Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/335006
28 CINEMONTAGE / JUL-AUG 14 before a musical imported from Broadway. The screenwriters are the authors of the musical's book, Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. As for the vocal quartet, John Lloyd Young, who plays frontman Frankie Valli, arrives from the original cast, while Erich Bergen (as Bob Gaudio) and Michael Lomenda (as Nick Massi) come from the national tour. Vincent Piazza (as Tommy DeVito) co-stars. In the film, the Four Seasons are the tellers of their own histories, and music editor Tommy Lockett — a frequent collaborator of McGeary's — points to a scene in which the group is performing "Working My Way Back to You." Midway through the song, Massi stops singing background vocals and playing bass, looks to the camera, "and tells you about what's going on: 'From this point on, it would never be the same,'" as Lockett recalls. In the background, Valli and the rest continue to sing. "It's a very cool effect," he says. "In the stage production and the movie Jersey Boys, the songs are what drive the show," McGeary adds. "If the music fails in this movie, there is no movie. There was pressure to get everything as great as possible." It was a musical connection that brought McGeary into Eastwood's fold. The director's longtime composer and orchestrator Lennie Niehaus introduced him to McGeary, and the two hit it off immediately. "We have the same kind of musical taste," the music editor says. "Our personalities gelled, and he liked my work and trusted me; I have been working for him ever since." McGeary considers his work with Eastwood to be among the high points of a nearly 30-year career, which includes three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Reel Award from the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE). "He's the kind of guy who trusts you to do your job and doesn't micromanage," McGeary reflects. "He hires good people and trusts them; he's very collaborative." There is the added bonus of having one person call the shots. He says, "It's refreshing in this business to have one voice to answer to, and he is a voice that we all answer to." But McGeary needed a helping hand if Jersey Boys was really going to sing. "There was just too much for one person to do," he says, so he decided to bring in Lockett. "Tommy was the first person I thought could help me, because he's got a great background as a studio musician." A graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Lockett parlayed early success as a musician, producer and engineer into a new career as a music editor, beginning in the late 1990s. "I had a friend who was a guitarist for Bill Conti," Lockett remembers. "They needed a hand and this was the days before Pro Tools, when we were still using razor blade and tape. I went down and made these edits, and said, 'Wow, this is cool. I don't have to go on the road.'" The job was equal parts comfortable and unfamiliar. "As a producer of music, you're also doing a lot of editing," he comments, "but editing sync sound for pictures is a whole different thing. One frame here or there can make a difference between in sync or out of sync." Eastwood strove for believability, so in re- creating the Four Seasons' performances, production vocals were used whenever possible. "It was really Chris McGeary. CineMontage_Jul-Aug_14-4.indd 28 6/18/14 5:44 PM