Our 1st Musical:
In 2006 we were asked to record our first musical, Copying Beethoven directed by Agnieska Holland.
At that point, myself and Arthur (1st AS) had completed 17 feature films together, and Robin (1st AS) had done about 10 of them with us so we were a very collaborative team who knew each others roles and worked in complete symbiotic balance. I had done a lot of music video’s at the start of my career in the late 80’s and early 90’s, using the playback role as a way of getting to know film sound equipment, on set protocols/film making and of course networking. So before i did my first musical feature film i had a thorough knowledge of the music video genre.
Whilst reading the script of the film it became clear that there would be a lot of music playback which didn’t faze me, but what i didn’t realise at that point was how musically intricate and detailed Ed Harris’s portrayal of Beethoven would be and how intrinsic the playback element of the movie would be to the timing of Ed's performance & the film making process.
The film didn’t have a big budget and after being offered the film and accepting, it was suggested that i should only bring Arthur to Budapest and that we could pick up a local assistant. I didn’t know a whole lot about musicals but i knew enough to say that i would not do the movie unless our UK assistant Robin could join us. This negotiation went on until about 2 weeks before the start of the shoot, with Production insisting a local assistant would be fine and me refusing to budge. The reason i write this now, and feel it is important to share is because i honestly feel if i had agreed and only myself and Arthur had gone to do the movie my career may have taken a completely different path. Why? Because i would have failed to deliver on my very first musical. It would not have been just a small failure, it would have damaged the film. Let me explain why, but before i do i need to just say that in the end, due to an extremely supportive and incredibly collaborative Line Producer i was finally allowed to bring Robin.
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