Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1179544
24 I met Victor the next day. He is a Russian who moved to LA as a young composer looking for his big break. He instantly struck me as being made of the right stuff as he had the emo- tionless confidence I associate with many Russians, coupled with the desire to provide excellent service I associate with American culture. When I interview music editors for a position on my team, I always ask how they would react to a number of precise extreme scenarios on set. I was confident we had found our guy! The hiring of a first-class music editor/Pro Tools operator was incredibly important on Cats, because the whole film is driven by tempo—unlike Les Miserables, where tempo could be manipulated and sometimes ignored in favor of perfor- mance. The rhythmic dance routines of Cats meant that we needed to be able to drift in and out of pre-recorded playback tracks and live piano constantly. Tom still wanted to use the live keyboard whenever possible to allow the actors the opportunity to play with timing and let their emotional per- formance take priority. This was mainly between the songs or in small breaks in the tempo. Victor would be playing his Pro Tools rig as if it was a musical instrument, accompanying its own highly creative 'dance' with the live keyboard player, so the two instruments could immerse the actors and support them in their performance. Everyone involved in Cats, from Tom Hooper and Producers Debra Hayward and Ben Howarth, and Executive Producers Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan from Working Title, to Andy Blankenbuehler our Choreographer, kept expressing how dynamic the choreography was, and how loud the music needed to be for the actors to dance to. I needed to find a way to get more volume to the actors than would be possible using the 'earwigs' and induction loops we had used on Les Miserables. It became obvious to me that for the extreme SPL's that some of our performers would require, we needed to use personal 'in-ear' monitors that would be custom-molded to the performer's ear canals. I already had a great relationship with Puretone who supply all of my musicals with custom- molded earwigs and also supply many rock performers and musicians with custom personal in-ear monitors to use on stage. They'd actually just supplied the same product on my last film, Danny Boyle's Yesterday for the star, Himesh Patel. I decided that Cats needed a completely new strategy for IEM's and that my production sound mix for Tom Hooper and his editor, Melanie Oliver, would not always be suitable for the performers to listen to as we were shooting. I really wanted them to feel supported. I also knew that many of the cast came from a music industry background and would expect a personal mix in their IEM's, something a front-of- house mixer would usually provide for them on stage. I have been working with my 2nd Unit Sound Mixer, Tom Barrow, on a number of films now. Tom's former career was working in a music recording studio as an engineer, so it seemed to make complete sense that he should join our team as the Cats IEM mixer. I explained to production that hiring Tom Barrow would be an additional expense that they were not anticipating, but that Tom Hooper's expectation would be difficult to achieve without having a huge Outside Broadcast (OB) truck parked at each stage if they didn't take my advice. I explained to Working Title that if they wanted me to stay 'small' enough to not require the expense of OB trucks. they had to accept that Cats was completely unique and would require a large Sound/Music team, potentially larger than any previous film ever shot. Luckily, my relationship with Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan at Working Title and their Head of Production, Sarah- Jane Wright, goes back fifteen years over multiple films. They told me they trusted me and would facilitate whatever I needed to support Tom Hooper's vision. Of course, they did let me know they were not expecting any ADR, so the pres- sure was on! Their Unit Production Managers, Jo Burn and Nick Fulton, were also incredibly supportive throughout. I decided to hand the IEM workflow and process over to Tom Barrow as I prioritized the vocal recordings and the rest of the music workflow. We were actually creating a world for our performers to inhabit that would sonically block them off from outside voices and sounds with their IEM's. Our cast was given the choice of wearing a single IEM or a pair. Many of our cast come from a music industry background so most preferred to use a pair. This meant that the IEM mixer had to become a conduit for all the information and effectively provide a comms mix, alongside the dedicated mixes for the perform- ers in order for them to communicate with each other, or for the director, 1st AD, keyboard player, music producers, and Pro Tools op to communicate with the cast. At this point, it was fourteen weeks out from principal pho- tography and it was becoming clear that I was spending many hours of the day working on telephone calls or meetings. I needed to start splitting the workload if we were to achieve this monumental task and be ready to shoot. To provide support and creative input, I needed my longtime key 1st I quickly realized I had to come up with a better strategy. Mics on the chest/solar plexus would be prone to getting impacted by the dance moves, and secondly, the excessive head movements of the style of choreography Tom favored, would mean the actors' vocals would be going off axis regularly.