Beatlemania is back again, thanks to Ron Howard’s acclaimed doc about the Fab Four’s touring years, “Eight Days a Week,” and the chart-topping “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” 50th anniversary remix. In both cases, Giles Martin, son of Beatles producer George Martin, served as music producer, supplying the 5.1 mix for “Eight Days a Week.”
There’s Emmy consideration for the vital sound work of Cameron Frankley (supervising sound editor ) and Jon Michaels (co-supervising sound editor). They were tasked with making all of the archival and fan-sourced footage sound good — but not too good.
Recreating the ’60s Soundscapes
“Eight Days a Week” not only documents the surreal hysteria of Beatlemania during the touring years of 1962-1966, but also how much John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr enjoyed playing together. That is, until Beatlemania drowned out the music and burst their bubble. Touring just wasn’t fun anymore
But the challenge was keeping the soundscapes as natural to the period as possible. “When we were in the environment of the early 1960s, the key to it was making the sounds of the cars going by and everything else appropriately good,” said Michaels. “So we would often take contemporary recordings of old cars, and then degraded them so that they sounded like they were recorded in the ’60s.
Although director Howard didn’t provide a lot of notes about sound, he usually asked to turn up the volume on the occasional song. “He was more concerned that you hear the thing,” Michaels said.
The Screaming Girls Dilemma
But when it came to legendary concert footage, which was recorded in mono (from the Hollywood Bowl to Shea Stadium), Martin developed a technique of digitally separating the instruments and vocals and remixing them in 5.1 stereo. This included separating the sounds of screaming girls.
“The initial thought was to cut the screaming girls and replace the track with less piercing crowd noise,” Michaels said. “But that wasn’t what a Beatles concert sounded like. But because we had it extracted, we were able to find that balance between the actual song, remixed in 5.1, a bit of the 5.1 version of screaming girls, and then just a natural concert crowd that we built ourselves to give it depth and make it feel not quite as harsh.”
The Shock of Spotting Sigourney Weaver
The biggest shock for Michaels and others was spotting footage of “Alien” star Sigourney Weaver, who attended the Hollywood Bowl concert as a teen in the mid-’60s. “There was that moment where they got the talking heads saying what the Beatles meant to them, and there’s Sigourney Weaver as a teen getting ready to see the Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl,” said Michaels.
The Weaver footage was part of a treasure trove of fan-sourced material accessed by editor Paul Crowder. Weaver was also glimpsed outside a hotel where the Beatles were staying. “When Paul went through all this footage, he mentioned [spotting] a handful of [famous] people, and everyone denied it except for Sigourney Weaver,” said Michaels.
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Related storiesPablo Picasso Will Be the Subject of National Geographic's 'Genius' Season 2R. Kelly Refused to Let 'Dear White People' Make An 'I Believe I Can Fly' Joke, and Other Secrets of Music Supervision for TV'A Series of Unfortunate Events': Designing Neil Patrick Harris' Tour-de-Force Transformation Into Count Olaf...
There’s Emmy consideration for the vital sound work of Cameron Frankley (supervising sound editor ) and Jon Michaels (co-supervising sound editor). They were tasked with making all of the archival and fan-sourced footage sound good — but not too good.
Recreating the ’60s Soundscapes
“Eight Days a Week” not only documents the surreal hysteria of Beatlemania during the touring years of 1962-1966, but also how much John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr enjoyed playing together. That is, until Beatlemania drowned out the music and burst their bubble. Touring just wasn’t fun anymore
But the challenge was keeping the soundscapes as natural to the period as possible. “When we were in the environment of the early 1960s, the key to it was making the sounds of the cars going by and everything else appropriately good,” said Michaels. “So we would often take contemporary recordings of old cars, and then degraded them so that they sounded like they were recorded in the ’60s.
Although director Howard didn’t provide a lot of notes about sound, he usually asked to turn up the volume on the occasional song. “He was more concerned that you hear the thing,” Michaels said.
The Screaming Girls Dilemma
But when it came to legendary concert footage, which was recorded in mono (from the Hollywood Bowl to Shea Stadium), Martin developed a technique of digitally separating the instruments and vocals and remixing them in 5.1 stereo. This included separating the sounds of screaming girls.
