Wayne Pashley is the newly Oscar-nominated re-recording mixer, sound designer, and supervising sound editor for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis. This is is not his first time working with Baz Luhrmann, having began their professional partnership with Strictly Ballroom. Here, in an interview with Awards Daily, Pashley discusses having such a long-term relationship which helps each other understand the own personal styles and sensibilities. He also reveals how making Elvis has been a dream project for him, his awe at the staying power of the film, and his appreciation of Elvis as a timeless cultural icon.
Awards Daily: The opening scene really set the stage perfectly with the sound and music. It starts with almost this dark intense evil music, then we go to Elvis singing, then just Colonel Parker talking, then just building the sound up for Colonel Parker as he’s approaching Elvis. Do you remember what the conversation was building up to that moment?
Wayne Pashley: That went through a lot of iterations in the edit, that whole opening sequence. One day the world may get to see what was originally intended. But the way it started was setting up Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis’s relationship, that was key. So you were setting up this Shakespearean tragedy with this Faustian pact between the two where you have Colonel Tom Parker as the business and Elvis as the show. We see from the outset the destruction that is about to happen to one of the most famous people in the world. So you start that way, then you’re coming in with that whole part of the seventies when he’s being dragged on stage. It sets up what happened. Then we shift to not Elvis but to Colonel Tom Parker having a heart attack, trying to help the audience understand who this guy was even when no one really did. He was like this crazy Dutch mentalist who managed to sway business and his “boy,” as he called Elvis, to become a kind of brand as big as Coke. Having established that, and starting with Colonel Tom Parker having a heart attack, we start going into Baz’s world. His opening statement to me was: This is going to be the Great American operatic tragedy.” So that is how we started. Not unlike the same infrastructure of Amadeus, if you like, with Salieri and Mozart. But of course in Baz world you got to go full tilt pizzazz. We are going to send Tom Parker’s full hospitalization from the heart attack into this morphine trip. When he wakes up he goes into this unreliable narrator situation saying, I didn’t kill Elvis Presley. Basically you did.
You can imagine thematically where Baz went. We had this opening sequence that we called “carnival time” for a long time. “Carnival Time” is this kind of obscure track that was in one of Elvis’s later movies in the 60s and it is just crazy. So we went on a full morphine trip with that where Colonel Tom is on tightropes in a circus, he is riding elephants, it’s all this kind of crazy stuff where he’s trying to justify that he is not the guilty party. Then of course moving into the first time he sees Elvis on stage where he races off to the hayride and we’ve got the whole incredible reaction from the crowd, particularly the female audience. Who we coined as the scream queens, We built this incredible emotional event of how Colonel Tom Parker saw Elvis as the geek in his carnival. So, as you can imagine, the number of iterations that it went through was enormous, and of course test screenings, and we did tech mixes. We all felt (even though we were all sad to see it go) that Tom Hanks doing a rap in this morphine dream didn’t quite fit. It was just insane! I think ultimately the audience felt that we did have to get to Elvis faster, it went through a lot of different edits.
But Baz shoots that stuff at the hayride through the tableau of Elvis growing up and him as a boy going into the Pentecostal tent, intercut with Come Fly Away. because thematically that tune and “are you ready to fly, my boy” as Colonel Parker says, it works wonderfully. It was an enormous undertaking dramatically and emotionally. and at the end of the day Baz told me, “Aside from the fact that we are about to make the Great American operatic tragedy, we must protect Elvis’s legacy.” And that’s what I hope that we did.
Awards Daily: You have worked with Baz Luhrmann many times now. What has made that collaboration so successful for you? And was it any different for this film?
Wayne Pashley: I go back with Baz for thirty years now when I did his first film, Strictly Ballroom. I remember the first edit before the sound was added was on five VHS tapes and I just couldn’t believe it. What is this? A film about ballroom dancing? Who is going to want to see it? And of course when you’ve got the baz-tacular attached to it I could not wait to change those tapes. I was quite nervous about this man I was about to meet and then I went in and we hit it off immediately because we both had the same kind of energy. We’re both collaborators. He is such a wonderful innovator and leader and he just takes enormous risks. I really love that. So I think as we went along in our relationship he just began to trust me more. What I do admire about what he does is he has the faith to let me move forward on my own terms and then he will direct and tell me what he does with it.
