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Welcome to Movies We Like. Each episode, Andy Nelson and Pete Wright invite a film industry veteran to discuss one of their favorite films. What makes a movie inspirational to a cinematographer or a costume designer? Listen in to hear how these pros watch their favorite films. Part of The Next Reel family of film podcasts.
Welcome to Movies We Like, part of the True Story FM Entertainment Podcast Network. I'm subprime Andy Nelson, and that over there is p Wright. Hi. Today's episode, we've got our 1st returning guest. That is right.
Andy Nelson:It is Andy Nelson Prime rerecording Mixer, back with us to talk about his work on Wicked as well as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, movie he likes. Andy, welcome back to the show.
Andy Nelson (I):Thank you. Hi. Great to be back.
Andy Nelson:Oh, thrilled to have you back talking about, everything you've been up to since we last chatted with you a few years ago. Most of which, I mean, you've been keeping busy with all these movies. But, of course, right now, I mean, we're recording this right after Wicked just had its, its premiere. And, you were a big part of creating this the world of the audio for that. So, let's kinda start with that.
Andy Nelson:I mean, I'm very curious about musicals and in your role and everything. You've worked on a lot of musicals. I think hook I it doesn't really count as a musical, but there is a song sung in that one, and there are a few of those. But then, I mean, Evita, that was a big one. Yes.
Andy Nelson:And and and what that was full on music from start to finish. In the role of what you're doing, rerecording, mixing a film, do you feel there's much of a difference when you're approaching a movie?
Andy Nelson (I):You know, that's that's a really good question because there is and there isn't. I mean, clearly, when you're putting a soundtrack of a movie together, no matter what it is, whether it's drama, thriller, comedy, action, music, you know, you're you're telling the story the best way you can through sound. So so I I, you know, I I I work very closely with the director to try and achieve that vision, and it doesn't matter how it's being told. So so in in in so yes, the the the the every movie has its challenges. Musicals are an extra challenge and and and here's the thing, why having done so many of them now, and I've learned so much over the years.
Andy Nelson (I):I mean, I I learn on every movie. I never stop learning. And techniques change and ideas. But the thing about a musical modern ending is is is hugely important from the sound point of view to approach it early on with the idea of how are we gonna achieve the best possible rendition of the songs. Now what you're obviously gonna do is you're gonna look at every single song in the movie and prerecord it.
Andy Nelson (I):So you're gonna bring the artists in early. They're gonna be prerecording, usually with a temporary music track because they're gonna actually provide all the music recordings later, but they're gonna have to work with the rhythm tracks and things to to get all the tempos correct. Microphone choices, for instance, show hugely important because, you know, in the good old days of musicals, you'd there'd be talking, and then suddenly they'd sing a song, and it would sound complete. Right. You know, we all grew up listening to those musicals.
Andy Nelson (I):And, of course, things have advanced to the point now where hopefully you don't hear any difference whatsoever. And the reason for that is the microphone choices early on. So it's all about pre planning this before they ever shoot a film. I remember when I worked on a Vita with Alan Parker. He prerecorded what he did is he storyboarded every shot in the movie himself.
Andy Nelson (I):He would just do sketches of where he knew the camera wanted to be, etcetera, for every song. And then when he went into the studio with Madonna and Antonio Banderas and started to record the vocals, because he had storyboarded it, he knew that in a particular moment in one song, Madonna would be running downstairs, for instance, and and singing. So during the prerecall process, he had the foresight to get her a little out of breath and because then he knew that when he fill when he filmed it, if she was a little bit breathless on her vocal, it would match the way it looked. Of course. Yeah.
Andy Nelson (I):Of course. If you don't do that, the artist is running or doing something or dancing and they're just singing normally. It sounds weird. You never connect. There's a disconnect between so he brilliantly did that.
Andy Nelson (I):The funny thing else, when he'd finished all those recordings with her, he he contacted me and said, I feel like I've just made the movie, but I haven't shot a frame. And and because he was exhausted from from directing everything with all the visuals in mind, but he hasn't. They haven't got to the set yet. So that's one example of how much pre thought has to go into a musical, if you like. So now jump forward to today, and, you know, ever since I worked with Simon Hayes, who recorded this Wicked as well, the production mix on set, he and I did, Les Miserables together.
Pete Wright:That was gonna be my next question. Wasn't that done completely differently?
Andy Nelson (I):Oh, that that's what I was gonna get to. So now forget the Alan Parker approach in those days. Now, Tom Hooper says, I wanna try doing the whole thing live as if it's a complete live show. So, of course, that's in that's challenge beyond anything that had really been done before. And Simon Hayes, brilliant brilliant guy, just stepped up to the plate and said, okay.
Andy Nelson (I):Then, you know, we're gonna have to figure this out. Clearly, there's digital work that has to happen with the picture because the artists, if they're gonna sing live, you can't really have playback speakers on the set because it's gonna corrupt the vocal in in a in such they have to wear ear earwigs. So, of course, when they're wearing an earwig and the camera's on them, unless it's 1 on one side, if if the camera's, you know, here and the earwig is here, you can get away with it. But often when the cameras are moving, you can't. So immediately, you know that there's digital work has to happen to the visuals to get rid of all the earwigs after the event.
Andy Nelson (I):Oh my god. So so, you know, you all these things have to be thought out. Now, Tom Hooped shot Les Miserables a lot with 3 cameras, you know, wide angle, medium, and a close. And and he ended up using a lot of the close-up shots because he liked the feel, but but the immediacy of the of the actor in in front of him. But again, that's a challenge for sound because if you wanna get a boom mic in, which is often the best sounding mic, But on a 3 camera shoot, the you can't get the boom in very cut tight because the other two cameras are gonna see it.
Andy Nelson (I):The close-up will be fine, but the medium and the wide are gonna see the boom. So so tremendous challenges, and I have to say that Simon Hayes just just rose to it, the occasion brilliantly. The other problem you've got also is that you've now gotta deal with actors that, a, can sing well and consistently. Because, for instance, take the opening, prologue in in in Les Miserables. I think it's a 4 minute piece that Hugh Jackman sings, something like that.
Pete Wright:And he's in water with a giant ship moving across the set?
Andy Nelson (I):That's the very opening of the film, which, by the way, the water splashing corrupted all the microphones, and so that was a nightmare for for Simon. But but, but that's another story. But, no, the prologue starts just a little later than that. It's once he's stolen if you remember the story, he steals some gold. The bread.
Andy Nelson (I):Yeah. Well, that's what gets him in prison is the bread, but he steals when he goes to when the, priest puts him up for the night and then he's killed. And that's when he has his come come to Jesus moment, literally, and he sings the syllabic. The problem with that is it's a 4 minute piece that was continuous. How many times are you gonna ask him to sing that perfectly?
