Dolby Creator Talks

Director and co-writer Nora Fingscheidt joins her sound team to discuss their extraordinary work on the new film “The Outrun” — a moving portrayal of one woman’s struggle with sobriety and memories of a traumatic childhood, using sound design to explore the emotional landscape of its main character, Rona, played by the extraordinary Saoirse Ronan. From the quiet, wind-swept expanses of the Orkney Islands to the bustling streets of London, the team reveals how they crafted distinct sonic environments that reflect Rona’s turbulent emotional journey. The film was a standout at this past year’s Sundance Film Festival and is a masterclass in how to use sound design to tell a compelling, layered story.

Joining today’s discussion:

- Nora Fingscheidt - Director and Co-Writer

- Gregor Bonse - Re-Recording Mixer

- Dominik Leube - Supervising Sound Editor & Sound Mixer

- Oscar Stiebitz - Sound Designer & Sound Mixer

"As soon as we get together - this crew, with our composers - we see it as this merging [of an] audio landscape, between sound design, mix and music. And we start thinking, ‘how should this movie sound?’ Basically at the same time as I get together with the DOP discussing, ‘how should this movie look?’ It's 50% image, 50% sound, no matter what the budget is.”

—Nora Fingscheidt, Director and Co-Writer, “The Outrun”

Be sure to check out “The Outrun” now in theaters, in stunning Dolby Atmos®.

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Legendary filmmaker, animator, writer, and voice actor Chris Sanders (you may know him as “Stitch”) joins his sound team — including our first-ever guest on this podcast, Randy Thom — to talk about their stunning work on the latest animated adventure/tearjerker from DreamWorks Animation, “The Wild Robot.” A truly visual spectacle, the film has an appropriately spectacular soundtrack, which Chris and the team relished in crafting its richness and complexity for over two years.

“We didn't have any score at all for a while. So one of the really neat things about the opening [reel] is that it's all sound design. It's all sound effects, which is really, really cool. I was impressed with how much detail — and it was necessary to have that kind of detail — and because we had the opportunity of getting as deep into this as we wanted to. So it's an especially good reason to go see this movie on a big screen as the sound of this whole film is really is so spectacular.”

—Chris Sanders, Writer and Director, “The Wild Robot”

Joining today’s discussion:

- Chris Sanders - Writer and Director

- Randy Thom - Sound Designer

- Gary Rizzo - Re-recording Mixer

- Leff Lefferts - Re-recording Mixer & Supervising Sound Editor

Be sure to check out “The Wild Robot” in stunning Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®, in theaters now.

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

“The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” is the first David Bowie studio album to be released in Dolby Atmos® and joining us today is Ken Scott, the original co-producer of the album (and many others from Bowie), as well as Dolby Atmos mix engineer, Emre Ramazanoglu.

Ken Scott is a legend in the world of music production and engineering, and he takes our guest host, Ben Givarz, inside the studio with David Bowie to explore the production of the original album and discusses how he wanted to create a new experience for listeners in Dolby Atmos, which also led him to the creation of brand new stereo mixes.

This interview is part of our new series, "Reimagining the Classics."

“If you're going to ask people to listen to a record in a different format, you need to give it to them totally in that format, not just take the stereo and just put things in different places. It should be something different so that they become interested in it again. And I think it worked, because Woody, [Bowie’s] drummer, he heard some of it — and his first words were, ‘I felt as if I was there with the band.’ He felt as if he was on stage, because it surrounded him so much. Which is exactly what we were aiming for.”

—Ken Scott, Record Producer and Mix Engineer

You can listen to these and many other classic and contemporary albums in Dolby Atmos, on enabled streaming services.

You can purchase the album, “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars,” here:

https://davidbowie.com/

https://rhino.com/

Many thanks to Mike Exeter for the B-roll of Ken and Emre in the mixing studio. The full video can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/LVcagYbrd6o

Interested in creating content in Dolby Atmos? Check out our free resources to give you a jump start!

- Dolby Atmos Music Accelerator: https://www.dolby.com/institute/music-accelerator/

- Dolby Atmos Essentials Course: https://learning.dolby.com/

- Dolby Atmos Music Support: https://professional.dolby.com/music/Professional-resources/

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode on our YouTube channel.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

“Sing Sing” — an independent feature film now in theaters — made a big splash at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Directed by Greg Kwedar, the film is notable for its unique casting approach, blending actors such as Colman Domingo with real-life, formally incarcerated individuals. It’s set in the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York, focusing on the prison’s theater troupe. But one of the most interesting aspects of the production was how it was financed. And in particular how it used a profit-sharing model where all crew members, including those non-professional actors, received a share of the film's profits. Today’s discussion details how exactly that financing strategy worked, as well as the inspiring journey to getting the film made.

Joining today’s discussion:

- Carlos López Estrada - Moderator

- Valerie Bush - Moderator

- Greg Kwedar - Producer, Director, and Writer, Sing Sing

- Clint Bentley - Producer and Writer, Sing Sing

- Monique Walton - Producer, Sing Sing

Be sure to check out Sing Sing, now playing in theaters.

This is another installment of our ongoing “Satellite Sessions” series, which we’re bringing to you in partnership with Antigravity Academy and the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment. 

Follow @antigravityacademy and @capeusa for more information on even more upcoming panels.

Antigravity Academy

CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment)

For more inspiring Satellite Sessions just like this one, be sure you are subscribed to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Multi-platinum mixer and engineer Richard Chycki joins us to dive deep into his work with legendary rock bands such as Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Dream Theater, Mick Jagger, and, of course, the iconic Rush. Richard has been at the forefront of immersive audio with his Dolby Atmos® mixes of Rush classics like “Moving Pictures” and “Signals,” building upon his original surround mixes.

In this conversation with guest host Ben Givarz, Richard shares his process for respecting the creative intent of these timeless tracks while adapting them to Dolby Atmos, ensuring an immersive experience that translates seamlessly across various playback systems. He delves into how Dolby Atmos allows him to emphasize the sonic nuances of Geddy Lee's voice and bass, Alex Lifeson's intricate guitar work, and Neil Peart's legendary drumming, all while maintaining the integrity of the original recordings. Plus, he offers his insights into the future of music mixing, and his excitement for new, original compositions being created in Dolby Atmos from the ground up.

This interview is part of our new series, "Reimagining the Classics."

“One of the things about a technology like Dolby Atmos is it gives producers, mixers, engineers and artists a new way to express, creatively. A lot of the work I do is in mixing. And for me, rather than trying to reinvent ways to cram bigger and bigger sessions into two speakers, I now have a lot more real estate to work with. And that's gratifying. And it gives me a lot of new creative energy.”

—Richard Chycki, Audio Engineer and Mixer

You can listen to these and many other classic and contemporary albums in Dolby Atmos, on enabled streaming services.

You can learn more about Richard Chycki and his incredible mixing career here.

Interested in creating content in Dolby Atmos? Check out our free resources to give you a jump start!

- Dolby Atmos Music Accelerator: https://www.dolby.com/institute/music-accelerator/

- Dolby Atmos Essentials Course: https://learning.dolby.com/

- Dolby Atmos Music Support: https://professional.dolby.com/music/Professional-resources/

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode on our YouTube channel.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Mix engineer Ryan Ulyate joins us to dive deep into his work with the late, great Tom Petty, including his Dolby Atmos® mixes of Petty's “Highway Companion” solo album, “Wildflowers & All The Rest” Deluxe Edition, “Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Greatest Hits,” and the iconic “Live at the Fillmore 1997.”

Ryan has been a recording engineer and producer for over 40 years, with credits on over 120 albums, and has been at the forefront of immersive audio for over 20. In this conversation with guest host Ben Givarz, Ryan shares his journey of sifting through hours of multi-track tapes to create those incredible new immersive mixes, as well as his theories, best practices, and the creative process behind bringing a fully immersive experience to life in Dolby Atmos.

This interview is part of our new series, "Reimagining the Classics."

“What I realized about Dolby Atmos was that it's not something you do to overwhelm people. It's just something that allows you to put [the listener] in the space of where the music was being made… You can create more drama and get people really inside the music and create these little moments. I think that I've always looked at music visually. I just always see a picture when I'm mixing. And this just broadens the scope so much more. And it gives you such an emotional connection when it works. And that's all that the musicians that I've respected, and I've worked with, ever wanted. Just to find a great way - the best way - for people to connect with their music.”

—Ryan Ulyate, Record Producer and Mix Engineer

You can listen to these and many other classic and contemporary albums in Dolby Atmos, on enabled streaming services.

Be sure to also check out Ryan Ulyate’s Grammy Award®-nominated album “Act 3,” in Dolby Atmos:

- Apple Music

- Amazon Music

- TIDAL

- Immersive Audio Album

You can learn more about Ryan and his incredible mix studio here.

Interested in creating content in Dolby Atmos? Check out our free resources to give you a jump start!

- Dolby Atmos Music Accelerator: https://www.dolby.com/institute/music-accelerator/

- Dolby Atmos Essentials Course: https://learning.dolby.com/

- Dolby Atmos Music Support: https://professional.dolby.com/music/Professional-resources/

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode on our YouTube channel.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Bob Clearmountain and Rhett Davies, legends in the world of music recording, production, and engineering, join guest host Ben Givarz to delve into the process of transforming Roxy Music's iconic album "Avalon" and Bryan Ferry's platinum record "Boys and Girls" into Dolby Atmos®.

They dive deep into the background of the recording and engineering processes they used on these and other legendary Roxy Music records in the 70s and 80s, as well as how they used the original multi-tracks to go from 5.1 mixes in the early 2000s, onto these incredible new Dolby Atmos mixes.

This interview is part of our new series, "Reimagining the Classics."

“It was a lot more complicated than what either of us had remembered from the original mixes. But still, it's always an adventure and I love a challenge. Especially when the music is great. This music, I still listen to it all the time. It's such a pleasure to listen to and to work with. I mean, we were in heaven.”

—Bob Clearmountain, Record Producer and Mix Engineer

You can listen to these and many other classic and contemporary albums in Dolby Atmos, on enabled streaming services.

Interested in creating content in Dolby Atmos? Check out our free resources to give you a jump start!

Dolby Atmos Music Accelerator: https://www.dolby.com/institute/music-accelerator/

Dolby Atmos Essentials Course: https://learning.dolby.com/

Dolby Atmos Music Support: https://professional.dolby.com/music/Professional-resources/

You can learn more about Bob Clearmountain and his incredible mix studio here.

And be on the lookout for his next collaboration with Bryan Ferry, the recently announced:

Bryan Ferry "Retrospective: Selected Recordings 1973-2023."

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode on our YouTube channel.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards®, “Ripley,” the new Netflix limited series from creator Steven Zaillian, is a masterclass in filmmaking and the art of sound. So it’s no wonder that two of those nominations are for Outstanding Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. And it’s clear why the sound team was given so much creative freedom to explore the sonic possibilities of the show, as many of those details and nuances were written directly into the scripts, and overseen by a showrunner with a sharp attention to detail.

“Without a doubt, Steve Zaillian pays attention to every footstep and every breath and every movement.”

—Michael Barry, Re-recording Mixer, “Ripley”

Today we are joined by members of the sound team behind the show, including:

- Larry Zipf, Co-supervising Sound Editor/Sound Designer and Re-recording Mixer

- Michael Feuser, Co-supervising Sound Editor

- Michael Barry, Re-recording Mixer

- Maurizio Argentieri, Sound Mixer

NOTE: This interview contains spoilers! So be sure to check out “Ripley,” now streaming on Netflix in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®, before listening.

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode on our YouTube channel.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

How Hollywood studios work and operate can be mystifying, especially for emerging filmmakers. Luckily, Dolby Institute Fellowship winner Carlos Lopez Estrada returns for another of his excellent Satellite Sessions (this one from December), featuring executives from some of the biggest studios in the entertainment industry, all to help de-mystify how they, and the studios, find, develop, and produce their projects.

Joining the discussion are:

- Vanessa Morrison, President of Streaming, Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production

- Mika Pryce, Senior Vice President of Production, Paramount Pictures

- Sheila Walcott, Senior Vice President of Creative Development, Warner Bros. Entertainment

- Ryan Jones, Senior Vice President, Production Development, Universal Pictures

- Tara Duncan, President, Onyx Collective

This is another installment of our ongoing “Satellite Sessions” series, which we’re bringing to you in partnership with Antigravity Academy and the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment. 

Follow @antigravityacademy and @capeusa for more information on even more upcoming panels.

Antigravity Academy

CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment)

For more inspiring Satellite Sessions just like this one, be sure you are subscribed to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Pulitzer Prize-winning and Emmy- and Grammy-nominated composer Michael Abels joins our guest host, music journalist Jon Burlingame, to discuss the music of “Star Wars: The Acolyte.” The music for the series was a massive undertaking, made even more formidable by the knowledge that every cue would be compared to the work of legendary composer John Williams. But as a longtime fan of “Star Wars,” Abels jumped into the project eagerly.

“I'm one of those people who saw the original trilogy in the theater, so I've grown up with ‘Star Wars’ and with the music of John Williams… I think every fan actually has an assessment of what makes ‘Star Wars’ ‘Star Wars.’ So Leslye [Headland, creator and showrunner] and I talked about that… And we quickly aligned on that the music of ‘Star Wars,’ while it's not necessary that it be old-school or traditional or orchestral, that's something that we both valued. And so it was our intention to have the score be very traditional in places where it called for that and where that would work. And at the same time, there are definite ways in which this series explores new ground. It's all new characters. There's a method to the storytelling that's distinctly Leslye’s own. And so in those places, the score does what it needs to do to bring this new element to the story.”

—Michael Abels, Composer, “Star Wars: The Acolyte”

Be sure to check out “Star Wars: The Acolyte,” now streaming on Disney+.

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Academy Award®-nominated director (“Raya and the Last Dragon”) — and Dolby Institute Fellowship winner — Carlos López Estrada brings together another exciting panel of film professionals. As one of the producers, Carlos joins fellow Academy Award®-nominated director (“Nai Nai & Wài Pó”) Sean Wang, along with members of the cast and crew, to discuss the herculean task of bringing their independent film “Dìdi (弟弟)” to life.

“It’s such a difficult thing to make your first personal film. It’s so impossibly difficult. And I think you really need to know that’s what you want to do. And if, in the depths of the night, you ask yourself, ‘is this what I must do?’ And if the answer comes out to be yes… then I think you adjust everything in your life in accordance with that goal. It’s just something you must do. If you get enough money, you make it bigger. If you don’t get enough money, you still make it. You make it a little more intimate. I think it’s just that necessity… to tell this story… We make narratives, essentially, to save ourselves.”

—Joan Chen, Actor, “Dìdi (弟弟)”

Today’s panel also includes:

- Sean Wang - Director, Writer, Producer

- Izaac Wang - Actor (“Chris Wang”)

- Joan Chen - Actor (“Chungsing Wang”)

- Valerie Bush - Producer

- Sam Davis - Director of Photography

and Moderator

- Carlos López Estrada - Producer

“Dìdi (弟弟)” was a recipient of the Dolby Institute Fellowship Award, our grant program for exceptional independent films to finish in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®. And we couldn’t be more proud of this film, even before it went on to win the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Be sure to check out “Dìdi (弟弟)” in theaters this Friday, July 26!

Wide release on August 16th.

This discussion was another edition of Antigravity Academy’s Satellite Sessions — free monthly conversations with high-level individuals in film and tv, whose objective is to decentralize resources/information and make them available to as many up-and-coming filmmakers as possible — co-presented by CAPE USA (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment).

Learn more about Antigravity Academy:

https://antigravityacademy.co/

Learn more about CAPE — The Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment:

https://www.capeusa.org/

Be sure to follow @antigravityacademy and @capeusa for more information on even more upcoming panels.

For more inspiring Satellite Sessions just like this one, be sure you are subscribed to Dolby Creator Talks, wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this and all our episodes on YouTube.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Perhaps the top colorist in his field, Stefan Sonnefeld joins us for our 200th episode!

If you aren’t aware of Stefan, you’ve almost certainly seen his work. Some of his recent projects include “Top Gun: Maverick,” “The White Lotus,” and “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3.” His credit list includes some of the biggest franchises in our business, including “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “Jurassic Park,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Transformers,” and many more. Just a few of the A-List directors and producers he has worked with are: Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, Martin Scorsese, Zack Snyder, Tom Cruise, Michael Bay, Bradley Cooper, Steven Zaillian, Spike Jonze, Gore Verbinski, Tim Burton, Matt Reeves, JJ Abrams, George Clooney, Tony Gilroy, and Judd Apatow.

So what does it take to be a top colorist in Hollywood, working for some of the biggest personalities in the business?

“Well, it's not just the director, it's a lot of people now… So it's a team sport. Everybody plays a part in it. And it's why it's so enjoyable for me. You have to involve a lot of people, but in general, the director, let's say that's the main person. You have to have a good relationship with that person and you have to be able to interpret what they're saying and get that onto the screen. And to do it quite quickly too, because it's a lot of effort and work and money that goes into these projects. And some people talk in technical terms. And some people, like a Michael Mann for instance, talk through emotions. Like, ‘Hey, [the character is] very this [way] in the scene. And he's feeling this. And this is what's going to happen. And this is what just happened. And therefore this is what I want.’ And I'm sort of interpreting that, in a color way, and [I’ll] put it on the screen and he'll be like, ‘great, that's it!’ Or, ‘no, that's not what I meant. It should be this.’”

—Stefan Sonnenfeld, Senior Colorist, Founder and CEO, Company 3

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Documentary filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, as well as sound supervisor and re-recording mixer Paul Hsu, join us to discuss their new HBO documentary limited-series, “Ren Faire.” The show details the Succession-like power struggle atop the Texas Renaissance Festival, amid its founder’s impending retirement. It was filmed in an appropriately over-the-top theatrical style, and features some incredible sonic world-building, which — in true Lance Oppenheim style — very cleverly mixes real and fantastical elements... often leaving the line between the two quite grey.

“I've always been obsessed with Abbas Kiarostami's movies and ‘Close-Up,’ which is very formally different than this, but the idea with that film was embracing reenactments, embracing performance, as a form of truth. And to me, with this project, everything you're seeing on the screen is real. But I wanted to also acknowledge that the moment you drop a camera anywhere, you violate the reality. So it's absurd. All of it's absurd. Documentary filmmaking is absurd. Nonfiction storytelling is absurd. So if we can acknowledge that, can we push past it and find something new?”

—Lance Oppenheim, Director, Writer, and Executive Producer, “Ren Faire”

This conversation was recorded in-person, in front of a live audience at Dolby’s screening room in mid-town Manhattan, as part of our ongoing collaboration with the Artist Academy and Film at Lincoln Center.

Be sure to check out “Ren Faire,” with all three episodes now streaming on Max.

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Academy Award®-nominated director (“Raya and the Last Dragon”) — and Dolby Institute Fellowship winner — Carlos López Estrada brings together another panel of working filmmakers and creatives, this time to discuss the hot button issue of AI in Filmmaking.

Joining the discussion are:

- Jorge R. Gutierrez (Filmmaker - “The Book of Life,” “Maya and the Three”)

- Isa Mazzei (Filmmaker - “Cam,” “How to Blow Up a Pipeline”)

- Paul Trillo (Filmmaker, Visual Artist - “The Hardest Part” music video for Washed Out)

- Dave A. Liu (Producer/Financier - “Dìdi (弟弟),” “Sasquatch Sunset”)

- Dave Clark (Filmmaker, Futurist, Educator)

- Joe Penna (Filmmaker - “Stowaway”)

“I see all of it as inevitable. And lot of things that are being put out there are frankly, I find, just not that provocative or interesting. And I think AI is being used in a very lazy way, which is totally fine. But, if you have the discipline and if you have the experience, you can take that experience use this tool as a way… to discover these ideas that you probably wouldn’t have made otherwise.”

—Paul Trillo, Filmmaker and Director of “The Hardest Part” music video

Be sure to check out Paul Trillo’s controversial Sora-generated music video for Washed Out, “The Hardest Part.”

This is another amazing conversation which is part of our ongoing “Satellite Sessions” series, which we’re bringing to you in partnership with Antigravity Academy and the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment. 

Follow @antigravityacademy and @capeusa for more information on even more upcoming panels.

Antigravity Academy

CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment)

For more inspiring Satellite Sessions just like this one, be sure you are subscribed to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and Tom Hardy are just a few of the celebrity voice actors in the new Audible Original adaptation of “George Orwell’s 1984.” But this adaptation is unique in that it is audio-only — not unlike a radio play. In doing so, writer Joe White had to translate the novel, which was written from a third-person perspective, and put the audience completely into Winston’s POV. And the creative team needed to rely purely on audio to do all the world-building, without the advantages of visuals or an omniscient narrator. But, as it turns out, the experience came quite naturally for director Destiny Ekaragha.

