{"id":11432,"date":"2023-05-15T05:00:39","date_gmt":"2023-05-15T05:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/?p=11432"},"modified":"2023-05-14T22:13:30","modified_gmt":"2023-05-14T22:13:30","slug":"the-man-behind-the-sound-for-chevalier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/2023\/05\/15\/the-man-behind-the-sound-for-chevalier\/","title":{"rendered":"The Man Behind the Sound for Chevalier"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chevalier
Kelvin Harrison Jr. plays Joseph de Bologne Saint-Georges, Chevalier de Saint-Georges in the movie Chevalier (Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chevalier<\/a>, the movie that brings the life of Joseph de Bologne Saint-Georges, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, to the silver screen, opened in North America last month. Naturally, music is a big part of the story, but along with it, the atmosphere of 18th century Paris, where Bologne made his home.<\/p>\n

Supervising Sound Editor Greg Hedgepath has had a decades\u2019 long career in the film and TV business. Along with the glorious music-rich sounds of Chevalier, he created the icky bug alien sounds for Starship Troopers (1997) and the tornadoes in Twister (1996). He\u2019s also won two Golden Reel awards for his work.<\/p>\n

He talked to LvT about the job, and the challenges of Chevalier.<\/p>\n

Sound Editing For Film<\/h3>\n

\u201cMy job is supervising the sound editors,\u201d explains Greg Hedgepath<\/p>\n

So, what does a sound editor do, and sound editing supervisor, supervise? As he explains the process, the first step involves consultation with the director on a scene-by-scene basis. He takes notes about the specific effects and impact the director intends, and how the sounds \u2013 including the score of course \u2013 work into it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sound editor will choose all the appropriate sounds for that scene,\u201d he says. \u201cWe do have different editors for different tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The various elements of a film\u2019s sound are divided by function, including live dialogue, ADR (or dialogue that is overdubbed), sound effects, the background sounds, the noises made by props, and so on.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job as the supervisor is to keep all of those jobs in my head, and understand everybody\u2019s task and what they\u2019re doing \u2014 and how it all comes together.\u201d Each track is then compiled to create the sound for each scene on a console. By this stage, there may be literally thousands of tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mixing stage is a funnelling process,\u201d he explains. The final version is mixed down to a few that become the basic bed tracks. The music is typically added last. \u201cIt depends on the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chevalier<\/h3>\n

\u201cI\u2019d never heard of him,\u201d he says, noting that while he was unfamiliar with Bologne\u2019s work as a composer, he didn\u2019t have to go far in his circle of contacts to find those who could fill him in on his music.<\/p>\n

Chevalier, by its nature, is a film that revolves around the music. In contrast to many of his projects, Hedgepath says that the music for Chevalier was determined in advance, with a lot of screen time spent watching Chevalier, portrayed by Kelvin Harrison Jr. \u201cplaying\u201d the violin.<\/p>\n

That part of the movie had to seem the most realistic. \u201cThere were a lot of subtle things we did,\u201d Hedgepath says.<\/p>\n

The actor\u2019s familiarity with music helped the process. \u201cKelvin was a child violinist, and he practised,\u201d Hedgepath says. The sound editing process added to the effect, creating the illusion of synching perfectly with Bologne\u2019s music. \u201cAt all times, we had to feel like he was playing. We spent a lot of time on that.\u201d More than just the notes, it was about capturing the energy of the live performances depicted on film.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mixer didn\u2019t add a lot of reverberation,\u201d he says. The violin was given a slightly drier, and more realistic live sound.<\/p>\n

The original music in the movie\u2019s score, naturally, fits in with the period music, however, the studio wanted to differentiate it from Bologne\u2019s works. In the original mix, it sounded much the same. Hedgepath tweaked it by making the score sound somewhat more modern in approach. \u201cIf you actually listen to the score, it\u2019s a little more modern than that period,\u201d he says. That includes elements like violin stabs. \u201cIt\u2019s quite subtle,\u201d he says, \u201cbut your subconscious feels that this is quite different than what he\u2019s playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sounds of Revolutionary Paris<\/h3>\n

Of course, in addition to Bologne\u2019s music, Paris of his time was also filled with the sounds of an impending revolution. His team spent a lot of time on the background noises, as well as creating the immersive music for concert scenes. The job often comes down to minutiae, like fine-tuning the sounds of applause, gravel underfoot, creaky floors, laughter, and much more. His time is spent listening carefully to each scene, and deciding what it needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we spotted the film with the director,\u201d he says, \u201coriginally we talked about hearing the sounds of the French Revolution from the beginning.\u201d As they proceeded, however, they realized it would serve the movie\u2019s purposes better to build the level of street sounds to match the rising tensions of the story.<\/p>\n

As he points out, in France of that time, houses had no screens on their windows. \u201cYou were always hearing some street sounds,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The movie opens with scenes of a younger Joseph being dropped off at the Conservatoire, a relatively quiet and scholarly atmosphere. Gradually, outside sounds become introduced into the film. \u201cThe city comes more and more alive,\u201d Hedgepath says. Various sounds, from livestock wandering the streets to passersby, insert themselves into the background of the story.<\/p>\n

In one scene, Joseph is taken to visit other Africans living in Paris. As biracial, and despite his Senegalese mother, he was brought up largely with his French father\u2019s influence; the music and culture of West Africa is not really his. Hedgepath uses the everyday sounds of people cooking, playing musical instruments, talking, to gradually envelope Joseph in this different world.<\/p>\n

When Joseph sits down to play the drums, Hedgepath says the first edit has him acing the rhythms and Caribbean idioms of the song. However, on reflection, he realized that with his upbringing, these musical elements would be foreign to Joseph at first. He re-edited the sequence so that the actor\u2019s hands are not quite in synch with the music at first, as if he was going through that learning curve. It\u2019s one of the subtleties that make a scene work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we hear the music, and see the rhythm and the people moving around, [that\u2019s when Joseph has a breakthrough],\u201d Hedgepath says. In the film, Joseph appears to lock into the rhythm when he sees his mother.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always about maintaining the illusion of the film. \u201cWe bend reality,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Hedgepath has been busy since Chevalier, recently wrapping up work on the remake of White Men Can\u2019t Jump, and just starting work on an Eddie Murphy holiday flick titled Candy Cane Lane.<\/p>\n