Baz never stops having ideas; you just run out of time. I remember on Strictly Ballroom doing stuff with costumes and sequins by myself and Baz would come in and help. That’s the sort of guy he is; he just throws himself right into it. I love that. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of work but it’s a lot of fun, and I think at the end of the day he trusts me. I remember doing the mix of Elvis and he was getting labeled as such a maximalist. I remember during the sequence when they’re first in Beale Street and you see young Elvis and you have Doja Cat and Shonka Dukureh doing “Hound Dog.” Baz said, “Let me hear what the world of Beale Street of the 50s sounds like.” So we shut the music down and he turned to me and said, “Oh my gosh, you’re such a maximalist.” [Laughter] I think it just comes down to trust and we both have the same taste at the end of the day.
Awards Daily: I read you used vintage microphones for transition between stage dialogue and the performances. What was behind that decision?
Wayne Pashley: It started from the very beginning. When we did the first camera tests and we had the sound all set up with the music department and also the first time I met Austin. We were testing playback to Elvis and how the lip sync was going to look. Then by lunch time we approved that everything was going to be fine with the playback and the lip sync but we did notice at the time Austin was actually singing even though it was to play back. Then Baz came in asking how it was going, and then turned the tables on us and said get a live band in. So we had to scramble to get a bass player, a drummer, a guitarist, and then Austin was going to sing live from lunchtime onwards. From that moment on we had a Shure 55 microphone, which was Elvis’s favorite mic at the time. That was a vintage restored microphone. So we rigged it up for the recording and by the end of that day the small crew that we had doing this minimal set, we’re all convinced that we were going to do more live than not. So that was a big deal for Austin of course, even though he had the voice down, which is just unbelievable.
We realized in those early 50s recordings, as lovely as they are, they are not going to help us transcend in a cinematic way that would be the expectation for a modern audience. Inclusive of the crowds and the sound effects wrapped in there. So that’s why in the 50s we went full Austin all the way. To get the sound of a style of Elvis’s voice and recording, even though it was modernized. With the musicianship it still had that Elvis feel by using the vintage microphones. Then of course, as we hit the 60s and the 70s, especially the ’68 Comeback Special, we wanted to use the original Elvis there because it is so well known. Even though Austin sang it anyway we had that original recording. So if Elvis went off mic we were able to easily and seamlessly shift Austin into it. Not only dialogue wise but also vocally like the huffing and puffing of breaths after all the stuff in the performance.
The same thing happened with the seventies Vegas tour but in that case we had the RCA multitrack recording, so you did have separation of Elvis’s vocals versus the backup vocalists. We had the drums and the guitars separated. The opposing team did enhance the drums but it enabled us to use Elvis’s preferred mics at the time by having them restored to seamlessly pull in and out of Austin to Elvis. It seems to me that people don’t notice it where it happens, which is awesome news. So that is why we did it.
Awards Daily: I have seen the movie twice now, and when I think of the sound the music feels very immersive without overwhelming the story. I heard it described as a symphony of sound. How did you guys come up with that?
Wayne Pashley: I worked closely with the music team from the very, very beginning and I think one of Baz’s key things–and it goes to production design, wardrobe, the whole thing–he really wanted everything to be in total harmony. Even though he will do hard edge stuff where you get loud and pull back at it. But it was all meant to be in harmony, and the sound design and the music were to be a singular vision. So within the infrastructure of any track there are a lot of sound effects going on. There are either transitional things because of the montages, trying to get through a man’s whole life in 2 and 1/2 hours, which was pretty tough, but the music and the sound effects had to be absolutely in harmony. All in the same key chain and at the same key as the music. All the sound effects were pitched in regard to that and rhythmically put in there. You could actually close the music and even the crowds would be happening in time in a lot of cases. Even the car horns or rumbling cars going by as well. So that is what we tried to do over the subsequent four or five tech mixes throughout for audience previews. The tracks changed music for any given sequence so it was constantly in flux. We just had to rebuild and try to make a harmonious piece.
