Last Night in Soho’s dance trick, explained by Matt Smith and Edgar Wright

People keep asking Edgar Wright when he’s going to direct a musical, and no wonder, given how he’s integrated music with action throughout his filmmaking career. His soundtracks are the inspiration for some of his greatest scenes, such as the scene in which the zombies fight were played from a jukebox. Shaun of the Dead (set to Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now”) to the musical battles in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The WorldAlmost everything. Baby Driver

However, his latest movie features Last Night in SohoOne musical sequence is a great example of what an Edgar Wright musical could look like. It features a stunning dance scene which switches between two performers quickly. The effect looks almost like digital split-second effects. Doctor Who star Matt Smith dances with the movie’s co-lead, Anya Taylor-Joy, and she repeatedly body-swaps with the protagonist, played by Thomasin McKenzie. Wright explains to Polygon how the sequence worked — mostly as a single take, with only a single edit in the whole scene.

[Ed. note: Warning: spoilers ahead for the story setup of Last Night in Soho.]

Foto by Focus Features

Ellie McKenzie (a shy fashion student) travels to London where she experiences visions of her past. She wakes up in a dream-like state and walks through the 1960s London as Sandie Taylor-Joy, a young performer looking for an opportunity to take her on stage. Wright moves back and forth between their perspectives — when Ellie first looks in a mirror in the 1960s, she sees Sandie. When Sandie stands near a reflective surface, she isn’t aware of Ellie’s presence, but Ellie is looking back out at her.

“You’re going into a fantastical perspective where Thomasin is sometimes a voyeur, and sometimes body-swapping with Anya,” Wright tells Polygon. “When Anya’s emotions run high, Thomasin is suddenly in the moment as well. This was due to the dreams that I had. I have lots of dreams where I know I’m me, but I’m in somebody else’s body. Or I’m looking at myself, I’m having an out-of-body experience, that thing of constantly changing perspectives.”

The majority of mirror scenes were created without the use digital effects. “They’re actually standing next to each other, for the most part,” Wright says. “When they’re very close to each other, what you’re watching onscreen is actually what’s happening. It was clear that Thomasin would be more comfortable being in the same scene as the actors. She would not have found it challenging and enjoyable, but ultimately, she might find the scene boring. So we created the shots for Thomasin. And what it creates, I hope, is a very strange mood.”

Foto by Focus Features

This principle of applying the same principles to big dance numbers was also applicable. “We rehearsed with the choreographer, Jen White, fastidiously,” actor Matt Smith tells Polygon. “We worked very hard to get ourselves free and swaying in that ’60s-esque style. A lot of the visual tricks were done with us running around the back of the camera, and hiding, and jumping up — trying to run round and not be in the shot, and then come out again and make things work.”

Wright says there’s a single digital effect at the beginning of the sequence, when Smith first pulls Taylor-Joy past him and she turns into McKenzie. “The first swap was a repeated move where we did the shot with Anya and Matt, and then just did it again with Thomasin,” he says. “Even when we were doing it, I didn’t know we were going to be able to pull it off. And the reason it’s so good is because Matt Smith and Anya and Thomasin’s continuity is just so dead-on.”

Smith claims that the sequence’s mechanics were largely a result of repeated practice. “It’s like anything, the more you practice, the better you get, really,” he says. “I enjoyed it thoroughly, because I enjoyed working with Anya every day. She’s a good dancer, and we had a laugh, trying to get it right and making it look as cool as possible.”

Wright said that Wright was more comfortable with the scripted version. But in addition to that first planned edit between the two actors dancing, choreographer Jennifer White offered him six alternate body-swap moves, all using Texas switches — on-camera moments where one performer steps out and another steps in, with clever camera work concealing the transition.

“And I was like, ‘Why don’t we just shoot all of them?’ Wright laughs. “‘How long can we keep this going?’ Because it’s intoxicating to watch. That’s supposed to be the idea of the scene. It is a dream sequence that’s alluring, glamorous, intoxicating and seductive. That’s how it happened. Other than that shot, you’re watching one unbroken take.”

Foto by Focus Features

Wright said that split-second timing was required to make the shot work. Smith handed one of his partners offscreen and Smith stepped in with split second timing. “The three actors are doing a do-si-do around the camera. It’s just old-fashioned choreography. We are performing every trick from the book, even though it seems strange. Most of them have some sort of complicated 21st-century ways of doing things, but with some of them, what you’re seeing is exactly what’s happening.”

A home-video release is possible Last Night in Soho may include full footage of the sequence from a witness-cam perspective, removed far enough from the action to show exactly what everyone’s doing, Wright says. “Watching that is like an amazing dance in itself, because really, a shot like that is a collaboration between the three performers — and then also the fourth performer in the scene, Chris Bain, the Steadicam operator. The shot stands and falls on him being in the right place at all times.”

Wright says this kind of one-shot sequence — what people in the industry call a “oner” — can be “show-offy, like ‘let’s just do it because we can.’” But he felt working without cuts would set a particularly breathless tone for the sequence. “The idea was, the longer we can keep these shots going, the more immersive it will be. You feel like you’re living vicariously through her. It’s about not breaking the spell. It’s like we’re showing you a reality of Something, even if what we’re showing you is very fantastical.”

It may be difficult for some people to believe the sequence was created without complex digital actor-replacement effects. “In this day and age, people always think, ‘Oh, there must be stitches, there must be cuts,’” he says. “But there aren’t. We did a Q&A the other day for BAFTA, and somebody said to the editor, Paul Machliss, ‘Can you talk to us about the edits in the dance sequence?’ And he said, ‘No, because there aren’t any.’”

Last Night in SohoIt is now in theatres