Andy Nelson (I):So so the the thing that Simon had on that was he was able to more or less say cup if the sound wasn't working Because they weren't gonna put Hugh through that whole thing and then say, oh, well, none of it's any good. Right.
Andy Nelson:They already knew. Okay.
Andy Nelson (I):Unlike a normal film where you'd say, well, we're just ADR, what we didn't get. Tom Nipoll wanted to do that. He needed it to be live. So anyway, so so so that was the experience on Les Miserables. So now we come to Wicked.
Andy Nelson (I):I first saw the show, gosh, many years ago with my wife, and I remember within 10 minutes turning to her and saying, this is gonna be a great movie one day because there was something really cinematic about the presentation of that show when when I saw it on stage, and I absolutely loved it. And so jump forward to the film that I was doing with the producer, Mark Platt, who is the producer that's primarily responsible for for staging the Wicked show. He's he's everything to do with Wicked is through Mark Platt's production. And, I did, La La Land, which he produced. When when I finished La La Land, Mark said to me, Wicked's coming.
Andy Nelson (I):And how long ago La La Land? 9 years now? I don't know.
Andy Nelson:Yeah. 2016.
Andy Nelson (I):7 years? 8 years? So every 6 months, I'd email him and say, is it coming? Am I gonna do it?
Andy Nelson:You thought you thought you said. Yeah.
Andy Nelson (I):He'd say, yeah, it's coming. And and at that point, they actually had an English director. So my assumption was I'd probably have to go to London to do the soundtrack. And anyway, as we move through time, of course, it changed. It became John Chu, who I'd never met.
Andy Nelson (I):So I immediately felt, well, it's all very well for Mark to say that, but I've got the director might not want me, you know? Right. Yeah. People he normally works with or whatever. So I was out at one of the BAFTA awards in London.
Andy Nelson (I):I think it was on, of West Side Story or I think or Elvis. I can't remember. 1 of the years I was out there a couple of years ago. And I extended my stay to London by an extra day and, went up to the set of Wicked. And I actually walked into the set where in the wizard's throne, it was
Andy Nelson:Oh, wow. Yeah.
Andy Nelson (I):Because it was so big. I cut looked up at the ceiling so many times thinking, this is unbelievable. Because you're so used to seeing in movies all the digital effects. And when you actually go on to a practical set that's real and built, And and by the way, John, the the a lot of the stuff in Wicked was very practical, and I think it's so perfect for that because the actors really get to experience the environment. I was just blown away by it.
Andy Nelson (I):And then John was shooting, and, we would grab every 5 minutes. He would take a break from the shot while they set up, and he'd run out to the back and chat with me. And that was it, and I was down. And I got back in the car to go to the hotel, and I thought, I have no idea if I'm hired or not. I can't tell.
Andy Nelson (I):He couldn't focus on me, and I couldn't I was nervous and all you know, after all these years, I mean, it was my audition. You know?
Andy Nelson:Yeah. Wow. Anyway Wow.
Andy Nelson (I):He he did hire me and, jump forward to to today, and it's it's, it's been an extraordinary experience. And again, Simon Hayes, brilliant job, live singing. Now you get Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. I mean, the singing is unbelievable. We talk about voices that are incredibly compatible.
Andy Nelson (I):You know, I heard I remember hearing a long time ago about Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel that they sang in such a way that one mic would capture their vocals better than individual mics on them. There was some sort of acoustic interaction in their voices. I I I I read this or saw it on a documentary by the sound engineer that worked with them. So I know it was it was the realest thing. And he said that there there was something about their voices just working in harmony and together that somehow captured on one mic really beautifully.
Andy Nelson (I):And, I have to say the girls are like this. They're very much like Really? When they sing together, it's just pure heaven. It it really was a dream. And I think that, again, going into the shoot, they weren't sure what they could capture live.
Andy Nelson (I):Now different type of movie than Les Mis because you've got dance sequences and things. And often in dancing, of course, you can't you know, the physicality doesn't allow you
Pete Wright:to. Sure. Sure.
Andy Nelson (I):So so, you know, it's captured live wherever it can possibly be captured. And we had a brilliant vocal engineer mixer, an editor called Robin Bainton from England, who really took every single line of vocal, every single angle, and just comped it in such a way that it was absolutely beautiful. Obviously, working in in tandem with Myron Kerstin, who's the picture editor, and and selecting the takes that they wanted visually and things. But at the end of the day, it's it's as real as it can be, and, I'm incredibly proud of it.
Andy Nelson:That's fantastic. Are are you all already busy working on part 2, or do you have a brief respite before you kick in with that one?
Andy Nelson (I):I do. Yes. The the picture department don't, and nor does John Chu. Right. He he's he's taken a slight break for the birth of his baby and, a bit of publicity on this film, which he's gonna be crazy busy on for a couple of weeks here.
Andy Nelson (I):But, no, they're they've started to work on it. It was all shot. The both films were shot at the same time.
Andy Nelson:Right. Right.
Andy Nelson (I):Yeah. Yeah. So I've seen an assembly of it. It's gonna be fabulous. And they've now gotta obviously do all the fine tuning and work that's needed.
Andy Nelson (I):But I won't probably start the mix until, you know, spring of next year, maybe, May May, June, July, somewhere like that. I I did this when I started this one in I went to London to attend the orchestra recording sessions at, Air Lyndhurst Studios in early June, I think. And then I actually started the mix towards the end of June, and we finished at the end of September. So it's it'll be similar to that next year probably. Maybe a maybe a month earlier if we're lucky.
Andy Nelson:Is that that and that's about as long as you're normally working on a film. Right? It doesn't change whether it's a musical or not.
Andy Nelson (I):No. Not really. I mean, obviously, it's it's some of it's on because of budget. And, you know, if if it's a if it's a fairly low budget film, it's only not gonna give you that length of time to do a sound mix.
Andy Nelson:Sure. Yeah. But, we this
Andy Nelson (I):was a good amount of time. We we didn't feel too rushed. We didn't here's the lovely thing. It was done in such a way that we didn't need to work late nights, we didn't need to work weekends, which is so wonderful because, you know, when you're subjected to sound mixing, loud pressure levels and things all day long, it by 8 or 9 or 10 at night, it's for me anyway, I'm, you know, I know I'm not doing my best work. And you do that day after day without any days off, and it it's it's debilitating, and I've done many of those over the years.
Andy Nelson (I):And this was a delight that, you know, come 7 o'clock at night, we would sort of, wait, see you tomorrow. And that was like, wow. That I can handle that. That was good. And I think con creatively, it's so much smarter because you you often look.