I think one of the big things was the crowds, because it was thematically important for Elvis as a character. so the crowds were huge. We had 500 extras (and this was during COVID I might add) on set where we recorded ambisonic surround recordings. We did eight loop group recordings for all the details. And there was a temptation to overwhelm very easily with crowds. So that was a real test of constraint where Baz is very aware that crowd fatigue can get a bit much, so there was a real dance with the music in the narrative to allow the audience to feel the crowd and to feel like they’re part of the performance and feel like they’re there. It was just trial and error and we stayed very, very tight with the music department and the editorial department for rhythms. Singular vision was the order of the day.
Awards Daily: Are you a fan of Elvis Presley?
Wayne Pashley: Always! When I was a kid I remember getting into my father’s car and he had an AM radio and I remember the first track I heard was “Return to Sender.” I was about five or six and I still remember to this day. So I’ve always been a huge fan. At the end of making The Great Gatsby Baz mentioned he was thinking about doing a film about Elvis’s life and I was so excited at the time. Whether it was going to happen or not I didn’t know. But it’s funny. You know, for years I hung on to that notion, imagining if that happened. Someone was looking down on us because here we are. So yes, I am a massive fan. It’s like Marilyn Monroe. I look at those icons of the entertainment world in the 20th century and I’m blown away by the changes due to those artists, not just in America but culturally across the globe. Everyone knows Elvis.
The crazy thing is I’ve worked on films like “Happy Feet” where we had a lot of music and a lot of vocals. When you do a film like that you do a lot of international tracks, where the Japanese or the Korean will replace the vocals into their own language. It was a very early question that I had for Warner Brothers and their International Department. What do we do about Elvis? Surely we’re not going to get a Korean impersonator to redo Elvis’s songs? They said absolutely outright no one is going to be touching Elvis Presley no matter what language. Which I thought was really interesting because it doesn’t matter if you’re a Romanian speaker it’s Elvis in English, that’s his voice, it’s done. I thought, Wow, there you go, what a brand! He never even traveled outside the US. How crazy is that?
Awards Daily: I saw you’re the owner/cofounder of Big Bang sound design. What was behind the founding of that, and what has it been like running it?
Wayne Pashley: Gee, how long has Big Bang been around? About thirty years now. I had been at a different facility, and at that time I was primarily working in film, working with Peter Weir on Green Card and Fearless. Then I had worked on Strictly Ballroom and it was my first foray into digital sound for me. To be honest with you I’d never even used a computer back then. Then I was thrust into this night shift at this studio because the gear was very expensive and there was only one. It was at a music studio here in Sydney, it was a thing called Fairlife. So I was on the night shift and once I found the return button the world opened for me because all of a sudden sound dropped in sync. I couldn’t believe it!. So I was off and running. I came back to my partner Libby Villa after that experience and said to her, “I’ve just seen the future, and this is where we need to go.” That was thirty years ago, and that’s when Big Bang was born. We started small–two rooms, and tried to convince producers and directors that this new digital gear is really great. Took a while, but look, here we are today where digital audio is the way to go. So I speak to you now in one of our mixing studios and we’ve been going ever since. Honestly, it just gives me autonomy. It gives a place for filmmakers to come where they have full access to everything. They are not bumping into other filmmakers, awkwardly saying, Oh, how is your movie going? It’s like their home. So that’s what we like to create. Also, for our crew who I believe is one of the best in the world, I wanted to give them an environment where they are respected. All the rooms are big, comfy, and all the great gear. So we have become a bit of a family really.
Awards Daily: Any final thoughts?
Wayne Pashley-I was just talking to the editor this morning, Matt Villa, about the various nominations that have been coming out critically. We are just thrilled. Because after it was released we thought, Okay, people seem to like it, a lot of Elvis fans. We thought that’s great, and all the hoopla about box office and getting people back into the cinema has been great. But we honestly thought that for this time of the year and for the award season that it would be forgotten. We really did. Because it was such a long time ago. Yet here we are, and I tip my hat to Baz Luhrmann who has kept up the energy promoting. A wonderful thing that happened the other day for Elvis’s birthday was where Warner Bros got behind the film and put on free screenings. I thought, “How fabulous is this?” So I feel very, very blessed that Elvis is still in the conversation six months later–whatever it has been, and I am thrilled that it is still going strong.
![2025 Oscars: Can a Late-Breaker Still Win Best Picture? [POLL]](https://www.awardsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/gladiator-350x250.jpg)
