Narrator: A Star Is Born
has been nothing short of a phenomenon.
It's grossed over 400 million dollars worldwide,
far surpassing its reported 36 million dollar budget.
The soundtrack debuted at number one on the Billboard 200
and the movie was nominated for eight Academy Awards
including Best Picture.
Before breaking our hearts
the movie makes audiences believe
in the power of love and music.
One way it did that early in the movie
was through those huge concert scenes that felt real.
Well, it turns out they were pretty much real.
Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga
were singing live in those scenes.
♪ I'm off the deep end, watch as I dive in. ♪
♪ I'll never meet the ground ♪
But that's not all that made these scenes great.
The film's sound team worked tirelessly
during and after filming
to make sure each sound would coalesce
into the experience millions of us had in theaters.
We got a behind the scenes look
at how they mixed and layered sounds
for one of the toughest projects
sound wise, in recent history.
This is the movie's team of sound editors and mixers.
Dean Zupancic, Steve Morrow
Tom Ozanich and Alan Murray
The team was nominated for the Best Sound Mixing Oscar
and the films most famous song, Shallow
was nominated for Best Song.
To give us the best possible idea
of how sound impacted A Star is Born
the team offered to break down
the climatic scene that features Shallow.
If you've seen the movie, you know the scene.
Ally: Maybe that could work, like as a chorus or something.
♪ I'm off the deep end. ♪
♪ Watch as I dive in. ♪
Narrator: After teaching Jack, Bradley Cooper
her song Shallow in a parking lot
Ally, that's Lady Gaga
stands backstage at Jack's concert
as he begins singing her song.
♪ Tell me something girl. ♪
He invites her to join him on stage
and as the title of the movie suggests
she's immediately launched into super stardom.
♪ Tell me something boy. ♪
The whole sequence of events
starting with Ally's decision to quit
her waitress job and head to the show
to the end of Shallow
lasts about 9 minutes and 30 seconds.
There are five essential sound elements in this sequence.
The process of layering helps squeeze in every little sound.
If you listen to each layer of sound isolated
it's a little disorienting.
Jack: I'm going to sing it either way so...
♪ Are you happy in this modern world? ♪
Dean: There's the sound behind the stage.
There's the sound on the stage.
But there's also the sound into the audience
and we had to deliver on those three difference planes.
Narrator: So let's take them one by one.
Without music playing
you'll hear some effects that are typically invisible
but become much more pronounced
like the sound of a car door opening
and the sound of footsteps.
These are known as Foley Sounds.
They are based on an actor's interactions and movements.
The sounds of footsteps are usually made by a Foley artist
stomping around on a sound stage.
Gail: He's so excited that you're here.
Gail: Hi Ally, I'm Gail.
Ally: Hi.
Gail: Hi, oh you guys can leave your bags.
We'll grab them in a sec.
Ready?
Ally: Okay, sure.
Alan: The most important job, again
is to get the dialogue clear enough
so that they audience understands
every word the actor's saying
cause you've got to follow the story
to get involved with the movie.
Jack: I did an arrangement, it was kind of not so great
but uh maybe...
Narrator: Even with how loud the whole scene is
one of the movie's most memorable exchanges
can still be heard.
Gail: Hi Ally, I'm Gail.
Hi, oh you guys can leave your bags.
We'll grab them in a sec.
Ready?
Ally: Okay, sure.
Narrator: You can hear the band as background music
even before Ally has reached the stage.
It provides a perfect
heart-thumping soundtrack to the scene.
While the singing was live
the instruments we hear were actually playback.
The band would mime along to the sound.
While they let the band play live in some takes
all of what you hear in the final movie
is pre-recorded instrumental playback.
Jack: How are you? You made it.
Ally: I'm good. Hi.
Jack: It's so good to see you.
Narrator: The sounds that the concert crowd make
are a mix of pre-recorded digital sound
and sounds actually captured on set.
During filming, the sound team put a surround sound mic
in the crowd as well as mics on each side of the stage.
This helped them capture the appropriate ambient sound.
Steve: I mean, we never stopped them when we were shooting.
We were just like, "Go for it.
If you are excited, be excited."
Narrator: You can hear the live crowd react
during this one snippet.
The additional crowd sounds
were carefully selected from a library of sounds
and that's not as easy as it seems.
You can't just use any old cheering noises.
For instance, people cheering at a football game
are going to sound different than the crowd at a concert.
Jack: Thank you very much.
♪ I'll never meet the ground ♪
♪ Crash through the surface ♪
♪ where they can't hurt us ♪
♪ We're far from the shallow now ♪
♪ In the shallow, shallow ♪
Narrator: Of course, perhaps nothing was more important
than actually hearing the actors sing.
Steve: Most musicals are playback and lip-sync
and those all have their challenges.
This one, on the production side, was
more challenging in the sense
that it was all done live
and you couldn't miss any take.
Every take that they gave
they put their heart and soul in every single moment.
Narrator: To get the crowds really going
and allow viewers in movie theaters
to feel like they were part of that crowd
they of course had to make sure the vocals sounded perfect.
They created custom reverb
an effect that adds depth and echo to sound.
Steve: We mapped the space
to give the audience the feeling that
all the vocals were pumped live through the venue
and you would hear it as you would hear it in the venue.
Narrator: And it ensures
that any sounds recorded in the studio
sound exactly like they were recorded on set.
It's a big reason why it feels like
you're actually at this show.
In the end, they stitched every little sound together
for an experience that constantly shifts
between multiple dizzying perspectives.
The screaming, the guitar rifts
the singing, the Foley footsteps
make for an overwhelming, even awe-inspiring whole
and that was the whole point.
A Star is Born broke a lot of rules
that other movies with musical performances follow
and that's part of the reason it connected with audiences.
Dean: [Director Bradley Cooper] gave us the freedom to be...
Steve: Creative. Dean: Creative and vulnerable
as well, you know, because...
The mixing stage, just like being on set
there might not be as much of a focus of people on us
but you're on a stage
and you're scrutinized
and if you're not given the freedom to
express yourself creatively and to be vulnerable
then you kind of hold back and play it safe sometimes.
We were given the opportunity not to be safe.
♪ Tell me something boy, ♪
♪ Aren't you tired trying to fill that void? ♪
♪ Or do you need more? ♪