Films › Sound and score
Baby Driver
Directed by Edgar Wright, 2017
Every action beat, gear change, gunshot and cut is synchronised to a pre-selected track, which meant the music was locked before the shoot. Choreography, stunt timing and editing were all built around fixed tempos. Tinnitus is used as a diegetic justification for a wall-to-wall soundtrack, which keeps it honest. The opening coffee run is a single take timed exactly to the song. Wright storyboarded the entire film to the selected tracks before principal photography, meaning stunt drivers, extras and even gunfire squibs were choreographed to hit specific beats within each song, an inversion of the usual process where music is scored to finished picture. That reversal required the editing department to treat the songs as a fixed timeline that picture had to conform to rather than the other way around, and the opening single-take walk is frequently studied for how many incidental background actions, a spray painter, a delivery, a passerby, are timed to land precisely on the beat without appearing choreographed.
What to watch for
Watch the opening walk and note how many background elements land on the beat.
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Affiliate disclosure. Links on this page are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Occupy Cinema earns from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you. Read the full policy.