Andy Nelson (I):I've done mixes at midnight, and I come in the next morning. And the first two hours, you're unpicking some of your work because it's like, well, what what were we thinking? You know? Yeah. And So some
Pete Wright:different guy did that mix. Yeah.
Andy Nelson (I):Yeah. It's it's an expensive waste of time, to be frank. You stop at a good time, get some, you know, rest, come back, and you just carry on where you left off. So I actually think it was so much more productive and better for everybody all around and,
Andy Nelson:well and I think that speaks largely to any of kind of creative work. Like, you wanna have, you know, your best energies to put forth. And anytime you're working long hours for multiple days, I mean, it can wear you down to a point where you're just not delivering anymore. So I think that's smart.
Andy Nelson (I):Well, I think there's a there's a thing in Hollywood sort of it's almost there are certain people that think if you're not putting that sort of hours in, you're not doing everything you can, you know? And I I just think I think it's so smart when people don't expect that and understand that the best result isn't gonna come that way.
Andy Nelson:It's and it's hard, you know, having worked in on, like, small independent films. Sometimes it's like you're limited with your budgets. Like, well, we only have this many days, so we've gotta do, you know, crazy long days to kind of get everything done as opposed to, you know, when you have the time and you can say, we don't need to work crazy long days. We can work, you know, relatively normal days and and get the job done better. And I think it's smart, but it's it's hard to always have that.
Andy Nelson:Yeah.
Andy Nelson (I):No. It is. I know. It's a luxury, to to have that time, but, ultimately, it's not any, more expensive. That's the thing.
Andy Nelson (I):Because because we work, under under sort of union hours, if if if you like, you know, it does get expensive at night. And I've often said, rather than doing 2 late nights, let's just add an extra day. You'll get so much more done in a normal day than you would in 2, 3 hour blocks in the evening. You know? So it it doesn't ultimately make it more expensive, but you do have to have the luxury of more time.
Pete Wright:Yeah. Question about the well, I'm I'm gonna call it the responsibility to Wicked. I mean, as you said, you you saw it when, you know, years ago. I I assume you saw at least close to original cast?
Andy Nelson (I):I never saw Idina or Kristen. No. I would love to see pop. No. It was a London cast, and I don't know who it was.
Andy Nelson (I):I'm sorry.
Pete Wright:There there is something about seeing the stage show and the fact that the stage show is sort of mutable, right? Like it changes from cast to cast from location to location. It's a thing that's sort of a living breathing orchestration of parts and voices and wicked has become over the last decade or so a a staple in musical theater. And I'm curious how you approach these properties from the perspective of capturing a print, like a fingerprint of sound that is going to essentially replace all prior knowledge of what this thing is?
Andy Nelson (I):Yeah. That's a really good question again. And I'll tell you when it when it hit me hard. So when I went to London to do the, just to witness the recordings, I wasn't part of recording the orchestra, but I wanted to be in the room. I wanted to experience getting to know Stephen Schwartz, the original composer, lyricist for the move for the show, you know, who's who wrote everything.
Andy Nelson (I):I wanted to I hadn't met him up to that point, so I wanted to have a few days where I could just share a room and listen to to his thoughts. While I was there, I also went to see the show to refresh my memory while I was in in London, just prior to starting on the film really because I needed to do a little refresher. But here's the thing, for about 2 months prior to me starting the picture, I listened in the car every day to the studio to the Broadway cast recording. And I just listened endlessly to it because I wanted to immerse myself in every song, get familiar with all the dramatic dialogue sections of the movie didn't worry me at all. I just needed to feel I had to focus on these songs.
Andy Nelson (I):So I spent hours and hours listening to the songs over and over. Just because I wanted to get it into my blood system, I needed to feel the balancing and the pertinent moments when a certain line was stronger than somewhere. You know, I just needed to feel it. So I go to London. Now, remember, in in the cast recordings and up to this point on the show, the most that anybody's ever heard musically is about a 16 piece pit orchestra, roughly that way.
Andy Nelson (I):So I go and sit down at Aehr Studios in London, and Steve Aramis, who was the executive music producer and also conductor, raises baton to the orchestra, and they start playing. I can't even remember what the first song was we were recording. And I just threw everything I'd learned out of the window because I had never and and the world has never heard it played like that, with a full, magnifold
Pete Wright:Full orchestra.
Andy Nelson (I):Beautiful orchestra. Now this is just the orchestra section. On top of that, when it was all finished and mixed in, it then comes back to LA. And the music producer, Greg Wells, very well known talented, Grammy winning, producer and musician, did all the drums, the bass, the keyboards, the guitars. So now, you've got all the rhythm tracks against a 90 piece orchestra.
Andy Nelson (I):It was unbelievable. So, to answer your question, I threw everything out and just started fresh because okay, so there's the music. Now you've got the 2 girls, well, and and Michelle Yeoh, of course, and, Jeff Goldblum, but primarily Glinda and Elphaba, the 2 leads, who are now delivering it in a way that it hasn't been delivered before either. It's obviously gonna be a completely different experience. So I think it was more about it was less about trying to preserve the original as opposed to just saying, this is a brand new experience, and and you're not gonna experience it like this again.
Andy Nelson (I):And the irony is I when I did go back to that show in London while I was there for the orchestra recording, it felt small. The the all the memory I had of that show, which blew me away, still blew me away visually and everything, but the sound felt small because I just left the studio with 90 pieces of play. Got it. So I thought, okay. I can't dwell on all this everything that's gone before.
Andy Nelson (I):I now have to focus on how do we make this a huge big screen soundtrack. And, and I had the benefit now, of course, Dolby Atmos, you know, endless numbers of speakers I can play with in the room. You know? I mean, I it was like a little you know, I was in I was in Disneyland. You know?
Andy Nelson (I):I was having the best time ever.
Pete Wright:Okay. I just have to ask before we, before we turn eventually to Butch and Sundance, you talk about Atmos. I'm gonna sit down in this in this to see this movie in the biggest screen that we have in the Portland metro area, and I am going to be listening for it in Atmos. What are you most excited about for me to hear?
Andy Nelson (I):So the the advantage of Atmos for me, because Atmos is generally a tool that people think of sound effects. And, you know, I mean, when when I did Star Wars, you know, we would have the TIE fighters go down
Pete Wright:the street. Flying over you. Yeah. Sure. Yeah.
Andy Nelson (I):Things like that. So you generally think of Atmos as, oh, this is gonna be, you know, fantastic sound. Something like Dune where you've got a lot of low end, you've got a lot of, you know, you can, you know so the advantages of Atmos for music is because we have full range surround speakers, I I feel you can immerse yourself a little bit more musically because, in 7 1 or 51, they're filtered surrounds that you lose a lot of the low end. In Atmos, you don't. So for me, the beauty of Atmos is just to feel the sonic sound of the music everywhere around you.
