|
Playing Ray
Alumnus Curt Sobel provides the key to Ray's musical magic.
By Allen Bush
Berklee.edu Correspondent
April 20, 2005
|
 |
|
Curt Sobel talks to students. |
|
Photo by Allen Bush |
| |
|
Timing is everything. While the buzz was still enormous for the motion picture Ray last winter—it had just been nominated for six Academy Awards, was packing theaters across the country, and the soundtrack was on the charts—Berklee students had the opportunity to rub shoulders with the man who helped solidify the movie's musical credibility. Curt Sobel, who was music supervisor and music editor on Ray, found himself in one of the busiest periods of his life. But there couldn't have been a better moment to sit down with students to give an in-depth view of how the popular biopic was made.
Sobel, a Hollywood film music veteran who graduated from Berklee in 1978 with a diploma in composition and arranging, traveled from his home in Los Angeles for a two-day residency in late January hosted by the Film Scoring Department and its chair, Don Wilkins. Highlights of his visit included two screenings of Ray for the Berklee community at the Coolidge Corner Theater; two open forums for questions from Berklee students, faculty, and staff; and a master class with film scoring students.
Sobel answered myriad questions from students eager to follow his footsteps out to Hollywood, but talk kept coming back to Ray and the music that gave the movie its soul. A music editor, among other duties, is responsible for working alongside the hired composer, synchronizing music with the film, and representing the composer and the music on the mixing stage and to the director.
Sobel's role as music supervisor was multifaceted, as well. Among his many tasks for Ray, which included functioning as a liaison between director and production departments, he assisted the director in making decisions regarding Ray Charles's recording sessions for the movie (called "pre-records"), casting, and other matters. He also coached Jamie Foxx on his hand- and lip-synching to perfect the optical illusion that the actor is actually performing all of the music. Sobel used a digital video camera to chronicle numerous meetings between Charles and Foxx and burned them to DVD for the actor to study. He also shot video of Charles during his pre-records, focusing on his hands, to give Foxx images to analyze and mimic. Foxx was a dedicated student, but Sobel kept working with him throughout the production so that audiences would see hands and lips move in perfect synch with the music, as if Charles himself were reenacting his life for the movie.
One strategy implemented by Sobel and Foxx was practicing during camera setups. A 16-hour day of filming makes for a lot of downtime for the actors as the cameras and lights are repositioned for shooting various angles for one scene. Sobel and Foxx would make use of this time and retreat off set so they could work on the nuances of portraying Charles as a performer. Taylor Hackford, nominated for a best director Oscar for Ray, came up with the idea of filming long master shots early in the day and close-ups at the end so that Foxx could have his synching down for when the camera would be most scrutinizing.
 |
|
| Curt Sobel (left) and Ray Charles take a break during the filming of Ray. |
|
| |
|
Students at every session wanted to know how much of Foxx's playing and singing was in the movie. He told an astounded audience that Foxx handled all of the vocals at the start of the film when Charles was with the Lowell Fulson group, though it was Charles on piano. That scene was particularly challenging for Foxx beause he had to sound like Charles who was then trying to sound like Nat King Cole. It's also Foxx playing when Charles is seen improvising at the piano, such as the scene in hotel room with the character of Margie. Sobel says that Foxx hand- and lip-synched to all of Charles's recordings in the rest of the film.
To enhance the authenticity of the portrayals of band members in the film, Sobel recruited studio musicians to overdub brass and rhythm parts. The result of those sessions were "sweetener tracks" that were added on top of the original mono and stereo recordings to promote sound quality of classic songs. The sweetener tracks not only made older recordings work better in theater environments, they allowed Sobel to emphasize a particular instrument to match the perspective of the camera shot. When the camera panned across the band, for example, as in "I Got a Woman," he could make each instrument louder as it appeared in the frame to better coordinate image and audio.
Sobel explained that the musicians in the film were actual players, including blues musician Chris Thomas King as blues legend Fulson. The production team wasn't able to use many of Charles's available early songs, so they were done as pre-records in Charles's studio using his musicians. Sobel said that Ray offered to rerecord any of his catalog for the film, but Hackford wanted to use the original mono and stereo recordings that the audience knew and loved.
Besides the Lowell Fulson songs, Charles recorded some solo piano pieces for scenes that featured him working on "I Got a Women," "Drown in My Tears," and "You Don't Know Me." His rerecording of "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand" featured his friend, former Guns N' Roses and current Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash, whom he met at a benefit in Los Angeles.
At one point during the film, Sobel stepped out of his role as the man behind the music, and in front of the camera. It is Sobel who is conducting the orchestra in the scene where Charles performs "Georgia on My Mind."
"The foremost experience in my film career has been the opportunity to meet and work with a true American treasure, Ray Charles," wrote Sobel in a recent email. "His was a life composed of a complicated series of events that helped shape a musical landscape that has become what we recognize today as pure soul. I believe we've succeeded in producing a very interesting portrait of an American genius. Taylor [Hackford] did a magnificent job directing this difficult no-holds-barred story."
Ray was Sobel's 54th film as a music editor, and his first as a music supervisor. He was also the music editor for Finding Neverland, also nominated by the Academy for Best Picture. Among his other credits are An Officer and a Gentleman, Risky Business, X-Men, I Am Sam, La Bamba, and The Insider. Sobel has worked on nearly all of director Hackford's films for the past 23 years. One of Sobel's next projects is a film about Beethoven, with Ed Harris.
Allen Bush is Berklee's director of media relations.
[  Print-friendly Version ]
| 
