D82 wrote:Here's also
the entire Q&A panel after the screening for SAG members that took place on Saturday. I found it quite interesting.
Producer Mark Platt confirmed there are 3D backgrounds and CG elements in the 2D-animated sequence.
I'm relieved Jack is going to be Jane's love insterest instead of Mary Poppins'. I hope though Jane's arc isn't reduced to finding a guy. I'm a little worried they might fall into the trope of fixing the sad, single feminist's life by giving her a boyfriend.
It was great listening to Rob Marshall talk about his love for the original, how much it means to him, and the amount of thought and attention he's put into the sequel. While I have my issues with the movie, I admire his passion and appreciate his efforts to do the original justice. It was also interesting learning that the score was recorded before the movie had even finished filming. That's highly unorthodox when it comes to film scoring.
Marc Shaiman: As we were being told by our producer and Disney, “Make sure you deliver Lin-Manuel. Give the audience what they want from him,” we also had to deliver what Lin wanted.
So this is the real reason we have rapping in the film (or as the songwriters have labeled it "pattering" in order to excuse and justify its existence in the film).
Q: While Robert Sherman passed away in 2012, Richard Sherman is still with us, and is listed as a consultant on the film. Did you spend much time with him in the process of putting this film together?
Scott Wittman: Well it’s funny, we just spent a couple of hours with him this afternoon.
Marc Shaiman: Our producer, Marc Platt, really mostly met with him a lot, played him all the songs, [showed him] the screenplay.
Scott Wittman: He was part of the process.
Marc Shaiman: Yeah, and if he had something that he thought should have been different or changed, he would have said so. But lo and behold, he didn’t. He was loving what he was hearing, and he really loves the new movie; I’ve now sat next to him and heard him say it a lot. And believe me, I looked so deeply into his eyes while he was saying it for any tell—his left eyelash [twitching] or something. But he really loves it. He said to us, “You guys picked up the baton and continued running the race, and you did it beautifully.” He was very, very moved, and that is the greatest review we could have ever hoped for.
They're trying a little too hard to convince us that Richard Sherman approves of the new songs. This is all coming off as lip-service to dodge any potential criticism. That's why they gave him this meaningless (and frankly insulting) position as a "consultant". I still don't understand why Disney didn't just hire him since he's still actively working and writing songs for movies and various other projects. They could have at least allowed him to contribute one song to the movie. Would that have been so difficult or unreasonable? Especially since Mary Poppins means so much to Richard and it's tightly tied to his memories of Walt.
Shortlisted as contenders for the job—with Shaiman as composer and lyricist, and Wittman as co-lyricist—it was this very passion and the terror it produced that may well have landed them the job. “We knew and had worked with Rob Marshall and [producer] John DeLuca, but that isn’t necessarily a reason why you get a job. Sometimes it can be the reason you don’t get a job. So, we begged. I went and said to Rob, ‘This is everything, this movie, to me. I learned everything I could about songwriting, listening to that album, since I’ve been four years old,’” Shaiman admits.
This is how they got the job? Yikes.
It's not very professional or appropriate to go begging for a job at your potential employers. Especially when they already know you and are aware of your body of work. You need to let them judge if you're right for the project without any prodding or emotional manipulation.
Q: Did you write many songs for the film that didn’t make the final cut?
Marc Shaiman: Yeah, I think there’s only two spots in the movie that are the very first song that we wrote. Not that we didn’t keep refining them, but except for “The Place Where Lost Things Go” and “Turning Turtle,” every other spot had at least one other song on its way to becoming the song that’s in the film.
I hope they include the deleted songs on the soundtrack. It's always a treat knowing what it could have been.
Using technology that Disney didn’t have available in the 1960s, they were able to move the camera through in a two-dimensional fashion to make the viewer feel more like they’re inside the illustrations. Marshall elaborated, “When you see the film, you are in this 2D hand-painted world but in a three-dimensional way. It’s why our post production has been longer than normal. It is live action and animation so there’s this wonderful interaction between the two, and I believe everyone feels it was worth it.”
You don't need CG backgrounds and other elements to achieve that effect. Who Framed Roger Rabbit pulled it off perfectly in 1988 without any CG.
