Live singing in movie musicals- Page 2

[queendork]

Posted: 12/24/07 at 3:53pm

The Commitments.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 12/24/07 at 4:14pm

Michael Pitt wasn't really singing in Hedwig??? I'm distraught...

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/24/07 at 5:09pm

Rex Harrison couldn't lip-sync to save his life, so it was decided that he 'sing' (well, talk-sing) his numbers 'live'. You can see his mic pin on his tie.

Barbra ONLY sang 'live' the opening portions of "My Man" in FUNNY GIRL. Originally, the entire "My Man" number was filmed with the pre-recorded track but Barbra just couldn't match the sync in the emotional first verse, so it was decided that this be filmed 'live' and then she lip-synced the 2nd half of the song. Also, Barbra was a novice to lip-syncing so several sections of musical numbers were looped after they were filmed. Special note must be made to "People" which she entirely looped after it was filmed -- her lip-sync was quite off so she 'synced' her singing to the filmed footage during post-production.

Yes, her 1976 A STAR IS BORN remake was filmed with entirely 'live' singing, as was Bette Midler's 1979 film debut THE ROSE.

Anika Noni Rose's "...and Lorrell loves Jimmy" and Jennifer Hudson's "...this time, Effie White's gonna win!" sequences were also filmed 'live'.

No portion of HAIRSPRAY used 'live' singing.

Bette Midler's CBS TV movie of GYPSY used a combination of 'live' singing and 'sweetened' singing. Certain vocal passages were fully filmed 'live' and Bette and the actors sang full-out over their pre-recorded tracks. Thanks to sound recording advancements, they remixed back-and-forth between the 'live' vocal and pre-recorded vocal, which gave a 'live' feel to the filmed footage. THE PRODUCERS also used this 'sweetened' vocals remixing technique -- some parts are 'live', other parts are pre-recorded. Barbra Streisand's YENTL also used this technique, but very sparringly.

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 12/24/07 at 5:15pm

Jonathan Pryce's singing in Evita was done live.

~Steven

[Chloe]

Posted: 12/24/07 at 5:29pm

A similar mix of prerecorded and live singing was used for Jack Black's performance of "School of Rock" at the end of the movie of that name. Most of the close-ups are live, while the longer shots and off-camera singing is prerecorded.

[DaneSaw]

Posted: 12/24/07 at 8:33pm

You can actually tell that a lot of the singing in Across the Universe is live, particularly when Evan Rachael Wood is singing "If I Fell"...you can see her throat moving. Also, during "It Won't Be Long", the echo of the girls' voices changes as they turn and face the wall on the bed.

Oddly enough, I thought all of HER singing would be pre-recorded.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 12/25/07 at 3:41am

Didn't Bill Condon agree that "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" should be done live?

Also, I have a question. My partner told me that during dance numbers they can't have the music on set so to film the sequences they start the music so the actors can start the choreography, then turn it off as the people keep dancing to no sound. Is this true? He told me this when we were watching the "Thriller" sequence during 13 GOING ON 30. I find this hard to believe though, but he works in movies...Anyways, just a random question.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/25/07 at 4:40am

"And I Am Telling You" was filmed using a pre-recorded track. No portion of that song was performed/filmed 'live' in DREAMGIRLS. Bill Condon has never said that he wanted that number filmed 'live'. All he has said was that he wanted the filming of that number to be the last thing filmed in order to give Jennifer Hudson full grasp of the character, etc. He did admit to saying that the pre-recorded track was recorded 3 separate times due to Jennifer's growing interpretation. The version used in the final cut of the film was her last recorded version. Again...Jennifer's vocal is not 'live' though she was singing full-out over the playback during filming. All actors do this in order for it to appear as if they are singing, hence those bulging veins and trembling lips, et al. They are singing 'live' on set but their vocals are not being filmed 'live'.

Yes, whenever 'live' dialogue must be recorded during filming, any and all external music is not playing, though sometimes very low in order to keep tempo. This is done in nite-club scenes, party scenes, etc. All those dialogue scenes in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and Showtime's QUEER AS FOLK -- all those club/disco scenes are filmed with NO music playing at all in order to obtain good audio during filming. The music is added during post-production.

[Jon]

Posted: 12/25/07 at 12:47pm

In the "Annie" movie, Aileen Quinn's first a cappella rendition of "Tomorrow" was live. They were filming the scene leading up to the song, and she just kept going. She was so perfectly on pitch and so genuine, they decided to use that take rather than have her lip synch to the version she'd already recorded with the orchestra.

[me2]

Posted: 12/26/07 at 11:54am

THE FANTASTICKS was filmed with live singing, rigged up with music in earpieces. It's a horrible movie, but I admire that the director was able to do that.
Broadway Blog: Clearly Not For All People: Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd

[Craig]

Posted: 12/26/07 at 12:09pm

In the TV movie of Bye Bye Birdie, Tyne Daly sung "A Mother Doesn't Matter Anymore" live.

[AngActing]

Posted: 12/26/07 at 1:36pm

What about Tim Curry, Carol Burnett and Bernadette Peters in the movie "Annie"? Does anyone know if 'Easy Street' was live or pre-recorded? I know they did the number twice . . .once out on the "lot of New York" and interacting with the street people, so to speak. And the version that ended up in the film, taking place in the orphanage. Still, I am not sure if either or both were live.

Also, considering the budget . . . What about "Rocky Horror Picture Show"? The one bit of trivia I don't know!!! Yikes. Was it live or was it memorex? *wink*

[singingbackup]

Posted: 12/26/07 at 2:05pm

Parts if not all of "Molasses to Rum to Slaves" in 1776 was live. I had the pleasure of interviewing John Cullum years ago. He recounted that he wanted that to be live but that he 'only had one take in him' (some of the parts are quite high).

[Act0r721]

Posted: 12/26/07 at 3:05pm

Parts of "Moulin Rouge" were live. I remember in some special feature, Nicole Kidman was talking about how nervous it made her. She was afraid that there were all these extras and they were going to judge her on the spot if she could sing or not.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/26/07 at 3:25pm

Nope. "Easy Street" in the 1982 film version of ANNIE was not performed 'live' in the film -- it used a pre-recorded track. This applies to both versions: the original and the final cut version.

It is quite expensive and special equipment is required in order to film musical numbers 'live', so this wouldn't be the case for the low-budgetted THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. That was entirely filmed using pre-recorded tracks.

[WickedRedX]

Posted: 12/26/07 at 3:29pm

James Brown had to sing live in The Blues Brothers because he never sang the same way twice.
Updated On: 12/26/07 at 03:29 PM

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/26/07 at 3:36pm

They wish they did this with Aretha Franklin (in THE BLUES BROTHERS)-- her lip-syncing was so off that they had to do so many cut-aways from her during editing and use only the footage that matched her lips.