Andy Nelson (I):Now, I'm not a fan of bringing the music too far out into the room, personally. I like it to feel attached to the screen. I like it to be part of the sort of overall sense. You know, 70% needs to be in front of you on the screen. But I love the feel of it all around you.
Andy Nelson (I):So the recordings that Nick Woolich did in London for the orchestra, he and I sat down and discussed how to treat the Atmos. So what he did is he'd placed microphones overhead in the studio so he could capture something to go above us. He did, created the surrounds so that I had plenty to play with. And then when I got it into the mix room here at Warner Brothers in Burbank, I was then able to just go, okay, listen to every single channel and feel where it all sits, but still primarily aimed at the screen. So that that's just my taste, and I feel it's just better to sort of glue it to the screen in that sense.
Andy Nelson (I):That was the main advantage to Atmos, was the feeling that you could have it, a presence of that music all around you without being aware of it. You know, I could turn off the overhead speakers on and off, and you wouldn't really detect a change because I never wanted you to realize it was there. But when it was, it just it it just felt natural. And so for me, that's the advantage of mixing in Atmos. But we did a IMAX mix, which sounded great as well, the 51, the 7.
Andy Nelson (I):They all were really happy with all of the different versions. It's just that you start with Atmos as your kind of primo, if you like, and then have to adjust
Andy Nelson:to go. From there. Yeah. Knowing the history of this particular story and, you know, Maguire's original vision of actually taking it from Frank l Baum's books, The Wizard of Oz, and everything, which in and of itself is a classic Hollywood musical. Did John Choo did did your team did any of the creatives look at that as an element that you were also trying to figure out?
Andy Nelson:Like, is are there nods? Are there things that we want to kind of, like, tip of the hat to the original wizard of Oz in in a way? I mean, obviously, the musical on Broadway already likely did some of that. But knowing that this is a movie, Wizard of Oz is a movie, is there some thread that we're seeing just or hearing or anything?
Andy Nelson (I):Well, it's a prequel. You know, it is prior to The Wizard
Andy Nelson:of Oz.
Pete Wright:Sure.
Andy Nelson (I):So as you know so so so as I wouldn't say so much in film 1, but, film 2 takes us toward that sort of transition, if you like. And I don't know that I should speak any more about that because
Pete Wright:it's not
Andy Nelson (I):fun. Well, the the other thing is it's not it's not meant to be The Wizard of Oz, obviously. It's it's got nothing to do with that, as a new version, a new story, but there is a connective tissue going through. So I'll I'll just, I think that's all I'll say at this point.
Andy Nelson:No. And that's fine. I guess I just meant more, like, not even story wise, but just in the scope of, like, the Hollywood tradition of recognizing that it's coming. Like, all of this really is kind of the foundation is this this other musical. And I just didn't know if there was any, acknowledgment on the part of people involved.
Andy Nelson:Yeah.
Andy Nelson (I):There's definitely some hot tipping.
Andy Nelson:Okay. Well, we'll keep our eyes peeled for that. I I'm I'm looking forward to it. It I you know, we haven't had the the opportunity to watch it yet, but it it looks fantastic. I mean, the casting is great.
Andy Nelson:Everybody is just you know, I know the Internet's really excited about a lot of the casting, and I just think it it's gonna be a very exciting and big movie. I'm very curious about the the split and how all of that's gonna go as far as splitting it from 1 movie or from 1 story into, like, the 2 parts, which
Andy Nelson (I):I I I'll tell you this much. Again, going back to my history of musicals, the transition when you're in a theater, as you know, when you get to a crucial point and the curtain drops and you go off and have a whatever you're gonna have, a glass of wine or wander around, there's that it's like a it's like having a palate cleanser, isn't it? It's it's, you come back, you sit down, the lights go down, and no matter what you've just seen, you're ready for the second part of the story. And Wicked, undoubtedly, as you know, Fett ends on a big note for the end of part 1. I think John, Chu, and the studio were so smart to split it because without going into details on any of the other films, some of the transitions in that middle section are tough to do because you can go from a very dramatic moment to a lighter moment.
Andy Nelson (I):And and how do you turn that corner? Well, you turn the corner in the theater beautifully by closing the curtain. Hard to do that inside of 1 movie. Also, when you've got a lot of story, something's gonna give. So and and what happens is that the songs become closer and closer and closer together because the bulk of it, you need to deliver every song.
Andy Nelson (I):It's it's tough. So it doesn't leave you a lot of room for for any of the character development and things. So I'm a huge fan of what John's done because I can tell you now, film 1 delivers as a standalone. No question about it. 100%, it delivers.
Andy Nelson (I):It get it you it tees you up beautifully, but you don't feel deprived in any way. But what it allows are these sections where you can really get to know the characters, and you wouldn't be able to do that if you tried to make everything into one film. And and when I saw this the show recently again, that reminded me of how tough that is because it would go song to song. And and you don't have you can't get to know everybody and enjoy the the drama of, and the relationship of the two leads. You know, when they first meet, they don't like each other, as you know.
Andy Nelson (I):And it's it's that how does that evolve? There's a beautiful sequence in the middle of film 1, which is where they go to the old star dust dance. I can't wait for you guys to see that. It's it's powerful. But you couldn't have done you couldn't have done a sequence so intimate and so beautiful as that if if it had all been one movie.
Andy Nelson (I):You wouldn't have had the time.
Pete Wright:Yeah. I I don't think I'm alone when I say that there is a certain cynicism that has grown up around splitting movies to part 1, part 2. And it came in an era maybe 10 years ago when we had a lot of the You properties that were coming out and were split from 1 to 2. And maybe we can rationalize why they did it narratively, but it didn't it it just felt like they wanted 2 tickets instead of 1 to be sold. And so, I I can I can understand the criticism that come that came when it was announced that Wicked was, because we already knew Wicked was gonna be coming as a movie?
Pete Wright:But when it was announced that it was gonna be split, I don't think that was met with universally, you know, positive appeal. Right? And and so it's it's refreshing to hear your take on it that that it's earned. That's that's certainly my biggest concern. But by the time we get to the big moment at the end, that it doesn't feel like you're just gonna let me down because you don't Les Mis is a great example.
Pete Wright:Why not just give me a 3 and a half hour movie if that's what it takes? So
Andy Nelson (I):Yeah. I think look. I agree with you. I think there's a sort of a cynical view of a cash grab that people do. Like you said, if they why why do listen.