“The initial thought was to cut the screaming girls and replace the track with less piercing crowd noise,” Michaels said. “But that wasn’t what a Beatles concert sounded like. But because we had it extracted, we were able to find that balance between the actual song, remixed in 5.1, a bit of the 5.1 version of screaming girls, and then just a natural concert crowd that we built ourselves to give it depth and make it feel not quite as harsh.”
The Shock of Spotting Sigourney Weaver
The biggest shock for Michaels and others was spotting footage of “Alien” star Sigourney Weaver, who attended the Hollywood Bowl concert as a teen in the mid-’60s. “There was that moment where they got the talking heads saying what the Beatles meant to them, and there’s Sigourney Weaver as a teen getting ready to see the Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl,” said Michaels.
The Weaver footage was part of a treasure trove of fan-sourced material accessed by editor Paul Crowder. Weaver was also glimpsed outside a hotel where the Beatles were staying. “When Paul went through all this footage, he mentioned [spotting] a handful of [famous] people, and everyone denied it except for Sigourney Weaver,” said Michaels.
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Related storiesPablo Picasso Will Be the Subject of National Geographic's 'Genius' Season 2R. Kelly Refused to Let 'Dear White People' Make An 'I Believe I Can Fly' Joke, and Other Secrets of Music Supervision for TV'A Series of Unfortunate Events': Designing Neil Patrick Harris' Tour-de-Force Transformation Into Count Olaf...
- 6/20/2017
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
It's all about the sound! The Motion Picture Sound Editors unveiled the winners of the 2016 Golden Reel Awards and "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "The Revenant" tied for the Best Sound Editing: Feature English Language . FX/Foley. For my Oscar predictions, I chose "Mad Max" for both Sound Editing and Mixing! See my full Oscar predictions here.
Here's the full list of winners of the Golden Reel Awards:
Feature Film
Best Sound Editing in Feature Film: Music Score
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Supervising Music Editor: Ramiro Belgardt
Music Editor: Paul Apelgren
Best Sound Editing in Feature Film: Music in a Musical
Love & Mercy (Roadside Attractions)
Music Editor: Nicholas Renbeck
Best Sound Editing: Feature English Language . Dialogue/Adr
Bridge Of Spies (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Supervising Sound Editors: Richard Hymns, Gary Rydstrom
Supervising Dialogue Editor: Brian Chumney
Supervising Adr Editor: Steve Slanec
Best Sound...
Here's the full list of winners of the Golden Reel Awards:
Feature Film
Best Sound Editing in Feature Film: Music Score
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Supervising Music Editor: Ramiro Belgardt
Music Editor: Paul Apelgren
Best Sound Editing in Feature Film: Music in a Musical
Love & Mercy (Roadside Attractions)
Music Editor: Nicholas Renbeck
Best Sound Editing: Feature English Language . Dialogue/Adr
Bridge Of Spies (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Supervising Sound Editors: Richard Hymns, Gary Rydstrom
Supervising Dialogue Editor: Brian Chumney
Supervising Adr Editor: Steve Slanec
Best Sound...
- 2/28/2016
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Hollywood’s sound pros nominated Birdman and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes for three awards apiece as the Motion Picture Sound Editors unveiled nods for its 62nd Mpse Golden Reel Awards, honoring the best feature film, television, animation and computer entertainment work of the year.
“2014 was a fantastic year for sound,” said Mpse president Frank Morrone. “The advent of new distribution channels, streaming services and gaming platforms is creating additional opportunities for sound artists to practice their craft beyond the traditional venues of film and television. This year’s nominations reflect that change, spanning an amazing diversity of mediums and genres, all executed at the highest level of creativity. We are truly inspired and impressed by the work of our colleagues.”
This year’s Golden Reels will additionally honor Noah director Darren Aronofsky with the Mpse’s annual Filmmaker Award. Oscar winner Skip Lievsay, known for his work...
“2014 was a fantastic year for sound,” said Mpse president Frank Morrone. “The advent of new distribution channels, streaming services and gaming platforms is creating additional opportunities for sound artists to practice their craft beyond the traditional venues of film and television. This year’s nominations reflect that change, spanning an amazing diversity of mediums and genres, all executed at the highest level of creativity. We are truly inspired and impressed by the work of our colleagues.”
This year’s Golden Reels will additionally honor Noah director Darren Aronofsky with the Mpse’s annual Filmmaker Award. Oscar winner Skip Lievsay, known for his work...
- 1/14/2015
- by Jen Yamato
- Deadline
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