Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1335892
46 I M PS E . O R G another detail that roots the fi lm in a place of realism and authenticity. As pre-production rolled on, Snoot asked me as they often do, for a recommendation for a production sound mixer. Knowing that this would be an intense indie shoot with dialogue being so important, along with some complex setups—boxing fi ghts and concerts, plus the challenge of capturing four men overlapping each other in the confi nes of a small motel room with no space for a boom mic for a good chunk of the shoot, there was really only one choice for the job: Paul Ledford. I'd only known Paul as a fan of his work, but I knew that if we could bring him on I wouldn't have to worry about the quality of the production sound. We got him, and he delivered the best production sound I have ever heard in my 15 years of mixing features. Hands down. I cut a couple of reels of dialogue and got to witness fi rsthand the embarrassment of riches in mic coverage. For the motel interiors, Paul had placed What was clear in that fi rst meeting with Regina was that no one in the room had previously made a musical or a fi lm with musical elements such as Miami. Because of my background as a musician and a music engineer, and having had some experience with musicals, I was able to explain what was going to be required going forward with respect to pre- records, on-set playback, and so on. I could see Regina's eyes start to gloss over as I delved deeper into the details—she had a million other things going on in her mind with less than two months to prep for the shoot. I told her not to worry, I got this! My next phone call was to Nick Baxter of Igloo Music—we worked together on the Disney+ movie Stargirl where it became clear to me just how much of a talent Nick is. I knew that if I could rely on Nick to run with the music production needs, we would have smooth sailing ahead. He went on to produce the original recordings of all the Sam Cooke music for the fi lm, including the needle drops, and handled the on-set playback and the music post-production. We spent an incredible weekend in the basement studios of Capitol Records surrounded by vintage microphones, preamps, and compressors capturing all the songs with a fi ve-piece rhythm section, 12-piece brass, and 14-piece string sections, along with several backup vocalists. Magic! Funny story: Leslie Odum Jr., who plays Sam, says he did not realize upon casting that he would actually be singing Sam's vocals. It wasn't until his assistant began populating his calendar with curious studio sessions that it dawned on him that he needed to become Sam both in character and in voice. To watch Leslie fi nd that voice, and channel Sam's unique phrasing and style during the ensuing vocal sessions was really something to behold. Remarkably, what you hear in the fi nal mix is nearly 100 percent Leslie's on-set vocal performance, and not the studio recordings. The fact that we were able to circumvent the lip-sync approach was a big win, and is