Andy Nelson (I):I watch streaming programs now that are 8 8 episodes, and I know that could be told in 4. You know, there's so much Yes. Grace, so much padding that goes in. It drives me insane. And I would be the well, I would be politically, would be hard for me to say something about this if I didn't feel that this was right, but I can tell you now, this is right.
Andy Nelson (I):There's no question this is right. I think you and I've seen the I've sat with the audiences. They it's not a it's not deliberately done to try and add out something. This is definitely somewhere where you want to you wanna be with these characters, you want to go through what they're experiencing. There's there's gotta be a journey, there has to be an arc in their relationship because it it's an incredible relationship between the two leads.
Andy Nelson (I):You can't do that too quickly. And and and having, again, seen the show recently, it's done pretty fast. Yeah. Yeah. And I think the film allows you the luxury of of really, you know so I hope that criticism goes away.
Pete Wright:Me too.
Andy Nelson:Yeah. Once, yeah, once everybody gets a chance to see it, we we absolutely can't wait. Well, it's it's coming soon, so we'll have a chance to talk about it right around Thanksgiving here in the states.
Andy Nelson (I):Yes.
Andy Nelson:Before we switch gears, any big projects that you're getting started on or working on right now as as next in the line?
Andy Nelson (I):Well, the no. Obviously, the apart from the second movie next year, I'm actually gonna do there's a there's a lovely little book that Richard Osman wrote called The Thursday Murder Club. And, Steven Spielberg fan. Massive fan.
Pete Wright:I'm sorry. I I can't I can't speak right now. Are you serious? I didn't even know that was coming. This is huge news
Andy Nelson (I):for me. With a brilliant cast, and I'm gonna be Chris Columbus is directing it. And, I am actually gonna see it tomorrow night for the first time in its rough cut form, and I cannot wait because, just a tiny personal story here. When my wife read the book, halfway through, she said to me, there's something weird here. And I said, why?
Andy Nelson (I):She said, I think the the description of this, retirement home is where my parents are. And we did some research and found out that indeed Richard Osman's mother was at the same retirement home as mine. And he based the entire story on this fictitious but, so so as soon as soon as they announced the movie, I said I called up my contacts to Amblin and said, okay. I have to do this film because I have a relationship to this story immediately. So
Pete Wright:Oh my goodness.
Andy Nelson (I):I'm gonna do that next March. March, April. Yeah. Wow.
Pete Wright:Fantastic. Outstanding. I I am giddy. I don't care about any of this other stuff. I can't wait to see.
Andy Nelson (I):Look look up the cast, Pete. Look at look up the cast. You'll be blown away. Ken Kingsley, Pierce Brosnan. And we'll know who they all are if you know the book.
Pete Wright:Naomi Ackie, Daniel Bates, Pierce Brosnan, Henry Lloyd Hughes, Jonathan Bryce, David Tennant. Wow. Okay. Well, this is fantastic.
Andy Nelson (I):Okay.
Pete Wright:Well well played.
Andy Nelson:It's gonna lots of great stuff, obviously. So we'll keep, we'll keep watching and, you know, we'll we'll, you know, hopefully get you in, for a future conversation about one of these other movies. Sure. But right now, let's shift our conversation and start talking. I wanna talk about Butch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Andy Nelson:But one of the things that you came to me with was an idea of talking about just a number of different films that affected you over the course of your life, Butch Cassidy being one of them. And I'm just curious if you could just a few minutes, just kind of take us on a journey of, like, some of these movies that have, meant so much to you over your life and and kind of those those key points.
Andy Nelson (I):Sure. Well, I you know, obviously, I'm not gonna talk about Local Hero again, but but that was one of them for sure.
Andy Nelson:That was one of them. Yeah.
Andy Nelson (I):And I've tried to analyze this over over the years myself, and I think it's, it's what drew me into to loving what I do right from the beginning, which was the emotional connection with things. The thing about Butch Cassidy that I I particularly loved was it it first of all, that was the very first year I started as a projectionist when I was 16, in in the movie theater in outside London, and I threaded and ran that film for weeks. And, I I sort of fell in love with it because my love of movies was was all being birthed at that time, really, because I was now physically holding and putting reels of film onto projectors that I'd always sort of imagined what that would feel like. And so there was a lot of emotions connected with these films. I mean, at the same time, we ran The Sound of Music for a month, and I and I fell in love with that.
Andy Nelson (I):The thing about A Midnight Cowboy, by the way, was the first literally the first film I was taught to thread on the projector. So,
Pete Wright:anyway Okay.
Andy Nelson (I):They I my connection to all these films is huge because it was a formative part of where I was gonna head to in my career. I didn't know where I was gonna head to. I had no idea. I just knew that I wanted to be involved in something that made me feel this way when the lights went down and the images hit the screen and the sound came on. That was what I loved.
Andy Nelson (I):So but I didn't know what I was gonna do. I had no idea I was gonna end up working in sound, particularly, except for the fact that I knew that when music came on, I was even more connected. So so that was my thread. So one of the things that Butch Cassidy did to me, I I'm I'd love Bert Bachrach's music. I just think Bert Bachrach is one of the coolest composers.
Andy Nelson (I):There's something about his melody, the use of keys, just again goes right to the heart for me. So what I loved about Butch Cassidy, and looking back on it now over the years as a sort of working in sound, is the lack of music. But when it is there, it's phenomenal. It's so perfectly placed in
Andy Nelson:the center stage.
Andy Nelson (I):Yeah. Center stage, take everything away, play the piece of music, and then take it away. And now we concentrate on all the natural sounds. And and there's some beautiful simple sounds in Butch Cassidy that connect you to what those two characters are really feeling and going through. So for me, it's a film I return to just because of my love of cinema.
Andy Nelson (I):It's it's as simple as that. I mean, I I can remember, another instance where I was watching Death in Venice, the Visconti film, and his use of Mahler's 5th Symphony, the the adagio in in the 5th, I was just, like, crying on the inside. It was so beautiful. And, again, it was that link of image and music that had such a profound effect on me. You know, I never imagined as a 16 year old that I'd be sitting talking about mixing giant movies like this.
Andy Nelson (I):I mean, who would have known? So but I knew that that connection was there for me. So that's where, for me, those moments in those stories, in those formative years for me, were so important. Like, I can remember when I was I can't remember what the age I was, but let's say I was 14, sitting in the movie theater, again, in London, watching Hard Days Night, and I I never left my seat. They didn't come around and kick you out in those days.
Andy Nelson (I):I sat there and watched it 3 times around without moving.
Pete Wright:Oh. I think Those
Andy Nelson (I):are the
Pete Wright:We're I mean, we're I I think we're we're roughly 20 years, difference in age, and I think that's told, all 3 of us were projectionists. Andy, do you remember your first film that you thread? That I threaded?
