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Steven Morrow
Production Sound Mixer of La La Land
An interview by Valentino Giannì
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What’s your story? How did you become a sound mixer
and where does your passion come from?
I started in Seattle, where I went to Community College and
took classes in filmmaking and directing, writing, editing and
all of my student projects sounded terrible, so I decided to
take a sound class to learn how to do it better. Through that
class, I learned basically what we were doing right, what we
were doing wrong and so for the next few months I focused
on Sound for other people projects, my own projects and
decided to get a job on a local film called Where the Air is Cool
and Dark, shot in Seattle, in Washington State, where I lived. I
worked for free, for a month, being the Boom Operator and
learning everything I could from the Mixer who was there.
Then I progressed in getting work more and more in Seattle,
but it was more of a hobby, it couldn’t be a full-time
opportunity there so, at the age of 19, I decided I would move
to Los Angeles. Once there, I worked for free for the first few
jobs and started mixing from that point for 21 years now.
“All of my student
projects sounded terrible,
so I decided to take a
Sound class to learn
how to do it better.”
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Why did you decide to specialize in Sound?
I think when you first started out the ideas that you have about what you want to be in the business,
everybody wants to be a director, but I think the more and more you work you realize there’s so many of
those very talented directors that can do that lot of work and, to get there in the process, I was more
interested in being on set and working on a bunch of different movies. In the Sound Department it’s nice
because, as long as you’re getting Production what they need – as log as you’re getting good sound – you’re
pretty much left alone so that you’re able to be as creative as you can. And also, it’s a nice place to be
because sometimes on set is very chaotic and most when you are at the mixing board, it’s a “do it yourself ”
thing, you put the pressure on yourself to get a good sound. So, I like the idea that you got to be your own
boss and that you get to do your own things and I enjoy doing Sound on the projects that I have been
doing because they’ve been progressively getting harder and harder and more technical as the years go on,
and I enjoy very much the technical part of Sound.
“As long as you’re getting Production what they need – as log as
you’re getting good sound – you’re pretty much left alone so that
you’re able to be as creative as you can.”
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So do you think it more of a technical than an artistic job?
I think it is a technical and an artistic job: you’re technician for the equipments you run and operate to get
the best dialog and the best recording possible; artist it comes in how you implement it (put a microphone
over the head, put it on the clothes, where you put it on the clothes, etc.). Anyway, the Post-Production
often has a lot more leeway to be more artistic, because that’s where they get to try and choose what to use,
what don’t use and so on. But, without the rough material we give them at the beginning, their job becomes
much harder in the end, so we have to make sure that we give them good clean audio. In the end, we’re
technician in the sense we need to make sure the equipment runs right but we’re also artist in the way we’re
able to get that good clean audio.
Which were your impressions when you read the script of La La Land?
I’ve already done a few musicals in the past (i.e. Fame, 2009, by Kevin Tancharoen) and the hardest part in a
musical is that you’re not sure what’s the music is gonna be. So, when you read the script, you’re not really
sure what that will end up looking like or feeling like and so a lot of what you have to do is kind of
imagine, as you go on reading and listening at the tracks. I thought the script was a very nice love story
between two people who have dreams and the script as written – at least when I got it – was very close to
done, so it was pretty much like I imagined. The differences were that certain scenes were cut or shortened,
the colors became much more vibrant, the dancing is obviously flashed out, but that’s not something you
can write in a script.
How was your first meeting with Damien Chazelle, the director?
When we first talked it was actually an interview for the job, lasted a little over an hour and he would throw
out scenes like: “Ok, here’s what we wanna do, we wanna have them singing live and playing the piano and
singing in the apartment, how would you do that?” and I just said: “You know, we can put an earpiece in
their ear and play the music through that and then they can sing live and we’ll record it and we can add the
music later on Post, etc.” He went through very broad questions of this kind, because he definitely had an
idea on what you want to accomplish, so he just wanted to see what my approach was to it.
Have you both decided from the beginning which parts was supposed to be playback and which
live?
Well, I think at the beginning the idea was that everything should have been live. As the film went on in PreProduction, the idea was that certain things (like the freeway scene) were gonna be very difficult to do live
and the ideas behind the shot, that were going to be very specific – big long lenses, long shots without a lot
of cuts, etc. – would be more complicated with live singing. So, for many scenes, in Pre-Production we
decided what to do live, what to do just pre-recorded playback, to make it possible to shoot the film the
way they wanted to shoot it.
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If we can identify a scheme of the musics, as they were used in the movie, I guess we can section
them in: standard playback scenes, mixed pre-recorded and live-on-set scenes and completely live
scenes. How did you approach to these different situations?
Starting from playbacks, for example, it comes to mind the opening scene on the freeway. How
did you arrange for that?
