Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1543098
Wicked: For Good by Simon Hayes CAS AMPS Production Sound as the Orchestra Pit How live capture became the emotional engine of the film I want to thank Jon M. Chu and Producers Marc Platt and David Nicksay for the extraordinary trust they placed in me and in our entire sound and music team. Their unwavering support for the live vocal process, and their belief that original performance was worth fighting for gave us the freedom to build the workflow this film needed. Wicked: For Good could only be made this way because Jon, Marc, and David backed us at every step, creatively and technically, and I am deeply grateful for that partnership. On a stage musical, the musicians reside in the orchestra pit so as not to distract from the performers on stage and to support the cast in real time. The orchestra breathes with the performers, follows them when they pull on a phrase, gives them something to lean on when the emotion needs a foundation. On traditional musical films, sound and music were treated as separate entities. Music is seen as something that happens when the playback starts and production sound is thought of as the team that captures the dialog. From the first day of prep on Wicked, and Wicked: For Good (both films were shot together), I wanted to completely remove that separation. There was going to be one integrated sound and music team, whose single job on set was to be the actors' orchestra pit and to support Jon M. Chu's storytelling, moment by moment, breath by breath. That philosophy is how we ended up with the workflow; philosophy came first, the gear followed. Simon Hayes