Andy Nelson:I I don't remember it, but, yeah, what would that have been? I I can't remember.
Pete Wright:I feel like it's telling that I remember mine and that my film no. It wasn't anything like Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid. It was, honey, I blew up the kids.
Andy Nelson (I):There you go.
Pete Wright:That's what I learned thread and had to watch it way too many times.
Andy Nelson (I):That's a fun that's a fun one. And and I bet you've I beg you remember everything about that movie, every scene change, every Oh. I mean, I used to work You're lying. When we changed over reels, so I can remember where the cue dots Yeah. I can remember the cue dots in those movies.
Pete Wright:Right. Right. Right. Our our theater was a reverse projection. My first theater was a reverse projection on glass, and so I remember the entire film backwards.
Pete Wright:It's very strange, to to actually watch. I watched it with my kids when they were younger, and it's very strange to see it in order everybody's moving the wrong direction.
Andy Nelson (I):That's so interesting. You know, I heard a story about, a director, a big name director, that when he gets bored with watching the film, you know, when they're cutting, he actually runs it in reverse. Not not backwards. I mean, flipped the way you're Yeah. Playing.
Andy Nelson (I):Oh. Left, right, right. Yeah. Because it gives him a completely different perspective on the edit. I thought that was such an interesting thing because you're seeing it in a completely different way and yet it's the same thing.
Andy Nelson:Right. You might notice things differently and stuff.
Andy Nelson (I):Yeah. So I thought that was such an interesting
Andy Nelson:Well, and because especially because I suppose you get so used to things. Like, as I mean, anytime you're in an edit or you're watching that stuff so often, and just that little shift is probably giving you a whole new take on things.
Andy Nelson (I):Yeah. I think it does. I think, again, because you're ex you know, I watch these reels over and over again when I'm working and you and and and you you just have this sense of automatic timing of when someone moves off, you know, there's gonna be a cut or and you flip it, and I think you lose those timings. And suddenly, you're seeing and then you go, oh, why are we holding on this shot for so long? We don't need to do you know, maybe it just refreshes your your memory in a completely different way.
Andy Nelson (I):And, I thought it was fascinating to hear that this person did that. So
Andy Nelson:Well, yeah. It's like Soderbergh does that, on, well, unlike some of Spielberg's films. Like, he's taken, I think, Raiders of the Lost Ark and and removed all the sound, and I think he also turned it black and white and would play it just to watch the pacing and how Spielberg would pay attention to the edits and everything. And you can notice it so much more when you when you strip all of that other stuff out, and you're just watching those elements.
Andy Nelson (I):Just your senses are more focused. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah.
Andy Nelson (I):I mean, I think it's good. I'm I'm I know editors that have come in and turned off the sound entirely and done the same thing because it they just wanna feel the pace of something. If it's a previous editor that's gone on to something else and a new editor takes over, they wanna just feel the rhythm of things without the distraction of a piece of music or something, which is often put there to help the edits. But if but in some ways, if you take that off, it sort of exposes the edits and maybe it allows a new editor to see it in a different way. And, so I've I've seen people do that before.
Andy Nelson (I):It is true. I think you can you can there are there are picture editors that like to cut with music right from the date right from the first frame. And I I I'm of old fashioned, and I think that maybe that's I think what you're doing is maybe masking a good edit or or hiding the possibility of better edits by just allowing music to sort of distract you almost. So so I I I'm I do believe that sometimes stripping it down is a good thing. And, it's like when I'm mixing, you know, I mean, if I if I'm not sure of the story or anything, I mean, I turn stuff down, I turn it off, and I just watch this I just wanna hear what they're saying and forget everything else and sort of sort of sort of maybe some of the answers will get revealed as to why I'm not figuring out quite how the mix should flow at that point.
Andy Nelson (I):So I think you can it can be distracting when you're trying to figure out the correct sort of story
Pete Wright:line. I I wanna talk about it within Butch Cassidy, the you know, since we're talking about music, right in the middle, we get the fantastic bicycle montage.
Andy Nelson (I):Raindrops.
Pete Wright:Raindrops are falling on your head. And I don't remember when it happened because this movie is one of my favorite movies of all time. But I remember the first time seeing it, I thought that was bonkers. That was a weird choice. It was jarring, and it took me out of the movie.
Pete Wright:And now I love it.
Andy Nelson (I):Yeah.
Pete Wright:What's your stance on raindrops in this movie and how you chose to use this, George Roy Hill?
Andy Nelson (I):So it's actually the apart from the opening title, which is showing the hole in the wall gang, it's the first piece of music. Yes. There that is the first piece of music. So because you've now met your characters and you you've had this red herring of of, Sundance going to the supposedly getting this girl to take her clothes off and to, you know, give her, and then, of course, she says, you know, why are you always so late? And and you cut into and you've met the bicycle because they've already shown the the demonstration of that.
Andy Nelson (I):How do
Pete Wright:you The Chekabab's bicycle. Yeah. So
Andy Nelson (I):so I think the the whimsy of that is just perfect because it allows you to take all the seriousness away, which has been fairly heavy up to that point. And you go, okay. These these 2 are this is just gonna be fun. You know? This is this is a so so for me, I didn't have that reaction you had at all.
Andy Nelson (I):I found it was almost like I've been holding my breath and I could suddenly relax. It took it did that to me. And, yeah, I I mean, I just love the use of that.
Andy Nelson:Another element which which, well, ties into that song and ties into what you were saying a minute ago is the interesting idea of not including any additional sound effects of anything else going on in the scene. And I I think that's an interesting way to approach this where, you know, I I'm assuming that at some point, George Roy Hill I mean, I maybe it was right out of the gate. He always knew he wanted it to play that way. But, I mean, it's a I I also think that there's probably a process of working with people like you and the sound designer and everybody to figure out what are we gonna be hearing here. Are we do we need to record all this sound?
Andy Nelson:You know?
Andy Nelson (I):Yeah. Well, I think, god, I would love to, know what how that did occur during whether that was a decision that came up at the beginning or whether it happened through trying things and deciding. I think, ultimately, the beauty of it is the fact that when you don't accompany it with any sound, it's very much inside their heads. You know? It's not a that that's the that's where I think it works.
Andy Nelson (I):By actually removing everything else, it becomes their own little sort of silly fantasy, and, and if you'd made it too realistic underneath it I mean, I can't remember if there's any sound effects. There may have been a bit of the bicycle perhaps, but I feel it's it's all from his perspective, from Butch's perspective sort of thing.
Pete Wright:Yeah. I think it's pretty quiet because they drop it. All the montages are completely silent underneath the music, and the end is pretty montage heavy.
