Of all the projects on which I have worked, this one involved me in more aspects than any other, and probably gave me more satisfaction than any other. Having said that I now feel disloyal to all the amazing actors, crews, producers and directors that I have worked with over the last twenty-five years or so. But with apologies to all those talented folk I think that probably The Red Baron has stretched me and absorbed me beyond any other film.
Nikolai Müellerschöen, the director and writer, and Dan Maag the producer, jointly asked me to be part of their extraordinary project in early April of 2006. I flew to Munich later that month to meet them both and we discussed the possibility of coaching German actors to speak English in a way that would seem correct for the period (first world war) and in a way that their German accent would not be obtrusive to an international audience. I came away from that meeting elated, intrigued and flattered that, part of what appeared to be a precious jewel had been entrusted to my care. I don’t think any form of confirmation had been set at the time, but instinctively I knew that this was to be my next project.
After many plans and telephone discussions it was decided that at the beginning of May, I would hold a three day dialect ‘boot camp’ in Berlin with all the principal German actors who were free to attend. This took the form of what I felt must have been similar to a First World War flight briefing with the young pilots of a squadron. I took them through their flight plan, in this case the rudiments of Received Pronunciation English; I explained the pronunciation, rhythm and stresses of our peculiar and particular form of communication.
After the three days of intense work, I left them with a lot of information, practice books and CDs, which would tide them over until we next met again in Prague where we were to shoot the film. I left them with those things, and I left Berlin, exhausted. I was tired and drained but sure that this was definitely something we could achieve.
Most young Germans speak English with a definite American accent – not surprising as American has superseded the British form of lingua franca with a vengeance. For the project we felt that we would be in double trouble if we allowed not just a German accent – necessary as almost all the characters were German but why would they speak English with an American accent? This begs the question, “Why are they speaking English at all?” Niki Müellerschöen had decided from the outset that this was a story that had to be available to a global audience, the subject matter was far too important to carry the sometimes restricting element of subtitling. If I remember correctly, one of Niki’s main criteria for the film was that it should be available to a sixteen-year-old English speaking Puerto Rican boy – this was Niki’s benchmark.
The use of British English in the form of received pronunciation (RP) coloured with the German accent of the actors removes any confusion as to the origin of the characters. RP also adds the element of being instantly comprehensible, it was also true that many of these young German flyers were educated at British public schools therefore British language; manners and culture had influenced them considerably. There is no argument for the use of American accents.
We began shooting in July in Prague in the Czech Republic. I had been there several times before and my last visit was in the winter of 2004 to work on the film Alien versus Predator. During the first weeks we were to film some of the flying sequences, this included most of the young actors as well as Joseph Fiennes and Lena Headey. Joe was to play Captain Roy Brown of the Royal Canadian Flying Corps, and Lena was to play Kate, a Belgian nurse.
Curiously, Joe Fiennes character caused what could have been a linguistic anomaly depending on how you look at it: if we follow the convention that the German characters are actually speaking German when we hear them speak English, what language does Roy Brown employ when he confronts Von Richthoven in a field in France and they both speak English (or is it German) to each other? What complicates the matter is that Roy Brown speaks English (or German) to Kate in other scenes.
The aircraft to be used in the film were 22 exact replicas of the German Albatross biplane and the famous Dutch-built Fokker triplanes. Sadly none of these extraordinary aircraft actually flew. To create the illusion that they were flying, they were shot against a green screen placed on gimbals on the ground and were moved about to create the illusion of flight, sometimes they were placed side by side as if flying in formation. With smoke, flames and oil thrown at them they looked most impressive and result became the basis of the CGI flying sequences.