“It wasn't as different as I thought it was going to be, actually… It is pure directing, in a way. Because when you're directing on set, you have to consider everything. The color of the curtains, the clouds, and the sky. Everything. Which is great and amazing. But here, it was just pure, one-on-one with the actor, which is my favorite part of my job. Directing actors. So I was like, wait, this is nice. I really like this. I'm not thinking about anything else. I really love that.”

—Destiny Ekaragha, Director, “George Orwell’s 1984”

You can experience “George Orwell’s 1984” on Audible in Dolby Atmos®, which fully immerses the listener into this chilling, dystopian world.

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Blockbuster film composer Tom Holkenborg — aka Junkie XL — returns to George Miller’s post-apocalyptic dystopian world with his latest installment, “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.”

Regular guest host Jon Burlingame joins the podcast to discuss Holkenborg’s hands-on approach to crafting the music for this film, which included an unusual addition to his typical job of composer.

“To find the right language for this film from a first-person perspective… I was able to be one of the re-recording mixers on this film, being responsible to mix the final results of the film that now people will hear in the theater, alongside [re-recording mixer] Rob Mackenzie. I don't know a film that has been mixed by a composer… at least in the years that I've been working in the film industry. To be able to take this on with George [Miller] and with Rob Mackenzie was just an amazing eight-week experience, to really get into the complete details. It's like, ‘how do you want the music to sound? How is it going to be spaced in an incredible Dolby Atmos theater? And how are you using all the speakers? How much do you push the music? And how do you create perfect handoffs with the sound design, working in conjunction together?’ It was such a fascinating experience.”

—Tom Holkenborg, Composer and Re-recording Mixer, “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”

Be sure to check out “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” now playing in Dolby Cinemas®, in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®.

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

One of the reasons behind the immense popularity of this hit multiplayer roleplaying game is its incredible soundtrack. Today, we are joined by the Audio Director of Larian Studios — the makers of “Baldur’s Gate 3” — Stefan Randelshofer, along with our guest host, Dolby’s Senior Game Developer Relations Manager, Alistair Hirst, in a live discussion from this year’s Game Developers Conference, to discuss what went into creating the rich, sonic atmosphere of the video game.

“There is a complete architecture for 3D audio that allows you to listen to 3D audio objects. You can make that work automatically and you can facilitate those 3D audio objects and that gives you so many chances to be more immersed in what you're doing. In a world like Baldur’s Gate, there's so much stuff going on. In the city, when people talk around you. You have a cool combat — if you have one of the spells fly by. So it really gives you the perspective of being there. Therefore, that was the reason for me to go into this Dolby setup”

—Stefan Randelshofer, Audio Director, “Baldur’s Gate 3”

Be sure to check out “Baldur’s Gate 3”, available on PC, Steam, and consoles.

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff — co-creators of “Game of Thrones” — and Alexander Woo (“True Blood”) join us to talk about their epic new science fiction series: “3 Body Problem” on Netflix.

Rounding out the discussion are:

• Director of Photography Jonathan Freeman
• Sound Designer Paula Fairfield
• Supervising Sound Editor Tim Kimmel
• Editor Michael Ruscio

The show is based on a series of bestselling books by Liu Cixin — which, famously, have been described as “unadaptable” to film & TV, due to the complexities of particle physics, which are at the heart of the premise of the story.

“We're not physicists. So we needed to — first and foremost — put it in language that we understood. And luckily, we had a good amount of help doing this. Both the books themselves are written for people who are not scientists, and we had Matt Kenzie, our physics advisor, and Bobak Ferdowsi, our JPL space and rocketry advisor, who helped us translate. We listened to them answer our questions. We listened to them answer the cast’s questions. And the way they explain things to people like us gave us a template for the way we could explain things to the people watching. And one thing you do have is you have imagery which can really — even if you don't entirely understand all the explanation and scientific logic behind what you're seeing — give you a flavor for what it means and how it feeds into the story that you're seeing.”

—D.B. Weiss, Co-Showrunner, Executive Producer, and Writer, “3 Body Problem”

Be sure to check out “3 Body Problem,” in Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision, on Netflix.

Please subscribe to The Dolby Creator Talks Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

The collaboration between director and cinematographer is arguably the most important dynamic on any film shoot. Here to discuss that are Director Kobi Libii and Director of Photography Doug Emmett, with their satirical comedy, “The American Society of Magical Negroes.”

“To me, the best versions of most collaborative things are the things you get to and you're like, ‘wait, was that your idea or was that my idea? I can't remember.’ And there's a million like this… where I'm like, ‘oh, I really thought you pitched that to me.’ And he's like, ‘no, no, I thought you pitched that to me!’ Because it's not my idea or Doug's idea. Or my process or my vision or Doug's vision. It's a thing that gets made in the space between us, that is of the story, and of the characters, and of what this thing that we're building between us is.”

—Kobi Libii, Director and Writer, “The American Society of Magical Negroes”

This conversation was a live webinar as part of the Dolby Institute’s partnership with Sundance Collab, the digital platform from the Sundance Institute designed for filmmakers, with exclusive webinars, curated resources, and free educational videos.

“The American Society of Magical Negroes” was a winner of the Dolby Institute Fellowship, which grants independent films with the funds to finish in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, and we were very proud to finally watch the completed film when it premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival before it was released in theaters by Focus Features.

Be sure to check out the film, now available to rent in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos on video streaming services.

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

This week we discuss the sound, music, and cinematography of “Masters of the Air,” the epic WWII limited series from Apple TV+. With so many films and shows about World War II over the past several decades, one of the biggest challenges of the series was keeping things fresh. So the creative teams took some ingenious approaches to give every episode and action sequence a unique look, sound, and feel.

“Because there's so much time spent in the air with these planes, and so many different planes, we really wanted to sell the geography of each location within each plane and also each and every different plane. So one of the ways that we did that was that Mike [Minkler] and I had the different sequences cut by different people, with a fresh take. Or I did this particular sequence, and then I would hand it off to another editor. Or they would do that, and then pass it to me. And so we had a lot of interplaying around with each other's material, which I think keeps it really fresh, whilst not just copying and pasting material. When you have this much time in the air, you really need to keep the listener involved and their ear kind of excited at all times.”

—Jack Whittaker, Supervising Sound Editor, “Masters of the Air”

Joining our conversation:

- Supervising Sound Editor Jack Whittaker

- Re-recording Mixer Duncan McRae

- Re-recording Mixer Michael Minkler

- Composer Blake Neeley

- Cinematographer Jac Fitzgerald

Be sure to check out “Masters of the Air” on Apple TV+.

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks, wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Recorded live at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Academy Award®-nominated director (“Raya and the Last Dragon”) — and Dolby Institute Fellowship winner — Carlos López Estrada brings together another all-star panel of Hollywood talent, this time posing the question: Is “No Budget Filmmaking” even possible in this day and age?

“There's just so much pressure on a film and on a filmmaker that has nothing to do with the film being good, or them arriving at their artistic voice. I've worked on zero-dollar budgets, I've worked recently on $150 million budgets. And the problems on both ends of the spectrum are exactly the same. Your energy and your attention goes to so many places that have nothing to do with the actual movie, have nothing to do with the art, because of the capitalistic requirements of us, as artists. And if we really care about art and we really care about cinema… We have to change the way we talk about cinema… We want to advance the medium and we want to have a discourse around film that is not just, ‘did you like it? Did you hate it? Did it make money?’”

—Justin Simien, Film & Television Producer, Writer, and Director

Today’s panel includes independent filmmakers:

- Bao Nguyen (The Greatest Night in Pop, Be Water)

- Rishi Rajani (The Chi, Being Mary Tyler Moore, A Thousand and One)

- Justin Simien (Dear White People, Bad Hair, Hollywood Black)

Once again, this discussion was part of Antigravity Academy’s Satellite Sessions — free monthly conversations with high-level individuals in film and tv, whose objective is to decentralize resources/information and make them available to as many up-and-coming filmmakers as possible — co-presented by CAPE USA (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment).

Many thanks to the co-presenter of this panel, MACRO: “a multiplatform media company representing the voice and perspectives of Black people and persons of color.”

Learn more about MACRO:

https://www.staymacro.com/

Learn more about Antigravity Academy:

https://antigravityacademy.co/

Learn more about CAPE — The Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment:

https://www.capeusa.org/

Be sure to follow @antigravityacademy and @capeusa for more information on even more upcoming panels.

For more inspiring Satellite Sessions just like this one, be sure you are subscribed to Dolby Creator Talks, wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this and all our episodes on YouTube.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

#LoveMoreInDolby

2-time Academy Award®-winning composer Hans Zimmer joins us on the podcast to discuss his work on “Dune: Part Two,” after winning an Oscar for his score to the first installment of the sci-fi franchise, directed by Denis Villeneuve. And like Denis, Hans had been dreaming about working on these films since he was a boy. And he also knew he wanted to take them in a less traditional direction, sonically:

“These were the things which probably had been on my mind ever since I read the book. It's just… I never had the opportunity to try them. I could never understand why, in a science fiction movie — I loved them all — but why we would hear a sort of a European orchestral sound. Why the strings? Why the French horns? Everything else looked futuristic. Everything else was different. Except the music still stuck to the rules of the romantic period. I'm not criticizing it. There's nothing I love more than ‘Alien’ or ‘Star Wars.’ They're phenomenal things. But I saw my duty very much as going beyond that.”

—Hans Zimmer, Composer, “Dune: Part Two”

Be sure to check out “Dune: Part Two,” now in theaters, in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®, where available.

Don’t miss our previous episode this week, with “Dune” cinematographer Greig Fraser, available in our podcast feed. You can subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Academy Award®-winning Director of Photography Greig Fraser, ACS, ASC, returns to the podcast to discuss his work on “Dune: Part Two.” The film is a stunning achievement, from both the technical and artistic standpoints, which benefitted greatly from being a continuation of his work from part one:

“Whenever you do a movie, you've got to solve a series of problems... And a lot of the technical stuff had been solved for us in advance, because we'd done part one. So this allowed us the opportunity to dream a little bit. And I wouldn't say, ‘dream bigger.’ But it allowed us to dream with more opportunity… We felt empowered that we were doing the right thing. At least, people were appreciating the job that we had done. And instead of having that paralyze us... We were able to make bold decisions and bold choices. Like the infrared photography on Giedi Prime and the eclipse scene. So we were able to do that a little bit more boldly.“

—Greig Fraser, ACS, ASC, Director of Photography, “Dune: Part Two”

Be sure to check out “Dune: Part Two,” now in theaters, in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®, where available.

Don’t miss our upcoming episode with “Dune” composer Hans Zimmer, by subscribing to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Previous podcast episodes with Greig Fraser:

118 - Best Cinematography Nominees: Academy Awards 2022

• YouTube - https://youtu.be/9frtE4gEoy8
• Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/118-best-cinematography-nominees-academy-awards-2022/id1549901182?i=1000554057034
• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/6OqK3Gl6rZcmfA6heBRYZa

117 - The Cinematography of The Batman

• YouTube - https://youtu.be/S2GkwC6neiU
• Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/si/podcast/117-the-cinematography-of-the-batman/id1549901182?i=1000553525163
• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/5J1z9srezZiiAEAHln0GCp

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Table of Contents:

01:28 - El Conde - Edward Lachman, ASC

12:53 - Killers of the Flower Moon - Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC

24:12 - Oppenheimer - Hoyte Van Hoytema, ASC, FSF, NSC

33:29 - Poor Things - Robbie Ryan, BSC, ISC

Welcome to our continuing coverage of this year's Academy Awards®. We have compiled interviews from the nominees in the Best Cinematography category. So, if you are an Oscar voter — either as an Academy member or as a fan participating in your annual office pool — you'll have a much better idea of what to watch (and listen) for as you get to this category on your ballot!

NOTE: As always, all nominees are invited to join our conversations. Unfortunately, due to scheduling, Matthew Libatique (Maestro) was not able to join us.

FULL EPISODES:

El Conde - Edward Lachman, ASC (episode 183)

- YouTube - https://youtu.be/qPGWnTpbLos

- Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/57upYs823lwPV73VEHz0Cv

- Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/183-the-cinematography-of-el-conde-with-dp-edward-lachman/id1549901182?i=1000645550716

Killers of the Flower Moon - Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC (episode 181)

- YouTube - https://youtu.be/sgmgucJET3o

- Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Kc8kJeA9NiTugkR5saAw5

- Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/181-the-cinematography-of-killers-of-the-flower/id1549901182?i=1000645277847

Oppenheimer - Hoyte Van Hoytema, ASC, FSF, NSC (episode 179)

- YouTube - https://youtu.be/6RFAfB5RCT0

- Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Di5azunCq4ZoBsA6ttdo4

- Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/179-the-cinematography-of-oppenheimer-with-dp/id1549901182?i=1000644731650

Poor Things - Robbie Ryan, BSC, ISC (episode 182)

- YouTube - https://youtu.be/Sy38cINMetA

- Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Aoz7KynItLfBspCjjhgBK

- Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/182-the-cinematography-of-poor-things-with-dp-robbie-ryan/id1549901182?i=1000645419205

If you enjoy episodes like this, where we share our in-depth conversations with artists and filmmakers, please subscribe to The Dolby Creator Talks Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Table of Contents:

01:30 - The Creator

12:26 - Maestro

23:13 - Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

33:55 - Oppenheimer

44:36 - The Zone of Interest

Welcome to our continuing coverage of this year's Academy Awards®. We have compiled interviews from the nominees in the Best Sound category. So, if you are an Oscar voter — either as an Academy member or as a fan participating in your annual office pool — you'll have a much better idea of what to watch (and listen) for as you get to this category on your ballot!

FULL EPISODES:

The Creator (episode 165)

- YouTube - https://youtu.be/JUPgZbDdTLw

- Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/36J65DI2AfqFKu6jzxPDZu

- Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/ru/podcast/165-the-sound-of-the-creator-with-director-gareth-edwards/id1549901182?i=1000630007062

Maestro (episode 184)

- YouTube - https://youtu.be/vx9KXRYkU84

- Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/1MM7vRYhFFi6kcUDyuF0Cr

- Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/184-the-oscar-nominated-sound-team-behind-bradley/id1549901182?i=1000645837427

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (episode 155)

- YouTube - https://youtu.be/SJJjnIv5VcA

- Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/1TIbSDJ2CHCIyOBnJsKAP3

- Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/ro/podcast/155-the-sound-of-mission-impossible-dead-reckoning-part-one/id1549901182?i=1000621729514

Oppenheimer (episode 180)

- YouTube - https://youtu.be/GJGxVtFX2bg

- Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/6DLn4JKf2lfMuyjJ4zQq9y

- Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/180-the-oscar-nominated-sound-team-behind-oppenheimer/id1549901182?i=1000645197114

The Zone of Interest (episode 173)

- YouTube - https://youtu.be/R_TZTCQ53ss

- Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/2D9L5xwea1NrfiaABWuRx5

- Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/173-director-jonathan-glazer-and-the-sound/id1549901182?i=1000638761975

If you enjoy episodes like this, where we share our in-depth conversations with artists and filmmakers, please subscribe to The Dolby Creator Talks Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Table of Contents:

01:55 - American Fiction - Laura Karpman

13:45 - Oppenheimer - Ludwig Göransson

25:48 - Poor Things - Jerskin Fendrix

Welcome to our continuing coverage of this year's Academy Awards®. We have compiled interviews from the nominees in the Best Original Score category. So, if you are an Oscar voter — either as an Academy member or as a fan participating in your annual office pool — you'll have a much better idea of what to watch (and listen) for as you get to this category on your ballot!

NOTE: As always, all nominees are invited to join our conversations. Unfortunately, due to scheduling, John Williams (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) was not able to join us. And as you may know, Robbie Robertson (Killers of the Flower Moon) sadly passed away this past summer at the age of 80.

FULL EPISODES:

American Fiction - Laura Karpman (episode 178)

- YouTube - https://youtu.be/9SKt-6iUViw

- Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/5jbQRQvmLBvbxQ6EjShrQx

- Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/178-oscar-nominee-laura-karpman-on-the-music-of/id1549901182?i=1000644320575

Oppenheimer - Ludwig Göransson (episode 156)

- YouTube - https://youtu.be/qZCsZCyHFRM

- Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/19gsiyueEWeBPKqPtBdgLt

- Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/156-the-music-of-oppenheimer/id1549901182?i=1000622416209

Poor Things - Jerskin Fendrix (episode 171)

- YouTube - https://youtu.be/Gf0r-Xzr35w

- Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/1D7MdFq51RIF0pkTC98miy

- Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/sn/podcast/171-the-music-of-poor-things/id1549901182?i=1000638278317

If you enjoy episodes like this, where we share our in-depth conversations with artists and filmmakers, please subscribe to The Dolby Creator Talks Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

The Academy Award®-nominated VFX team joins our returning guest, director Gareth Edwards, to discuss how they created such a visually stunning, effects-heavy science-fiction film with a comparatively minuscule budget. Rather than utilizing extensive previz, green screen studios, and fully-rendered CGI environments, “The Creator” was filmed on-location in Asia, documentary-style, with a very small crew, completely upending the usual methods of shooting for VFX:

“You do concept art. That's typically one of the first things that happens — storyboards, concept art. And then you spend the rest of the life of the film chasing that artwork. They immediately say, ‘well, this is science fiction. It doesn't exist. So we'll build all this. And we have to build it in a studio…’ And you just get trapped immediately in the straight jacket of every big film ever. And everything's all green screen. And it was like, ‘Forget that. We'll have concept art. But forget the specifics of it. Just trust that it'll look as good as this. But it won't be exactly this. We'll go around the world for every scene. We will find a location that's the best location in the world for that scene. We'll shoot it there. And then we'll design it in post.’”

—Gareth Edwards, Director, Producer, Co-writer, “The Creator”

Joining Gareth:

- Director of Photography, Oren Soffer.

- Jay Cooper, Visual Effects Supervisor: Industrial Light & Magic.

- Andrew Roberts, Visual Effects On-Set Supervisor: Industrial Light & Magic.

Be sure to check out “The Creator,” in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos® (where available), ahead of the Academy Awards, live from the Dolby Theatre® on March 10th!

For more awards season coverage, please subscribe to The Dolby Creator Talks Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Continuing our coverage of the 2024 Academy Awards®, we have another all-star team of sound artists whose work on “Maestro” is nominated in the Best Sound category.

Today’s panel includes:

- Richard King, Sound Designer & Supervising Sound Editor.

- Tom Ozanich, Re-recording Mixer.

- Dean A. Zupancic, Re-recording Mixer.

- Steven Morrow, Production Sound Mixer.

“Maestro” is a highly stylized yet intimate film about Leonard Bernstein: his fraught marriage, his affairs, his family, and - of course - his storied career. This gave director Bradley Cooper an amazing opportunity to conduct extensive recreations of some of the composer’s famous concerts, all recorded live on set — including that unforgettable concert at Ely Cathedral:

“We shot for the first day and, in Bradley's words, he was saying he wasn't really feeling it. He was just nervous about the whole thing. Because it's decades of building up to this moment, in front of the best orchestra in the world, and you're pretending to be the conductor. And the pressure that you're putting on yourself to be perfect and you're just not hitting it. And so he came in the next day and said, ‘let me do it one more time, and let's just do this one shot where the camera goes around… Our film is really just this big wide shot. Let's shoot this shot with a crane. Come all the way around, come back around, by the end of the song, be over Felicia's shoulder, and that's it.’ We shot that on the last day, the last take. And that was it. I mean, that was done. As soon as that take was over, everybody knew we had it.”

—Steven Morrow, Sound Mixer, “Maestro”

Be sure to check out “Maestro,” now streaming on Netflix in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®, ahead of the Academy Awards, live from the Dolby Theatre® on March 10th!

For more awards season coverage, please subscribe to The Dolby Creator Talks Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Legendary cinematographer Edward Lachman, ASC, joins us to discuss his Academy Award®-nominated cinematography for “El Conde,” Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín’s satirical horror-comedy which reimagines Augusto Pinochet as a 250-year old vampire. The film features stunning black & white photography, which required the invention of a new kind of camera sensor in order to capture the unique look and feel of the film. Edward discusses that, his use of vintage glass, and the advantages of having his director as camera operator:

“He's excellent. He's always been around the camera, he studied still photography at one time, and he's very good with wheels. They always say the first audience is the operator — and that's why I like to operate. But there was so much I had to do with the language [barrier]. The key grip, Mumford — who's a wonderful key grip — didn't speak English. So [Pablo] had the direct communication to the grip about moves and the crane. So it made sense that he operate. And then that gave me the freedom to do what I could do with the electrical [department].”

—Edward Lachman, ASC, Director of Photography, “El Conde”

“El Conde” is now streaming on Netflix, in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®. Be sure to check it out ahead of the Academy Awards, live from the Dolby Theatre® on March 10th!

