``Les Misérables'' was a huge success because it ``recorded live singing while filming,'' which is unusual for a musical movie.

Leave everything to the actors and let them sing the entire song in one take

In many scenes, a full song was sung and filmed in one take, giving the actors the freedom to move and act. As a result, director Tom Hooper was unexpectedly impressed by the actors' performances on set, and the film ended up using a lot of close-ups, which is unusual for a musical film. Although Hooper shot many angles, he ended up shooting many close-ups because he was moved by the actors' facial expressions. Incidentally, Tom Hooper and cinematographer Danny Cohen considered shooting the film on 70mm film, but decided against it due to production costs and the difficulty of free movement with a handheld camera.

Although the actors agreed with Hooper's choice of this special method, saying, ``It allows them to put more emotion into their acting,'' they needed to keep their vocal chords in optimal condition at all times. For this reason, he was ordered not to drink alcohol during filming. The hard-drinking cast, including Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried, had to be patient, and Russell gave Amanda a bottle of whiskey the moment everything was finished.

"Les Misérables" (C) 2012 Universal Studios.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Hugh Jackman, who plays Jean Valjean, reflected on the filming style, where acting and singing tend to be intertwined, as follows:

``Tom [Hooper] didn't give us detailed instructions on how to sing, he left everything to us.If we couldn't maintain our emotions, we could stop singing, and if we got emotional, we could sing with tears in our eyes.'' I could have continued.The biggest difference from the stage is that even emotionally charged scenes can be conveyed in a quiet tone.On stage, you have to raise your voice to a certain extent in order to reach the audience.''

Anne Hathaway, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Fantine, said of her initial thoughts on this filming style, saying, ``It was a great idea, but to be honest, I thought it was reckless.'' According to her, she not only sang on set, but also recorded the song in the studio.

“When I saw the finished film, I felt that probably 70% of the sound was from the filming process, and about 30% was recorded in the studio.In other words, the parts that were missing in the actual production were covered with the clear sound from the studio. But when I asked the director, I was surprised to hear that the sound was almost the same as the actual performance.'' Even for the actor himself, the level of perfection was unexpected.

However, the filming itself was extremely grueling. Jean Valjean's climax was filmed at 1 a.m. in extremely cold conditions on the set. The cast also apparently sang while filming off-set, with Hugh Jackman saying, ``There was a scene we shot on top of a high mountain near the coast. My hands turned purple and it was hard to breathe.'' "My white breath is also reflected in the video, but it's all real. I think the air was thinner than at the top of Mt. Fuji, which I climbed the other day," he said, reminiscing about his memories of coming to Japan. .

It is unique even in musicals that all lines are said in song.