How Sound Oscar Nominees From ‘Wicked’ to ‘Emilia Perez’ Created Emotion

variety.com:

Carolyn Giardina From “Defying Gravity” to “Like a Rolling Stone,” music was a thread through many of this year’s sound Oscar nominees as “A Complete Unknown,” “Emilia Perez” and “Wicked” all involved live singing as part of their sonic work.

But category noms, rounded out by “Dune: Part Two” and a rare animated film, “The Wild Robot,” all involved unique creative approaches. “Primarily, the edict was to do live,” supervising sound editor, designer and rerecording mixer John Marquis says of Jon M.

Chu’s adaptation of the stage musical “Wicked,” noting Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba, and Ariana Grande, as Glinda, performed live.

He added that production sound mixer Simon Hayes “was very detailed in mic placement and making sure we’re capturing everything, so as much live material as possible.” Supervising sound editor Nancy Nugent Title adds that this involved coordination “with every department, including costume, the effects, lighting and and cinematography. [For instance] he worked with the costume department as far as placing microphones on each actor.” Even when production involves live singing, it’s not uncommon to incorporate other vocal tracks for various technical reasons.