For more awards season coverage, please subscribe to The Dolby Creator Talks Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Our coverage of the 2024 Oscars continues in this episode with our guest, Robbie Ryan, BSC, ISC. Robbie is a two-time Academy Award® nominee for Cinematography.

In today’s episode, he discusses his second collaboration with director Yorgos Lanthimos on the film "Poor Things," following their acclaimed work together on "The Favourite," which earned Robbie his first nomination for Best Cinematography. This year, "Poor Things" boasts 11 Academy Award nominations, including Best Director for Lanthimos and Best Picture. In this wide-ranging conversation, Robbie explains how he crafted the film’s unique, almost dreamlike look, which was mostly captured in-camera, and on film, without post-production effects:

“[Yorgos] wanted to have a kind of porthole, vignetted, wide angle [aesthetic]… And I'd kind of done a bit of photography lately where there's a lot of lenses [that] don't fit on the large format sensor, so you get this vignette. So I said, ‘well, hang on — if we use a 16 mil lens on a 35 mil negative, that might happen.’ And it worked out really perfect. We had this 4mm lens for 16 mil, that when you put it on 35 mil, just had that perfect circle… You get these aberrations around the very edges of it and it has this organic quality to it, which was very sweet… None of that was post. That was all real.“

—Robbie Ryan, BSC, ISC, Director of Photography, “Poor Things”

Be sure to check out “Poor Things” ahead of the Academy Awards, live from the Dolby Theatre® on March 10th!

For more awards season coverage, please subscribe to The Dolby Creator Talks Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

With our continuing Oscars coverage, today we are joined by Academy Award®-nominated cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC. He discusses how he got his start in the film business, working with legendary director Martin Scorsese, the challenges of shooting “Killers of the Flower Moon,” as well as how his research into Osage traditions and rituals became directly woven into his photography for the film.

“A lot of it I remember was based on the sun and the sun position. And even the rituals. For example, a burial happens when the sun is at the zenith. So okay, that's usually a time of day you don't want to shoot as a cinematographer. You want to avoid it. But I thought it was important to respect that. And so we decided to have the sun in frame in those moments. And that's why precisely there's a scene of Mollie's mother's burial and the camera's looking straight up at the sky. These are shots that aren't meant to be cool. We're honoring, hopefully, the way they themselves honor the sun.”

—Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC, Director of Photography, “Killers of the Flower Moon”

Be sure to check out “Killers of the Flower Moon” ahead of the Academy Awards, live from the Dolby Theatre® on March 10th!

Please subscribe to The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

We have an all-star team of sound artists whose work on “Oppenheimer” is nominated for a 2024 Academy Award®. They are certainly no strangers to that award show, as they already have NINE Oscars between them!

Today’s panel includes:

- Richard King - Sound Designer and Supervising Sound Editor

- Gary A. Rizzo - Re-recording Mixer

- Kevin O’Connell - Re-recording Mixer

- Willie D. Burton - Production Sound Mixer

We discussed how they approached getting inside the head of the brilliant but troubled “Father of the Atomic Bomb,” J. Robert Oppenheimer, as well as working with the brilliant, and very particular director Christopher Nolan, who loves working with IMAX cameras so much, he used some unconventional methods to record the dialogue.

“The IMAX camera is very noisy. Usually [Nolan] would do the wide shots with the IMAX camera and then he'll use the 70mm for dialogue. But there's times that we have short scenes — like three, four, five lines. But what we have to do is — he will say, ‘cut, print,’ and the actors will re-act that scene, just like they did it on camera. Re-doing it, wild. The same pacing. Oh yeah… We try to get everything we can for post, knowing that he wants to use all his original track on production. Now, whether he totally used it all? [But] I think he used most of it.”

—Willie D. Burton, Production Sound Mixer, “Oppenheimer”

Be sure to check out “Oppenheimer” ahead of the Academy Awards, live from the Dolby Theatre® on March 10th!

For more awards season coverage, please subscribe to The Dolby Creator Talks Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

As part of our continuing Oscars coverage, we are joined by Academy Award®-nominated cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, ASC, FSF, NSC. He discusses how he got his start in the film business, working with Christopher Nolan, shooting “Oppenheimer” on film, how they did all those in-camera practical effects, and his fears about creating a dynamically visual film… with so much dialogue.

“I was scared sh**less in the beginning, because you are very much out of your comfort zone. In the old days - when in doubt - throw in a wide shot, throw in a vista, and give the people breathing space, et cetera. But this was full-on, very intense, on the human face all the time. So there was a challenge. But also, I think, a very fun one. It definitely brings you to a state of mind where you have to really focus on what is being said and on the progression of the story.”

—Hoyte Van Hoytema, ASC, FSF, NSC, Director of Photography, “Oppenheimer”

Be sure to check out “Oppenheimer” ahead of the Academy Awards, live from the Dolby Theatre® on March 10th!

For more awards season coverage, please subscribe to The Dolby Creator Talks Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Five-time Emmy Award-winning composer Laura Karpman joins guest host Jon Burlingame to discuss her first Academy Award® nomination for the music of “American Fiction.” Karpman took a rather unique approach to composing this “jazzy” score, by thinking of the actors’ voices as musical instruments themselves.

“There's a lot of dialogue. And the way the score is constructed is using the actors — particularly Erika Alexander, who plays Coraline, his love interest, and then Jeffrey [Wright], who plays Monk — using their voices as musical instruments. Jeffrey has a great tenor sax vibe, and Coraline has got this sexy alto. And so when they speak, it's under a rhythm section. And then the saxophones and Elena Pinderhughes on flute will come in to kind of move around that. But I did think of the actors as part of the jazz combo, with a rhythm section backing them up.”

—Laura Karpman, Composer, “American Fiction”

Be sure to check out “American Fiction” ahead of the Academy Awards, live from the Dolby Theatre® on March 10th!

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Recorded live just a few days ago at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Academy Award®-nominated director (“Raya and the Last Dragon”) — and Dolby Institute Fellowship winner — Carlos López Estrada brings together five filmmakers, each with debut feature films in the US Dramatic Competition this year.

“I have experienced what all five or panelists are experiencing right now. It's this insane, adrenaline rush of playing your first movie for groups of audiences who love film. And it's the most magical thing in the world. So we're so happy that all five people who you're about to meet agreed to come here to share a little bit about how they ended up here. And I hope you got to see some of these films because I got a chance to see all five and they're all truly magical.”

—Carlos López Estrada, Director, "Blindspotting,” “Raya and the Last Dragon,” “Summertime”

Today’s panel includes directors:

- Alessandra Lacorazza (“In the Summers”)

- Laura Chinn (“Suncoast”)

- Titus Kaphar (“Exhibiting Forgiveness”)

- India Donaldson (“Good One”)

- Sean Wang (“Dìdi”) — 2024 Academy Award-nominee for Best Documentary Short Film (“Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó”) and Winner of the Dolby Institute Fellowship (“Dìdi”)

Once again, this discussion was part of Antigravity Academy’s Satellite Sessions — free monthly conversations with high-level individuals in film and tv, whose objective is to decentralize resources/information and make them available to as many up-and-coming filmmakers as possible — co-presented by CAPE USA (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment).

Follow @antigravityacademy and @capeusa for more information on even more upcoming panels.

Antigravity Academy

CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment)

For more inspiring Satellite Sessions just like this one, be sure you are subscribed to The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

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Academy Award-nominated composer Daniel Pemberton (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”) joins our guest host, music journalist Jon Burlingame, to discuss his score for the latest animated Spider-Man film. If you’ve seen it, then you already know it features incredible, cutting-edge animation. But it turns out Daniel’s approach to the score was equally “experimental.”

“As soon as I finished ‘Into the Spider-Verse,’ I was thinking about ‘Across [the Spider-Verse]’ because… as a composer, you don't often get a chance to have a kind of playground where you really can be very experimental and really push at the edges of what film music can be. And obviously, you want to try and do that. But not every movie will support that kind of approach. And with Spider-Verse, it really did. So I was very aware — if there was a sequel — of trying to build on what we created on the first one. Rather than say, ‘well we did this thing that was successful, let's just more of the same.’ It's more like, ‘let's see how much further we can push it.’”

— Daniel Pemberton, Composer, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”

Be sure to check out “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®, now streaming on Netflix.

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Director Carlos López Estrada — Academy Award® nominee for “Raya and the Last Dragon” and winner of the Dolby Institute Fellowship — returns to The Dolby Institute Podcast for another panel discussion, this time with members of Sundance. More than just a film festival, The Sundance Institute offers a myriad of resources for emerging and independent filmmakers, but navigating them all can be overwhelming. So this very special podcast episode is designed to answer this essential question, from Carlos:

“What advice can [you offer] for someone who’s just starting to make their own work — whether it’s shorts, documentaries, pilot scripts — and are trying to create from a truthful place, [while] also trying to find their voice, and wanting to be noticed by people like yourselves, knowing that many times resources and time is limited for someone who’s just starting?”

—Carlos López Estrada, Director, "Blindspotting,” “Raya and the Last Dragon,” “Summertime”

Today’s panel includes:

• Ilyse McKimmie - Deputy Director of the Feature Film Program at Sundance Institute
• Paola Mottura - Film Fund Director at Sundance Institute
• Jandiz Estrada Cardoso - Director of the Sundance Institute Episodic Program
• Ana Souza - Manager of the Programming Department and Programmer at Sundance Institute
• Adam Piron - Director of Sundance Institute's Indigenous Program

Once again, this discussion was streamed live as part of Antigravity Academy’s Satellite Sessions — “monthly conversations with incredibly exciting figures from the film and TV universe” — co-presented by CAPE USA (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment).

Follow @antigravityacademy and @capeusa for more information on even more upcoming panels.

Antigravity Academy

CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment)

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Director Blitz Bazawule joins his composer Kris Bowers to discuss their new adaptation of “The Color Purple.” You may remember the original filmed adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, directed by Steven Spielberg, from 1985. This version is actually an adaptation of the hit Broadway show, which won two Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical.

Our guest host, music journalist Jon Burlingame, returns to the Dolby Institute Podcast to speak with Kris and Blitz about their collaboration on the film, which began very early in the filmmaking process.

“I brought Kris on very early because I really believe in my entire team being on the same page right when we begin. I don't believe in silos as a filmmaker and, ultimately, I fancy myself more of a conductor than anything else. I need my entire symphony to start building some kind of harmony, and I can't wait till the very ending to bring on my composer when so much has already been discussed. So bringing Kris on also helped [him] understand how we were approaching music from a macro perspective, what were the intentions around these choices that then he could then expand into the scoring process. And why Kris? I mean, he's the coolest cat. That's just it.”

—Blitz Bazawule, Director, “The Color Purple” (2023)

Be sure to check out The Color Purple now in theaters, in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®, where available.

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Academy Award®-nominated director Jonathan Glazer joins us to discuss his latest film, 2024 Best Picture nominee “The Zone of Interest,” a searing drama about life just outside of the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp, which the director chose to have the audience hear, rather than see.

“The atrocities that are being committed in the camps — and the images that we already know in our minds, from all of the documentaries and books and fiction films and so on… I had absolutely no interest in reenacting any of them… But at the same time, they were out of sight, they needed to never be out of mind. So what I was serving in my script was how those sounds could come across the wall and permeate every frame of the film, bare down on this mundanity that we're witnessing day to day. And it sort of felt like that was the second film we were making. We always talked about there are two films: the one you see and the one you hear. And I think in many ways, the one you hear was the most important one to me.”

—Jonathan Glazer, Director, “The Zone of Interest”

Joining the discussion is producer James Wilson, as well as Johnnie Burn, the film’s sound designer, supervising sound editor, and re-recording mixer, whose work on this film also received a 2024 Academy Award nomination in the Sound category.

This conversation was recorded as a live panel discussion after a screening of the film at the New York Film Festival and was part of our support of the FLC Artist Academy program, where we bring conversations about the art and craft of filmmaking to the next generation of directors:

https://www.filmlinc.org/academy-programs/artists-academy/

Be sure to check out “The Zone of Interest,” now in theaters.

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Director J.A. Bayona discusses his latest film — 2024 Academy Award®-nominee for Best International Feature Film (Spain) — “Society of the Snow.”

Director of Photography Pedro Luque and Sound Designer Oriol Tarragó also join us to discuss how they crafted this riveting retelling of the infamous 1972 Andes flight disaster, where a team of rugby players from Uraguay had to do the unthinkable to survive. Realism was a big priority for Bayona, so the production was a challenging, sometimes even grueling experience.

“That was the moment — first day of shooting — that we realized how hard this was going to be… We had real snow, we have the cold to catch the breath of the actors, but then we got into the [airplane] set. All the seats had crammed against the cockpit and we realized that we needed to fit 29 people inside that space and one camera crew. So there was no way of shooting those scenes. Like, it was not possible! So actually that was the moment that we decided that we had to shoot the film as if it was a documentary.”

—J.A. Bayona, Director/Co-writer, “Society of the Snow”

Be sure to check out “Society of the Snow” in glorious Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®, where available, as well as on Netflix starting December 22, 2023.

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Academy Award®-nominated composer Jerskin Fendrix joins us to discuss his first-ever film score — the latest from director Yorgos Lanthimos — “Poor Things.” It was an exciting experimental collaboration for both artists, as this was also the director’s first time working with an original score for one of his films.

“We both learned along the way how to make a film score from scratch… The first thing we agreed on is that the music had to be part of the film, exclusively. No external references, no temp scores. We never discussed any other composers or films or anything at all. So I think Yorgos really had this idea that everything sprouts ex nihilo from the genesis of the film and from nowhere else.”

—Jerskin Fendrix, Composer, “Poor Things”

Our guest host, music journalist Jon Burlingame, returns to the Dolby Institute Podcast to discuss Jerskin’s background, creative process, and what it was like to work with Lanthimos for the composer’s feature film debut, which earned him a 2024 Academy Award nomination.

Be sure to check out “Poor Things,” now in theaters.

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Director Carlos López Estrada — Academy Award® nominee for “Raya and the Last Dragon” and winner of the Dolby Institute Fellowship — leads another all-star panel of Hollywood talent to discuss how they broke into the industry as professional cinematographers. And what better way to do that than by discussing their first feature films?

“Cinematographers, together with the directors and writers of a film, are also the authors of the story. They are responsible for every image, for every frame, [for] every message that needs to be communicated in order to communicate the story. And we’re very lucky to have, today, six incredible cinematographers talking about the beginning of their journeys and how their early projects helped shape their filmmaking voices.”

—Carlos López Estrada, Director, "Blindspotting,” “Raya and the Last Dragon,” “Summertime”

Today’s panel includes Directors of Photography:

- Mandy Walker (Elvis, Mulan, Hidden Figures, Australia)

- Larry Fong (300, Batman V. Superman, Kong: Skull Island, the pilot of LOST)

- Lawrence Sher (Joker, the Hangover trilogy, Garden State)

- Oren Soffer (The Creator w/ Greig Fraser)

- Sandra Valde-Hansen (The Summer I Turned Pretty, The L Word: Generation Q)

- Karina Silva (No Man of God, the upcoming Which Brings Me to You)

This discussion was streamed live as part of Antigravity Academy’s new Satellite Sessions — “monthly conversations with incredibly exciting figures from the film and TV universe” — co-presented by CAPE USA (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment).

Follow @antigravityacademy and @capeusa for more information on even more upcoming panels.

Antigravity Academy

CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment)

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Academy Award®-winning writer and director Emerald Fennell joins us to discuss her latest dark comedy thriller, “Saltburn.” The film features an unflinchingly disturbing story, incredible performances, and an appropriately cutting-edge sound design, which was being experimented with up until the very end of post-production.

“For it to be exciting and vital you need to be experimenting up until the end. You need to be pushing and pushing. This is a very Gothic movie in lots of ways. It’s very stylized… But [if you push] too much, it just becomes kind of overwhelming. The thing [about] working with lots of people who are really brilliant is just give everyone the space to try lots of different things. Because sometimes you just don’t know the perfect thing until you hear it or see it… That’s always how you make stuff that is on the edge of something interesting. You have to fall off to know where you can come back and that’s why it’s such a fun, exciting process. And it kind of has to be right until the last second.”

—Emerald Fennell, writer/director/producer, “Saltburn”

Joining the conversation with Fennell are supervising sound editors Nina Hartstone and Eilam Hoffman, production sound mixer Nina Rice, and re-recording mixers Adam Scrivener and Jasper Thorn.

SPOILER ALERT: This conversation discusses many important plot twists, so bear that in mind before listening to this episode.

Be sure to check out “Saltburn,” now in theaters.

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Director Carlos López Estrada — Academy Award® nominee for “Raya and the Last Dragon” and winner of the Dolby Institute Fellowship — leads another all-star panel of Hollywood talent to discuss how they’ve navigated the industry as screenwriters, television writers, and showrunners.

These talented writers have not only enjoyed enormous success in the industry, but have also brought their own fresh perspectives which have been missing for a long time in Hollywood. Including narratives that have focused on Asian Americans, women, Latin America and Native Americans, to name just a few.

“As we all know, writers are the backbone of storytelling. And, of course, the backbone of our industry. And during this pivotal time in our entertainment community, it feels as important as ever to hear from the artists who are the foundation of everything we do... Today we are joined by four powerhouse writers who will share a little bit about their experiences creating film and TV that has truly been game-changing for our industry. They're responsible for giving us singular stories that authentically reflect the world that we live in, as well as helped us envision the world that we want to see.”

—Carlos López Estrada, Director, "Blindspotting,” “Raya and the Last Dragon,” “Summertime”

Today’s panel includes writers:

- Carolina Paiz (Narcos, Grey’s Anatomy, Orange is The New Black)

- Dana Ledoux Miller (The Newsroom, Thai Cave Rescue, Disney’s Moana)

- Joanna Calo (Hacks, Beef, Bojack Horseman, The Bear)

- Charles Yu (Interior Chinatown, Westworld, American Born Chinese, Marvel’s Legion on FX)

This discussion was streamed live as part of Antigravity Academy’s new Satellite Sessions — “monthly conversations with incredibly exciting figures from the film and TV universe” — co-presented by CAPE USA (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment).

Follow @antigravityacademy and @capeusa for more information on even more upcoming panels.

Antigravity Academy

CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment)

For more inspiring Satellite Sessions just like this one, be sure you are subscribed to The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

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Our guest host Tom Graham — the Head of Dolby Vision® Content Enablement — returns for the second installment of our ongoing series, “Conversations with Colorists,” where he discusses the nitty gritty of working as a professional colorist, especially for projects that deliver in Dolby Vision®.

Joining the discussion are three of the top colorists working in film & television today — Tony D’Amore, Paul Westerbeck, and Frederik Bokkenhauser, all senior colorists at Picture Shop:

https://pictureshop.com/

“One thing you have to keep in mind is you still want to help tell the story. If somebody's standing in the kitchen and outside is a window that's really bright, you gotta be careful not to allow that to just blow out and overpower the scene. So it's a lot of shaping. You want to make sure the people aren't focusing on the window or the gardener outside. You’ve got to get the actress, who's standing in the kitchen, speaking. You gotta help to maintain that.”

—Paul Westerbeck, Senior Colorist, Picture Shop

Learn more about Dolby Vision® for Content Creators here:

https://professional.dolby.com/content-creation/dolby-vision-for-content-creators/

Dolby Vision® Training and Certification can be found here:

https://prostore.dolby.com/

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What exactly are movie producers looking for when searching for new creative voices? Academy Award® nominated Director Carlos López Estrada (“Raya and the Last Dragon”) — and winner of the Dolby Institute Fellowship — returns with another all-star panel to discuss this very topic, with some of the top producers in the field. So if you are an aspiring filmmaker, screenwriter, director, or any of the above early in your career, this episode is filled with real-world advice for navigating the film industry as an emerging creative voice.

Joining Carlos are producers:

- Christina Oh, Producer, “Minari”

- Poppy Hanks, Executive Producer, “Judas and the Black Messiah”

- Michael Gottwald, Producer, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”

- Andrew Hevia, Producer, “Moonlight”

- Janet Yang, President of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences / Producer, “The Joy Luck Club” and “Over the Moon.”

“I try to see as much stuff as possible, then just reach out to people when something seems just really great. But a lot of it has, of course, been like: You work with one director, that director knows this other person [and] says, ‘you guys, you should talk.’ You then meet that person, you realize you love their work and you want to work with them [too]. Anything that makes your world smaller I think in this industry is super helpful.”

—Michael Gottwald, Producer, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”

This discussion was streamed live as part of Antigravity Academy’s new Satellite Sessions — “monthly conversations with incredibly exciting figures from the film and TV universe” — co-presented by CAPE USA (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment).

Follow @antigravityacademy and @capeusa for more information on even more upcoming panels.

