Corrected response to Les Miz a technical question

From: Frank, Michael [[email protected]]

yes . . . this is the best [clearest] yet of many helpful answers . . . . thanks for that

but it does confirm what i imagined had to be the case, specifically that there were some moments in the film [maybe many, maybe few] in which the image we saw on the screen and the vocals on the sound track were NOT recorded simultaneously, even if the vocals we were hearing were themselves recorded during another on-the-set take

because i'm a big fan of live [unamplified] music i somehow had hoped/expected that in "les miz" we would at every moment be watching people acting and singing simultaneously, and i somehow [foolishly] felt ripped off when i realized that could not always be the case

and yes, hathaway did  have that long close-up shot, which itself creates a very interesting dynamic   . . . actually the cuts i noticed most were in the beren-cohen/bonham carter numbers or in one of the songs by samantha barks as  Éponine

m

-----Original Message-----

From: Larry George [[email protected]]


A reply from professional film and video editor Jim Stewart to your query:

"Sure, it's pretty simple. It's the magic of editing. They shoot the whole song in multiple angles and the editor cuts them together. Often one sound take will be used continuously and the other shots are cheated to match visual sync. Or there will be sound cuts between different shots but the sound won't cut at the same place as the picture so the notes can carry across picture cuts seamlessly.

Interesting that the most cuts were with Russell Crowe and that Anne Hathaway had that incredible closeup that lasted forever."

Hope that helps answer your question.

Larry N. George

Professor

Department of Political Science

California State University, Long Beach

Long Beach, CA   90840

[email protected]

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