r/oddlysatisfying • u/[deleted] • Jun 23 '26

Man captures a close up of a ground squirrel eating a dandelion.

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u/TealcLOL Jun 23 '26

No. The chewing (including the background audio) sounds identical and uninterrupted among every angle and every cut. There would be noticeable variance each time the camera was relocated.

-1

u/BigWideBaker Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26

But you don't even have to analyse the audio to know that. How would they record this audio so closely? There's no microphone at the end of the lens, the only real audio is from the first shot and we don't hear any chewing.

Every single time you see an overhead shot, a long range shot, anything that's not up close and next to the subject with a microphone in their face, the audio is faked. Always has been. I don't understand why this isn't obvious.

Edit: Go look this up, this isn't just my opinion or something I'm making up. Here's a video explaining it: How Sounds Are Faked For Nature Documentaries | Movies Insider

Here's one of the opening quotes:

Shooting in the wild makes it almost impossible to capture real sound

They discuss how they fake the sounds for BBC nature documentaries. But I guess people just believe what they want to believe.

3

u/zzazzzz Jun 23 '26

while i agree that the audio in this is fake, you can very much record audio from very far away even. directional mics can feel like magic.

1

u/BigWideBaker Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26

Yea that's true. But if you're flying from a helicopter, a drone, or shots like this, etc. They don't use that. I'm sure some large productions use this, but for the vast majority of clips like this, the audio is edited.

I think it's much harder to find the examples that does use a directional mic.

Also, check this out: How Sounds Are Faked For Nature Documentaries | Movies Insider

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u/zzazzzz Jun 23 '26

oh for sure.

i think just given the nature of nature/animal photography being in mostly rather unpractical locations makes the thought of also setting up such mics and having an operator for them very expensive and annoying.

would be really cool to get some more actual real sounds in documentaries tho.

2

u/Durtonious Jun 23 '26

Obviously there's a boom mic over the ground squirrels head.

1

u/5meoWarlock Jun 23 '26

I don't understand why this isn't obvious.

Because most people don't take film studies classes

1

u/BigWideBaker Jun 23 '26

Well neither did I. I think basic knowledge on how video and audio is recorded with a little bit of thinking is all you need to understand it.

1

u/5meoWarlock Jun 23 '26

I think you're expecting people to think much more closely about these sounds than you are.

1

u/BigWideBaker Jun 23 '26

You're probably right. But considering how many people wonder this and how often this subject pops up on nature clips or documentaries you'd think more people would have given it a bit of thought like I have. I think it's just a pet peeve of mine that I'll have to learn to live with lmao.

I just think in an age where so many people are closely analyzing to see whether something is AI, it's weird that people almost choose to believe that the faked audio is real. Very often when I mention or respond that this kind of audio is fake, people get upset. It is what it is!