Matt Lutz, the lead, flew in on December 2nd, and Autumn Hurlbert, the female lead, flew in on the 3rd. They both live in New York, and we had never met either one of them before they got here. A scary prospect, especially given we were going entirely based on their previous work and the auditions they sent and/or posted on youtube for us. So, yeah, I was a bit nervous to meet them in the flesh... because you just never know.
Luckily for us, not only did they turn out to be fantastic performers, they’re both amazing people as well, who share my twisted sense of humor, so we got along brilliantly...
Anyway, the music recording. The music happened thusly (good word, right?): I wrote the script like a year ago, and basically determined that there would be 3 songs and a reprise. I knew what I wanted to happen in each song, what needed to be accomplished, where the humor would come from, even many specific jokes and lines before I ever started to think about music. That’s where Kahle came in. For most of the time, I gave Kahle general instructions, he went off, wrote brilliant lyrics, and came back to me. At which point I would force him to change minor words, move stuff around, etc... because that’s just the kind of jerk I am. Except Love At First Sight, which we sat down and wrote much of the lyrics together. Anyway, Kahle came up with all of the basic music... the main melody and musical through line. And Kahle did a great job with that. However, as talented as he is, he’s not a composer, so we looked for one to help us out.
And find one we did. Kenny Wood is a super talented (and super nice) individual who we both loved working with. Kenny took the basics that we had put together and really took the music to the next level. He went off, did his thing, and then presented it to us... and we had him change minor things and move music around, because that’s just the kind of jerks that we are... and we eventually got it to a point where we were all happy with it... like 7 versions later. But I was thrilled with how it turned out.
At this point, we were lucky enough to be connected with Jerrold Launer, a very talented composer and mixer in and of himself, who gave us a great deal and let us record in his personal studio at his house. Next, I had to track down a chorus of singers. Of course, we had cast many people in the individual singing parts for Sudden Death! and Sudden Life!, and they recorded their individual parts that day as well. But we ended up using like 12 people, male and female, to record the vocals for the chorus, and they sounded great.
Matt and Autumn recorded their stuff that day as well, and man, they didn’t disappoint. One of the other cool things about the two of them is that they have worked on 2 other musicals together before, so they get along super well (too well at times... they get super giggly and can be hard to control because they just crack each other up... that’s right Lutz, I said it) and they also know how the other works, musically. So, it was really cool to watch them help each other out, whether it was warming up or giving each other cues or just general encouragement. We are definitely blessed to have each of them as individuals, but what I wasn’t counting on was the blessing of having them work as a pre-packaged team.
Anyway, after a very long day, we got everything recorded, and Kenny took the tracks home to begin the arduous process of mixing all the tracks into a production mix that we could use for playback when we shot the film (so when they sang, they could sing to their own voices and their lips would match up). He did that in record time, as we needed the music by Tuesday (this was Friday).
Anyway, it was a great first day. It was amazing to work with all these professional music people and see the whole thing come to life. And trust me, the music is really good. I can say that because I didn’t write any of it. Kenny and Kahle did an amazing job. It’s kind of crazy to think that even though I had never written any music (I’ve written lyrics before, of course), and I’ve never made a musical before, that I just randomly thought that I’d make a musical for my thesis. And then, not only to have the music done, to have it done so well... well, I’ll just say that I felt very, very blessed that day.
Oh, and no, that picture had nothing to do with anything.
NEXT: Day One!
