Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1179544
22 actor. I have always known this is a better position than the cheek for capturing high-quality vocals but I had never done an A/B comparison. This workflow was not my first pitch because it is notoriously difficult to stick lav's to the forehead for a whole day without them losing adhesion, especially in a place where humans perspire, coupled with the fact the actors would be dancing all day in very high-energy routines. In my mind, this would result in re-sticks, lost takes, and actors with sore skin on their foreheads within a week. Tom said, "Simon, there is so much expression in the forehead that I really don't want to jeopardize." I explained that this really was the only option if he wanted a guarantee under these very difficult conditions that I would deliver vocals that would not require any ADR. Now we were negotiating. There are few things that make Tom Hooper happier than a negotiation, especially one that will creatively benefit his film. "How good will the quality of sound be if we put the mics on the forehead?" he asked. "Absolutely brilliant, Tom, it will be perfect and the greatest benefit will be that the singing will never go off mic, and most importantly for music vocals, the perspective won't change when you cut from wide to mid to tight and back again." This resonated with Tom, as we found this out while testing on Les Miserables. Spoken dialog in films benefits from the perspective of the mic matching the camera angle, but with singing, any change in perspective, rather than helping the audience believe the performance, creates the opposite effect, draw- ing attention to the picture-editing process in an extremely uncomfortable, jolting manner. This makes sense; when was the last time you heard any type of singing accompanied by music that has anything but a close perspective whether it be pop, rock, jazz, country, or blues? Tom fixed me with a serious stare and asked, "If we put the mics on the forehead, will they sound as good as a close boom?" I replied, "Yes, I believe they will, because they will actually be closer than a boom could get and we will NEVER get caught unprepared by a sudden head turn. More impor- tantly, I'm assuming we are going to cover this film with multiple cameras shooting wide, mid and tight at the same time to capture a perfect performance from all angles?" "Yes, of course," Tom replied, "and the sets are important to me. We are not shooting on green screens, and the camer- as will often be handheld and frenetic so I'm not sure paint- ing booms out is a viable option." I responded, "I'm assuming from what you've described about the look of the film, your DP will probably use a lot of hard spotlights to achieve that." Tom smiled, "Yes, that's for sure. It seems we are certainly going to need to use the radio mics to achieve this; how can we make them work?" Great, we were at a stage of the negotiation where I knew I had presented my case convincingly enough for Tom to help me find an answer to mic placement. "How about this compromise, Simon," Tom said, "you keep the mics clear of the lower fifty percent of the forehead directly above the eyebrows where most of the facial expression inhabits, but you can have the upper fifty percent, below the hairline." I answered, "We'll get perfect vocals!" A big grin broke across Tom Hooper's face; he reached out to shake my hand and said, "We've got a deal." Now, all I had to do was work out how to attach the mics and make sure the actors could perform and hear the music, keeping the vocals clean while collaborating with the Music Department. Most importantly, I had Tom Hooper's support for my workflow; the first big hurdle had been crossed. My next port of call was a meeting with my old friends, Supervising Sound & Music Editor John Warhurst and Music Supervisor Becky Bentham. John had worked on Les Miserables and was booked for Cats, along with Becky, who I have done many musicals, starting with Mamma Mia! more than ten years ago. They are both strong allies and we have a shorthand with each other. We completely trust one another and have a very strong relationship. The first part of our agenda was the team. We agreed that that there would be no demarcation between Sound and Music departments on Cats. This collaborative methodology had been extremely successful on Les Miserables and we agreed our team would be called Sound/Music. John and myself would head up that team on set every day with all the team members taking instruction from us, with support from Becky on the set and in an office at Leavesden Studios where we were shooting the entire movie. Tom's vision, along with Eve Stewart, his Production Designer, was that all the sets would be three times bigger than reality (doors, tables, chairs—everything!) because cats are about three times smaller than humans. We were fortu- nate that the entire film would be shot on soundstages with zero location work. My next discussion with John and Becky was about Pro Tools operators. We had been very fortunate to work with a brilliant operator on Les Miz who has since retired and moved into another career. Becky has helped me find abso- lutely outstanding Pro Tools operators throughout my musi- cal career and I really trust her judgment. She has her finger on the pulse of what is happening in the music industry and who are the best technicians, as she is based at Abbey Road Studios where she works closely with their staff and freelancers. Becky is also very aware of an important point: not every good music editor is the correct fit for Pro Tools work on films. Music editors in the music industry can work at a speed that is somewhat less pressurized than a film set. Every decision is based around music, whereas on a film set, the priorities are the camera and the visual image. To expand on that, a Pro Tools operator working on a film musical has to be extremely fast, quick thinking, and realize that no one is going to wait. With this in mind, we discussed her recom- mendations and I quizzed her on their personalities, techni- cal expertise and whether they would be able to work in a highly pressurized environment for more than three months, twelve hours per day. We kept coming back 'round to the same name—Victor Chaga.