Cemetery Birding (Meta on birdsong in Sherlock 02x03)
Would you believe I can extend my range of meta analysis to the birdlife being heard in Sherlock's cemetery, both on my real life visit, and on the soundtrack of The Reichenbach Fall too? I put it on Tumblr but decided it might like to be blogged here as well.
Here's another little thought that came to mind when a cemetery also turned up on Dr Who again last night. I was wondering if they were going to use our cemetery from Sherlock (St Woolos) for The Angels Take Manhattan it's a huge place and there is a slope that could have definitely fitted the bill.
It's full of nature and quite a lot of it birds who announced themselves loudly when garienos and I visited in June. We kept meeting grey squirrels there too; there was a youngster even sitting happily by the tree at Sherlock's grave site when I first went for a walk down the hill . Cemeteries are great places for wildlife and it's a lovely place to go fo a walk and very calming. As it was early June when we visited we got a Blackbird singing from the right on the top of the tall tree visible in the distance in the POV shot below. We also got a quite a few chaffinches. Had I listened and noted I would have been able to tell you more about what else was singing. I promise I will do next time I visit.
Yes that tree on the far left in the distance:
Quite a lot of bird life is even audible in the background of the soundtrack in the scene set here in TRF. Now, what we heard on our visit there, and what turned up on the soundtrack, were a lot different. Over time this has made me realise that it was probably dubbed in (THoB is treated in the same way with masses of added birdsong to make it feel country-fied) but it is all good and all lovely.
Here is what we hear in TRF around the grave when we watch the sequence as digetic sound (a Media Studies term for background sound we are expecting to hear) :
- When John and Mrs Hudson are standing at the grave site there is a Robin quite clearly singing in the background. These are either spring or autumn bird,s and are also used in The Hounds of Baskerville when Henry Knight is on screen. I am developing a personal theory that they mean 'victim' in Sherlockian sound metaphor.
- There is a lot of cawing going on, as if someone has upset a lot of Rooks and there is clear call after John says 'So ... there'. Aha! When John is going on about 'The most human, human being' I can hear a Magpie rattling around in the background. THAT is what has set off the rooks.
- When John is talking about 'one more miracle' it's Goldfinches which are tinkling in the background in the sun.
- When he's sobbing after 'just stop this' there are even a few Chaffinch 'pinks' too.
- Sherlock gets a whole flock of Long Tailed Tits when he's on-screen. Not in view, but presumably in the bushes we see behind him as he turns. These birds are the sort of tit that fly in flocks of families, and flit from bush to bush calling each other. This happens all winter, but doesn't start up again in the summer until after breeding in late summer.
- I thought I was going mad but I'm not, because there IS a Sparrowhawk calling just as the Long Tailed Tits start up and the music begins to rise with Sherlock's theme.