Andy Nelson (I):Yeah. The latest stuff for sure. I can't remember on that one. I should watch just that one sequence again with that in mind. But I do feel it allows you to sort of like I said, for me, it's like relaxing into the the more fun, buddy part of the story.
Andy Nelson:If there's anything, it feels like it's the when the bike crashes through the fence. Like, I'm like, maybe there's, like, like, kind of a comedic crash sound. Like, that might be the only thing, but, yeah, it's very light though.
Andy Nelson (I):I think you might be right. That probably
Pete Wright:One of the things that's so effortless about that sequence is just how how easily it gives us the complexity of their relationship, the threesome, that when she gets one line that says, do you ever wonder if I'd met you first, if we'd been together, if we'd be the ones together, That sells you everything and completely sells or earns the last three and a half minutes of them riding a bicycle and just clearly loving on each other, but in a way that wasn't, you know, hypersexualized or anything. It's just lovely.
Andy Nelson (I):Absolutely. It had a charm to it that, that that and and a and a real feeling that there was a a love between them all at that point, which really pays off, of course, for their journey, or, you know, later in the film.
Andy Nelson:The the thing that I really took away on this, most recent watch was the journey. I mean, I I feel like the first half of the film is the is the part my brain always remembers, like, the whole pursuit, by Lechamps and everything. But it was the part in Bolivia that really stuck with me this time because it's like right before they leave, he takes the bicycle and is and shoves it off and is like like, see you later, future, or something like that. And I was like, it's such an interesting shift in the film where we are now with these 3 who kind of are refusing to grow up. Right?
Andy Nelson:There's they wanna stay stuck in the past, stuck in the way that things were, the way that things worked for them always before. When they try working, it never really works out. So they're just gonna stick with that even though everything else is changing around them. And to the point where they can't even stay in their own country, they end up going off to Bolivia to do all of this. And I find that such an interesting journey for these two characters who just they're like little cowboy Peter Pans.
Andy Nelson:They can't grow up. They have to do they have to keep robbing stuff, and it's the only way they can see moving forward.
Andy Nelson (I):Absolutely. And they're kinda running out of options all the time. And as you said, they're they're just it's like, okay. We're we're as one door shuts, we gotta try and open another one and keep moving, but but they're not moving forward. They're just, as you said, stuck in their familiar patterns.
Andy Nelson (I):And I I just yeah. As everything about it, I love.
Pete Wright:What so you saw this in London, your first time. Right? You're a Brit, a young Brit.
Andy Nelson (I):When I was young. Watching Yes. Yes.
Pete Wright:Yeah. Watching this movie, this movie that is ostensibly about the end of the old west. Right, that the future is encroaching on the future, but it's the end of the old west America. It is a a movie steeped in American mythology. Do you remember your sort of youthful exuberance for that kind of of, alternative hero story?
Andy Nelson (I):I think the thing about it was, for me, and and this applied to a lot of different films as well, was the fact that, you know, on a rainy day on a afternoon in London, everything looks so exotic that was elsewhere. So for me, it was it wasn't so much any of the sort of mythology and the the the out west. It was just that it was very, very different from everything I knew and grew up with as a kid in London. And so it felt incredibly special and different. And so I didn't necessarily understand, I'm sure, any sort of the history side of things.
Andy Nelson (I):It was just the fact that I felt such freedom and, interest and anxiety about or or or desire to to to to go to somewhere and experience that sort of look and feel and, you know, South America, obviously, very exotic. Certainly, America itself, I never imagined being able to travel to America, you know, at that age. So I think that was the thing. It was more that it it was such a sort of a a a release away from my life in London.
Andy Nelson:Were you a fan of westerns at the time? Were you watching
Andy Nelson (I):No. Not particularly. Not particularly. And I think that that's why I used to love the spaghetti westerns, by the way. I did like those.
Andy Nelson (I):But, you know, I wasn't a particular fan of Westerns, but I think that there was something about these characters that I really loved and connected to. And and and I think that Katharine Ross was a big part of those as well. I mean, it's very beautiful, and and and just that sort of sense of just the fun and and then the tragedy of the whole thing was was such high drama to me, I think, at that time.
Andy Nelson:I feel like so much of the reason that I love this film is William Goldman's script. I find that he made the characters just just so easy to kind of connect to from the beginning. And watching the initial confrontation that Butch and and have with the hole in wall the wall gang when they they're gonna revolt, you know, and he has that whole, the knife fight, and then, you know, he just punches the guy. He's like, well, there's no rules. And he's like, kicks him in the crotch.
Pete Wright:He's like, alright. Somebody better count. 321, 321, go. Yeah.
Andy Nelson (I):321, go. And, I mean, again, you've got you've got a sense of Butch at that moment. He was gonna gain control, but you didn't quite know how or what. And you could tell when he would walk up to Sundance and say, if if he kills me, kill him. You know?
Andy Nelson (I):I mean, all those lovely little moments between them were van were were the vulnerability, just like when when Sundance reveals he can't swim. It's the same wonderful moment of, like, okay, these guys are pretty amazing, but they're really just human and and have their flaws like everybody else. And, again, I think that just, for me, drew me in all the time. So they weren't some sort of un unapproachable hero type. They were just everyday guys that were, you know, doing what they did.
Andy Nelson:Trying to figure out how to make it work.
Pete Wright:It's it's not so much that they created characters that made me see myself on screen, but they made me see who I wanted to to be. I wanted to have the the capacity for the wit and banter that these two guys have together. And it's the same thing, you know, with the sting. Right? It's just that that general camaraderie is very special.
Pete Wright:Like, you talk about how Cynthia and, Ariana are when they sing together. I get that feeling with Paul Newman and Robert Redford on screen.
Andy Nelson (I):100%. 100%. And, obviously, that's comes from the script. It comes from great casting, and it comes from I assume I don't know that I've ever read this, but I would assume that Redford and Newman like each other, I think. I would hope.
Andy Nelson (I):Because I can tell you Cynthia and, Ariana, love each other. I mean, there's and and that comes across. You can't you can't fake that. And I would love to think that with Butch Cassidy and Sundance that they have a relationship as well off screen or or or an admiration, whatever it is, that allows that those moments to come through. Because that is where the vulnerability is, where where you perceive it as an audience is in those moments that are genuine, and they usually only come when the actors are being genuine between themselves sort of thing, I think, anyway.
Andy Nelson:Right. For me, they've always felt like they could have been best friends who happened to get cast with each other. Like, it just reads that way in here in the sting. Like, they always have that feel of just 2 actors who just have figured out how to work really well together. You know?