Since we were on a freeway – that was an interchange freeway, from one to another, and you can see in the
film how high up we are in it – and also they use both directions with a concrete divider in the middle and
nothing above us to bounce the sound back, we realized pretty quickly that we needed to add a lot more
speakers for each side of the freeway, because if we have speakers on one side the other side couldn’t hear
it. So, we end up running a speaker in between every car, each side of the freeway, with the cabling and the
powering going in between the cars – because we really only saw besides the cars, not behind from the
front of back to next car so we’re able to hide all the speakers that way.
We also had one of my team members Craig – my boom operator – who had a rolling cart with a little
generator on it and two speakers that we sent the music wirelessly to. This way, he could be right next the
camera, so that whatever actor was lip-synching right in front of the camera they would have a really good
shot.
How did you feed the music to those speakers?
We had a ProTools session, we would run cables to all the speakers and we daisy-chained them all. And
then, for wireless speakers, we used a Lectrosonics beltpack transmitter that we just transmitted to a 411
receiver.
Were you able to hide all the audio and power cabling or something was deleted later on in PostProduction?
No, for the most part we were able to hide them and to keep out of the camera shot. It happened just
a couple of times where we actually had an on-set painter, who was there and he had these giant stickers
that look like concrete, he just stuck them over the cables when we needed to hide them.
There is a total of three shots for the musical – they hided the cuts – so, each shot, we would setup the
right amount of speakers for whatever we were seeing in the frame.
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A similar situation could have been the scene where
Ryan Gosling was singing on the pier. How did you deal
with it?
That scene was the hardest because we see 360 degrees and
we couldn’t be near, so I was down on the shore, by the
beach, and we ran I think 5000 feet of cables to get down to
where they were filming so that we could give him an
earpiece, his radiomic and a wireless speaker next to the
camera operator – so that Ryan could hear the music. We also
had a Boom up there and a timecode slate so that we can sync
up all the music later.
There’s also the scene where Sebastian is practicing at
the piano, playing with the record player. Was that
playback as well?
There we actually recorded whatever part he was doing with
the record player, just to have it as a reference, but that was
just a bunch of individual playback cues that we had to take
off of him. So, we knew what part of the song we have to
play in which moment and we also had a monitor so that we
can watch when he’s going to hit the button, when he wasn’t,
when he wants start playing and so on. But that was all prerecorded and playback.
“That scene on the pier
was the hardest because
we see 360 degrees and
we couldn’t be near. So,
I was down on the
shore, by the beach, and
we ran I think 5000
feet of cables to get
down to where they were
filming.”
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So, did you provide some accurate musical cues for the songs, according to the scenes, or the
editing department dealt with that musical parts and cuts?
Actually, for example, in the roommate song at the beginning of the movie, there were five different parts
(one – a crane that lead the girls from the inside to the street – was actually cut out in the final editing and
later on we had to re-edit the song to make it match that moment), so when we filmed we had: the inside
of the apartment, the outside, the party, the bathroom and from the bathroom out into the pool. Those
were all separate segments, almost treated as separate scenes in the film, and those were our cues for that.
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How many people worked in your team for this movie?
Your standard setup in Los Angeles is: the Sound Mixer, Boom Operator and Utility Sound Person, so
there’s always three people. On the musicals, you have an extra person: we had a guy named Nick (Baxter)
and he was our ProTools Music Editor, so if there was a need to edit the music that’s what he would be
there on set to do, in case the director wanted to change a song, or shorten it or lengthen it, etc.
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So he handled the playbacks too?
No, we handled that. He was there mostly just to make sure the sessions were correct and if they want to
edit the music or change anything, which they would do pretty often.
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Were the songs already made before you started filming or were that completed later?
Actually, it was still a work-in-progress: they had all the music recorded, also the arrangement was right, but
most of it was done with digital instruments. Then, in Post-Production, once the film was edited, they went
back to record the songs with a live real orchestra.
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Scenes where you act a mix between playback and live recordings are often useful to have smooth
transitions and give the audience the idea that everything was actually live. Did you also follow
this kind of direction?
