Chris Newlin served as the music editor for Saturday Night, Sony Pictures’ new feature, which is set back in 1975, when on October 11th, SNL creator Lorne Michaels struggled to get the first show to air. Surrounded by production complications, unruly comedians, and skeptical NBC network executives, Michaels pushed forward in the 90 minutes leading up to air time, never entirely certain if the show would come together in time.
Saturday Night was directed by Jason Reitman (
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Juno, Thank You For Smoking), who shares the writing credit with Gil Kenan.
Here Newlin shares insight into his role on the feature.
Hi Chris! Can you describe your responsibilities as the music editor of Saturday Night?
"I was brought on earlier than usual to receive the on-screen performances, as well as the amazing material Jon Batiste recorded both prior to and during filming in Atlanta by Steven Morrow, Noah Hubbell, and Powerstation Studios in New York by William Garrett. It amounted to more than 50 pieces of music recorded by Jon and his incredible musicians - all conceived, written and recorded in a very non-traditional method. Each track was anywhere between two and 18 minutes. The majority of the score used in the film was recorded on-set after production wrapped, all by Jon improvising on the spot and dictating the parts aurally to his musicians.
"It became my duty to sort through all of this material and find the best way to apply it to the film. So, I built a library of material that could be utilized by both myself and the picture editors to sculpt against picture with Jason Reitman’s direction. From there, Jon came to LA and we recorded all the piano cues/overdubs, along with solo violin and tap dancing on the Sony scoring stage. In those sessions, we found that great piano theme that is used throughout, and the piano provided a great glue to tie the score together.
"Beyond the score, there were also numerous needledrops used both as source and score throughout the film. Once all of that was all assembled, I delivered it all to the stage and worked with our incredible dub mixer, Tom Ozanich, to shape the music mix in the film. Because of the non-traditional nature of how this score came together, we didn’t end up doing a traditional score mix as is normally done before going to the final dub mix. Instead, Tom and I were given a few days to pre-dub the music - a luxury not often granted to music - and I think it made all the difference in the final soundtrack of the film. Having time to properly treat and place the music spatially in the Dolby Atmos mix really allowed it and the dialogue to shine. The music truly is a character in the film and drives the already adrenaline-packed story through its finish."
What would you point to as some of the more challenging scenes to work on as the music editor?
"The 'Nothing From Nothing' montage ultimately came out great, but putting it together with picture editor Nathan Orloff took some back and forth. I initially built him several extended versions of both the takes we had of the song at different lengths that included instrumental sections to allow for the dialogue moments. Nathan would then cut between them and re-edit the music further as he worked. Then he would send it back to me and ask for maybe 12 more seconds in one section and I would tell him, 'You can have seven or 14, but not 12,' or something along those lines! (Laughs). It was one of those challenging puzzles, but it’s so rewarding when it comes together, and I think the end result works really well. Plus, after such an anxiety-filled ride, this montage comes along at just the right point in the film where you need the joy and release of everything coming together. It’s just a ton of fun!
"Early in the film, there’s also a great oner scene where we meet most of the cast. It was one of the first things I cut when I started receiving picture. I used this great track that has this '70s Fela Kuti vibe that Jon recorded in New York with a phenomenal sax solo that harkens to SNL. But around that same time, it was decided to focus more on the material recorded on-set in Atlanta. So, I tucked that away and went with a different piece Jon did that featured mostly percussion and a very syncopated and slightly more intense groove for that section. After a few screenings, there was some concern that maybe there was too much music at the beginning of the film and/or the music we were using was too distracting while we are meeting all of our characters in this already chaotic scene. So we started to think of what we could do to help settle the audience in a little easier/quicker and allow them to have a little more fun as they jump on for the ride in the first 10 to 20 minutes...And I remembered that track I had cut months earlier. Instantly, it was clear this edit did just that, so I adapted it to the current cut and worked with Jason to tailor it just a bit more. Both that and the opening screen tests sequence were the first two sequences that I started putting music up against, so I am very proud that two of the biggest pieces of music in Reel 1 are things that I had cut in from that first week I got a turnover. There’s something to be said for gut instincts!"
Tell us about the tools you were using?
"Avid Pro Tools, Elastic Audio, Serato Pitch N Time, Liquid Sonics Cinematic Rooms/HD Cart/7th Heaven, Fab-Filter Pro-R2/Pro-Q3, Sound Toys Little Plate, Safari Pedals Ladybug Reverb, Aberrant DSP Sketch Cassette II, Refuse Software Lowender, Cargo Cult Slapper/Matchbox, McDSP Futzbox, Audioease Altiverb 8, et al."
Were you working with locked picture, or were things still changing until late in the edit?
"I’m not sure anyone actually locks picture anymore in this business. That said, it’s amazing how quickly the general edit/assembly of this film came together. It’s truly a testament to Jason and Gil’s amazing screenplay, how Jason planned and shot it, the performances, and of course, the work of editors Nathan Orloff and Shane Reid. Of course things changed all the way through the end of our very short post. I think it was 16.5 weeks with three previews, but the main storytelling was all laid out from the start and it allowed us to really experiment and push the boundaries of both the picture and music edits as much as possible."