Antigravity Academy

CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment)

For more inspiring Satellite Sessions just like this one, be sure you are subscribed to The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

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Director Gareth Edwards joins us to discuss the 2024 Academy Award®-nominated sound of his visionary new dystopian sci-fi film, "The Creator.” The movie features some incredible work — including a glorious Dolby Atmos® mix — but with some unconventional sound design choices for a science fiction film about artificial intelligence and fully autonomous robots.

Joining the director to discuss all this and more are sound designers and supervising sound editors Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van Der Ryn, along with re-recording mixers Tom Ozanich and Dean A. Zupancic.

This is another of our in-depth conversations, which we were proud to conduct in person at our Dolby screening room in Hollywood. We were delighted to discuss the filmmaking process and the risky creative choices required to craft such a groundbreaking track.

“The whole making of a film is [a] dance. You're on a razor's edge. You go slightly too much this way, it's really obvious and cliched. You go slightly too much this way, it's up its own arse and no one understands it. And you're just trying to do that knife edge the whole time. And the way you get there is not through being a really clever. To be honest, you pick a side to start on and then you go right up to the limit.”

—Gareth Edwards, Director / Producer / Co-writer, “The Creator”

Be sure to check out The Creator at a Dolby Cinema® to get the full experience in Dolby Vison® and Dolby Atmos®.

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What goes into building a soundtrack for a short film? And collaborating with a sound team when you’re dealing with a short time frame? And an even more limited budget?

To help us answer those questions and more, Glenn moderates a panel discussion with some of the filmmakers from this year’s Aspen Shortsfest — which is, without question, one of the best film festivals in the world for short films and short filmmakers:

- Madli Lääne, Director of “Dear Passengers”

- Nikita Diakur, Director of “Backflip”

- Luis Fernando Puente, Director of “I Have No Tears, and I Must Cry”

This is a great discussion about the creative process of storytelling. And how that process translates into crafting a compelling soundtrack for a film… regardless of runtime!

Sound teams for the short films:

“Dear Passengers”

Sound Designer - Markus Andreas

Composer - Patrick McGinley

Foley Artist - Anna-Maria Jams

Foley Recordist - Joonas Taimla

Additional Sound Effects - Aleksandra Koel

“Backflip”

Sound Designer - David Kamp

https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000008901281/backflip.html

“I Have No Tears, and I Must Cry”

Sound Designer - Erik Naumann

Composer - Jorge Murcia

Teaser: https://vimeo.com/718108679

Many thanks to the faculty and students of Colorado Film School, who filmed and recorded this panel discussion for us:

Sound Recordist - Diana Flood

Camera Operators - Tim Bulger, Wil Francis, Felicia Hettinga, Lucas Lacy

Editor - Quinton Kaine

Production Assistants - Skylar McKelvey, Geneva Schafer

Instructor, Post Supervisor - Matt Baxter

Instructor, Production Supervisor - Aaron Koehler

And extra special thanks to Aspen Shortsfest:

Susan Wrubel - Executive + Artistic Director

Jason Anderson - Shortsfest Program Director

Erin McVoy - Operations + Production Director

Regna Frank-Jones - Head of Education 

Allie Wrubel - Program + Marketing Manager

Roger Ramos - Program + Education Coordinator

https://aspenfilm.org/our-festivals/shortsfest/

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“A Haunting in Venice,” the latest cinematic adaptation featuring novelist Agatha Christie’s fictional detective Hercule Poirot, starring and directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh, includes another unforgettable score by multiple award-winning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir. But unlike most of her other groundbreaking work, this score features a more “classical” approach — a creative decision stemming all the way back to Hildur’s childhood!

“Having grown up reading Agatha Christie and Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes and all these classics, I had a really strong feeling for how I felt like this genre should be approached. And how I felt like it should not be approached. And [its] quite the opposite to most of my work, where I'm quite explorative of sounds and instrumentation and building instruments or building sample worlds or found sounds. I feel like the whodunit should really just be a classical form (laughs) that should not be tampered with.”

—Hildur Guðnadóttir, Composer, “A Haunting in Venice”

Our guest host, music journalist Jon Burlingame, returns to the Dolby Institute Podcast to speak with Hildur about her work on this film as well as her vast knowledge of music history from this period.

Be sure to check out A Haunting in Venice, now in theaters, in Dolby Atmos® where available.

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Director Carlos López Estrada — Academy Award® nominee for “Raya and the Last Dragon” and winner of the Dolby Institute Fellowship — leads an all-star panel of independent filmmakers to discuss perhaps the biggest challenge of any director’s career:

“The making of a first feature is really nothing short of a miraculous feat. There’s just so many elements that need to perfectly align at the right time in order for an emerging filmmaker to get a shot at telling their story. And we’re hoping that by having these very earnest conversations about what it took, and what it felt, to make a first feature by these directors, we can shed a little bit of light into a process that is so, so, so mysterious to so many emerging filmmakers.”

—Carlos López Estrada, Director, "Blindspotting,” “Raya and the Last Dragon,” “Summertime”

Joining Carlos are filmmakers:

Sian Heder (CODA)

Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard)

Nikyatu Jusu (Nanny)

Randall Park (Shortcomings)

This discussion was streamed live as part of Antigravity Academy’s new Satellite Sessions — “monthly conversations with incredibly exciting figures from the film and TV universe” — co-presented by CAPE USA (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment).

For more inspiring Satellite Sessions just like this one, be sure you are subscribed to The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

Learn more:

Antigravity Academy

CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment)

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Director Neill Blomkamp joins us to discuss his thrilling new racing film and biopic, chronicling GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough’s rise into professional racing.

Joining the conversation are the film’s supervising sound editors, Kami Asgar and Erin Oakley, as well as re-recording mixer — and real-life race car driver — Beau Borders, who brought his personal experience from behind the wheel onto the mixing stage, to give audiences the most authentic experience possible.

“Obviously I'm gonna want [the sound] to be realistic. I wanna honor race car drivers. I want car fans to watch the movie and feel like they're not being pandered to. But at the same time, it can't just be totally accurate. It also has to be hyperreal… When I do these car races and I'm all strapped in and the adrenaline's going, I'm convinced that the thing that I'm going through is the most exciting, amazing, wild thing that any human being other than an astronaut has ever experienced… Because that's what happens in your brain.”

—Beau Borders, Re-recording Mixer, “Gran Turismo”

Be sure to check out Gran Turismo, now playing in theaters.

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SPOILER ALERT: This podcast discusses important plot points from episode three, “The Autopsy.”

Executive Producer (and co-showrunner) J. Miles Dale joins us on the podcast to discuss the horror anthology series Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities, which was recently nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards. Joining the conversation are nominees: Supervising Sound Editor Nelson Ferreira, MPSE, and Director of Photography Anastas Michos, ASC, GSC.

To avoid spoilers, be sure to watch “The Autopsy” before listening to this podcast! But be forewarned, it is extremely dark — both thematically and visually — which was entirely by design:

“The genre is squarely within a horror/sci-fi mode. It is about what we don't see in life. That's what makes shooting horror films or thrillers so interesting. That we allow the audience to only see what we want them to see, and tease the rest of it into the blacks [of the image].”

—Anastas Michos, ASC, GSC, Director of Photography, Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities

Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities is currently streaming on Netflix in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®.

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Independent filmmaker Sophie Barthes joins us to discuss her breakout Sundance hit — and winner of this year’s Dolby Institute Fellowship Award — The Pod Generation. The film is a hilariously biting near-future sci-fi satire, starring Emilia Clark and Chiwetel Ejiofor as a young couple who turn to a corporate tech giant to help them carry their new baby — literally — to term.

“Living in America has triggered this passion for exploring the commodification of everything… The fact that we don't see human beings as an ‘end’ by themself, but as a ‘means.’ A means of consumption. A means of generating more money. I don't know why, but it really interests me. Like how capitalism has reduced human beings to just ‘function,’ instead of ‘being.’”

—Sophie Barthes, Writer and Director, “The Pod Generation”

The Pod Generation is currently in theaters, in Dolby Vison® and Dolby Atmos®, where available.

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Academy Award winning sound supervisor and re-recording mixer Skip Lievsay returns to the podcast, along with Academy Award winning director Davis Guggenheim, to discuss their incredible new documentary, Still: A Michael J Fox Movie.

“I think in a much more traditional documentary, you can polish too much. The sound. You can make it too perfect. And that's sort of what we talk about [with] the off-camera voice. You want to make sure the audience feels like you haven't screwed with the original material.”

—Davis Guggenheim, Director and Producer, “Still: A Michael J Fox Movie”

Still: A Michael J Fox Movie is now streaming on Apple TV+ in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®.

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Scottish composer Lorne Balfe joins us to discuss his incredible original score for the latest addition of the Mission: Impossible franchise. Guest host Jon Burlingame returns to delve into Lorne’s process — including some on-the-fly performances during his interview — and why he so badly wanted to record elements of the soundtrack in so many locations from around the world.

“You sometimes have these choirs [that] have to sing in different languages. And of course they can do it. But it's just not natural to them. So that was one idea that I had: Wouldn't it be amazing to have the musicians from that city or from that town be part of this soundtrack? The same way that the crew, and the extras, and the actors are from that environment? Let's try to incorporate that world into our world.”

—Lorne Balfe, Composer, “Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One”

Be sure to check out the latest Mission: Impossible at a Dolby Cinema®, so you can enjoy the film in Dolby Vision® and Balfe’s score in stunning Dolby Atmos®.

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Academy Award®-winning composer Ludwig Göransson returns to the Dolby Institute Podcast to discuss his 2024 Academy Award-nominated score for auteur filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s latest film, with guest host Jon Burlingame. They discuss the composer’s process which, on this film, was anything but traditional, including why he composed over three hours of music before principal photography even began.

“But then the real job begins when [Christopher Nolan] comes back and he goes into the edit bay and he sits there with [picture editor] Jennifer Lame and they start putting together the movie. And they put together the scenes. And they already put my music in those scenes, from what we’d already written. So when I see the first cut it already has all my music in it.”

—Ludwig Göransson, Composer, “Oppenheimer”

Be sure to check out Oppenheimer at a Dolby Cinema® so you can enjoy the film and Göransson’s score in stunning Dolby Atmos®.

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Fresh from their Academy Award®-winning work on “Top Gun: Maverick,” supervising sound editor James Mather and re-recording mixer Chris Burdon return to the Dolby Institute Podcast, along with picture editor Eddie Hamilton, to discuss the sound of the latest installment in the action-spy series — 2024 Academy Award-nominee in the Sound category, “Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One.”

If you haven’t already, be sure to see Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One in a Dolby Cinema®:

“What Dolby Atmos® allows us to do is make [the sound design] that much more immersive. I have that many more channels that I can be planting sounds in a way that just makes it completely immersive, you won’t hear any other way.”

—Christopher McQuarry, Director, “Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One”

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A new, exclusive interview with Phedon Papamichael, the director of photography of the latest (and final?) installment of the Indiana Jones franchise. He and director James Mangold had to contend with a myriad of unique challenges on this film, including matching and updating the classic “Indy look,” filming more chase scenes than you can count, and working with cutting edge VFX to “de-age” Harrison Ford, making the 80-year old action star look the same age he was when he shot Raiders of the Lost Ark!

“Initially, when we started testing it before principle photography, I was presented with some concerns and restrictions. Like, ‘if you can match the lighting to existing lighting from other [Indiana Jones] movies, it'll apply easier, it'll be more successful.’ I go, ‘well, that's gonna be tricky. In every sequence I have to see [if] he has a similar sidelight or a top light?’ It turned out that wasn't really a factor. We also didn't realize, the turnaround time ended up being pretty quick. We were getting results back within a few days. We saw that, ‘wow, this is really gonna work!’ And we were all very impressed, including Harrison. He was like, ‘it's bizarre seeing yourself.’”

— Phedon Papamichael, Director of Photography, Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny

Be sure to check out Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny, in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®, where available.

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Director and Co-Writer Peter Sohn and Director of Photography Jean-Claude Kalache join us this week to tell us about the making of Elemental, Pixar Animation Studios’ most ambitious movie to date.

We discuss Pixar’s famously demanding story development process and why this film took years just to get to an outline, how this film deals with some much more grown-up themes than the typical Pixar fare, and the unique challenges of animating two lead characters made up entirely of either a glowing, iridescent flame (Ember) or a blob of translucent liquid (Wade).

“We had done some [early] experiments with Ember [and] when we turned her fire on for the first time, she looked like a Balrog from Lord of the Rings! She looked terrifying. She was this very realistic demonic fire… And when [Wade] is in the basement, he has a different look. His whole body turns a different color. And then when he is outside in the sunlight, his whole body turned into something else. He was awful! He was so hard. <laughs>”

— Peter Sohn, Director and Co-Writer, “Elemental”

Be sure to check out Elemental in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®, now playing in Dolby Cinemas® and theaters near you.

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Former DGA president, and one of the most successful directors working in television, Paris Barclay joins us on the podcast to discuss his remarkable work on episodes six and ten of DAHMER, season one of Ryan Murphy’s series, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” But it was work we almost didn’t get to see, because he was initially very reluctant to take on the job.

“This one was a hard NO. Um, ‘I'm doing a series about Jeffrey Dahmer and I want you to be a part of it’ is not a call that I'm delighted to receive. <laughs> So I said, ‘listen, I'm of an age where I lived through Jeffrey Dahmer and I know what Jeffrey Dahmer did to black and gay men like myself. And I don't think it's worth doing another story that looks at Jeffrey Dahmer and in any way makes him a more credible, emotional, positive figure.’”

— Paris Barclay, Director, DAHMER

So why did Paris decide to take the gig, and how did he manage to craft such beautiful and heartbreaking stories depicting the impact of one of the most grim serial killers in history?

This is just one of two podcast episodes we’ve done on this season of the series, so be sure to also look for our podcast episode with the producers and key members of the crew.

Be sure to check out DAHMER in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos® on Netflix.

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Key members of the team behind DAHMER, season one of Ryan Murphy’s hit series “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” join us this week to discuss the challenges of balancing this gripping portrayal of the notorious serial killer, and his impact on the communities he preyed upon, without glorifying or redeeming Jeffrey Dahmer’s horrific acts.

“‘Monster’ doesn't just relate to the guy with the knife. It relates to the society in which he was working within, and how he was able to get away with what he was doing for so long,”

— Regis Kimble, Producer and Supervising Editor, DAHMER

Joining us is Executive Producer and president of Ryan Murphy Productions Alexis Woodall, Re-recording Mixer Laura Wiest, Production Sound Mixer Amanda Beggs, and Producer & Supervising Editor Regis Kimble.

This is just one of two podcast episodes we’ve done on this season of the series, so be sure to look for our episode with Paris Barclay, the director of episodes six and ten, which will be released later this week.

Be sure to check out DAHMER in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos® on Netflix.

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For our 150th episode of The Dolby Institute Podcast we’re delighted to bring you filmmaking advice for first-time filmmakers… FROM first-time filmmakers. We have gathered a panel of emerging directors, fresh off the premieres of their very first films, to share their insights, triumphs, and challenges in this candid round-table discussion. 

What hard lessons did they learn? And what would they do differently next time?

“As the director, everything that goes wrong is my fault. And you have to take full responsibility. Because you're in charge... It was a hard experience. It was bumpy. But it made it so that, in the future, I am prepared and I know how this system works. I [now] know how the machine works and I can operate in it smoothly.”

— Thomas Sawyer, Writer and Director, "Sirens"

These insights are from a group of young filmmakers who took part in the “Finish the Script Challenge,” a collaboration between the Dolby Institute and Ghetto Film School. With an open-call submission process and mentorship by Academy Award-nominated director Carlos López Estrada, each year recipients receive a $25,000 grant and access to resources to finish their short films in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®.

Whether you're a film student, an aspiring director, or a seasoned pro, we hope you find the candid advice in this episode helpful and inspiring. 

Be sure to check out each of the films from our panelists, along with behind-the-scenes featurettes by documentary filmmakers Ian Sotzing and Jordan Fatke.

— “Pause/Play” by Kaitlyn Ali

— “Fruits of Your Labor” by Britney Bautista

— “Sirens” by Thomas Sawyer

— “Zora’s Last Day on Earth” by Miguel Ramirez

— Behind the Scenes: Finish the Script Year 2

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Independent filmmaking legend Robert Rodriguez joins us this week, along with his composer and son Rebel Rodriguez, to discuss their mind-bending new action-thriller, “Hypnotic,” starring Ben Affleck. We discuss how they finally completed this film after years of Covid-related delays, why the director still prefers Austin over Hollywood (as his production hub), and how he’s made filmmaking a truly family affair. In addition to Rebel's score, the film benefited from the creative input of Robert's daughter, Rhiannon Rodriguez, who contributed to the storyboards. Racer Max Rodriguez and Rocket Rodriguez, Robert's other sons, brought their respective expertise to the table as well — Racer Max as the a co-writer and producer, and Rocket as an editor.

“Now they’re the age where I was when I was doing ‘[El] Mariachi’ and ‘Desperado’ and all that. And I was like, wow, I was on fire back then, with all these ideas. No wonder these guys are [too]. If I need help with ‘Hypnotic,’ I need myself from 20 years ago to come help me finish this thing. And I got them, I got a whole bunch of them! <laughs> So they come with all these great ideas and it's like, wow, divide and conquer. Let's just take over this thing. They're becoming essential to my process, for sure.”

— Robert Rodriguez, Director/Producer/Co-Writer/Co-Cinematographer/Editor, “Hypnotic”

Be sure to check out Hypnotic, now in theaters.

Please subscribe to The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

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About Dolby: Dolby transforms the science of sight and sound into spectacular experiences. Through our innovative research and engineering, we develop breakthroughs that we share with the world through collaborations that span artists, businesses, and consumers worldwide. These breakthroughs deliver incredibly vivid experiences in the cinema, at home, at work, and on the go — experiences so lifelike that people feel as if they’ve been transported into a cinematic story or a pulsing sphere of music, a distant conference room or an action-packed game. In both entertainment and communications, through audio and imaging, we give everyone the power to see, hear, and feel the spectacular.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Polite Society had one of the biggest debuts at this year’s 2023 Sundance Film Festival and it’s easy to see why. The film is wild, fun, chaotic mashup of genre and style, everything from kung fu action to dark comedy to paranoid spy thriller to coming-of-age drama (and more!) is deftly mixed into this little firecracker of a movie, which was made with an astonishingly small budget during the height of the COVID-19 Omicron surge. Despite these challenges, the film is a masterclass in nailing tone and also turning that tone on a dime. But finding that right balance was no easy feat, requiring lots of trial and error.

“It starts with the script… but it’s really found in post, in the edit, how we’re cutting, the rhythm to which we’re cutting, finding the right music, the right score… All of it working together. It became so important. Because as we were test screening it, we could feel audiences weren’t going with us, tonally. And then all we had [left[ was to edit the sound. To kind of find it, and sort of play around with it, and see how we could bring audiences with us.”

— Nida Manzoor, Writer and Director, “Polite Society”

Joining us on the podcast is the team who “found it.” Writer and director Nida Manzoor, director of photography (and Aikido black belt) Ashley Connor, sound designer and supervising sound editor Jay Price, and re-recording mixers Tushar Manek and Simon Hill.

Be sure to check out Polite Society, now in theaters.

Please subscribe to The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

About Dolby: Dolby transforms the science of sight and sound into spectacular experiences. Through our innovative research and engineering, we develop breakthroughs that we share with the world through collaborations that span artists, businesses, and consumers worldwide. These breakthroughs deliver incredibly vivid experiences in the cinema, at home, at work, and on the go — experiences so lifelike that people feel as if they’ve been transported into a cinematic story or a pulsing sphere of music, a distant conference room or an action-packed game. In both entertainment and communications, through audio and imaging, we give everyone the power to see, hear, and feel the spectacular.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Today we have an exclusive interview with the writer and director of Evil Dead Rise, Lee Cronin, along with sound designer and supervising sound editor Peter Albrechtsen. We discuss how they made this super fun addition to the Evil Dead franchise as well as their collaborative process in crafting one of the creepiest soundtracks you’re likely to experience this year.

“Despite the fact that it was contained I wanted the movie to feel epic. And I knew that sound would play a very very important role in that because Evil Dead movies are contained. That’s kind of part of their DNA.”

— Lee Cronin, Writer/Director, Evil Dead Rise

We have some “epic” clips to share with you, as well as a breakdown of that excruciating cheese grater sequence, so this episode is not for the squeamish. This interview was recorded live at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival.

Be sure to check out Evil Dead Rise, now in theaters.

