Random Bohemian Rhapsody Recreated Queen's Legendary Live Aid Performanc (11 items)

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  (#6) Step-By-Step Choreography Couldn't Do Queen's Performance Justice

  As he transformed into Freddie Mercury, Rami Malek threw himself into the life, style, and eccentricities of the famed singer. Malek soon realized that trying to choreograph his movements on stage didn't work. As Malek put it:

  I needed... to capture his spontaneity. The man's not choreographed. Every time he steps out onto a stage, no one knows what he's going to do, and that's what I knew I needed to tether myself to. In order to do that, I realized, I can't work with a choreographer, I need someone to help me with movement, someone to help me discover the impetus for why he does what he does. Why every flick of the wrist occurs with him in such an elegant, sometimes dainty and sometimes aggressive way, depending on his mood. I just had to find his humanity - what his conflicts were - and discover all the sides of him, because I knew there was more to Freddie Mercury than a man who holds an audience in the palm of his hand. But I had to get that down as well.

  Mercury's Live Aid performance exemplified his ability to captivate an audience. As a result, the makers of Bohemian Rhapsody focused on studying Mercury's movements and embodying his spirit as much as simply recreating the event.
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  (#5) Filmmakers Blocked Out The Sun To Heighten The Realism

  Dealing with rainy weather in England was a common difficulty for the Bohemian Rhapsody filmmakers, but Queen performed around 6 PM on July 13, 1985 - a prime spot in the Live Aid lineup and late enough in the day for the sunlight to be fading. In order to recreate the shadows, the light, and other environmental aspects of the performance, the film's cinematographer worked to create and block natural light.

  Director of photography Newton Thomas Sigel said, "We had to try and match shots done in full sun, then shade, and at different times of the day, so that we could give it some continuity. And we had to try and match our material with the original Live Aid footage as much as possible, and not take too much dramatic license, even though it’s a film and not a documentary."

  An additional challenge was lighting the show itself. Everyone at Live Aid had the same lighting, possibly left over from a Bruce Springsteen concert days before. In Brian May's opinion, the fact that all of the acts used the same stage, lights, and backdrop did a great service to the music.
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  (#3) Members Of Queen Consulted On The Live Aid Scene

  Brian May and Roger Taylor, both executive music producers on the film, consulted often on set. May visited the recreated Wembley Stadium at Bovington Airfield, and tweeted pictures of the set in August 2017. May's caption conveyed his excitement: "LIVE AID LIVES AGAIN. It's a miracle. Bo Rhap the movie. We are on."

  Both May and Taylor were able to provide insights into what Live Aid was really like. Rami Malek said of the scene, "It was quite surreal...I’d be talking to Brian May as Freddie and future Brian May would show up. It was like being in a sci-fi novel."

  Live Aid organizer and producer Bob Geldof was also on set.
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  (#11) A Version Of The Entire Live Aid Set Will Appear In The Home Release Extras

  The cast of Bohemian Rhapsody recreated the entire Queen performance from Live Aid, but that's not what viewers see in the theatrical cut of the film. The full Live Aid performance included "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Radio Ga Ga," "Hammer to Fall," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," "We Will Rock You," and "We Are the Champions." The abbreviated version of Live Aid in Bohemian Rhapsody only keeps "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" in its entirety.

  The full performance will appear on the DVD, Blu-ray, and digital versions of the film upon its release to home audiences. 
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  (#1) The Cast Filmed The Live Aid Scene First

  As the event that bookends Bohemian Rhapsody, the pivotal Live Aid performance was the first sequence the cast and crew shot. From the perspective of the film's cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel, the decision "allowed the cast to come together early and create their chemistry." Sigel said, "I remember watching them rehearse three days before the shoot. They didn’t know each other, and those four guys really jelled, just like a rock ’n’ roll band would."

  Gwilym Lee, who played Brian May, recalled the fear and adrenaline he felt running onstage: "You either sink or swim in that situation, it's a real baptism of fire, but it forged us together as a unit."

  Over the course of a week, Lee, Rami Malek (Freddie Mercury), Ben Hardy (Roger Taylor), and Joe Mazzello (John Deacon) filmed one song from the Live Aid sequence each day. On the final day of shooting, they ran through the entire concert three times. Shooting the entire sequence in one shot was important to all involved. They didn't want to chop it up, lose momentum, or do a disservice to the integrity of Queen's performance.

  Everyone that watched felt emotion and excitement throughout the shoot. Malek said, "Doing the entire run-through of that concert, you feel the peaks and valleys of where the adrenaline is kicking in. You’re so high off adrenaline that you realize that’s exactly how they were able to do what they were doing. It’s that quality that makes you feel, even just for a moment, that you’re superhuman."
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  (#7) Rami Malek And Other Cast Members Worked With A Movement Coach

  Before filming the Live Aid scene, Rami Malek, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, and Joseph Mazzello rehearsed for six weeks. They worked with movement coach Polly Bennett and studied YouTube videos of the concert to master the mannerisms of their musical counterparts. 

  Malek and Bennett dove deeper into Mercury's life and mannerisms, studying his childhood, his physicality, and even his major influences like Aretha Franklin and Liza Minelli. Bennett explained, "[Freddie] was a long-distance runner at school and a boxer... this gives us a reason why Freddie ran across the stage and punched the air, and [allows me to explain to] Rami: ‘This is why that character moves the way that he does.’"

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