkness but to enter this atmospheric world of sound, which is something special. Of course, some of the animals use sound much more because once vision’s gone, they rely on their other senses, so it’s essential for the storytelling. We were going to reveal a whole new world,
one that often even scientists hadn’t seen, and the capabilities of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos to make the absolute maximum use of what we recorded would, we thought, be essential. And they were. As for filming, the first thing you have to do is
become a moon expert. Even the best ultra-low light cameras need some light. You’re restricted to four days or so either side of the full moon, and then only if it’s not obscured by clouds.
Bringing it all together
How did the new technologies contribute to the editorial approach?
BM: There were a lot of different technologies which had to sit together in the cut and grade. For ‘Dusk Till Dawn’, which covered night around the world with lots of different stories, we thought we’d use the different technologies to tell each story differently. The sunset we’d do in glorious HDR, then elephants in Zimbabwe in very low light colour, then a jungle scene lit with a white light – rare, but we did it – then thermal imaging with bears in a deep glacial valley where moonlight couldn’t penetrate. It’s an engaging concept, but I worried that it felt like a magazine instead of a flowing visual style. It turned out people liked it. They liked the challenge and revelation of thinking more about light levels. People watched Night on Earth for the normal natural history storytelling, the emotional journey, but they also enjoyed the technological breakthroughs and the magnificence of being able to see stuff you couldn’t see before.
How did you prepare for creating the soundscapes in Dolby Atmos? Was there a lot to learn?
CD: We kept things as simple as possible, not trying to get sounds precisely placed in stereo during the recording in the field but capturing as much as possible on mono with rifle mikes and the like. Then we could position them in the three-dimensional sound space during post. The Plimsoll teams were really good about audio, really enthused and thinking in terms of soundscapes and what they could provide.
BM: You’re immersed in a magical 3D soundscape. Each episode had its own aesthetic – underwater, polar ice, a city, African plains and so on – but you’re really there. It’s completely engaging.
On new possibilities: “Dolby Vision HDR let us get the imagery of those bats lit by a shaft of light from the entrance, then Dolby Atmos let us build the surround sound of actually being in the cave. They flocked towards [our cameraman], he let them go overhead and kept the cut long. It was breathtaking.”
Bill Markham, Plimsoll’s series producer for Night on Earth
“That’s the thing about Netflix. (…) People expect to see a semi-cinematic experience. So that’s what we made, allowing things to play longer with fewer words over the top. It’s night, it’s atmospheric, there’s natural tension and interest, and Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos let us realise that near-cinematic experience.”
Bill Markham, Plimsoll’s series producer for Night on Earth
dolbyforprofessionals.com
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