Please subscribe to The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

About Dolby: Dolby transforms the science of sight and sound into spectacular experiences. Through our innovative research and engineering, we develop breakthroughs that we share with the world through collaborations that span artists, businesses, and consumers worldwide. These breakthroughs deliver incredibly vivid experiences in the cinema, at home, at work, and on the go — experiences so lifelike that people feel as if they’ve been transported into a cinematic story or a pulsing sphere of music, a distant conference room or an action-packed game. In both entertainment and communications, through audio and imaging, we give everyone the power to see, hear, and feel the spectacular.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Making an independent film today is even more challenging than it was in its heyday of the 1990s. So we’re bringing you a panel discussion with directors of two of the festival favorites at this year’s SXSW Film Festival. Directors Hannah Pearl Utt (“Cora Bora”) and Emma Westenberg (“You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder”) take a deep-dive into the state of the independent film industry and the challenges involved in making a film in 2023, including (perhaps most importantly) how to get the gig in the first place:

“I read the script and I pitched on it… And then when [the producers] were on board with my take… they said, ‘OK, now the next round is to pitch it to [producer and star] Ewan [McGregor].’ So I went on a Zoom [with him] and I pitched my take on it. Like how I would change the narrative slightly and make different turns. He was listening and then he said, ‘oh, I don’t like that at all.’ [laughs] I just turned beet red and in my head I was thinking — I can’t really back down now. Because this is the way I would tell the story and I don’t know how I would do it otherwise with conviction. So I tried to explain it to him… and then at some point he was like, ‘OK, yeah, maybe that is a good idea.’ I think also it was a little bit of a test to see if I would stick to my guns.”

— Emma Westenberg, Director and Executive Producer, “You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder”

This panel was moderated by independent producer Kennedy Davey at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival, where “You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder” and “Cora Bora” had their premieres.

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You can also check out the video for this episode.

About Dolby: Dolby transforms the science of sight and sound into spectacular experiences. Through our innovative research and engineering, we develop breakthroughs that we share with the world through collaborations that span artists, businesses, and consumers worldwide. These breakthroughs deliver incredibly vivid experiences in the cinema, at home, at work, and on the go — experiences so lifelike that people feel as if they’ve been transported into a cinematic story or a pulsing sphere of music, a distant conference room or an action-packed game. In both entertainment and communications, through audio and imaging, we give everyone the power to see, hear, and feel the spectacular.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

6-time Emmy Award winning (Stranger Things, Love Death + Robots) sound designer, supervising sound editor, and re-recording mixer Craig Henighan has worked with director Darren Aronofsky since Requiem for a Dream. And with A24’s 25th anniversary re-release of Pi, Craig discusses the challenges of updating its original soundtrack. The indie film’s razor thin budget only allowed for a four day mix back in 1998, and as a result, Craig had his work cut out for him as he reconstructed and rebuilt the original soundtrack into its stunning new remaster and Dolby Atmos® mix.

Craig also dishes on the collaborative process of working with legendary directors such as Aronofsky and Alfonso Cuarón (Roma), the latter of whom helped earn Craig his first Academy Award nomination.

This discussion took place in front of a live audience at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival.

Be sure to check out A24’s 25th anniversary re-release of Darren Aronofsky’s Pi.

Please subscribe to The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

About Dolby: Dolby transforms the science of sight and sound into spectacular experiences. Through our innovative research and engineering, we develop breakthroughs that we share with the world through collaborations that span artists, businesses, and consumers worldwide. These breakthroughs deliver incredibly vivid experiences in the cinema, at home, at work, and on the go — experiences so lifelike that people feel as if they’ve been transported into a cinematic story or a pulsing sphere of music, a distant conference room or an action-packed game. In both entertainment and communications, through audio and imaging, we give everyone the power to see, hear, and feel the spectacular.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

It is a time of great disruption in both independent and studio cinema. Join us for a conversation on the evolving role of film festivals in this dramatically changing landscape. We delved into topics such as the role of streaming platforms and online vs in-person festivals. And tackle questions such as how festivals can develop the next generation of talent, and how exactly DOES one get a film into SXSW or Sundance?

Please subscribe to The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Table of Contents:

• 00:02:17 - ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT - James Friend, ASC, BSC.
• 00:29:23 - BARDO, FALSE CHRONICLE OF A HANDFUL OF TRUTHS - Darius Khondji, ASC, AFC.
• 00:51:23 - ELVIS - Mandy Walker, ASC, ACS.
• 01:22:59 - EMPIRE OF LIGHT - Roger Deakins, CBE, ASC, BSC.
• 01:59:27 - TÁR - Florian Hoffmeister, BSC.

We are thrilled to bring you these interviews with ALL FIVE of the nominees in the Cinematography category for this year’s Academy Awards. The nominated Directors of Photography are in alphabetical order, by film, in the index above.

This is a super-sized episode because each of these interviews are brand new and exclusive to The Dolby Institute Podcast. So get your Oscar ballot ready and enjoy these in-depth discussions about the groundbreaking work these talented individuals have brought to the craft of cinematography this year.

If you enjoy episodes like this, where we share our in-depth conversations with artists and filmmakers, be sure you are subscribed to us wherever you get your podcasts.

Many thanks to all the studios for helping us pull these interviews together! Be sure to check out ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, BARDO, ELVIS, EMPIRE OF LIGHT, and TÁR before Oscars voting ends!

You can also check out the video for this episode, if you’d prefer to watch these interviews and clips from each of the films, on our YouTube channel.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Table of Contents:

0:02:03 - ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

0:22:49 - AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

0:53:44 - THE BATMAN

1:05:44 - ELVIS

1:39:20 - TOP GUN: MAVERICK

Welcome to this year’s coverage of the Academy Awards. Like last year, we have compiled interviews from each of the nominees in the Best Sound category. So, if you are an Oscar voter — either as an Academy member or as a fan participating in your annual office pool — you'll have a much better idea of what to watch for and (more importantly) what to listen for as you get to the Best Sound category on your ballot! Here are the nominees, in alphabetical order:

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT —Viktor Prášil, Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, Lars Ginzel, and Stefan Korte

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER — Julian Howarth, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Dick Bernstein, Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, and Michael Hedges

THE BATMAN — Stuart Wilson, William Files, Douglas Murray, and Andy Nelson

ELVIS — David Lee, Wayne Pashley, Andy Nelson, and Michael Keller

TOP GUN: MAVERICK — Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon, and Mark Taylor

With the exception of ELVIS (due to time), each of these interview excerpts is taken from our full episodes dedicated to the sound design of each of these incredible films. Here's a table of contents, in case you'd like to jump around, as well as links to the full episodes from our back catalogue:

0:02:03 - ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT - from episode 139, January 10, 2023

• Edward Berger — Writer and Director
• Lars Ginzel — Re-recording Mixer
• Viktor Prášil — Production Sound Mixer
• Frank Kruse — Sound Supervisor and Sound Designer
• Unfortunately, nominee Stefan Korte (Re-recording Mixer) was unable to join us at the time of this recording

0:22:49 - AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER - from episode 140, January 14, 2023

• Christopher Boyes — Re-recording Mixer, Supervising Sound Editor, and Sound Designer
• Dick Bernstein — Supervising Sound Editor
• Michael Hedges — Re-recording Mixer
• Julian Howarth — Production Sound Mixer
• Gwendolyn Yates Whittle — Supervising sound editor
• Unfortunately, nominee Gary Summers (Re-recording Mixer) was unable to join us at the time of this recording.

0:53:44 - THE BATMAN - from episode 116, March 8, 2022

• Matt Reeves — Director
• Michael Giacchino — Composer
• William Files — Supervising Sound Editor
• Douglas Murray — Supervising Sound Editor
• Andy Nelson — Re-recording Mixer
• Unfortunately, nominee Stuart Wilson (Production Sound Mixer) was unable to join us at the time of this recording.

1:05:44 - ELVIS - recorded recently, exclusively for this episode

• David Lee — Production Sound Mixer
• Wayne Pashley — Re-recording Mixer, Sound Designer, and Supervising Sound Editor
• Michael Keller — Re-recording Mixer
• Andy Nelson — Re-recording Mixer

1:39:20 - TOP GUN: MAVERICK - from episode 133, November 22, 2022

• Joseph Kosinski — Director
• Bjørn Schroeder — Supervising Sound Editor
• James H Mather — Supervising Sound Editor
• Al Nelson — Supervising Sound Editor
• Chris Burdon — Re-recording Mixer
• Mark Taylor — Re-recording Mixer
• Unfortunately, Mark Weingarten (Production Sound Mixer) was unable to join us at the time of this recording.

Many thanks to all the studios for helping us pull these interviews together! Be sure to check out ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER, THE BATMAN, ELVIS, and TOP GUN: MAVERICK before Oscars voting ends!

We have another episode for Best Cinematography coming up. So if you haven't already, please subscribe to The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

Our coverage of the 2023 Academy Awards continues with another film on the Best Sound shortlist — “Babylon.” The work of director Damien Chazelle (“La La Land,” “Whiplash”) is certainly no stranger to awards season, so this is definitely a film to watch out and, in this case, listen for.

Joining us today is re-recording mixer, sound designer, and supervising sound editor Ai-Ling Lee; supervising sound editor Mildred Iatrou Morgan; and production sound mixer Steve Morrow.

If you’ve seen the film then you already know it is a bombastic depiction of Hollywood decadence in the time of transition from the silent film era to “the talkies.” And from the what we’ve heard in today’s episode, the production was appropriately over-the-top as well.

“Damien’s thing was — ‘this is great, but let's go bigger.’ I think Margot Robbie had a story where she said, ‘I put everything out there and I was going crazy.’ And he walked over and I thought, ‘oh, that's it. He's gonna tell me to tone it back.’ And he goes, ‘ok, can you go a little bigger than that?’ That was kind of the idea behind the whole film. It's — let's go bigger, let's go bolder, let's go beyond what's reasonable, and then we can pull back from there. But let's just see where that line is. And so that's how we treated it on production. We just went as extreme as we could.”

—Steve Morrow, Production Sound Mixer, “Babylon”

Be sure to check out Babylon in a theater near your, in Dolby Atmos® where available.

Please subscribe to The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

As we continue our 2023 Awards coverage, today we are talking to the sound team behind another film on the Best Sound Academy Awards shortlist — “Avatar: The Way of Water.”

Joining us is four-time Academy Award winning re-recording mixer, supervising sound editor, and sound designer Christopher Boyes; supervising sound editor Dick Bernstein; re-recording mixer Michael Hedges; sound mixer Julian Howarth; and supervising sound editor Gwendolyn Yates Whittle.

As you’ll hear about in detail in this interview, every member of the sound and music teams needed to work very closely together, in a concerted effort, to make the sound of this film as clean and as clear as possible. Or as James Cameron would often put it, “clarity is king.” Easier said than done with a movie this complex.

“In the end, Avatar — visually — is such a complicated image. And I think the human brain can easily take that in and enjoy it. But we — delivering the sound of Avatar — have to work against that, because the human brain can look at all those beautiful visuals, but can't necessarily process a thousand different sonic notions. Really, we wanna simplify it and get the sound to speak to the story that we're trying to tell. And it's not part of the story, it doesn't belong in the track.”

— Christopher Boyes, Re-recording Mixer, Supervising Sound Editor, and Sound Designer, “Avatar: The Way of Water”

“Avatar: The Way of Water” is now in theaters, in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®, where available.

Be sure to check out our earlier episode with Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, on dialogue editing and ADR.

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This week we sit down with the writer/director and sound team behind the harrowing new adaptation of "All Quiet on the Western Front." Joining director Edward Berger is sound supervisor and sound designer Frank Kruse, sound designer Markus Stemler, re-recording mixer Lars Ginzel, and production sound mixer Viktor Prášil. This film has been shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Sound, and as Berger says in the interview, this team has a strong track record when it comes to winning sound awards in Germany. So this is definitely a film to keep an eye (and ear) on this awards season.

During the conversation, Berger also discusses why he felt now was the ideal time to tackle this adaptation of the classic World War I novel, and how the team approached the sound design and mix for the film, which — to the director — was all about harsh contrasts and abrupt sound cuts:

“The film is very much about contrasts. You mentioned the generals and the soldiers. Thematically that's one. But there's also: Destruction and peace, noise and silence, battle and exhaustion, wide shots and closeups, darkness and light. So a lot of it is in contrast. And I love abrupt sound cuts, really hard sound cuts, because they always shake me awake in the movie theater. I always go, ‘oh God, something changed.’ And I have to change pace and I have to listen up. So we had talked about and thought a lot about those contrasts and those hard sound cuts that lent themselves to a rich design, I think.”

— Edward Berger, Writer/Director, “All Quiet on the Western Front” (2022)

The film's Dolby Atmos® mix can be experienced in the Netflix app — with the German language track enabled — and in Dolby Vision® for compatible screens.

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The 2022 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner was the first ever horror film to win the top award at the film festival. But before that, "Nanny" — the feature film debut from Nikyatu Jusu — was also the recipient of the 2022 Dolby Institute Fellowship, which awards a low-budget Sundance film with a post-production grant to finish the film in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®.

Now that "Nanny" is available to stream on Prime Video, we recently sat down with writer-director Nikyatu Jusu, supervising sound editor Dave Flynch, and Academy Award winning re-recording mixer Skip Lievsay to discuss the film’s rich soundtrack. This episode was recorded during a live post-screening Q&A for the Artist Academy — Film at Lincoln Center’s program for young filmmakers — and was moderated by our executive producer Amanda Schneider.

“We talked a lot about character arc for the soundscape… There is a tendency to neglect sound in the conception stage. And if you think about your soundscape as a character, then you can have an arc for that soundscape so that the audience doesn't become numb, with a relentless soundscape that is not ebbing and flowing.”

— Nikyatu Jusu, Writer and Director, "Nanny"

Be sure to check out "Nanny" on Prime Video.

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Two-time Academy Award winning director Guillermo del Toro and his co-director Mark Gustafson join us to discuss their latest work — appropriately titled — “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.” Despite being stop-motion animation, the film features a rich sound design and complex mix. One which the directors had to fight for.

“Mark [Gustafson] and I had to fight for the time that we needed on the mix board originally, because [for an] animated movie, they gave us a number of weeks. And we said, ‘no, we need more.’ Scott and I knew that our timing generally takes a little longer. But I think that we ended up understanding that we needed as many passes as a live-action movie — a big one — to reach simplicity. Which is very, very, very at odds. To be simple, we needed to elaborate the mix and make sure we were not mixing something superficial.”

— Guillermo del Toro, Director, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”

Joining the discussion is sound supervisor Scott Gershin, along with re-recording mixers Frank A. Montaño and Jon Taylor, the latter of whom you may remember from our episode on BARDO from earlier this week.

Be sure to check out “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” now streaming on Netflix, in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®.

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Multiple Academy Award winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu joins us to discuss his latest work, the surreal, yet somehow pseudo-autobiographical film, “BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths.”

Since this episode focuses almost exclusively on the sound of the film, joining the conversation is much of the film’s sound team:

Martín Hernández - Supervising Sound Editor and Sound Designer

Santiago Núñez - Production Sound Mixer

Jon Taylor - Re-recording Mixer

Ken Yasumoto - Re-recording Mixer and Sound Designer

While the film is truly a visually stunning epic, the director focused much of his attention on the audio, because, as he put it:

“I really think that this film is — audio, 75% [of the experience]… It's my favorite film, audio-wise, by far. I think it's a much more complex and difficult film than I have done. And the work that this team did is invaluable. And the experience of the audio in Dolby Atmos — you can close your eyes and really understand and feel the film. So I think the job that this team did is absolutely extraordinary. I'm very happy with it.”

— Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Director and Co-writer, “BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths”

Be sure to check out “Bardo,” available on Netflix starting on December 16th, in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®.

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Director Ron Howard joins us to discuss his thrilling new film, “Thirteen Lives,” a harrowing dramatization of the real-life rescue of thirteen young Thai soccer players who were trapped in a flooding cave in 2018.

Joining the discussion is much of the film’s post-production team:

Rachael Tate, Supervising Sound Editor

Oliver Tarney, Supervising Sound Editor/Sound Designer

Chris Burden, Re-recording Mixer

William Miller, Re-recording Mixer

James D. Wilcox, Editor

Authenticity was the name of the game and the entire filmmaking team took great pains to make this film as historically accurate as possible.

“It was great having [the actual rescue divers] Rick Stanton and Jason Mallinson around [set] because they were not only there to help make sure that the diving was accurate and that the divers’ technique was right, and that we understood what the threats and the complications were, and the procedure of it all. But… they're not guys that dwell on emotions very much as individuals. Nonetheless, on the day that we were actually shooting the scene [where they first discover the boys] with the flashlights, I just remember Rick talking about he wasn't sure he'd ever see those boys again. He knew he was leaving them in the dark and… he just thought it was a hopeless scenario and he was pretty shattered by that. And I just thought, ‘leave them in the dark.’ Making a moment that will allow that sort of focus. The flashlights kind of coming out [and] just slowly disappearing until we were in the complete darkness.”

— Ron Howard, Director, “Thirteen Lives”

Thirteen Lives is available to stream right now on Prime Video.

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Director Ryan White and Academy Award-winning sound designer Mark Mangini join us today to discuss the making of “Good Night Oppy.” This charming new documentary tells the story of the two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which were sent to the red planet back in 2003 and were expected to survive long enough to collect data for — hopefully — 90 days. Instead, they blew everyone’s expectations away and one of them, nicknamed “Oppy,” lasted over 15 years.

The filmmakers had the advantage of almost a thousand hours of archival material from NASA, but since much of the film takes place “on Mars,” that came with its own unique challenges.

“I didn't want it just to be an earthbound story. I wanted it to also take place on Mars. And I didn't want that just to be like grainy black and white photos. And so I asked [our production company] Amblin, ‘is it possible to put the audience on Mars, almost as if I could be there with my documentary crew during this adventure, in a way that is photoreal?’ And Amblin said, ‘we don't know, but luckily our best friends are Industrial Light and Magic.” … Spirit and opportunity each had nine cameras. We know what every day of their journeys looked like. And so we were able to supply all of that photography and all of the data that NASA could give us. So for instance, the weather, where the sun rose and sun set on a day, or how much dust was in the air on a certain day that Spirit was going through. And we asked Industrial Light and Magic, ‘can you take all of this information, all of this data, and create a photoreal Mars?’ And they said, ‘we've never done that before, but we love a challenge. We will build Mars from the ground up for you.’”

— Ryan White, Director, “Good Night Oppy”

Mark Mangini, who worked as the film’s sound designer, supervising sound editor, and re-recording mixer, then had the unique challenge of “recreating” what exactly those machines and environment might have sounded like on Mars… but without the benefit of microphones on any of the rovers. But as always, he was able to craft an incredible soundtrack and mix in Dolby Atmos®.

Be sure to check out “Good Night Oppy,” now streaming on Prime Video in Dolby Atmos®.

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Director Joseph Kosinski and his sound team discuss their groundbreaking work on the hit sequel to the classic 80s film "Top Gun." Joining the discussion are re-recording mixers Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor, as well as supervising sound editors James Mather, Al Nelson, and Bjørn Schroeder. Since most of the movie's flight scenes were filmed practically (or "in-camera") without relying on too many visual effects in post-production, this created some unique challenges for the sound team.

“It was a great catching up with [production sound mixer] Mark Weingarten after he was done with the shoot. And I know that he had a lot of challenges in the beginning just to get those recorders into the cockpit because they had to go through a lot of different steps to ensure the safety. They had to make sure that they could still use the ejector seat just in case of an emergency. So this little recorder had to eject with them, they had to be separate from the cameras. I think it was really important to [director] Joe [Kosinski] and [producer] Tom [Cruise] and everyone in the crew that they could keep it simple and that they could basically trigger the recording before they took off and do all the recordings.”

— Bjørn Schroeder,  Supervising Sound Editor, "Top Gun: Maverick"

"The truth of flying in these airplanes is: They're not that interesting to listen to. When you're inside doing it, it looks spectacular and it feels incredible; and from the outside these jets are deafening and have so much character, depending on where it is relative to you and how fast it's moving. But from the inside, it's very much like riding on an airliner. It's that kind of constant hum. So a big challenge of this film was figuring out, 'okay, that's reality. So we've got this really realistic image that was captured, but how do we get the emotion that we wanna feel from the soundtrack in this?' And that is not easy. There was a lot of — obviously — work and effort from design through mixing to achieve that. And luckily we've got a whole panel full of experts here to take us through that."

— Joseph Kosinski,  Director, "Top Gun: Maverick"

With Awards Season fast approaching, this is certainly a film to look out for in the Best Sound category, and this episode offers a unique insight into just how much went into crafting such a thrilling and dynamic mix.

Check out "Top Gun: Maverick" today, available in Dolby Atmos® and Dolby Vision®, where available.

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Director and co-writer Ryan Coogler joins us to discuss the making of the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe — Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Joining the discussion is the film’s composer Lugwig Görannson, supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer Steve Boeddeker, supervising sound editor Benjamin Burtt, and re-recording mixer Brandon Proctor.

This is the first Black Panther movie since the sudden and tragic death of its star, Chadwick Boseman. But as the title implies, the filmmakers hope this film is both a fitting tribute to him as well as a reminder that he and his work live on in these powerful films.

