Rhapsody of Bohemia: how they recreated Live Aid

The greatest visual force of box office success "Bohemian Rhapsody" reflects the evolution of Freddy Mercury (Rami Malek) and Queen amid the cultural change of the 70s and 80s, culminating with the legendary Live Aid concert from 1985. However, Live Aid was actually shot first, which was a blessing for Malek and his co-stars, Gwilym Lee (guitarist Brian May), Ben Hardy (drummer Roger Taylor) and Joseph Mazzello (bbadist John Deacon).

"It's a bit crazy to start filming with one of the most difficult and decisive moments," said Newton Thomas Sigel, director of photography for director Bryan Singer. "But it allowed the actors to get together early and create their chemistry. I remember watching them repeat three days before the shoot. They did not know each other and these four guys really laughed, as would a rock band "n roll. "

Read more:The R-Rated Freddie Mercury movie by Sacha Baron Cohen would have been "scandalous in terms of his homobaduality"

The Live Aid segment, with an exact replica of the Wembley Stadium created and transferred to Bovingdon Airport, was photographed with Alexa 65 lenses and Arri's new DNA lenses. It seems sharper and sharper than the first part of the film, which portrays Queen's rise through a nostalgic mist of gold and pastels. Here we see Queen at the top of her game. Their full 20-minute concert movie will be available in the next version of Fox for home entertainment.

Alex Bailey

"For us, as storytellers, what was really interesting was where Freddie was emotionally and what this concert meant for the band," Sigel said. "We wanted to visually put you on the stage with these guys, to see their interaction, to know that Freddie is not good at the beginning of the show, and that there is growing confidence as the show continues."

The Live Aid sequence starts with a thrilling antenna over central London, flying over the crowd at Wembley, and ending with a dramatic 180-degree piano turn around Mercury. "There is an unusually long pause before he starts playing" Bohemian Rhapsody, "said Sigel," and the other members of the group are wondering if he will freeze, will he break down? "He just heard some pretty awful news [about contracting AIDS] and he's just starting to skyrocket. "

But the sequence Live Aid was difficult to shoot because the concert itself had an ordinary appearance and they had to face the typical bad weather of London. "The big challenge was, unlike the current show, where the sun was already falling when Queen arrived, we had to do the sun-blocking and sun-creating dance," said Sigel.

Photo credit: Courtesy XX

"The other thing we had to deal with was Live Aid performance lighting, because each group only had about 20 minutes, and there was no rehearsal, and they also inherited the scene and light from a Bruce Springsteen concert a few days earlier. The lighting of the event was so rude and I feel that it was really much improved the day with a group, I think. "

Anyway, regardless of Sigel's poetic license with Live Aid, Singer joins Singer's vision of representing the joy of playing together with Queen as a group of bad guys playing in front of the audience at the last rank. "He just wanted it to be a celebration of Queen and not a descent into the dark side," said Sigel. "It was essential to recognize Freddy's baduality, not to fear that he died of AIDS, but it had to show the exhilarating feeling of playing and playing music."

However, when Singer left production to join his sick mother and Dexter Fletcher replaced him in recent weeks, the situation was tough for Sigel as well. Fortunately, most of the film has been shot and the transition is done smoothly. "Dexter came on board and was respectful of following the game plan we had already defined [shooting some of the early scenes between Mercury and girlfriend Mary played by Lucy Boynton], "he said." He had good relationships with the actors. "

"It's such a beautiful story that tells us a lot about our culture and our music," added Sigel. "And that really puts you in the middle of Queen in a way that is true to their experience."

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