![]() ![]() Much of the life-giving oxygen in deep waters across the world begins its journey from the atmosphere here. The ocean around Antarctica is also the lungs of the deep. Some stayed behind, however, becoming the species that we saw. Her descendants then spread out across the abyss like wagon-train pioneers, giving rise to several different species of deep-sea octopus found around the world today. One of my favourite animals that we saw on dives was the octopus Graneledone antarctica, whose ancestor ventured down from the shallows around 15m years ago, when the water temperature at the surface cooled to the same chilly temperature as the deep. So although the continent itself is remote, we can reach the deep ocean close inshore here – handy for us diving in minisubmarines, despite the need to dodge icebergs. It’s also cut by even deeper channels close inshore, some plunging more than 1km, scoured out by larger ice sheets in the past. Because Antarctica is pushed down by the weight of its ice sheets, the submerged continental shelf around it is deeper than usual, around 500-600m deep at its edge rather than 100-200m deep. The deep ocean around Antarctica is a special place for several reasons. ![]() And while we didn’t face anything like the physical hardships endured by early polar explorers on land, those dives did give us the opportunity for some unique science. Thanks to the crew of the research ship Alucia, we dived in minisubmarines to 1km deep in the Antarctic for the first time. ![]() So I jumped at the chance to join a team from the BBC on an expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula for Blue Planet II, to help them as a scientific guide. Fast-forward more than a century – and the deep ocean floor around Antarctica still offers a “white space”, beyond the reach of scuba divers, only partially mapped in detail by sonar from ships and seldom surveyed by robotic vehicles. In creating a soundtrack suitable for the human viewing experience, we too are doing much the same thing as in nature itself, tuning into the noises that make the most sense of our world.“It has always been our ambition to get inside that white space, and now we are there the space can no longer be blank,” wrote the polar explorer Captain Scott, on crossing the 80th parallel of the Antarctic continent for the first time in 1902. Given sea creatures hear and use sound over a wide range of frequencies, from the infra-sound of blue whales, to the ultra-sound of pistol shrimp, all sea life only tunes into part of the spectrum of sound available. And because sound travels much faster in water than in air, there are potentially a much larger number sources of natural sound that could be heard at any given moment, so a final flourish of ‘artistic license’ is required to focus the viewer on the story. And in mixing all the sound layers, the sound mixer must also create a 3D soundscape, for surround sound viewing. ![]() And crucially, a pleasant viewing experience for the audience. The challenge of the sound mixer’s craft is to be true to nature, whilst also creating an informative and entertaining film. Natural sound recordings, the sound effects, the narrator’s commentary and music must all be mixed to make the film’s final soundtrack. This helps convey the experience of ‘being there’ that is important for an immersive TV experience. In tracklay, other sounds are added: a woosh of a passing jellyfish, or the rocketing explosion of methane from the Deep Sea bed. You must enable JavaScript to play content ![]()
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