During this early period of the production there was little or no dialogue, so I worked with the actors during ‘down time’ from filming either at the hotel or in a workspace at the film studio, I visited the set from time to time to see what was going on and to touch base with other members of the cast and crew and it was important to keep Niki informed of our progress. For me the sense of ‘family’ that was created by the young actors was reminiscent of the Fellowship in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, their regard for one another and professional respect was admirable and those actors with more experience were given an element of regard befitting the rank in which they had been cast. The fact that all the actors stayed in the same hotel together helped cement the bond. We tended to eat together whenever time in the evening permitted – I was a bit like ‘dad’ or even ‘granddad’ to these 20-somethings and managed to create the periodic tradition of Sunday lunch on our Rest Day (whether it was Sunday or not).
Beside the genuine pleasure of their company and my need for some kind of social activity I had an ulterior motive, that being to ensure that English was the language of choice ‘off’ the set as well as on. It became an uphill struggle sometimes when passions rose in heated conversations, especially as the weeks passed and the actors became more and more tired. We did manage it a fair amount of the time.
For a while I found myself to be the only Britisher on the set – thankfully everyone spoke English in one form or another (my German is appalling). But I had met another Brit’, consultant Andrew Mollo, in Berlin when I organised the three day dialect ‘boot camp’. We were both busy with our own disciplines in the early days of the production and it wasn’t until later that we spent some time together. Like those meetings with the actors ours revolved around meals. Andrew was very much a specialist, his work made him responsible for the military costumes as well as his remarkable knowledge of all other things military. Andrew proved himself to be invaluable throughout the filming, both as a friend and as an advisor in postproduction for military commands etc., (English, French and German) when we came to the ADR (Additional Dialogue Replacement) work at the Loft Studio in Berlin.
Before the ADR took place I periodically reviewed the current edit of the film for pronunciation errors, these I communicated to the post-production supervisor and the director. For me post-production began in earnest, when I joined Sarah Morton the London based dialogue editor at an ADR studio just off Wardour Street. Sarah had done the most incredible amount of work already, editing out all those sounds that the viewing audience in the cinema will never hear; clicks and clunks from camera tracks; mouth mechanics (that’s lip smacks, whistles and other sounds that are inappropriate); fitting dialogue from one ‘take’ to another as well as a million other things that I know not of. My work only complemented what she had already done but took the form of seeking out mispronunciations in the actors’ dialogue that for one reason or another had neither been achieved on the day or wasn’t on the take that the Director had selected for the edit. Some of these mistakes might seem paltry, nitpicky and not mistakes at all but a misplaced consonant or badly formed vowel can dramatically change one accent into another, or make a character’s speech seem to imply one emotion when another was intended.
Eventually, after a lot of hard graft had been expended, all the work that could be done without the actors was complete and Sarah and I travelled to Berlin to set about the ADR. This included getting the individual actors to lip sync (lip synchronise) their dialogue with the picture until it was correct. In some cases it is possible to change an actor’s performance to a degree and during the process we did a little of this with the actor and the director working together to achieve a common goal. At this stage we also revoiced the dialogue of those actors whose native accents were too strong when compared with the principals in the final edit – one of these actually spoke Czech and was revoiced in English! Other actors with appropriate German accents were employed to do this and Niki asked me if I would revoice the character of Kaiser Wilhelm, which I did with pleasure.
Exposition – the addition of extra dialogue, seemingly unnatural to the scene at the time of shooting can now be sparingly inserted to include vital information removed by the act of cutting in the edit. This can sometimes done by the actor speaking additional words or a line of dialogue when his or her face is not seen, in other words an off screen shot or over the shoulder or at a pinch a profile shot. Later in the process we added the voices of the actors who spoke only one line or perhaps just one word, the shouts and screams of dying soldiers, people in city streets or background chatter from partygoers.
The whole of this process in Berlin took about three weeks. All the work, emotion and commitment to this project (and others) keeps one hoping that it will be liked and accepted and that the film will be a success. Only the international Film circuit will tell you about The Red Baron.
Photo Gallery
Über die Arbeit mit dem Dialoque Coach Andrew Jack (PDF)
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