A blue chip BBC documentary Nature’s Great Events: The Great Tide was dependent on
a single sequence – the annual sardine run off South Africa’s east coast. If the
filmmakers didn’t manage to capture this event, there would have been no film…
Winter weather and ocean currents each year trigger the sardine run, which results in
the largest gathering of predators on the planet – dolphins, sharks, seals, Cape
Gannets and whales – each desparate to feast on the great tide of sardines.
A truly momentous event with spectacular possibilities for film except for one thing –
the sardine run doesn’t always happen. Such was the case in 2007 when BBC Natural
History Unit (NHU) producer Hugh Pearson and his crew set out on the first of three
shoots.
“The run has become increasingly unpredictable in recent years because of climate
change. It was very frustrating for us to come back with nothing from our first shoot,’
said Pearson in a session at the recent Wild Talk Africa Conference in Stellenbosch.
When planning the documentary Pearson took a gamble by assigning many more
camera crews than for an average wildlife documentary including an underwater crew, a
crew on the boat and an aerial cameraman.
“I made sure I had the very best people – Didier Noirot (the late Jacques Cousteau’s
cameraman) underwater with Roger Horrocks assisting, Justin Maguire topside and
Simon Werry on aerial photography. Didier used a Sony 900HD as well as a Super
16mm camera that captured slow motion footage at 75 frames per second. Cameras
used above the water included a Varicam and a Photron, which is capable of filming slow
motion at 1 000 frames per second.
“Topside we had a boat stabilised mount so that the camera could be put on a tripod.
We also mounted cameras on each side of the boat for dynamic tracking shots. A
microlite plane directed us to where the action was,’ explained Pearson.
The crew comprised 18 people. Pearson scheduled three main shoots over a period of
two years as no-one knew exactly when, or if, the action would happen. As it turned out
the sardine run only took place in the last days of the third shoot in 2008.
“We had to plan to film others things in addition to sardine bait balls as you can’t
sustain a 50-minute film with them alone,’ continued Pearson. “So we went to Bird
Island and captured great images of the Cape gannets to build the background story of
the film.
“We took many risks to make this film and it was a rocky ride as we almost didn’t get
the sardine run. Had that been the case then we would’ve delved into the BBC’s archive
and compiled a film about the fact that the run did not happen.’
For post-production Pearson used “the best editors in the UK’ in a 10-week offline edit
to hone the story. This was followed by 10 days of fine-tuning the script for narration.
A vital component was the three-week sound overlay.
Music was composed for the film by Barnaby Taylor and performed by the BBC
Orchestra. In fact the score won Wild Talk Africa’s ROSCAR Music Award, which was
presented in Stellenbosch on 30 March.
