212 – Documentary Sound Focus: Moonage Daydream

For our 3rd and final episode in our series on Sound Design for Documentaries we talk with the director and sound team behind the magnificent David Bowie doc Moonage Daydream. They talk about rebuilding all the music from the original 24 track recordings, making the crowds feel realistic/immersive, merging extensive sound design into iconic songs and cleaning up archival dialog so it can cut through. Sound Supervisors Nina Hartstone & John Warhurst, Re-Recording Mixers Paul Massey & David Giammarco and Director Brett Morgen have stories to spare about how this great film broke new sonic ground.

Tonebenders Podcast · 212 – Documentary Sound Focus: Moonage Daydream

(L-R) vid Giammarco, Nina Hartstone, John Warhurst & Paul Massey

Moonage Daydream’s Director, Editor, Producer, Writer and Supervising Music Editor Brett Morgen

To create the concert scenes in Moonage Daydream, we had to separate the music stems from the room and the crowds. To create authentic reverb, the sound team rented a football stadium and played the full mix through the PA, recording the ambience on 12 mics. Here’s Jean Genie! pic.twitter.com/cGuUfAGIP2
— Brett Morgen (@brettmorgen) January 10, 2023

Moonage Daydream is designed to be an immersive experience. We recorded crowds for every performance so we could surround the viewer in Atmos and 12.0 Existing archival audio was blended w/ new multitrack recordings. Here’s @NHartstone directing group for Station to Station pic.twitter.com/EvFGJMgFer
— Brett Morgen (@brettmorgen) January 11, 2023

Academy Award winner @PaulMassey100 (Bohemian Rhapsody, No Time to Die,Ford v. Ferrari,The Martian) mixing Cygnet Committee for Moonage Daydream. The song Cygnet Committee beautifully captures David’s lust for life. Only 21, he can be heard crying as he sings “I want to live.” pic.twitter.com/jAUm28lZt9
— Brett Morgen (@brettmorgen) January 17, 2023

Links:

Brett Morgan on IMDB

David Giammarco on IMDB

Nina Hartstone on IMDB

Paul Massey on IMDB

John Warhurst on IMDB

Previous Tonebenders Appearances:

Nina & John for Bohemian Rhapsody

Paul & David on Ford vs Ferrari

Nina on our Loop Group Roundtable

Paul talking about his work on Free Guy