Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried

[CSonBroadway]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 4:10pm

In your opinion, was their singing "real" or do you think it was all edited. In my opinion, Amanda's vibrato is very...weird. It sounds really husky, and Meryl's singing was very good but almost too good to be true...

[Jane2]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 4:21pm

I'm sure that was Meryl singing, at least. I've heard her sounding much better, in fact, in Prairie Home Companion.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 4:28pm

Its all real. So much so that for the first-time in movie musicals (and thanks to the advent of 'live' recording), they were able to record the actor's singing while actually filming. Normally in movie musicals, though actors are singing 'live' while filming, their voices are dubbed over by their own pre-recorded tracks during post-production.

For MAMMA MIA!, the actors sung 'live' over their pre-recorded tracks so elements from both 'on location' vocals and pre-recorded tracks were used. 90% of Meryl's "The Winner Takes it All" uses 90% of her actual 'live' on location singing. Same as her "Mamma Mia".

This explains why for the first-time in a movie musical, it doesn't look like they are simply lip-syncing but actually singing. Also, the actors recorded their pre-recorded tracks months prior to filming, which explains why the vocals heard in the film are noticeably different from the soundtrack recording. The film vocals are a combination of the 'live' on location singing and the pre-recorded tracks.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 4:32pm

Well, no recording that's released today is what the singer actually sounded like in the studio. Of course they did stuff.

[rjjn]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 4:53pm

What modern recording doesn't do some modification?

Updated On: 12/28/08 at 04:53 PM

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 5:01pm

BrodyFosse,

Its been done previously for the movie-musical Across the Universe. Julie Taymor told me that over 80% of the vocals that ended up in the movie were recorded live on set as they were filming, rather than using the studio tracks they had recorded (to set tempos as well as back-ups in case noise and other conditions ruined the live tracks)

Akiva

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 5:07pm

Part of what makes MAMMA MIA such a fun musical is how the vocals really fit the situation, so in the title song Meryl adapts her singing to what she is doing physically/emotionally. It's completely different from her performance in the soundtrack. Same goes for "The Winner Takes It All," "Money Money Money," et al.

[Byron Abens]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 9:16pm

A large amount of Bette Midler's vocals in Gypsy were done on set rather than to the pre-recorded tracks as well.

[Plum]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 11:37pm

Didn't Rex Harrison refuse to lip-synch to pre-recorded tracks on My Fair Lady? I know that doesn't make it an 80% (or whatever) live-recorded movie, but it is a good chunk, decades before these other films came about.

[logan0215]

Posted: 12/28/08 at 11:45pm

The same goes for Bette in "For The Boys." The soundtrack is studio recordings of what she performed live on set.

[[tos]fan999]

Posted: 12/29/08 at 1:12am

I actually ripped the "live" version of The Winner Takes It All because I like it so much more than the soundtrack.

[skb2010]

Posted: 12/29/08 at 1:41am

Amanda's vibrato sounds like full on nervous-at-an-audition vibrato in my opinion. But heck, she got the part and I can only dream, so she's doing something right.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 12/29/08 at 1:55am

During the making of the film version of FUNNY GIRL, the song "My Man" was filmed and William Wyler called 'cut,' ready to move on.

Barbra Streisand, infamously a critic of lip-syncing, begged Wyler to give her one more take where she could perform the number "live" without the track, saying she thought she didn't think she could truly capture the necessary emotion unless she was actually singing.

Wyler (who didn't see how she could possibly do the song any better) reluctantly agreed, and that one take became the devastatingly stunning finale that made it into the film.

Updated On: 12/29/08 at 01:55 AM

[dreaming92]

Posted: 12/29/08 at 8:25am

I think that Amanda's vibrato was a bit...warbly...
but overall i think the singing was fine, tbh! I think if it had been really good singers instead, it wouldn't have been nearly as funny!

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 12/29/08 at 8:41am

I thought Amanda Seyfried was terrific in the movie. She looks absolutely lovely in it and she's incredibly effervescent. Her efforts almost make the plot seem logical. I think she should've received a Golden Globe nom for it.

[Weez]

Posted: 12/29/08 at 10:16am

Aw, I love Amanda's vibrato. :3 Remember the Julia Murneys and Raul Esparzas of the world have their fans too. :P

[lusciouslace]

Posted: 12/29/08 at 10:49am

While Amanda's voice and vibratto are fairly unique, I actually think it's quite lovely. I thought it was refreshing and different. I really liked everything about her performance in that movie. :)

[sabrelady]

Posted: 12/29/08 at 9:51pm

I vascilate on the vibrato. Sometimes it seems really irritating- a long held note- other times barely noticable, other times not there @ all- even on the same syllables. EHH, I got usta it .