La La La La You Know Everyone Is Singing

La La Land is certainly looking likely for a grand sweep of both this weekend'southward BAFTAs and the Academy Awards, merely one area it's certain to triumph in is the musical categories. The film's music director and soundtrack producer, Marius de Vries, has spilled a few of the behind-the-scenes secrets from the motion-picture show for us.

Here's what he had to say:

I was invited in to a coming together at Lionsgate to discuss a "special, music heavy" project in the late leap of 2014, having been introduced to Damien Chazelle by my friend, the producer Laura Bickford. Early await-volume and audio materials I had been sent already had me interested, simply nothing could have prepared me for the charge of that first meeting and the journey that was to follow.

Damien, even even so his age, possesses a rare alchemical blend of creative vision, pure enthusiasm, and rigour, and working under his management and alongside his creative musical partner Justin Hurwitz on La La Country, and with such a tremendous assembly of talent across the whole cast and crew, has been 1 of the nearly memorable and inspiring experiences of my career.

Writing this equally news breaks of 14 University nominations, I couldn't be happier for anybody involved. Hither are a few anecdotes about the soundtrack album, track by track.

one. Another Mean solar day of Sun

Opening numbers are e'er crucial, and this i took a while to build. Everything is at stake - your contract with the audience, the establishing of a musical language, setting expectations for type of vocal delivery and lyrical idiom. A lot of scrutiny went into the creation of this, a lot of drafting and redrafting - and as the only fully ensemble song in the motion picture, it was also the most complex in terms of song arrangement, staging and logistics.

Information technology was a wonderfully deep process of collaboration with Mandy Moore and the choreography section, many weeks of planning and rehearsal brilliantly overseen by Music Supervisor Steven Gizicki, and a long and challenging journey with lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul - because the piece acts every bit an overture to the story, it was really tricky to establish only exactly what the song should exist nigh, merely Benj and Justin eventually found the perfect balance between poetry and naturalism and between the specific and the general in this hymn to the daily LA routine.

And of course, it'due south prepare in a traffic jam on the state highway! And so many stories to tell about this one - shooting it was brutally hard, especially with Damien's single-have artful and the 104 degree oestrus. Incredible commitment from all the performers and musicians who contributed. And I like to call back nosotros found a really expert balance of contemporary and traditional musical idioms in the musical arrangement.

2. Someone in the Oversupply

Another complex ane. Working with the girls to notice their voices within this vocal as they discovered their La La Land personalities was enormous fun. They would come up in after rehearsals and try out unlike character approaches on mic in the studio, feeding off each other and actually bringing the vocal to life.

Over again, the staging was intricate, and there was a lot of to and fro with Choreography as we congenital this. This was unusual in that was the song that changed nearly in the edit - originally in that location was an unabridged second verse/chorus, and a fair scrap more than staging and choreography, but eventually information technology was felt that the story needed more impetus here. Also of notation is that because the song is performed beyond several different locations, it was shot in pieces so it was a relief to see information technology eventually in post-production all stitched together and working so well, especially given the edit we had to make to remove the unused sections.

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3. Mia and Sebastian's Theme

I mention below how useful it was to first putting all this together with Justin'due south central musical theme so clearly established, and this is the get-go time yous hear that theme on the soundtrack, initially in a very delicate uncomplicated pianistic rendition. Just the large story hither is really about Ryan, and his journeying as a pianist during the prep stages.

He and his pianoforte instructor Liz Kinnon did something quite miraculous getting him ready to perform these tracks - iv months before the shoot, he was to all intents and purposes a beginner. Here Randy Kerber's playing is at its nearly explosive and flamboyant, and he came up with something here that fifty-fifty he couldn't easily repeat, so how Ryan learned it so accurately I will never fully sympathise.

Anyway, this scene fell at a very early stage of the shooting schedule, and anybody was a little tense - but later Ryan's kickoff take, before the deserved adulation, in that location was at least 10 seconds of astonished silence. It helped that Ryan liked the bones tune then much that practising it wasn't too much of a chore.

iv. A Lovely Night

This was another tricky scene to capture every bit a consequence of Damien's beloved for long unbroken takes - every bit with the opening number, 'Another Day of Sun', we were faced with the challenge of shooting this from the top of the scene as Mia and Sebastian walk upward the hill talking, right through the end of the climactic trip the light fantastic sequence, in one, unbroken take.

