Question about Sebacean speech

[Wererat42]

I was watching through several episodes and came across "A Human Reaction." Throughout the ep we get to hear Aeryn - minus the translator microbes, and it sounds like someone took a tape recorder and wound it backwards. You can even hear little clicking sounds right before she speaks.

The question is: did they leave it like that on purpose, as John has never heard "true" Sebacean speech and it would not be in his memory, or was it an accident in the editing process?

On a side note: We hear Velorek say something to Moya's first pilot that does not translate. I don't know if this is supposed to be the Pilot language or Sebacean.

[jeffrabb]

to answer your first question, yes, recording the dialogue and playing it backwards in the editing is EXACTLY what they did. They originally wanted to create some Sabeacan<sic> dialogue for Aeryn but ran out of time and did the backwards recording instead.

The line that Velorek gave to Moya's first pilot was in the pilot's own native tongue.

Jeff

[JrMissToughChick]

Yeah but what did she say in Kansas?

~JrMTC~

[chri-baby]

I could be wrong but I dont remember her using sebacean speach in Kansas

[JrMissToughChick]

It was when Dargo turned the power on she was reading the lamp, "Made in France *something in clicking*"

~JrMTC~

[scrape_medic]

Originally posted by Wererat42
The question is: did they leave it like that on purpose, as John has never heard "true" Sebacean speech and it would not be in his memory, or was it an accident in the editing process?



Aeryn's speach in this episode is Aeryn speaking. It is not a construct from his memory by the ancients, so I don't think it is a mistake. The ancients are trying to make John believe that he is back on earth and as they have no translator microbes other people on earth would hear sebacean, though John would still hear english because he still has the miocrobes.

[SilentSpace]

Originally posted by jeffrabb
to answer your first question, yes, recording the dialogue and playing it backwards in the editing is EXACTLY what they did. They originally wanted to create some Sabeacan<sic> dialogue for Aeryn but ran out of time and did the backwards recording instead.

Jeff

No, it's not a backwards recording - it was actually produced live on set by Claudia Black. She's done it a few times at conventions, I believe. She said it was a trick she'd learned from another actor years earlier, so when the writers didn't have time to come up with something, she did it herself.

Silentspace

[SeasonOfDeath]

Here's the skinny from The Tourist's Guide to the Uncharted Territories (http://www.perriverse.dreamhost.com/farscape/episodes/1-4.html#1.16):

Technical Issues

A lot of people wanted to know how they created the weird-and-cool voice effect of Claudia Black's alien dialogue. Nicholas Breslin, one of the many talented members of the production crew for Farscape, e-mailed TGUT with this to say:
"As the Dialogue Editor on the episode I can assure you this is not a created effect. The talented Ms. Black can actually create that bizarre clicking sound with 'backward sounding' speech naturally! - Playing it backwards only reveals this truth. (There would also be enormous technical difficulties encountered with shooting the picture to backwards mimed dialogue. - Sync would be a nightmare.) Furthermore, obviously we have access to the location sound tapes -- and what you hear is what she said. Pretty cool."

Thanks, Nick. Couldn't have put it better ourselves. And kudos to Claudia Black for being her own sound F/X creator!

What did she say? We'll never know (snurched from The Snurcher) (http://www.snurcher.com/episodes/116.html):

Chat with Richard Manning & Andrew Prowse, January 6, 2000

Moderator: <JTMarechal> to <Moderator>: Mr. Manning, if you know "everything" about the Farscape universe, what DID Aeryn say to Jack Crichton in "Human Reaction"? Inquiring minds want to know! :-)

Ricky: "Gneep n'watzi glros wlk8 q8hbaisug bvbasoiud."
Ricky: Or words to that effect.

And from Rockne:

Rockne S. O'Bannon, January 13, 2000

Moderator: <UCSBdad> to <Moderator>: What exactly did Aeryn say to the Alien "Jack Crichton" at the end of Human Reaction?

Rockne: "Can you get me Martin Milner's autograph...?".....

Moderator: (insert rimshot here)

Rockne: Obviously, neither Ricky nor I nor anyone else on the show is ready to reveal this............yet.......

From the mouth of a babe:

Gigi Edgley, January 20, 2000

Moderator: <babymoya> to <Moderator> Did Claudia Black's alien voice scare you when you first heard it coming out of own her mouth live and in stereo? Do have an alien voice that you do as well?

GigiEdgley: I didn't see it until I saw ep 16, about a week ago.
GigiEdgley: And I thought it was done in post-sync. And I asked Ben about it, and he told me no, it's her real alien voice.
GigiEdgley: I was very impressed.
GigiEdgley: Yes, Chiana has a few different lingos that she slips in and out of now and then.

Another Froonium quote:

Richard Manning, June 1, 2000

Moderator: <UCSBdad>: Traditional question from UCSBdad, Please, please, please, Exactly what did Aeryn say to Alien Dad in A Human Reaction? Er, want a tall, cold one?
FrooniumRicky: LOL!
FrooniumRicky: I'm trying to recall if the Great Monj (HAIL MONJO!) wrote actual dialog for that or not.
FrooniumRicky: He may have written the lines in English just so Claudia knew (generally) what it was she was SUPPOSED to be saying when she did her Sebacean-speak.
FrooniumRicky: But I can't give you the definitive answer; sorry.
FrooniumRicky: Bug Monjo when he does HIS next chat!

I'm guessing that they knew their audience is not stupid and left it to imagination.

[darius]

She is just sucking in air and making the stop with her tounge to make that "clicking" sound. The rest is just her making kind of breathy words. You can hear it pretty well when she is asking John to search Jack when he comes to the apartment in A Human Reaction