“What I hope audiences take away from it is how much we love Chad [and] how much we missed him. For us, Chadwick and T’Challa are linked because that was the circumstance by which we got to meet this great guy. It was through bringing his character and this world to life. So for us, it's always gonna be a link there that we can't ignore. So I hope all the audiences understand how we felt about this guy. But in a more expansive sense, just because somebody's dead doesn't mean that they're gone. They feel him and feel what he was about because his effect is still there. I think it's gonna be around forever.”

— Ryan Coogler, Director and Co-Writer, Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Be sure to check out Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in theaters now, and in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos® where available.

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In this special, supersized episode we take a peek behind the curtain to examine Pixar's unique editorial process. It's often messy and non-linear, with shots and sequences constantly being re-worked... and this might just be the secret to why their films end up feeling so cinematic and have the emotional impact that they do. At Pixar, the editor has much more authority and responsibility than their live-action and traditional cell animation counterparts. How did this come to be?

It's all outlined in a new book by authors Bill Kinder and Bobbie O'Steen, "Making the Cut at Pixar: The Art of Editing Animation." Bill and Bobbie join us today to discuss the history of editing at Pixar, and explain the origins of Pixar's groundbreaking editorial process.

"If you look at Pixar short films, before they had an editor — all of the ones before 'Toy Story' had no editor, really, they [just] had someone assembling things — they're very classic proscenium, 2D animation... You don't see shot/reverse shot in classic Disney animation. It's just not the way the grammar really worked. Whereas if you watch 'Toy Story,' and that was my memory when I first saw that film — it felt like a movie! And I think that difference, that turning point has to do with the editor saying, 'Wait, we can create shots here. There's a certain language we can use. We're not stuck with the storyboards.' So storyboards are telling us a lot about character and performance and plot and clarity, but now we can up the whole game with what we know about the language of camera."

— Bill Kinder, Co-Author, "Making the Cut at Pixar: The Art of Editing Animation"

Joining the discussion are couple of legendary filmmakers — both of whom had been there since the very early days — multiple Academy Award® winning director Pete Docter and another multiple Academy Award® winning director and editor, Lee Unkrich. Rounding out this conversation we also hear from longtime collaborator and editor of Pete Docter's, Kevin Nolting, and editor Edie Ichioka, who worked on "Toy Story 2," to give their perspectives.

You can find "Making the Cut at Pixar: The Art of Editing Animation" wherever books are sold.

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

To check out many of the Pixar films discussed in today's episode, subscribe to Disney+.

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NOTE: This episode contains spoilers.

We are back from a short break, as we’ve been working on a couple of very big episodes. But in the meantime, we had the privilege to speak with Michael Giacchino, the director of Marvel’s “Werewolf by Night,” a super fun and spooky “television special” on Disney+, perfect for this Halloween season.

Joining us for the discussion is much of his post-production team: Re-recording Mixer Juan Peralta, Editor Jeff Ford, Supervising Sound Editor Josh Gold, and Dialogue and ADR Supervisor Chris Gridley. Maybe it’s because Giacchino, one of Hollywood’s top film composers, is usually a member of the post team, but his rapport with his crew is apparent in this lively discussion. Clearly this team had a blast working together and that infectious spirit continues here.

We discuss the challenges of making a modern Marvel film in a Classic Hollywood “creature feature” style, the directorial advantages of being your own composer, that wild flame-throwing tuba, and so much more.

“I even had some music that I had written that was going to be in the movie itself, thematically. And so I could play that for the actors and just have the sense of tone — so they'd get it immediately. It's something weird about music, the moment you hear it, it puts you in a place, you know? And so it was nice to have that. So that helped me figure out tones on set the entire shoot, for it was always in my head.”

— Michael Giacchino, Director, Marvel’s “Werewolf by Night”

Very special thanks to our friends at Disney, Marvel, and especially Skywalker Sound, who were instrumental in pulling this conversation together for us.

Be sure to check out Marvel’s “Werewolf by Night” this spooky season, available now, exclusively on Disney+, in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®.

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NOTE: This episode features clips mixed in Dolby Atmos®. For best results, please listen to this episode with headphones!

Podcasts have exploded in popularity in recent years, and creators have been exploring new ways to create fully-immersive experiences for their listeners. In today’s episode, we speak with a few of the companies that are on the cutting-edge of crafting a truly cinematic experience for audio storytelling in podcasts, from QCODE and Wondery, the latter of which is now delivering podcasts in Dolby Atmos® — for a next-level listening experience — via the Wondery+ app. This innovation has made it possible to drop a listener directly into the world of a podcast like never before.

“The beautiful thing about mixing in Atmos is you're really designing in a spatial environment. Our team is able to think about how objects sound around the listener in a spatial environment that's additive to the storytelling. So it's not just about that mono experience, let alone stereo. But really, we try to be thoughtful about how we use the technology to enhance the storytelling and immerse a listener into the actual world of the story.”

— Steve Wilson, Chief Strategy Officer, QCODE

Throughout this episode, we have included several clips of recent shows, which were all mixed in Dolby Atmos®, so you can experience just how immersive this technology can make a podcast feel. So, please, if you can, listen to this episode with headphones.

How to listen to podcasts in Dolby Atmos®.

Check out the free trial of Wondery+.

FEATURED in today’s episode, all of these podcasts were mixed in Dolby Atmos®:

- “Electric Easy”

- “Jacked”

- “Listening In”

- “Soft Voice”

- “Who Killed Daphne?”

Hollywood Reporter - “Wondery to Release Podcasts in Dolby Atmos Format,” by Carolyn Giardina.

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If you caught the last installment of the Thor franchise, then you already know that director Taika Waititi has taken this particular series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe into a considerably more comedic direction. And Thor: Love and Thunder continues that trend. This film has some very funny sound moments, including a jealous battle axe, Russell Crowe doing an over-the-top Greek accent, and a pair of screaming goats. Literally. 

But how does creating a soundtrack for comedy — and specifically a superhero comedy — differ from crafting a typical superhero action movie? Joining us to discuss that on today's episode are the film's re-recording mixers Onnalee Blank and Brandon Proctor, supervising sound editors Daniel Laurie and Baihui Yang, and sound designer Samson Neslund.

"We were like, 'well, how do we make that sound fun and magical and ridiculous, but still be grounded somehow? And actually feel like it's a boat?' I mean, that goat boat is ridiculous. And of course the goat [is] screaming. They're just screaming throughout the whole film. And we kept talking like, 'is it gonna be too much screaming? Do we outplay that joke?' You just never could get enough screams. You just need more. And [supervising sound editor] Baihui [Yang] would laugh every time a scream happened. [So] you're like, 'nope! Still working.'"

— Brandon Proctor, Re-recording Mixer, Thor: Love and Thunder

Thor: Love and Thunder is in theaters now! And be sure to check it out in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos® where available.

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Quick Content Warning: There is some colorful language in this podcast episode. Listener discretion is advised.

Season 3 of the eleven-time Emmy winning series LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS hit Netflix on May 20th and we are delighted to sit down with creator Tim Miller, supervising director Jennifer Yuh Nelson, and supervising sound editor Brad North to discuss how they managed to succeed where so many others have failed — creating a hit anthology television series.

"It really comes down to who's doing the shorts. There's been a lot of care trying to match-make: The shorts, the stories, the directors, and the studios. You've got a whole lifetime of experience with people and studios that Tim has worked with at Blur. People that have been doing incredible content, that maybe haven't had the opportunity to do a feature yet, because of the size and experimentalism of that particular place. And to be able to hook them up with really good, solid stories that they can put all of their effort into making that, actually, great. You're not spinning a lot of wheels here. You're doing amazing. Everything goes right to the screen."

— Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Supervising Director, LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS

Be sure to check out LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS, only on Netflix.

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The latest season of "Stranger Things" finally returned to Netflix on May 27th and we are so excited to sit down with the creators of the show, along with several key members of the post-production team, to discuss the sound, music, and editorial process behind this wildly successful series. 

This is a supersized episode of the podcast with a TON of bonus guests. Joining us are the creators (as well as writers and directors) Matt and Ross Duffer; composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein; re-recording mixers Mark Paterson, Craig Henighan (also the sound supervisor), and Will Files (also the supervising sound editor); and the editor of the series, Dean Zimmerman.

This conversation offers an incredible glimpse into the creative process of what makes "Stranger Things" work so well. And it's apparent from this conversation that it has a lot to do with how much this team trusts each other in order to work so seamlessly together.

"Yeah, there's a lot of people who work on the show. But in terms of making big, big decisions, say in post-production, shaping the sound and the music of the show, it's a pretty, actually, tight knit group. And I think we've all gotten to the point where we really respect and trust each other. And then it's just a creative collaboration... It feels weirdly the same as it did season one."

— Matt Duffer, Co-Creator, "Stranger Things"

Be sure to check out "Stranger Things," only on Netflix.

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The newest and final installment of the Jurassic World franchise roared into theaters on Friday and we are delighted to share this conversation with director Colin Trevorrow and his sound team, to discuss how they crafted the soundtrack to this latest dinosaur Summer blockbuster. On today's podcast:

— Colin Trevorrow, Director and Co-writer 

— Christopher Boyes, Re-recording Mixer 

— Pete Horner, Re-recording Mixer 

— Al Nelson, Sound Designer and Supervising Sound Editor 

— Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Supervising Sound Editor 

Jurassic World Dominion features another monstrous soundtrack that these dinosaur epics are known for. But as you might have guessed, keeping those big action set pieces sonically coherent enough for an audience to actually enjoy is a very complicated, but also enjoyable, challenge for the sound team.

"One thing that we take for granted as humans, when we walk into a chaotic environment, our brains are actually mixing that environment for us. Where what we choose to focus determines what we're actually hearing. In a theater, we have to do that for the audience. If we just put all the sound in, then you don't hear anything — because it's chaotic and our brains are not able to do that in a theatrical setting. So as mixers, Chris and I are collaborating, trading off, 'OK, this is a moment for dialogue. This is a moment for dinosaurs...' And then in the midst of it, somehow there's an orchestra playing. And so we have to also make room for themes, which are incredibly important to how you experience the scene and feel about it. So that's the challenge and, honestly, the excitement of doing a scene like that. You have everything at your fingertips and you have to decide, 'What are we hearing here? What are we hearing here?' So it's really fun."

— Pete Horner, Re-recording Mixer, Jurassic World Dominion

Be sure to check out Jurassic World Dominion in theaters, and ideally at a Dolby Cinema, near you!

https://www.jurassicworld.com/

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Legendary sound designer and re-recording mixer Gary Rydstrom joins us once again, this time to discuss his groundbreaking work on Steven Spielberg's classic film, "Jurassic Park" (1993), ahead of the upcoming premiere of the final film in the franchise — "Jurassic World: Dominion." Amazingly, even nearly 30 years later, Rydstrom's work on the original film still holds up incredibly well.

"I have a theory that — especially in the early days of computer graphics — sound needed to be real. Even more so, like real sounds. Synthesized sounds are hard to do [and] not so interesting, usually. So I knew we needed to be real. But in this case, it has to ground visuals that you can't believe, right? So the sound had to be organic and real. So the first thing I did is record as many animals as I could."

— Gary Rydstrom, Sound Designer and Re-recording Mixer, "Jurassic Park" (1993)

Rydstrom and his team recorded dozens of animals and layered those tracks together to create the unforgettable sounds of the dinosaurs, as showcased in the behind-the-scenes documentary: "The Making of 'Jurassic Park,'" directed by John Schultz, which we feature in today's episode:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256908/

"Jurassic World: Dominion" will be available in theaters on June 10th in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®, where available.

https://www.jurassicworld.com/

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On today's episode, we welcome the filmmaking team behind the new 3-part documentary about Kanye West from directors Coodie Simmons & Chike Ozah, which debuted at this year's Sundance Film Festival and is now available on Netflix.

This film features some of the most intimate and vulnerable footage you may ever see of the iconic and enigmatic hip-hop star. It's clear that Kanye gave the filmmakers not just unprecedented access to his personal life, but also a great deal of his trust.

"Kanye was always my brother. We had like 500 hours of footage on Kanye, but it was years of us being connected, you know what I mean? So it was more than just filming... It was a relationship. He was definitely a little brother, which I always wanted. I think I found a little brother in Kanye."

— Coodie Simmons, Co-Director, "jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy"

Joining the conversation is re-recording mixer Paul Hsu, to tell us how he crafted such an incredible soundtrack, often from single audio sources and decades-old videotapes.

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Part two (of two) of our exclusive, in-person interview with the filmmakers. If you missed part one, be sure to check out that episode (#121) from earlier this week, which you can find wherever you get your podcasts.

Joining us again are directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (known collectively as "Daniels"), as well as the film's sound designer and sound effects editor, Andrew Twite, and the re-recording mixer and sound supervisor, Brent Kiser.

Today we're devoting the entire episode to the music of "Everything Everywhere All at Once" because it was such an intensive process. So much so that the composers, the indie band Son Lux (comprised of members Ryan Lott, Ian Chang, and Rafiq Bhatia) spent an unusually long time working very, very closely with the filmmakers on this project:

"They came on before we started photography. They helped us write some songs that needed to be on camera. Like the fake musical and stuff. They gave us their entire library of all their personal projects, as well as all their records [and] instrumental versions. And we cut the whole movie to their music. And then they were on during the whole edit, working on the score. So they were part of the project for over two years and created over two hours of original music."

— Daniel Scheinert, co-director, co-writer, and co-producer, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"

If that sounds like a lot, that's because it was. As part of this episode, we also speak with Ryan Lott, the founding member of Son Lux, to describe his journey working on this film and all its many parts, including crafting different musical styles for each multiverse, collaborating (and singing a duet!) with Randy Newman, as well as discovering the artistic potential of working in Dolby Atmos®.

"There were times where we were very specific about 'the front wall' and keeping most things really focused on the front wall. And then, finding moments and specific elements too that could basically embrace you, sonically. And I started to think, during that mix, how that is a musical choice. That's an artistic choice. That's not just a technology choice. That's not just an engineering thing."

— Ryan Lott of Son Lux, composer, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"

Be sure to check out "Everything Everywhere All at Once" at a cinema near you, now playing in Dolby Atmos®, where available.

Many thanks to our friends at A24 for helping us pull this conversation together! 

If you enjoyed this two-part conversation with the filmmakers, please subscribe to Sound + Image Lab: The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts, as we have many more episodes just like this one coming up in the near future!

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Part one (of two) of our exclusive, in-person interview with the filmmakers of this mind-blowing new film, now playing in cinemas. 

We are joined by the directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (known collectively as "Daniels"), as well as the film's sound designer and sound effects editor, Andrew Twite, and the re-recording mixer and sound supervisor, Brent Kiser.

If you haven't seen "Everything Everywhere All at Once" yet, it is an incredible example of genre-bending experimentation taken to the absolute extreme. And the directors worked closely with the sound team, in order to craft one of the biggest independent action films in recent memory.

"We knew we wanted to create something that somehow bridged the gap between big blockbuster action films and really intimate risk-taking indie films. And we wanted to find a way to do both at the same time. To carve out space for independent films in theaters, because that's something that's slowly being carved out more for these big, big IP blockbuster films. And we wanted to create a family drama that could basically stand up against those films. So we knew we wanted to make it really entertaining, but also we wanted to give ourselves a challenge of creating a multiverse film — that actually stared at infinity and actually went all the way to its logical, terrifying conclusion — and yet still pulled you back from the brink of meaninglessness and gave you a warm hug by the end."

— Daniel Kwan, co-director, co-writer, and co-producer, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"

To see just how the filmmakers pulled off that incredible challenge, be sure to check out "Everything Everywhere All at Once" at a cinema near you, now playing in Dolby Atmos®, where available.

Many thanks to our friends at A24 for helping us pull this conversation together! 

Remember: This is only PART ONE of our conversation with the filmmakers of "Everything Everywhere All at Once." Please subscribe to Sound + Image Lab: The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts, so that you don't miss PART TWO, which will debut later this week.

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Our guest host this week, Tom Graham, is joined by some of the top colorists working today to have a roundtable discussion about HDR workflows and working in Dolby Vision®. This is a passionate conversation, with lots of technical detail, which highlights why so many of these artists are so excited to be working with these new tools available to them.

"We've had the ability to have bright TVs for the longest time, right? That's only a part of the equation. I think what's most exciting to me about the HDR conversation, particularly about the Dolby Vision workflow, is the conversation about better images, better data. More of it. And that includes wider color. That includes more intelligent tone mapping, that includes the ability to better represent artists' intent throughout the entire pipeline, no matter where that image is going to show up."

— Robbie Carman, Lead Colorist & Partner, DC Color

Many thanks to this week's guests:

• Robbie Carman — https://dccolor.com/about/
• Joey D'Anna — https://dccolor.com/about/
• Dan Moran — https://www.danmorancolour.com/
• Patrick Inhofer — https://mixinglight.com/author/patrick-inhofer/

Learn more about Dolby Vision® for Content Creators here:

https://professional.dolby.com/content-creation/dolby-vision-for-content-creators/

Dolby Vision® Training and Certification can be found here:

https://prostore.dolby.com/

To learn more about Mixing Light, check out:

https://mixinglight.com/

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Welcome to our continuing coverage of this year's Academy Awards®. Like last year, we have compiled interviews from the nominees in the Best Animated Feature Film category. So, if you are an Oscar voter — either as an Academy member or as a fan participating in your annual office pool — you'll have a much better idea of what to watch for as you get to this category on your ballot! Here are the nominated films, in alphabetical order:

• ENCANTO: Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Yvett Merino, and Clark Spencer
• FLEE: Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen, and Charlotte De La Gournerie
• LUCA: Enrico Casarosa and Andrea Warren
• THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES:  Mike Rianda, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Kurt  Albrecht
• RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON: Don Hall, Carlos López Estrada, Osnat Shurer, and Peter Del Vecho

Here's a table of contents of interviews, in case you'd like to jump around:

0:01:28 — ENCANTO - Byron Howard and Yvett Merino

0:21:15 — LUCA - Enrico Casarosa 

0:37:51 — THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES - Mike Rianda, Phil Lord, and Christopher Miller

1:03:02 — RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON - Carlos López Estrada and Osnat Shurer

NOTE: As always, all nominees were invited to join our conversations and we regret that we weren't able to connect with the talented filmmakers behind FLEE in time for our podcast posting deadline.

Thanks to all the studios for helping us pull these interviews together! Be sure to check out ENCANTO, FLEE, LUCA, THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES and RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON before Oscars voting ends!

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Welcome to our continuing coverage of this year's Academy Awards®. Like last year, we have compiled interviews from the nominees in the Best Cinematography category. So, if you are an Oscar voter — either as an Academy member or as a fan participating in your annual office pool — you'll have a much better idea of what to watch for as you get to the Best Cinematography category on your ballot! Here are the nominated Directors of Photography, in alphabetical order by film:

• DUNE: Greig Fraser
• NIGHTMARE ALLEY: Dan Laustsen
• THE POWER OF THE DOG: Ari Wegner
• THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH: Bruno Delbonnel
• WEST SIDE STORY: Janusz Kaminski

Here's a table of contents of interviews, in case you'd like to jump around:

0:01:48 — DUNE — Greig Fraser

0:15:51 — NIGHTMARE ALLEY — Dan Laustsen 

0:38:35 — THE POWER OF THE DOG — Ari Wegner

NOTE: As always, all nominees were invited to join our conversations and we regret that Bruno Delbonnel and Janusz Kaminski were unavailable to join us in time for our podcast posting deadline.

Thanks to all the studios for helping us pull these interviews together! Be sure to check out DUNE, NIGHTMARE ALLEY, THE POWER OF THE DOG, THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH and WEST SIDE STORY before Oscars voting ends!

We have one more episode of our special Academy Awards® coverage, coming coming in the next few days. That episode is devoted to the Best Animated Feature category. 

So if you haven't already, please subscribe to Sound + Image Lab: The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

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Director Matt Reeves joins us again this week to discuss The Batman. This is part 2 of our special 2-part episode on this movie, where we discuss the film's incredible cinematography. If you haven't already, be sure to check out part 1, where we break down the sound and music of The Batman, in our podcast archive from earlier this week, or on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/uZ_3Kdm_ZhE

Joining Matt is Director of Photography Greig Fraser (who joins us separately, later in this episode, as he is currently on location in London), and Supervising and Lead Digital Colorist, David Cole.But this episode is not just a deep dive into the technical aspects of their fascinating post-production process, but also includes details on how Matt and Greig managed to make such an epic movie feel like you, in the audience, were right there in the middle of all the action.

