Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1332040
and he spent a decade recreating the exact 1920s system (with amplifier) that the film needed. The weight-driven pulley system actually turns the lathe as the sound is cut, so the music is recorded straight through until the weight hits the floor an ongoing industry standard of 3 ½ minutes. Nick would provide the one-of-a-kind working equipment, along with additional exactly correct microphones, speakers, cables, guidance and good humor. My agent called one Saturday and asked if I'd chat with Tobias Schliessler, a DP who was considering coming on board. We were about three weeks away from shooting and so I was desperate to speak to any DP, let alone one I could help convince to fly to Pittsburgh. He was curious about what was happening on the ground—and he confirmed my suspicions about the forty pages in that windowless basement room. I talked him through everything I could think of, sent him a care package of location photos, set plans and intentions, and rallied him to get on a plane. When I actually met him face to face for the first time, it was thirteen days from shooting Day One. Viola's TV schedule required all of her scenes to be shot up front, which was basically every set in the movie. The shooting schedule tackled the exterior street firstso a plan was organized to move every bit of scenery built for the exterior alley faade and re-puzzle it straightaway onstage—outside those same windows—into additional dimensional scenery. The brick alley wall was needed anyway to double on the set, and even recycling the signage worked because the geography of the studio supposed the rear "yard" of the coal and ice company next door stretched behind the recording studio/factory building. Given that, I encouraged the assistant directing department to schedule background out there to bring it all to life. One concern Tobias expressed was for the quality of light the studio interior would have during the recording session scenes. To suppose that an old factory was now serving as a recording studio, with coal and ice and elevated trains running just outside the windows, sound would obviously have been an issue. A system of wooden shutters padded with burlap and "horsehair" was devised that Sturdyvant (the studio manager) would have had built. The brick walls were also draped with heavy thick curtainssound baing that George wanted to see pulled shut over the windows with verve and violence. In the end, the light was completely blocked and the curtains entombed the room, but the contrast was so complete and effective that Tobias fully embraced it—and when the dusty sun flooded back in again, it was unexpectedly dramatic. D. RECORDING STUDIO BUILT ON STAGE AT 31ST STUDIOS, PITTSBURGH. PRODUCTION STILL. E. RECORDING STUDIO. VIEW FROM BOOTH. SET PHOTO. F. RECORDING STUDIO. PRODUCTION STILL. D E F