Yesterday, new set photos from Tom Hooper's Les Miserables went online and now three set videos have followed.  A couple of the videos are pretty standard stuff.  One video has Javert (Russell Crowe) riding around on horseback, and another has Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) charging out of a church and ripping up a piece of paper while singing the last note of a song, although I'm not sure which one (perhaps "What Have I Done?").  But the most exciting video is the cast singing part of the show's finale.Hit the jump to check out the videos.  The film also stars Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Amanda Seyfried, Sacha Baron Cohen, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks, and Helena Bonham Carter.  Les Miserables opens December 14th.For those unfamiliar with Les Miserables, here's the official synopsis:

Set against the backdrop of 19th-century France, Les Misérables tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited love, passion, sacrifice and redemption–a timeless testament to the survival of the human spirit. Jackman plays ex-prisoner Jean Valjean, hunted for decades by the ruthless policeman Javert (Crowe) after he breaks parole. When Valjean agrees to care for factory worker Fantine’s (Hathaway) young daughter, Cosette, their lives change forever.

Now here's the "Finale" set video:

You'll notice that they're singing along to playback.  While it's noble to try and have all of the singing be done live, in a scene like this, there are simply too many bodies and moving parts milling around to have everyone hear each other and make their cues.  That works on a theatre stage, but as you can see from the environment, it's not practical on a film set of this size.  However, the use of playback allows us to hear the song, and I like what I'm hearing.

In the second video, where Valjean charges out of a church (a scene that takes place near the beginning of the story), it looks like Jackman is actually singing rather than using playback:

 

Finally, here's a video of Javert charging around on horseback.  No playback required:

 

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