"When we shot things, even like the Batmobile chase, even though there's a tremendous amount of visual effects in the movie, I didn't want you to be aware that we were doing them at all. And so we always used the parameters of how you would do it if you were doing it practically. And so [with] the Batmobile chase, we're putting cameras and we're locking them onto hard mounts, so you're watching a lot of hard mounts and that kind of stuff. And then, 'what's in focus?' And it's in the middle of rain. And 'what does that rain look like?' And there were times when Greig would take a filter and put a little bit of silicone on it... so that when you put it in front of the lens and when it got wet, you had the sense that it wasn't just that we were in rain that was perfectly photographed. The lens itself got wet. So you feel like you're in the middle of it. And so everything was about putting you squarely in that experience."

— Matt Reeves, Director, Co-Writer, and Producer, "The Batman"

Be sure to check out The Batman at a Dolby Cinema near you.

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Director Matt Reeves joins us this week to discuss The Batman. This is part 1 of our special 2-part episode on this film, since there is so much to discuss with Matt and his team. So be sure to check out part 2, where we discuss the cinematography of The Batman, which will debut this Thursday!

In this episode we are joined by Matt and his incredible team of sound and music artists:

Michael Giacchino - Composer

Will Files - Supervising Sound Editor

Douglas Murray - Supervising Sound Editor

Andy Nelson - Re-Recording Mixer

Somehow, despite their very busy schedules, we managed to spend over an hour together (in-person!) discussing the amazing work this team did. And as you'll soon discover, this is a group that works incredibly well together, each bringing their exceptional creativity and craft to the process. But we also spend a lot of time discussing how Matt manages to bring everything together so seamlessly as the director:

"You have to become an emotional compass. To me, that is the job of the director. Because you have so many incredibly creative people who you're working with. Here: I make a movie in my head and a piece of paper — that's one version of the movie. And it's a very narrow band of what that movie could be. And then you work with these artists and you want everyone to bring something... And I have to be an emotional compass to say, 'that idea is great! That idea really works!' Somebody has to do that. And the way you do that is by immersing yourself into that thing."

— Matt Reeves, Director, Co-Writer, and Producer, "The Batman"

This episode is a master class in filmmaking and collaboration, with a ton of insights into the process of crafting this latest superhero epic.

Be sure to check out The Batman at a Dolby Cinema near you.

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Welcome to our continuing coverage of this year's Academy Awards. Like last year, we have compiled interviews from each of the nominees in the Best Sound category. So, if you are an Oscar voter — either as an Academy member or as a fan participating in your annual office pool — you'll have a much better idea of what to watch for and (more importantly) what to listen for as you get to the Best Sound category on your ballot! Here are the nominees, in alphabetical order:

BELFAST: Denise Yarde, Simon Chase, James Mather and Niv Adiri

DUNE: Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill and Ron Bartlett

NO TIME TO DIE: Simon Hayes, Oliver Tarney, James Harrison, Paul Massey and Mark Taylor

THE POWER OF THE DOG: Richard Flynn, Robert Mackenzie and Tara Webb

WEST SIDE STORY: Tod A. Maitland, Gary Rydstrom, Brian Chumney, Andy Nelson and Shawn Murphy

Each of these interview excerpts is taken from our full episodes dedicated to the sound design of each of these incredible films. Here's a table of contents, in case you'd like to jump around, as well as links to the full episodes from our back catalogue:

0:01:33 - BELFAST - from episode 104, December 9, 2021

• Sir Kenneth Branagh — Director, Writer, and Producer 
• Simon Chase — Sound Supervisor and Re-recording Mixer
• Niv Adiri — Academy Award-Winning Re-recording Mixer
• James Mather — Sound Supervisor

0:16:56 - DUNE - from episode 99, October 26, 2021

• Denis Villeneuve — Director, Writer, and Producer
• Mark Mangini — Supervising Sound Editor
• Theo Green — Sound Designer / Supervising Sound Editor
• Ron Bartlett — Re-recording Mixer

0:33:02 - NO TIME TO DIE - from episode 101, November 10, 2021

• Oliver Tarney — Supervising Sound Editor
• Paul Massey — Re-recording Mixer
• Mark Taylor — Re-recording Mixer

0:46:04 - THE POWER OF THE DOG - from episode 105, December 13, 2021

• Jane Campion — Director, Writer, and Producer
• Robert Mackenzie — Supervising Sound Editor
• Dave Whitehead — Sound Designer
• Tara Webb — Re-recording Mixer (1st nom)

0:57:39 - WEST SIDE STORY - from episode 114, February 22, 2022

• Gary Rydstrom - Re-recording Mixer, Supervising Sound Editor, Sound Designer
• Shawn Murphy - Scoring Mixer
• Brian Chumney - Supervising Sound Editor
• Tod A. Maitland - Sound Mixer
• Andy Nelson - Re-recording Mixer

Many thanks to all the studios for helping us pull these interviews together! Be sure to check out BELFAST, DUNE, NO TIME TO DIE, THE POWER OF THE DOG, and WEST SIDE STORY before Oscars voting ends!

We have two more episodes just like this one — for the Best Cinematography and Best Animated Feature categories —  coming up. So if you haven't already, please subscribe to Sound + Image Lab: The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode.

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If it seems like the Hollywood musical is making a comeback, that's because, in many ways, it is. And after decades of promising to one day direct one, legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg finally decided to tackle a new interpretation of "West Side Story." The film is now nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Sound.

Joining us today is the sound team behind this film, who collectively took great pains to use as many modern recording techniques available to them to create this impressive, cutting-edge soundtrack.

• Gary Rydstrom - Re-recording Mixer / Sound Designer / Supervising Sound Editor - this is his 20th  Academy Award nomination (seven wins)
• Shawn Murphy - Scoring Mixer - fourth nomination (one win)
• Brian Chumney - Supervising Sound Editor - first nomination
• Tod A. Maitland - Sound Mixer - fifth nomination
• Andy Nelson - Re-recording Mixer - 22nd nomination (two wins)

"I think the most remarkable thing in this movie is you never, for one second, don't believe that the singing you're hearing, or the acting you're hearing, is not happening on that set. It feels completely believable at every time. And seamlessly goes in and out of the music. I've never heard a musical be that seamless before. I think that's one of the great achievements of this particular movie."

— Gary Rydstrom, Re-recording Mixer / Sound Designer / Supervising Sound Editor, "West Side Story"

"West Side Story" is now playing in cinemas and will be streaming on HBO Max and Disney+ as of March 2, 2022. 

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With yesterday's announcement of the 94th Academy Award nominations, this year's award season is now in full swing! We decided it would be fun to bring in some experts to discuss the nominees, especially those in some of our favorite categories — Best Sound and Best Cinematography — as well as others (and the show itself) for a very spirited conversation on this year's top contenders.

Our guests:

Lon Harris — Pop Culture Writer for Screen Junkies — https://twitter.com/Lons

Will Mavity — Awards Correspondent at NextBestPicture.com — https://twitter.com/mavericksmovies

Jazz Tangcay — Senior Artisans Editor at Variety — https://twitter.com/jazzt

For all of our upcoming Academy Awards coverage, please subscribe to Sound + Image Lab: The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

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We conclude our special coverage of sound design for video games by interviewing the sound team at Gearbox Software, which famously created "over one billion guns" for its latest first-person shooter, Borderlands 3. So how exactly does a team design the sound for so many different guns? Turns out, it's actually kinda fun.

"The godsend was the fact that we have a good set of field recording gear internally anyway and... we live in Texas. So, there's lots of people with lots of guns and lots of places, lots of space. So outside of the formal gun shoots that we did, which was really only one — formal gun shoot — we did a whole lot of side shoots here, locally, just us. And some of that was experimentation. Some of that was filling holes. We were learning as we were going. Where we needed more content, where we needed different types of content, different perspectives, different tales. Those kinds of things. And we would go out and do those shoots."

— Mark Petty, Audio Director, Gearbox Software

Thanks again to Gearbox Software for joining us this week!

Borderlands 3 is currently available on your favorite video game platforms.

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As we continue to delve into the world of sound design for gaming, we have a special conversation to share with you today with one of the heavy hitters in this space — Rob Bridgett. 

Rob is something of a visionary in their field and has a new book called, "Leading with Sound: Proactive Sound Practices in Video Game Development," where they share some of their fascinating insights and philosophy on crafting soundtracks for video games.

"I talk about the topic of leading with sound through each one of those subject areas [music, sound, dialogue, and mix]. What are the opportunities for sound designers or composers or dialogue designers? What are the opportunities that they may be missing early in pre-production or production and try to deemphasize this idea of post-production. I know it's something that I've spent a lot of my time trying to create and defend in video games. And I still maintain that we 100% have to have post-production time and we have to be the last part of the baton race. I'm not arguing for that to go away. That's still critical, it feels like those are the gates of Valhalla for us, in audio. It's like once we arrive at post-production, we should already have all this other stuff figured out."

— Rob Bridgett, Audio Director, "Shadow of the Tomb Raider"

Our colleague Andy Vaughan discusses the book, as well as Rob's work on "Shadow of the Tomb Raider," their overall career, and some of the exciting new experimentation they're doing in partnership with McGill University.

You can learn more about Rob and check out their book here.

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Academy Award-winning sound artist Skip Lievsay has worked with some of the greatest filmmakers for the past several decades, including Martin Scorsese, Darren Aronofsky, Michael Moore, Alfonso Cuarón, and his most frequent collaborators, the Coen Brothers. In this in-depth interview, Skip tells us some of his greatest tricks of the trade, whether working with first-time filmmakers or directors of the highest calibre. Specifically, being brave enough to experiment and even get things "wrong," even if that leads to some awkward moments on the mix stage.

"That's a valid, valuable experiment. We do that all the time. You don't know how far is too far until you go there. And you don't know if too far is not good until you find out, one way or the other."

— Skip Lievsay

Skip's latest film, "The Tragedy of Macbeth," directed by Joel Coen is available on AppleTV+ as of January 14.

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Since so much groundbreaking sound work is being created in the world of gaming these days, we've decided to dedicate the next few episodes of this podcast to some of the superstars behind your favorite new video games. Continuing that ongoing coverage, today our colleague Alistair Hirst sits down with the sound team behind "Ghost of Tsushima," a giant open world Samurai action game set in feudal Japan. The team took painstaking steps to give players as authentic and immersive an experience as possible. 

"We did an immense amount of research. Every single team did, because we're really having to learn this entire historical time period. It really happened, it really existed. And while taking creative liberties where necessary, we still wanted to do the time period and the content justice... It was just constant research and going out in the field and recording. We employed our team at Sony Japan studio... to go record throughout the main island of Japan, to capture a lot of ambience for us. And all of these things really helped inform how the game was going to sound."

— Brad Meyer, Audio Director, "Ghost of Tsushima"

Be sure to check out "Ghost of Tsushima," available now on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.

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Since so much groundbreaking sound work is being created in the world of gaming these days, we've decided to dedicate the next few episodes of this podcast to some of the superstars behind your favorite new video games. First up is the sound and music team from Eidos Montreal, who brought us "Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy."

Bringing this massive title to life was no easy endeavor, especially during a global pandemic. Yet the end result is a thrilling game with a surprisingly emotional story that is very rewarding to play through. 

“We wanted it to feel epic. We wanted it to have that, that sort of comic book jumping out of the pages, that Saturday matinee movie that you've been waiting for.” 

— Steve Szczepkowski, Senior Audio Director, "Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy"

Our guest moderator this week, Andy Vaughan from Dolby Game Developer Relations, spoke with the team behind this game for an in-depth look into their process.

Be sure to check out "Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy" on a your favorite gaming platform.

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In Part Two of our conversation about "Nightmare Alley," we are joined by an impressive team of sound artists, who worked very closely with Guillermo del Toro in crafting this film:

- Nathan Robitaille, Supervising Sound Editor

- Jill Purdy, Supervising Sound Editor

- Christian Cooke, Re-recording Mixer

- Brad Zoern, Re-recording Mixer

- Greg Chapman, Production Sound Mixer

We've included some additional material from our one-on-one interview with the director himself, so that we could discuss some key creative decisions and how the team responded to his direction. They remarked not only on his famous eye (and ear) for detail, but how every creative decision seemed to be driven, as always, by story:

"One of the things Guillermo said to us is — it's really important that we emphasize the freedom in poverty at the carnival, and the restriction and that suffocating isolation in the wealthy back half of the city, once they start to succeed and they go to the big city. That was the big global bird's-eye note. And so from there forward, that would influence every choice that got made, as we started doing pre-design elements and sourcing the bits that would eventually build the cacophony that was the carnival and the Copacabana and all."

— Nathan Robitaille, Supervising Sound Editor, "Nightmare Alley"

Definitely check out Part One of this discussion, where we sat down with Guillermo del Toro himself to discuss his filmmaking techniques & philosophies which he applied to "Nightmare Alley," as well as many of his other hit films. That episode was released just a few days ago and can be found wherever you get your podcasts. 

While you're there, be sure you are subscribed to Sound + Image Lab: The Dolby Institute Podcast. Afterwards, be sure to check out "Nightmare Alley" in a Dolby Cinema near you!

You can also check out the video for this episode.

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We recently sat down with legendary filmmaker Guillermo del Toro ahead of the premiere of his latest film, the slick and stylish noir thriller, "Nightmare Alley." Our conversation was so inspiring that we decided to release this podcast in two parts. Today, enjoy this inspiring, one-on-one conversation for a unique glimpse into the creative process of one of the greatest directors working today. 

If you are at all interesting in filmmaking, consider this podcast episode a must-listen. This is especially true for anyone interested in what a film director does:

"One of the functions of the director is to make sure that there are no departments that are independent in the visual realization of the film. Meaning... you create a series of parameters that are narrative, and that can be broken [down] into color, light, shape, form. That those disciplines are understood by all those departments. When you say, 'what great cinematography,' you're saying, 'what great production design.' When you say, 'what great production design,' you're saying, 'what great wardrobe.' And when you're saying, 'what a great image,' you're saying, 'what great set decorating.' And that's when the director does the job of the director — which is to make sure that these efforts are symphonic, to story and to character. So one of the mandates I give is: We're not creating eye candy, we're creating eye protein. And it should be nutritious. It should tell you something about the character. It should immerse you in a motif."

— Guillermo del Toro, Director, Co-Writer, Producer, "Nightmare Alley"

Part two of this discussion, with the "Nightmare Alley" sound team, will be released later this week, so make sure you are subscribed to Sound + Image Lab: The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

In the meantime, be sure to check out "Nightmare Alley" in a Dolby Cinema near you!

You can also check out the video for this episode.

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Director Jane Campion joins us today to discuss her harrowing new drama, "The Power of the Dog." It is a dark, psychological thriller made even more thrilling by the incredible sound work by Academy Award-winning supervising sound editor Robert Mackenzie, sound designer Dave Whitehead, and re-recording mixer Tara Webb, all of whom joined in our discussion.

So many aspects of making this film were unique to Jane's filmmaking approach. Or as Robert put it:

"With Jane, you have to throw out all the rules. There are no rules."

— Robert Mackenzie, Supervising Sound Editor, "The Power of the Dog"

This episode offers a fascinating glimpse into their unconventional process: How they experimented with Dolby Atmos® to sharpen tension in what is a particularly quiet film, how they crafted the sonic character of an old house, and how they worked with Jonny Greenwood's brilliant score... which came in before the film was even edited.

"That's something I learned from 'The Piano' — how powerful that was. Obviously because Holly Hunter's character, Ada, needed to play the piano during the scenes quite often, we needed to have those piano pieces from Michael Nyman. And so he really wrote most of the music before we began shooting that film. And I loved that so much. And saw the benefit of it and the freedom of it — for the composer, actually. And so ever since then, I've tried to create a situation where the music comes really at the same time as the shooting."

— Jane Campion, Director, Writer, and Producer, "The Power of the Dog"

Be sure to check out "The Power of the Dog" in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos® on Netflix.

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Today we are joined by director Sir Kenneth Branagh to discuss his deeply personal new film, "Belfast." The film tells the semi-autobiographical (fictionalized) story of "Buddy," a 9-year old boy living in the city during the "The Troubles" of 1969. It is an intimate portrait of a small family on a tiny city block surrounded by chaos and upheaval. 

To help convey the overwhelming feeling of menace, seemingly just around every corner, the director tapped Simon Chase — Sound Supervisor and Re-recording Mixer, Niv Adiri — Academy Award-Winning Re-recording Mixer, and James Mather — Emmy Award-Winning Sound Supervisor, all of whom join us today on the podcast to discuss how they crafted such a rich soundtrack for such an intimate film. 

And, as it turns out, the inspiration for this project was actually a sound from Sir Kenneth Branaugh's memory:

"A lot of people have asked me, 'why did you want to write it?' And interestingly, given what we're talking about today, what I found myself coming up with was to revisit the moment when I heard a sort of surreal twenty seconds where literally my life changed. And it was to do with hearing. 'Is that a bumblebee I'm hearing? Are those bees I'm hearing? They're not. What are they? What is that fuzzy thing at the bottom of the road? Those aren't bees. Oh no, those are people. Oh no, this is a riot.' But all of that in my mind [and] in my memory is what drove the writing of it... You might describe those 20 seconds, in sound terms, as an element of the film that describes the last day of my childhood. Because after that, everything changed."

— Sir Kenneth Branagh, Director, Writer, and Producer, "Belfast"

Be sure to check "Belfast," available in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®.

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For his feature film directorial debut, director Lin-Manuel Miranda chose to adapt the autobiographical stage musical "tick, tick... BOOM!" by Jonathan Larson — the Broadway phenom behind "Rent," who died so suddenly and tragically in 1996. This film is so clearly a labor of love for Miranda, who took on quite the challenge of adapting this small stage show (often performed by no more than three people) and turning it into a fully realized movie musical with a big cast, elaborate set pieces, and a lush soundtrack worthy of Larson's legacy.

We recently sat down with the director along with Tod Maitland the sound mixer, and Paul Hsu, the re-recoding mixer and supervising sound editor for the film, to discuss the unique challenges this production faced — especially considering how they filmed during the Covid-19 pandemic before vaccines were readily available to the cast and crew.

"We had to really circle the moments where we were making a decision to sing live, because we had special protocols we had to put in place for the crew's safety. The camera's gotta be a certain distance from the actors. Now, the cameramen are going to wear face shields and like... raincoats! In fact, I think one of the first days, once we started up in September, Andrew got an impulse and he sang live in the room and it wasn't one of my pre-approved moments. And I got to talking to at the end of the day. And I deserved that talking to, because this is about our safety."

— Lin-Manuel Miranda, Director and Producer, "tick, tick... BOOM!"

Be sure to check out "tick, tick... BOOM!" on Netflix.

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We're turning back the clock to 1984 as we talk about "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" with Supervising Sound Editor & Re-Recording Mixer Will Files and Composer Rob Simonsen. Unlike many modern action-adventure films, this team, led by director Jason Reitman, tried to make everything sound as authentically '80s as possible, eschewing modern sound design and film score aesthetics, in order to give the audience an experience reminiscent of the beloved original film (which happened to be directed by Jason's father, Ivan Reitman). The result is a delightful throwback to the action-comedies of yesteryear. And the three of us absolutely NERD OUT today, as we talk about all the ways they pulled this off, from both a technical and aesthetic perspective.

"When Jason [Reitman, the director] and we sat down to talk about the movie, he said, 'You've got to put yourself aside. This is... really about being custodians of what was done." So we had a lot of conversations about that and he said, 'I'm telling every department that that is the mission here. It's not to do what necessarily is, like, cool and modern and hip. This is about discovering the original, keeping it, and - where we can - walking forward, but in the clothes of the original.' So, I think it was really important for Jason to signal to everyone, right at the opening logos: 'We got you!'"

— Rob Simonsen, Composer, Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Be sure to check out Ghostbusters: Afterlife at a Dolby Cinema near you.

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The latest James Bond film, from director Cary Joji Fukunaga, is a veritable feast of emotion and tone. Along with the requisite jaw-dropping action sequences, the film is chock-full of emotional pathos and tender moments, appropriate for Daniel Craig's sendoff as the titular British super-spy. But also, perhaps surprisingly, some very humorous sequences, as well. 

With a running time of over 2 and 1/2 hours, the sound team had their work cut out for them, and on a very tight timeline. So how did they manage to craft such an exciting, yet tender, and often hilarious new Bond film under such tough deadlines? Today we sit down with supervising sound editor Oliver Tarney and re-recording mixers Paul Massey and Mark Taylor to find out exactly that. Did they go back in and make changes after the film was "finished?" After all, the release was delayed substantially due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

"Sometimes on a really focused tight schedule on a big film there's a certain energy about that. And if you had more time, you could explore more, it can become over-polished. Something a little bit sterile can creep in sometimes. I've been on movies that felt like that a little bit. So there is an energy with everyone just going full-tilt, trying to get something done. And there might be a few little rough edges, but that's part of it. It doesn't feel over-produced. Maybe there would be that danger if you opened it up again and just said, 'we've got all this time.' You start maybe just making it a little bit too sanitized or something. I think it's just got a really good energy about it, the film. And I'm glad it finished when it did."