There are several scenes where we used a mix of live recordings on set and pre-recorded playback:
the pool party, when Ryan is playing the key-tar: that was live vocals but playback music. We just played the
music out of the speakers and we recorded the singer voice live and played this vocal out to the audience
as well so he had a feeling of what he was singing. That worked really well;
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we did that also for John Legend’s big concert: he was all pre-recorded but all the instruments were
recorded live on set so that if Post-Production may have needed a guitar string or a horn playing, in the
editing of the song, they could have done that. Moreover, John Legend sang the song a few times live, so
that we had a live vocal track of him (I think they ended up using a 20% of his vocal for that song from
what we recorded on set, the rest was from the pre-recorded takes) and they did a mix of both. As before,
we played the music out of the speakers and John microphone – the actual mic he was holding in his hand
– was isolated enough to record a good clean voice;
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another good example is still the roommates song, when the four girls sing and dance through the all
apartment: in that song, everything that Emma Stone sings was live and everything all the girls sing was
playback and that happened in the same scene, so you would have playback going, everybody would lipsync, and then we deep the playback out – just completely muted – she would sing her lines and then the
music will come back in and everybody could continue as before. We didn’t use Phonak or in-ears because
sometimes you would see it, since they’re spinning all around. And all the girls – since the scene started in
the bedroom with dialogues and then goes into playback – were radiomiced, so that we can get all their
noises, their yelps, their yells, and screams, things like that that weren’t necessarily in the song but that we
recorded on set live during the playback, as well. The Post-Production team was then able to use these
pieces of actions of the girls making noises and insert them on what was pre-recorded.
Then, when we get to the Hollywood party, Mia goes into the bathroom and sing the small portion of the
song at the mirror that was live, with an earpiece in, so she could hear the piano playing. That was not a
prerecorded part of the song: she was actually listening to Justin Hurwitz, the composer, who’s in another
room playing live for her. He would have a headset on, so that he can hear what he was playing and also
her singing and so that they could basically play together even though in separate rooms.
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There are some other sequences where the actors seem to
play and sing live. Is it true?
The last audition, for example, is one long big shot that was
live: we give an earpiece to Emma Stone (we talked about it
before we started filming so that her hair would be down over
her ears, because they wanted to go all the way around her
with the camera and you would have seen it) and Justin was
playing piano in her ear, so she was acting the scene and
singing and the music is following her. That way she should
feel the character how she wanna do. We recorded the piano in
a separate track so that later on they could go back and listen
to what was played and in what time.
Also when Mia and Sebastian sing “City of Stars”, with
Ryan Gosling playing the piano. How did you record that
scene?
That was live, too. Both the actors had earpieces and he was
actually playing the piano but we muted it so he could hit the
keys but you won’t hear. That way the emotion was correct.
Speaking in general for the piano scenes, the tracks that were
used were always the pre-recorded ones: so we would
playback through speakers behind him the piano and he
would play along with it. Ryan was actually able to play it all,
but it is so specific that if he missed one key and the shot is so
long it took a lot of time to have a good shot. Anyway, we
always recorded the piano as well to make sure that later on, in
Post-Production, they could look at the actual recording of the
piano, listen to it and see if he had the key right of if he
missed it, and if he had a miss mix up the playback a little bit
to match it.
“She was actually
listening to Justin
Hurwitz, the composer,
who’s in another room
playing live for her. He
would have a headset on
so that he can hear
what he was playing
and also her singing and
so that they could
basically play together
even though in separate
rooms.”
Which microphones did you end up using for these sequences where multiple instruments are
involved, especially in the jazz clubs? Since we can’t see anything on stage, I guess they were
hidden somewhere out of the frame, is it correct?
For any of the stuff we’re just getting a reference (like the piano), we used Sanken Cos11 lavaliers, that we
used hard-lined: if we’d do it wirelessly, for some reasons pianos didn’t sound right to me. We would always
put two in the piano, for stereo recording, and we could just hide the cabling out of frame. The same way
for the drums. As for the horns, we could just grab with the boom pole off camera, because they were so
loud and that was reference only so it wasn’t as critical.
The idea was that all these clubs wouldn’t have microphones setup, because they’re small enough and there
will be no reasons for that.
There are scenes in the movie where we could hear background music that the actors were
reacting to. Did you sometimes provide them earpieces just to listen to the music while they were
acting and go into a particular feeling?
Yes, in the scene where Mia is in the restaurant with her boyfriend – and the brother with his wife too – we
give her a Phonak earpiece and Justin (the composer) was there, playing the digital piano, so that when the
director wanted her to hear the song he would start playing. We did provide that also for when she ran out
on to the street even if we actually had speakers out there as well, playing great orchestral music. We would
always try to playback on set, if there were any pre-set cues of music, to get more of a vibe for everybody,
crew included.
there’s another scene I’d like to talk about, the one with Seb and Mia for the first time to a jazz
club. How did you deal with that situation, since they are talking at their table while a little jazz
band is playing just behind them?
We gave all the musicians earpieces, so they could play along to the playback track but didn’t make any
noise. Every once, I allowed the drummer to hit something but he was at the same time with the song so it
was fine. We also gave Mia and Sebastian the earpiece, so that they can hear the music as well and react to
what they were listening to, as the scene required.
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“Being it a musical,
everybody wanted to hear
because we didn’t
necessarily play the
music that loud on set:
we had the actors singing
in a room and nobody
else could hear it except
for them.”
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Now, talking about your gear, what did you use for this shooting? Did you have different setups for
dialogue scenes, playbacks and musicals or it was always the same stuff ?
