Doctor Who: 14 Cool Details In Steven Moffat & David Tennant's Silence In The Library Commentary

4. Shooting In The Library Made The Episode's Sound (And Lighting) Tough To Get Right

Doctor Who Silence In The Library Vashta Nerada
BBC

Since the bloodthirsty Vashta Nerada resemble ordinary shadows, the crew that worked on the episode had to constantly be mindful of any shadows that the equipment and the furniture (and themselves) were casting.

And this posed several production challenges. During the commentary, Gardner mentions that the library location was "difficult" for sound, because it was tough to figure out where to place the boom mic without it casting a shadow. The main room in the episode was also very echo-y, which didn't help matters.

In addition, the lighting was tricky to get right too. That main room was also very dark, and so, according to Tennant, a "huge white light" was put up. Unfortunately though, this light was so massive that it had to be cooled by a noisy fan at all times, which drowned out any dialogue that was spoken too softly.

In this post: 
Doctor Who
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!