The most expensive movie so far produced in Europe, Luc Besson’s sci-fi blockbuster Valerian will hit cinemas worldwide in July. Accompanying it, the score from French composer Alexandre Desplat reckons to be as exciting as the movie itself.
Recorded in Studio 104 at Radio France in Paris with the Orchestre National de France, the sountrack was recorded and mixed by Peter Cobbin using a Lawo mc266 audio production console. The project took Cobbin away from his regular role as Audio Director at Abbey Road Studios, where he is used to working on very large projects with some of the best equipment available.
Chosen to handle similarly large orchestra ensembles, the operation of Radio France’s mc266 was heavily customised to the recording’s needs and Cobbin’s workflow requirements – an excellent demonstration of its configuration possibilities and ease-of-use when configured for a specific task.
The complete score was recorded in ten days, accommodating the large Orchestre National de France – close to 105 musicians – plus the 32-strong choir from Radio France. In total, there were 158 audio sources plus six 5.1-channel groups to be processed and recorded at 96kHz, 24-bit resolution.
‘When we had to change our console six years ago, we searched for a replacement that could handle recording, postproduction and live broadcast,’ recalls Radio France Sound Director, Laurent Fracchia. ‘We wanted a console with high-grade preamps and excellent summing buses, and the Lawo mc266 was the best on the market. It is really amazing, and offers amazing flexibility according to my needs. And, of course, it is a great-sounding desk.
‘I can change its layout while I’m mixing or recording or broadcasting without losing anything,’ he continues. ‘During a production, complete projects are totally transportable on a simple USB key. As a result, I can record in an OB van and mix in the studio, which is fantastic workflow management. And if you need a special layout on the console, the Lawo-team is able to provide it almost instantly.’
With a tight schedule for Valerian – and it being the first production of this size and quality to be produced solely in France – the facility and equipment had to be prepared in advance of the recording session. Lawo audio console specialist Hervé de Caro was on-site to oversee the production and to personalise the console to the specific needs of Peter Cobbin – who was impressed by its sound and the customisation.
‘Peter Cobbin asked for the same layout and routing flexibility he uses at Abbey Road,’ de Caro says. ‘Using the extensive configuration possibilities offered by the mc266, I programmed and personalised the layout to meet his specific demands. At the end of the process, we had a console perfectly configured for Peter who was, in a very short time, relaxed and working efficiently. The cherry on the cake was the quality of the sound when we started the recording. The complete chain – based on Peter’s microphone choice and placement, the Dallis mic preamps, the console summing quality, the acoustics of the studio and the monitoring loudspeakers – was perfect.’
Sound capture
The movie features more than 100 characters, many of whom are wearing intricate costumes including space suits. Ensuring that dialogue was recorded intelligibly was the first challenge faced by French sound engineer Stéphane – one met with DPA d:screet 4060 Omnidirectional Miniature Microphones.
‘From an audio point of view, this was an insanely complicated movie to capture,’ Bucher explains. ‘It wasn’t just the costumes – we also had to cope with actors talking through walls and hopping around in space. The spaceship, Intruder, also has a mind of its own and therefore a voice that needed to be recorded. Added to this, Luc Besson was very clear from the outset that he didn’t want to replace dialogue in ADR, so we had to get it right first time on set.’
Bucher has previously used the DPA mics products films including Taken 3 and Lucy, and was happy to try them out in this role: ‘The d:screet 4060 mics deliver exceptional audio quality and are also very small, which makes them much easier to hide,’ he says. ‘Thanks to their omnidirectional characteristics, they don’t need to be aimed directly at a sound source to capture great audio. They are incredibly tough, which is important when you are shooting an action film with a lot of movement and when you have to keep swapping them from one costume to another.’
More than 30 d:screet 4060 microphones were delivered to the Valerian set in Paris, supplied by French distributor Audio2. As Besson likes to play his cards close to his chest, Bucher and his team had very little time to go through the script and prepare before shooting started. On filming days, time was even tighter because the microphones had to be positioned within each costume before the actors came on set. ‘Luc likes to start shooting immediately – there’s no point trying to fit or to move a mic in a costume because it is just too late,’ Bucher says.
He adds that the success of this film came down to intricate preparation and working very closely with Olivier Bériot who headed up the costume department: ‘Many of the costumes are made from thick, synthetic fabrics that give them a futuristic look but are not that easy for the sound team because they make a lot of noise. With Olivier’s help found places to hide our mics without them being visible on screen. Our main challenge, however, was the spacesuits worn by Valerian (played by Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne). Olivier chose a fabric that was light and well insulated from a sound point of view, but we couldn’t hide the mics inside the shell of the suit because they would still have been muffled by the plastic. Instead we decided to mount them inside the huge ruff that the actors wear around their necks.’
As the microphones needed to stick out but at the same time blend into the design or the ruff, Bucher and Bériot decided to make them look like an intercom between the spacesuits.
‘We tried various options,’ Bucher says, ‘At first, we had the microphone sticking out of the ruff but that didn’t work, so then we tried a d:screet 4060 with a high boost grid, which was chosen for aesthetic reasons. We didn’t worry about high frequencies because we thought we could bring them down in postproduction, but when we heard the sound we realised it didn’t work because the high frequency was way too powerful and was bouncing off the surface of the grid in an unacceptable way. Finally we swapped to a soft boost grid, which gave us a much more balanced sound. By adding a small rubber joint and lifting the mic capsule completely clear of the ruff, we were also able to reduce vibration noise.’
Valerian and Laureline each had three ruffs so that spares were immediately available. The microphones were left in position, which meant that all the sound crew had to do was plug in the wireless transmitter. DPA d:screet 4060 microphones were also used on the motion capture costumes that the actors wore when shooting CGI scenes.
‘To reduce noise, we put the mics on the costumes with a semi rigid surface that we built with a 3D printer,’ Bucher explains. ‘For the main actors who were wearing camera helmets, we positioned one mic on the helmet and one on their chest in case Luc wanted them to take the helmet off for a close up.’
Besson’s decision to keep ADR to a minimum put additional pressure on the sound team to capture great audio on set. ‘The good thing about Luc is that he really understands sound so he was able to get involved when we were debating microphone positions and what would work best,’ Bucher says. ‘He expects you to find solutions and that pressure does make you raise your game. In the end, the audio we recorded with our DPA microphones was fantastic and everyone was impressed, especially the post production team who said the richness and clarity of the sound gave them many more options to play with.’