On this film, once we setup the cart, that was pretty much what we always brought.
So we had a 16 channel Mackie board – actually we had two of them for a total of 32 tracks; we recorded
with two SoundDevices 970, one was master and one was backup, just in case something fails; in each
recorder you can come in 8 analog inputs, so the first 16 tracks were 8 analog on one machine and 8 analog
from the other one – we swapped them through Dante. And for the next 17 to 32 tracks, we had a
Focusrite RedNet2 that had other 16 analog inputs controlled from the second Mackie board. That was
only used for the big concert scenes, things like that when we needed a high amount of tracks.
For the boom mics, we used Sennheiser MKH50 – I think they sound incredible – and we also had
Sennheiser MKH416s but, for the most part when we’re outside, we tended to use radiomics because Los
Angeles is a very noisy city in general. Sometimes it happened even inside, since this movie wasn’t really
shot on a sound stage and everything was a real set. For example, when we meet Sebastian and his sister for
the first time in the apartment, that’s one big long shot all around the room: so we put two radiomics on
them and, to play that the room is a little bit aery and empty, I cut both of them up at the same time, just
really fadered-in the sounds so that they would sound more of a room than just two radiomics.
We also used Lectrosonics SSM radiomics, the smaller packs, with Sanken COS11 lavaliers and Venue
receivers.
We had around 20 Comtek packs: being it a musical everybody wanted to hear, because we didn’t
necessarily play the music that loud on set and you have the actors singing in a room and nobody else could
hear it except for them. So, producers, director, but also camera operators, focus pullers, etc. wanted
headsets, just because pretty often they have specific tasks to accomplish according to the music score.
We had a laptop with Protools on it and an MBox Pro, that we used for playbacks.
As for the speakers, we used different types – I think we carried a total of 14: most of them were JBL
Eon612, because they are smaller and lighter e for us mobility was a key and the size mattered. We knew a
lot of the film you would just have many speakers versus one or two big ones, so that fact they were
smaller was fine. We also had some 15” Electrovoice and two JBL Eon615, for different situations.
I demoed these speakers in a music center and, considering the fact that you can buy 4 of the small
speakers for the price of one of the big ones, at the end I just preferred to have more speakers and
everybody was very happy.
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Did you have any relationship with Post-Production sound team before or during the shooting?
Basically, they way it works here is that departments not even heard until after we’re done, because the
Post-Production sound team isn’t really hired until we were done filming.
It depends on the movie: for La la land, I didn’t have any relationship with Post-Production sound people
up until they works but, before that, we pretty much operated independently. Then, occasionally, we just
had some phone calls to talk about the microphones we used just in case they have to match or fix
something. In about a month since we started the film, they have already hired the Music Editor on and so
there was a lot of discussions about what they would like, what their preferences are and that’s helpful
because for the most part it’s an educated guess for giving the best we can, but if they’re specific about
what they want that makes a lot easier to give them what they want.
Were you required to record some sound effects on set or it was always supposed to be a PostProduction thing? I’m thinking to very specific sounds that are also important for the story, like
the car horns, the smoke detector whistle, etc.
For the most part it was a Post-Production thing: if we had the opportunity we recorded everything all the
time but i.e. the footsteps when they’re dancing, the foot slides and so that were all made in PostProduction. As for the other sounds: we played the smoke-detector sound during the scene (we knew the
director wanted that), same when Mia was looking for her car and she bips that thing to her chin, and for
the horn honk, he was actually honking the horn when we’re filming so we recorded it.
Going through a conclusion, you’re a member of the Unions (IATSE) and of the Cinema Audio
Society (CAS). Is it important to be part of an associations of professionals in the field?
Going back to what we said at the beginning of this interview, the associations are there to try to promote
the idea that it’s more of an artistic job than a technical job. Usually, when sound and motion picture joined
together, it was very important to have a good sound and it was like a technical marvel in movies.
Nowadays it’s more taken for granted, you know there will be sound in movies and I think the associations
try to support the belief that this is still an important craft that people need to give more credit to or care
more about it. I mean, people care but they typically care when it’s bad, not when it’s good.
Thank you Steven, it was a pleasure to talk with you.
We will wait for you here in Italy.
Valentino Giannì (A.I.T.S.)
photo credits: Steven Morrow
a film by Damien Chazelle
! La La Land (2016), Steven
Morrow
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Production Sound Mixer:
Boom Operator: Craig Dollinger
Utility Sound: Michael Kaleta
ProTools Editor: Nick Baxter
Dialogue Editor: Teri E. Dorman
Sound Designer/ Sound Editing Supervisor: Ai-Ling Lee
Foley Artist: Dan O’ Connel
Music Editor: Jason Ruder
Re-recording Mixer: Andy Nelson
Composer: Justin Hurwitz
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