This was one of the harder lyrics to crack as well - we had a complete version of the song up and running a calendar month or so earlier the shoot with a completely dissimilar lyric - and a really good, witty, clever lyric at that - but both Ryan and Emma felt that the tone we had was likewise acerbic for their characters, and then back to the drawing board we went - and at the last moment Pasek and Paul magicked up this delicate, poised, gently flirtatious conceit - which of class at present feels totally wedded to the scene and the music.

The tempo of the dance sequence was a constant negotiation between what we wanted for the energy of the music and what was possible choreographically. Once more, everything feels just right now, but there was much agonising at the time.

5. Herman's Addiction

The on-screen jazz material was the showtime thing nosotros recorded in pre-product with real musicians, some of it as early on as December 2014. Nosotros assembled a stellar core La La Land jazz ensemble - including Peter Erskine on drums, Kevin Axt on bass, Bob Sheppard on sax, Andy Martin on trombone, Wayne Bergeron on trumpet, and of form Randy Kerber at the piano.

With musicians of that calibre, it's hard non to get a swell vibe going in the studio, and with a supervising recording engineer/mixer of the calibre of Nicholai Baxter - who was my get-go option for this crucial role from the starting time, and was with us from these early sessions correct through to the end of the mix - you know information technology's going to sound great.

Especially in a room like Conway studio C in Los Angeles, which has ever been a favourite room of mine. One of the great joys of making La La Land was to see the local musical community and so thoroughly involved in its cosmos - I do believe that this really strengthened the sense of place that the movie radiates.

vi. Metropolis of Stars

La La Land - Teaser Trailer

This was the first lyric that Pasek and Paul gave us, and i of the primeval songs to kickoff to experience fully formed. Because we had it up and running for a while, we took it through many permutations - duet, female lead, male person pb… and it moved effectually quite a flake in the script earlier it settled down into its current position(s). Ryan tin't whistle! So you hear Justin Hurwitz here on whistling duty, 1 of his subconscious talents.

The magical await of this scene was almost spoiled when at the crucial magic hour earlier sunset - the one window for capturing the shot - a very large and intrusive U.s. battleship stationed itself on the horizon right in the photographic camera line. Marc Platt (producer) quietly disappeared for 10 minutes and it moved. At that place are some things it'southward all-time not to know well-nigh!

Ryan sings this in an unusually low-primal, at his request - for all of our studying of his vox, and preconceptions about where his voice should sit keywise, we were very much guided here in the end by his own instinct for Sebastian's graphic symbol.

vii. Planetarium

'Planetarium' - and its sister piece, the somewhen unused 'Overture' which nosotros originally envisaged as the beginning of the movie - were ii evocations of the main theme that Damien and Justin had firmly in place from an early on stage, well before my involvement. It was so useful to brainstorm the process with the main theme so thoroughly realised - both compositionally and orchestrationally.

La La Land marked Justin'due south start time out at annihilation similar this level as an orchestrator, but he and Damien actually wanted him to be in the driving seat for the charts as well as the composition of the score - and then function of my job was to build the best support network I could for his process, and it was through working with him on these two pieces that I was able quickly to recognise what a unique and precise musical imagination he has, and to have full confidence that he would exist able to pull this off. Much finessing was done forth the mode, just the richness and detail of his musical vision was immediately credible to me in these early charts.

Hither perhaps most of all you hear the presiding influence of Michel LeGrand, in the sweep of the melody and the drive of the waltz. I do think the calibration of what Justin achieved with these gorgeous and sophisticated orchestrations has been a little overlooked in the rush of other (justifiable) congratulations.

8. Summer Montage/Madeline

Another live performance jazz piece, which doubles as a montage sequence. True Chazelle aficionados will appreciate the thematic callback to Damien's first moving picture, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. Another tough piece of pianoforte playing for Ryan. We did everything nosotros could to inject this organisation with every bit much silly joy as possible, and the band at Conway obliged with a riotous performance.

This tune marks the meridian of the curve of Mia and Sebastian's relationship - and for a long time at this bespeak in the narrative we had in position a second ensemble number, a large song foregrounded with a Ryan/Emma duet, but featuring a big song cast and with big choreographic ambitions. It was even chosen 'La La State'. We spent hands as much time on this song every bit on whatever of the others, so it was a little hard to let go of information technology once information technology became clear that the arc of the picture show couldn't hold its weight; it was a not bad vocal. Peradventure it will see the light of day sometime.

