BWWInterviews: LIVE LIVE CINEMA'S Leon Radojkovic gives BWW an insight into giving old movies a new life.

LIVE LIVE CINEMA is coming to Riverside Theatres in March 2015 so BroadwayWorld took the opportunity to get insight into the process behind this new movie experience in an interview with the composer and creator Leon Radojkovic.

Radojkovic explains that, having "always been into movies in a big way", he became "fascinated with film scores and sound design, and just how much they can influence the way that an audience interprets what they see on the screen". Whilst the combination of live music with silent film in 'Live Cinema' is not a new concept, Radojkovic takes this to the next level, or two, by stripping away the sound from movies from the 'sound era'. He takes movies that already had music, dialogue and sound effects, and creates his own soundscape through use of orchestrations, live actors playing out the dialogue and a Foley Artist physically creating the sound effects, live on stage to create a new interpretation of the film through the use of new sound. By performing all of the sound live this new 'reshaping' also adds another level of complexity as unlike traditional movies, the orchestra, actors and Foley Artist must all be in time with what is occurring on stage.

The two gothic horror offerings are Herk Harvey's 1962 low budget (estimated $33,000USD) cult classic CARNIVAL OF SOULS and Francis Ford Coppola's DEMENTIA 13 from 1963 (estimated budget $42,000USD). When asked if the movie or the desired mood came first when selecting the films to rework, Radojkovic explained that it was a combination of the two, influenced by his own taste that "tends towards the dark and moody". He selects films that have potential but are lacking in some way so using "weird and somehow wonderful" B-grade movies gives him the scope to try to turn the experience into an A-grade live performance. Radojkovic explains that he was drawn to the 'fantastic visual aesthetic and amazing locations' of the two films that had dubbing and scores that had room for improvement.

Radojkovic strips away the original score and utilises the visuals as the inspiration for his new orchestrations, tapping into the movies' potential for greater "musical drama, atmosphere and emotion". Whilst the music is original, the dialogue is kept the same but Radojkovic explains that the use of live actors allows the story to be altered even though the words are the same. The four actors, covering a dozen or so characters in each movie, use their tone, inflection and delivery of lines to influence the way the audience "interprets different characters or scenes" and therefore can change the mood and impact of the scene.

Similar to the retention of the original dialogue, the Foley artist maintains the sound effects to match the action but Gareth van Niekerk creates a live performance that must keep up with the visuals, at times creating numerous sounds at once, unlike the original (and modern movie making techniques) that would have allowed for a degree of layering of sounds. Radojkovic knew van Niekerk from previous works which aided in convincing him to take on the challenge of live performance. Radojkovic explains that Foley work has not changed as much as one would expect as whilst there are digital sound libraries, movie makers still find that for some cases it is "quicker, easier and more effective" to use the traditional methods such as creating footsteps by using the right shoes, surface and timing to capture the sound rather than going through the process of digitally adding pre-recorded sounds, step by step. In addition to watching the precision that van Niekerk must apply to getting the sound to match the visual, the innovation in how the sounds are created is also amazing.

Whilst Radojkovic loves leading the band through the score, he admits that he also enjoys getting to share the stage with the four "incredibly talented actors and one maniacally hardworking Foley artist". He says that, in the moment when he is not required to be playing something himself, he enjoys watching the other performers "doing their thing".

Whilst Radojkovic has LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS in development, he has a wish list of movies he'd like to turn into LIVE LIVE CINEMA, including a "big dumb classic Hollywood action film like DIE HARD or TOP GUN".

LIVE LIVE CINEMA

Riverside Theatres, Corner of Church and Market Streets, Parramatta.

DEMENTIA 13

Thursday 12 March, 8pm

CARNIVAL OF SOULS

Friday 13 March, 8pm

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