“My name is Rudy Mancuso. I am the director, composer, and co-writer of ‘Música.’” [PIANO MUSIC PLAYING] “This sequence that I call a theatrical montage is about five minutes long. So the whole thing was shot in one take. I guess it was always my unorthodox approach to your typical second or third act montage. As you can see here, in the bedroom of Rudy started it all. And Rudy, who’s played by me, based on me with this condition called synesthesia, where he has a strange relationship with sound. And the music and the sounds become the rhythm. And the revelation is that we’re on a stage , opens. And the intention of the scene is for the chaotic energy of trying to bring out an elaborate set with movable sets flying in and out and being put together and taken apart in real time reflects the chaos of this character’s life . This is the point in the movie where Rudy is juggling the three most important people in his life, and he’s lying to all of them. On the page, it’s actually called the rhythm of the lie. As we see here, it’s his longtime girlfriend, trying to rekindle things with him, Haley, played by Francesca Reale. “Later.” “Yes.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Next, we see that set gone and a new set up here that’s meant to mimic Rudy’s house, the kitchen of Rudy’s mom, another woman in his life that he’s been lying to, played by my real mom. , Maria Mancuso.” “I promised – I promised Anwar that I would hang out with him.” “Oh, yes?” “Yes. But we’ll see each other later.” “OK” “I love you.” “Alright, I love you too.” – [NON-ENGLISH] “OK, go ahead.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Also, the third, of course, that we will soon see is his newfound relationship with Isabella, Camila Mendes here, who plays Isabella, who he’s starting to grow really fond of. And what’s important to me is not only that the camera doesn’t stop, because that’s hard and challenging and Rudy’s life is hard and challenging, but also the lighting cues that keep up with the rhythm. So any time a new light turns on and another turns off, those cues are actually in time with the music. Another thing that was important to me was for Rudy to change his own wardrobe in real time. And that’s the big question. How to really change clothes? And I said, what if he just changed himself?” – [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] – [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] – [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] “So the background, the piece, which I believe is on wheels, needs to be flipped — rotated, flipped. The lights had to fly. New lights need to fly. And yes, it’s a very live performance-y, theatrical approach to a montage, which is – that was always the vision. And at this point, we retrace our steps. Basically, we went to the front and tracked Rudy from behind, turned right, and then went back left. And now we go back and forth, retracing the steps. Amazonia, which is a subtle nod to our studio — the camera at this point is now turning a full 180, and we’re trying at the moment to emulate some sort of nightlife, lounge, club environment.” “But I really can’t have a late night tonight. I only have a lot.” “Oh, it’s fine” “A lot of things. Of course.” “I would, but.” “Good.” “You understand?” “Yes.” “And the very last stage location is what you see here, which was meant to emulate a movie theater, which we just did with some clever lighting and projection. The whole piece was really well prepared. We didn’t have a lot of time. I think I’ve never done one. But specifically to pull this one off, because it’s so detailed, we also have a very high order of wanting it to syncopate with the rhythm as well. And it all ends up where it started, which was also very important to me. It starts and ends in Rudy’s room. And by the time the camera pans completely back to where we started, it looks like we’re back in the room. You don’t see the split behind him in background. So with clever schematics designed by my production designer, Patrick Sullivan, and my amazing DP Shane Hurlbut, and myself, we were able to pull off this impossible thing. [PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]