9. City of Stars (duet)

The second iteration of 'Metropolis of Stars' is fundamentally a diegetic duet, with live performance vocals from both leads - and some other really skilful example of how alive onset vocal recording can really put you in a scene. The master part of the song is a simple piano-based rendition in Sebastian'southward apartment - information technology then morphs into another extended montage sequence earlier returning to the intimacy with which it starts. And the just time in the testify where Ryan has to play and sing at the aforementioned time, which is its own particular challenge.

10. First a Fire

This is very much the blackness swan of the sequence, and necessarily so. We had to prepare John Legend the challenge of writing and performing a piece which would exist dissimilar enough from the main thrust of the music to make information technology clear that Sebastian is being diverted from the path of his musical dream, yet sophisticated plenty for him to feel information technology worth his fourth dimension.

This is fed by Damien's nuanced presentation of the consequence of Jazz Purity vs Jazz Development that clearly becomes a pivotal issue in Mia and Sebastian's relationship - but the storytelling of La La Land is rich enough not to come down on one side or the other. John was a dream in the studio as nosotros wrote the song - information technology was very quick and surefooted and instinctive, he'due south an astonishing and administrative vocal performer, and I think he enjoyed the challenge of writing from a dramatically defined perspective.

The just track on the soundtrack to feature whatever kind of audible electronics - great work from programmers Eldad Guetta and Matt Robertson helping us capture the correct blend of alive instrumentation (it is a concert functioning) and supportive electronica. Randy Kerber's baking synthesiser solo was a different kind of claiming for Ryan - who learned to play it on a ROLI Seaboard (a kind of fretless synth, and a very dissimilar playing technique to a piano).

xi. Date Party

We always wanted to make use of our song melodies every bit underscore and incidental cloth, and this is a lovely reimagining of the room-mates vocal merely performed on the piano by Ryan. I love how we managed to have the extravagant party free energy of this melody in its song form, and turn it into something gentle and wistful and melancholic. You hear inversions and adaptations of this kind throughout the score.

12. Audition

In the movie, this happens after a long musical silence, in terms of performance numbers. Information technology's interesting to notation how La La Land breaks with convention in its structure - sung/performed music is mostly absent from Act iii until this point - which actually ways that performed music to a large extent tracks the curve of Sebastian and Mia'due south relationship, disappearing for a while every bit things go dark.

I always thought this was a very smart strategy, and ane that's gone rather unremarked until at present. Definitely Emma's large moment, and all of us were nervous for her on set. Again, a single unbroken shot, much in shut-upwards, a difficult rangy tune at a hugely emotional part of the story, and vocals recorded live onset.

She did so well hither. It took a while to observe the orchestration on this one - we spent a long time trying to make it fully orchestral and remove the pianoforte entirely, before it found its electric current balance, and then it took a while to calibrate the orchestra entering so delicately only needing to get really expansive past the final chorus without overwhelming the phonation.

It's an amazing lyric - guided very much by some fundamental ideas which Damien provided to Benj and Justin - which absolutely sums upwards the general message of the motion-picture show past evolving from a very specific piece of storytelling. The key of the song was difficult to discover also, Emma sounded better in 1 fundamental for the fragile opening, and another for the emotive climax, then we had to experiment with some tricky modulations - but that'south the kind of puzzle at which Justin (H) excels.

Credit hither to our vocal coach Eric Vetro for keeping Emma friction match fit amidst the competing demands of a physically exhausting choreography schedule and a couple of ill-timed caput-colds.

thirteen. Epilogue

La La Land Featurette - The Music

The final 15 minutes of the picture show was and then very tightly scripted that nosotros were able to build this complex medley of themes on top of a spoken give-and-take recording of Damien talking us through the staging and camera movement strategy, and to this twenty-four hours you lot could run that sequence of director'southward instructions alongside the final edit, and information technology would lock more or less to the second.

That was maybe the clearest indication to me of how detailed and symphonic Damien'south vision is. It's an incredibly daring sequence and really exemplifies how complex the emotional tenor of La La Land is - that trip the light fantastic of regret, retentivity, and credence coupled with such rich visual storytelling - desolation and humour and childlike please in the artistic procedure all dancing together towards that last, lingering look between Mia and Sebastian.

They don't make them like that anymore. Well, actually, I approximate they exercise! Wayne Bergeron gave u.s.a. one of the nearly memorable instrumental moments in the film with that super-high screaming solo trumpet Thou… And an amazing mix by Nicholai, such a complex, dynamic musical sequence to go nether control.

The soundtrack for La La Country is bachelor here.

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Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/la-la-land-soundtrack-oscars-2017-city-of-stars-another-day-of-sun-audition-a7571571.html