Andy Nelson:And and I just I just there's just sheer joy watching them. And also, I think that they are able to find the ways to to, play different characters like here and the sting, but still have that connection. You know? And I think that's that can be a tricky thing for actors to, to still be best friends, but totally different characters and totally different context.
Andy Nelson (I):Absolutely. And they were movie stars as well. That's the thing that nowadays nowadays, you know, I feel the movie stars are they're they're different. They're it's a different world now. It's a celebrity world, less less movie star, if you like.
Andy Nelson (I):And they were the real deal in in as far as I was concerned. They were they were the real movie stars. And when you think of people like Warren Beatty and, you know, the the the they're just they're they're a different generation, different sort of legends, but I always think of them as as just pure movie stars.
Pete Wright:You know who I I feel like inherited their the mantle of friends who make movies together? I well, of course, Affleck and and, Matt Damon That's right. And Clooney and Clooney and Pitt.
Andy Nelson (I):Yes. Very much like that.
Pete Wright:And and I you know, the stories that we get from Redford and and Newman, I don't think Robert Redford names his film festival Sundance without some Oh, good. Long term allegiance to his friend, Paul.
Andy Nelson (I):I think that's lovely. Yeah. You're right. That's that's going on. I hadn't even really thought about that.
Andy Nelson (I):But you're absolutely right. I I think it's just yeah. I when you see those relationships on screen, they as I say, you can't hide. They can't hide. They're not trying to be vulnerable.
Andy Nelson (I):They just are because there's a natural camaraderie between them. Yeah.
Andy Nelson:Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's interesting as a film that has such moments like raindrops keep falling on your head and then ends the way it does with the the shocking brutal, at least done in a freeze frame, but, otherwise, brutal end of these two characters and, ostensibly, their version of the old west, that is a for some people, it could feel like a little bit of a tone shift to have a movie, like, that is so fun, and they've got such kind of like this joie de vie as characters who end up having such a a brutal, hard ending to the film. Does that shape the way that you approach films like this where it's like, it's it's this, you know, fun story, but it also has, you know, a a dark ending where my the 2 characters that I've loved through the whole 2 hours are kind of just completely killed by the oblivion army.
Pete Wright:Says you. I think they got away.
Andy Nelson (I):Oh, do you? I have that. Yeah. No. I don't I don't know.
Andy Nelson (I):I, look, I think it's I like stories that don't Hollywoodize things too much. You know? I I I've worked on different films where where it might have a bit of a dark ending and people are very nervous, and and sometimes the audiences don't respond well. But I think it's a genuine approach to storytelling, and there was no other way those guys were gonna go out of there. We knew that.
Andy Nelson (I):So, I I mean, I I I just it was a firing squad, really, wasn't it, at the end of the day?
Pete Wright:Right. Do you know what's interesting about it, though? We've already had the the, I think, a more sort of, well, a a more dark, sequence in the film when Butch and Sundance, our hero characters, assassinate 5 bandits on the hillside. Right?
Andy Nelson (I):Mhmm.
Pete Wright:That was a sequence where our heroes are taken down a peg because do heroes, you know, they they hadn't killed anybody until that point. Right? They've just shown off. Now we have a sequence where we realize, 1, they're ill equipped to do the thing that they're about to have to do. And, 2, we see them actually killing these guys and the camera lingers on the bodies and the shapes of the bodies as they hit the ground.
Pete Wright:And it takes time to finally extricate us from this mountainside. And I think that in is a a darker sequence than the end of the movie. The end of the movie feels to me like the end of a fairy tale. Like, I, you know, I joke about I think they got out. But you know what?
Pete Wright:Like, it ends like a dream. I could make the case that I want to end the film in a way that they live forever.
Andy Nelson (I):Yeah. No. I agree. That is a dark moment. But I think I think what's interesting about that, for me, is that it's the whole sequence starts when they're trying to do good.
Andy Nelson (I):You know, they they're trying to go straight. This is our chance. Let's just let's just have normal jobs like anybody else, and of course, it just ends in hell. So it it it was I I like that counterpoint, as dark as it was, because it was light before that, very light. Suddenly, they've turned a corner, and, of course, you know, they end up in a dark alley.
Andy Nelson (I):So it it was it was it was good story point, and but you're right, That was a darker moment than the end in some ways. The end was inevitable that Yes. We really see that coming.
Andy Nelson:Right. Yeah. Fantastic film. I am so glad that you, brought it to us to have this conversation with us and that we had a chance to chat with you about Wicked and all of the work that you did on that film. And, again, cannot wait to watch this, which should be in theaters by the time this goes out.
Andy Nelson:So everyone will have to go check that out.
Andy Nelson (I):Good. Yes. I'm looking forward to, let me know when you've seen it. Send me an email because I would love to know what you think because I'm I'm incredibly proud of it. After all these different years, it's been definitely been one of the high spots for me, big time.
Andy Nelson:Well, and this is coming after having just done West Side Story with Spielberg. So
Andy Nelson (I):Which well, look. Next year, I'm gonna do Steven's next film, and that will be my 21st movie with him.
Pete Wright:Wow. 21st.
Andy Nelson:Well, there's there's a filmmaker who really, commits to working with the the team that he's built around him, you know.
Andy Nelson (I):I I love him, and, I loved West Side Story. I just wish more audiences had seen that one because I thought he did a spectacular job with it. Really beautiful.
Andy Nelson:Very difficult time for, you know I mean, there was right at that point post COVID where people were like, do I go back to the theaters and watch it now? Or yeah. That's that's always that's it was a very hard time for people.
Andy Nelson (I):So It was a tough time, but, boy, did he do a good job. That that music never sounded better again. Beautiful.
Andy Nelson:And, certainly, performances in that one also that will stand the test of time for sure.
Andy Nelson (I):Yeah. I hope people find it. I really do.
Andy Nelson:Yeah. I mean, you're keep up the good work. You're doing such amazing things out there. We, are always a fan of the work you do, and and getting a chance to chat with you just, is is very special. So, again, thank you so much for joining us here today.
Andy Nelson (I):Thank you for for inviting me. I love chatting about movies. I'll do it anytime.
Pete Wright:Thanks, Andy.
Andy Nelson:Fantastic. Well, for everyone else out there, we hope you like the show, and we certainly hope you like the movie like we do here on Movies We Like. Movies we like is a part of the True Story FM Entertainment podcast network and the next real family of film podcasts. The The music is chomp clap by Out of Flux. Find the show at true story dot f m and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, threads, and letterboxed at the next reel.
Andy Nelson:Learn about becoming a member at the next reel.com/membership. And if your podcast app allows ratings and reviews, we always appreciate it if you drop 1 in there for us. See you next time.