— Oliver Tarney, Supervising Sound Editor, "No Time to Die"

Be sure to check out No Time to Die at a Dolby Cinema near you.

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For our 100th episode, we are very pleased to welcome back to the podcast acclaimed director Edgar Wright, along with his frequent collaborators, composer Steven Price and sound designer Julian Slater. We discussed their latest mind-bender of a film, the psychological thriller – featuring (as Stephen King put it) "time travel with a twist" — "Last Night in Soho."

As always, this team has crafted an incredibly rich soundtrack, this time seamlessly melding sound design, score, and classic hit songs from the 1960s. They accomplished this by beginning work on the film well before filming even began.

"The great thing about working with Steve and Julian, and also my editor Paul Machliss, is that we've worked together so much, that it's great to be able to think about those [soundtrack] elements when you're writing, and also to be able to talk to everybody about it before we've shot a frame of the movie. That's an unusual thing to do with a composer, and an even more unusual thing, probably, to do with Julian — to talk to a sound designer about a film where you haven't shot a frame of it yet. But, as with 'Baby Driver' and with this, it's something where I include everybody very early on."

— Edgar Wright, Director and Co-Writer, "Last Night in Soho"

"It's kind of how it goes with Edgar. As I leave one movie he's talking about three or four possibilities for his next ones. And sound is always entwined in there. And conversations start, even at that point, even as we're finishing the current movie. He's already thinking about the next one. When there's a collaboration that runs as deep as ours does, including Paul [Machliss] as well, it just makes for a great breeding ground of ideas."

— Julian Slater, Supervising Sound Editor and Re-Recording Mixer, "Last Night in Soho"

The film is now playing in Dolby Cinemas and it is spectacular to experience in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®, so be sure to get your tickets soon.

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The incredible new adaptation of "Dune," from director Denis Villeneuve, has some astonishing sound work, fully embracing the immersive capabilities of Dolby Atmos®. Creating this soundtrack was a long and painstaking process, which began in pre-production, as Denis took a novel approach by bringing his sound team and composer on board very early in the process. This gave them extra time and creative freedom to unlock some truly next-level artistry on this film. We recently sat down with Denis and his all-star sound team of Mark Mangini, Theo Green, and Ron Bartlett, to discuss this and their approach to this very ambitious project. 

"[A]t the end of the day, you're not mixing sound, you're mixing an image. It's storytelling. And everything that pulls you away from the screen is bad for me. But with the sound of Atmos, what I like is that I just have the impression that I'm diving INTO the image."

— Denis Villeneuve, Director, "Dune"

In the US, "Dune" is available to watch in a Dolby Cinema near you and on HBO Max.

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We're taking a few weeks off of our regular posting schedule to put together some exciting new episodes for you.

We will be back to our regular schedule at the end of October with our special coverage of "Dune." We recently sat down with director Denis Villeneuve and his all-star sound team, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, and Ron Bartlett, to discuss their approach to this unbelievably ambitious project. This was our first in-person podcast in well over a year and we can't wait to share it with you upon our return. 

So make sure you are subscribed. You won't want to miss this episode. 

Also coming up, we have our 100th episode! So, we'll be doing something special to mark that occasion, as well. 

And in the coming weeks and months, we will have even bigger episodes of the Dolby Institute podcast, including more deep dives into the careers of legendary sound artists and some explorations into a some new terrain for us. We are in the planning stages of our first-ever episodes about some very exciting new video game releases. As you may already know, there is some truly incredible sound work being done in that world, and we can't wait to explore it further with you. 

So stay tuned for all of that. See you again in late October! And thank you, as always, for listening.

Today we're speaking with the creators of "Come From Away," the Tony Award-winning Broadway show, and the latest to get a streaming release, this time on Apple TV+. Joining us are the creators and writers of the book, music, and lyrics, David Hein and Irene Sankoff, and director Christopher Ashley.

The show is set in the week following the September 11 attacks and tells the true story of what transpired when 38 planes were ordered to land unexpectedly in the small town of Gander, Newfoundland when the US unexpectedly closed its airspace. The characters in the musical are based on real Gander residents as well as some of the 7,000 stranded travelers they housed and fed.

If this sounds like a big story, that's because it is. And just how do you pare that down into a tight, Broadway show, with no intermission? It was a challenge:

"I feel like one of the first questions you ask about a musical or a film or a play is, "who's the lead?" And ["Come From Away"] doesn't have one. It's got twelve actors playing hundreds and thousands of people. So its emotional event is so spread out. But one of the things we do have that kind of replaces that is the delight of twelve actors transforming. And you come to know those twelve, even despite the fact that they're gonna play many different parts. So the pleasure in theatrical and acting transformation gives us a lot of juice that you wouldn't have with just a lead. And also, there's no villain! But everybody does have this shared trauma around 9/11, if you were old enough to have lived through it. And how you deal with that trauma turns out to be the problem that everyone's trying to solve."

— Christopher Ashley, Director, "Come From Away"

The musical premiered on Broadway in 2017 and was nominated for seven Tony awards, including Best Musical, Book, and Score, and Christopher Ashley won the Tony for Best Direction.

You can watch the filmed version of the Broadway show, right now, on Apple TV+.

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Dr. Michelle Fournet and Dr. Ellen Garland, the scientists featured in the new Apple TV+ documentary "Fathom," believe the songs of the humpback whales to be perhaps the oldest form of verbal communication between intelligent life on planet Earth. A language and culture which may predate humans' by millions of years. 

You may think scientific curiosity then set out to decipher this language so that we would be able to communicate with these fiercely intelligent mammals directly. But as it turns out, that is not exactly the point...

"I have given a lot of thought to understand why the scientists are doing what they're doing. And the point is — to understand what the whales are saying to each other. And I think there's a number of reasons for that. One of them is ethical — [not] interfering too much with the natural goings on of another species. But two, I think it's, for them, more interesting. [The whales] have a lot more to say to each other than we have to say to them. I think [Dr.] Michelle [Fournet] would say, 'they're saying everything we need to understand. We just need to actually just listen to them. And maybe not talk for once.'"

— Drew Xanthopoulos, Director, "Fathom"

So just what are the whales saying to each other? And how did the filmmakers convey this foreign language so beautifully through sound and image? We sat down with Director and Cinematographer Drew Xanthopoulos, along with Sound Supervisor and Re-Recording Mixer Brad Engleking of TBD Post, to ask exactly that.

Be sure to check out "Fathom" now on Apple TV+.

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WandaVision was a breakout hit this past year, and it appropriately has a whopping 23 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, and more for Writing, Acting, Directing, and a couple of well-deserved nods in the Sound Editing and Sound Mixing categories. And if you've seen the series, it should be clear why — this show mixes stylistic formats in some truly bizarre, but also satisfying, ways. At times it harkens back to the sitcoms of yesteryear — even filming part of an episode live in front of a studio audience, in order to capture an authentic laugh track — and other times like what one would expect from a series taking place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So how did the sound team pull all these disparate stylistic elements into such a cohesive and satisfying amalgamation? Well, we sat down with them to ask exactly that.

Joining us this week is Danielle Dupre, Re-Recording Mixer and Dialogue Editor (and Daytime Emmy Winner); Kim Foscato, Supervising Sound Editor (and previous Primetime Emmy winner); Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Supervising Sound Editor and Dialogue Supervisor; and Steve Orlando, Sound Designer.

"After I was able to sit down and watch all the episodes, we had a really exciting conversation. Because all of us — combined — we've worked on a fair amount of Marvel features. And we were just so excited to have the opportunity to make it sound a little bit differently than what we would automatically think that direction that Marvel [typically] goes. I remember watching it like a month out before the mix and it just sparked my excitement so much. And I went back and I binged 'Dick Van Dyke' and 'Mary Tyler Moore' and 'Brady Bunch.' And then we started mapping out how things were going to sound, and how they were going to change, throughout the series."

— Danielle Dupre, Re-recording Mixer, "WandaVision"

You can check out all of WandaVision right now on Disney+.

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As we continue our coverage of the 2021 Emmy Awards, we recently sat down with the Emmy-nominated editor and sound team for the fantastic nature program / retrospective biography / urgent and dire warning for humanity, "David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet." The film pulled material from over 50 years of Sir David's career to create what many believed to be his final big documentary. And working on the film was an understandably emotional experience.

"The way David likes to do his narration records is — we'll do a complete run through. So that first run through is like watching the film, sometimes. And I have to say, there were several points — and I'm sitting there just recording it, pressing record and sort of watching it through — that I was really choked up, as it's David telling his story. And it was lovely.  Afterwards, I came out into the room and he just said, 'thank you.' You know he was obviously moved and touched by the film and just basically said, thank you for making such a great film, which told what he wanted to say, so eloquently. And he was obviously moved by it as, as we all were."

— Graham Wild, Dubbing Mixer, "David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet"

We're very pleased to share with you this interview with Editor Martin Elsbury, Supervising Sound Editor (and previous Emmy winner) Tim Owens, and Dubbing Mixer Graham Wild about their process of pulling together such a marvelous film using so much original and archival footage, and making such a moving portrait of a career and a planet on the brink, all in a running time of just under 2 hours. The film has 5 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Cinematography, Outstanding Picture Editing, Outstanding Sound Editing, Outstanding Sound Mixing, and Outstanding Music Composition.

Be sure to check out "David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet" on Netflix.

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As we begin our coverage of the 2021 Emmy Awards, we're excited to sit down today with Sound Designer, and 3-time Emmy Winner, (and returning guest) Craig Henighan, and Supervising Sound Editor and Dialogue Editor, as well as 4-time Emmy Winner, Brad North — who are nominated again, this time for their incredible work on the Netflix animated anthology series, LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS. They are nominated for Outstanding Sound Editing and the series itself is nominated for Outstanding Short Form Animated Program. And the series is exactly that — Outstanding.

So, just how difficult is crafting a sonic landscape for animation? Especially for animation which takes place in a completely alien landscape? And one which utilizes cutting-edge photo-realistic computer animation? As you can imagine, it's very challenging. But also, it turns out, very fun. And you can tell these sound artists had an absolute blast creating a whole new world for their nominated episode, "Snow in the Desert," In Dolby Atmos®.

"With no production track, it's literally from the ground up. Which is why animation is so fun. Especially things like this — the world is your oyster, to a certain degree. You've obviously got to follow visuals and you've got to follow story, which is always, ultimately, the biggest point of it all. But within that framework, there is tons and tons of opportunities for sonic details and little things and stuff that you might not even hear on the first watch."

— Craig Henighan, Sound Designer, LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS

Be sure to check out LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS on Netflix.

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"Nine Days" is an unusual and remarkable film. A kind of supernatural fable about aspiring souls enduring a rigorous interview process in order to get chosen for life. It is an incredible debut from gifted filmmaker Edson Oda, and we are very proud to see this film finally get a theatrical release, as it was a recipient of the Dolby Institute Fellowship, which gives independent films funding to mix their films in Dolby Atmos®. And we couldn't be more pleased with how this film turned out!

We recently spoke with writer and director Edson Oda, supervising sound designer Mac Smith, and re-recording mixer Brandon Proctor, about how they managed to craft such a thought-provoking film which asks some of the most provocative questions about existence itself. But it does so in a very subtle way, as the film invites audiences to craft their own interpretations and meanings. This was all very much by design:

"As a filmmaker, we always want to give enough [information] and not give more than that. And I'm not just talking about storytelling. I think it's [the same] for sound or images – or anything – when you're telling a story. You want to leave some gaps, so the audience can fill in those gaps with their imagination. I think that's, for the most part, the thing that can happen when someone has contact with any piece of art, or any piece of work, or anything that they see: 'Okay, now I'm going to complete this with my assumptions, with my images, with my history, my imagination.'"

— Edson Oda, Director, "Nine Days"

The film just entered a wider release, so be sure to check out "Nine Days" in a Dolby Cinema while you still can. 

Many thanks to our friends at Sony Pictures Classics for giving this film the release it deserves and for helping us pull this conversation together this week.

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Netflix's "The Crown" picked up a whopping 24 Emmy nominations this year, including one for Best Drama Series — which is understandable, considering just how innovative, understated, and tragic the storytelling on that series is. 

This week, we're speaking with two of the nominees responsible for some of that incredible storytelling, longtime collaborators Yan Miles ACE, the Editor, and Lee Walpole, the Supervising Sound Editor & Re-Recording Mixer. Yan was nominated for editing and Lee for sound mixing the emotionally wrenching "Fairytale" episode from season four, which tells the heartbreaking story of Lady Diana's days from her engagement to Prince Charles up until her wedding day, which by then, it's safe to say, the "fairytale" was over.

This episode is like a masterclass in non-verbal storytelling, tone, and subtext as we follow Diana's emotional journey beyond dialogue, by showing us her relationship to things like food, loneliness, silence, and dance. We're delighted to share this conversation with you so you can get a glimpse into just how this talented creative team approaches this very complex subject matter.

"I was very mindful of that in the scene, to lean into this innocent, happy, young woman, always. And to always tread very carefully, because it's unusual to watch a film when you know the ending. That's a very unusual sort of storytelling. So I always, always [remembered] that, all the time. What would this young girl be going through, in these experiences? And I imagine any girl around the world, when she is sort of happy or sad, dances around the bedroom to a piece of music! It's relatable, it's hugely relatable. [Lady Diana] just happens to be in this huge, great big room or happens to be roller skating around this huge, great big palace."

–Yan Miles ACE, Editor, "The Crown" 

Be sure to check out the fourth season of "The Crown" on Netflix ahead of the Emmy Awards on September 19th.

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This week we bring you a remarkable story about how Carlos López Estrada, the director of the Dolby Institute Fellowship winner "Blindspotting," attended a spoken word poetry performance and was so inspired by what he saw on stage, he decided to make a wild, low-budget indie feature capturing some of the magic he witnessed that evening. With the help of Executive Producer Kelly Marie Tran, he turned a chaotic production, written and starring young poets (many of whom were only just out of high school!) into a highlight of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. 

We sat down with Carlos, Kelly, and two of the poet writers of the film, Tyris Winter and Marcus James, to discuss how they managed to make such a magical film under such wild circumstances.

"There's people [in this spoken word poetry group] from every single neighborhood in LA – as far east, as far west, south valley, everywhere in between. So you were hearing stories all about their relationship to their community, their environment, their families, LA themselves, [and all] as different as could be. But it was all young people talking about existing in the city in 2019, which put them all together into this beautiful package. And that was really sort of how the idea of what this movie could look like. We said it would be one day in LA, it would follow characters from point A to point B, and then they would pass on the torch to the next group. We would find ways for some of them to stick around, some of them would just make one-off interactions. And the only structure that this would have is that these are all young people existing in LA on the same day. And then from there on, we opened up the door for the poets, essentially told them 'you're going to write and you're going to star in your own scene. What do you want to talk about? What is important to you today?' And from then on, it was a madness."

— Carlos López Estrada, Director of "Summertime"

Be sure to go see "Summertime" in theaters while you still can. 

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How do I break into the film business?

That is the number one question we get asked, so we figured maybe it was time to finally answer it. For the past few months, we've asked some of the top professionals in the fields of cinematography, animation, sound, producing, and directing how they got their start and the answers were surprising even to us! 

"The world has a way of opening doors and closing doors on you. I basically ended up - through poverty and desperation - back in England as a news sound man, to begin with. Just trying to get a job anywhere I could. And [I] did freelance sound for the American networks for about a year. Which I was actually very, very bad at. And so it was kind of suggested that I do something else. And I kept telling the networks, 'well, I can shoot.' [Then] the Falklands war broke out in 1982 and there suddenly weren't enough cameramen in England to cover it. [So] they very reluctantly - CBS - moved me up to cameraman."

—Sean Bobbitt, B.S.C.

Many thanks to Sean Bobbitt, Kori Rae, Dan Scanlon, Peilin Chou, Glen Keane, Gennie Rim, Oliver Tarney, Mike Prestwood Smith, William Miller, and John Pritchett for sharing your superhero origin stories with us.

If you enjoyed this episode, please let us know. We might just make this a recurring series! You can follow Glenn on Twitter or you can leave us a rating & review on the Apple Podcasts app.

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Adapting stage musicals for the cinema is an often tricky process and "In the Heights," the latest adaption from Broadway phenom Lin Manuel Miranda, was no different. Director Jon Chu certainly did not shy away from the epic scale of the theatre production, if anything he made it even grander, which (as you might've guessed) had a number of unique challenges. Primarily, how did they manage to capture the immediacy of the live musical performances and still make it both cinematic and fresh? 

The production tapped music supervisor Steven Gizicki, who had previously worked on the very successful "La La Land," as well as Miranda's long time collaborator (and former roommate), Bill Sherman, to once again act as music producer, having worked on the stage show since the earliest stages. We recently sat down with Bill and Steven to discuss their process, and it was eye-opening. If you think you know how modern movie musicals are recorded, you may be surprised to learn what all went into making "In the Heights."

"The actors are always singing live when they're on set. So we're recording them just as a reference, so we can match lip sync later. It helps... Because there's a difference between 'singing' singing and 'acting' singing. And Melissa [Barrera] would be singing one of the numbers, like 'It Won't Be Long Now' or whatever, and would come to us afterwards. And she's like, 'by the way, if it looks weird on camera, that's because I'm singing totally differently than the pre-record. Note it. I'm going to have to go back and re-record it later.' And we would sometimes get a note from the studio saying, 'Melissa doesn't look like she's lip syncing accurately because it doesn't match the pre-record.' And we'd say, 'well that's the point, because she's acting now and we need to go back and adjust.'"

— Steven Gizicki, Music Supervisor, "In the Heights"

Be sure to check out "In the Heights" while you still can — ideally in a Dolby cinema near you or on HBO Max through July 11th.

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As games go, chess is maybe not the most exciting thing to watch as a spectator. Its complexities make it difficult for non-experts to truly appreciate. And yet, in Netflix's limited series, "The Queen's Gambit," the filmmakers somehow manage to not only make it exciting, but downright riveting. How did they pull that off?

Well, we recently sat down with editor Michelle Tesoro, ACE, and sound designer Wylie Stateman to discuss how they successfully crafted such tense and thrilling scenes which even a non-chess player could follow and, more importantly, enjoy.

"Chess is a wonderful game, but it's also sort of a board-level warfare experiment. And you're constantly playing out moves in your head. The way Scott Frank blocked the scenes, you know that we are in Beth's head, or we're in each of the chess players' heads. And that gives us a great opportunity to explore that space. It's a very aggressive game of control – or lack thereof, if you're the losing opponent."

— Wylie Stateman, Sound Designer, "The Queen's Gambit

If you haven't already, be sure to check out "The Queen's Gambit" on Netflix.

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We're joined today by prolific showrunner and creator Neil Cross and re-recording mixer / supervising sound editor Ron Bochar to discuss their new series "The Mosquito Coast." The show tells the story of a grueling journey of a family on the run and it turns out the production was just as challenging. We discuss some of those challenges (and how they overcame them) along with some insights into how they approached the source material, as this version of the story goes in a very different, but interesting, direction.

"We would take an approach that was completely the opposite of what 'The Handmaid's Tale' did, where they started with an adaptation of the novel – what 'Big Little Lies, I guess the same thing – you start with a novel and then expand the world. So we're starting in the expanded universe and we are on a journey to 'The Mosquito Coast.' So our destination is still where we are headed in terms of the story."

— Neil Cross, Creator of The Mosquito Coast

You can binge the entire first season of The Mosquito Coast right now on Apple TV+.

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Besides "we'll fix it in post," perhaps the most common joke in film editing suites is, "the music will carry it." Meaning, a film almost always has the score to help with the emotional impact of any given moment. But what about films without a traditional score? That is the case with "The Killing of Two Lovers," a tense new indie drama from director Robert Machoian. But interestingly, the director and sound designer —Peter Albrechsten — instead created a unique sonic soundscape to act as a score, but without what we'd normally consider "music." This week, we sit down with Machoian and Albrechsten to discuss how this experiment went, and why it happened to work so well.

"Funny enough, I don't think I explained it very well to Peter [beforehand]. I was teasing him the other day when we were doing the sound mix at Juniper, he looked at me — I think it was like day two — and he's like, 'I'm kind of the composer!' And I realized that I hadn't explained it enough that, 'yeah, you would be.'"

— Robert Machoian, Director of "The Killing of Two Lovers"

Watch "The Killing of Two Lovers" at a cinema near you or at home on VOD now.

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The cult classic "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" came out just a little over ten years ago, and to celebrate the anniversary, the filmmakers (and Universal Pictures) decided to remaster the film in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos for a theatrical and home video re-release this year.

Dolby had the privilege of sitting down with the director, Edgar Wright, and the Sound Designer, Julian Slater, to talk about the experience and to find out just how different this new and improved version of the film will be.

"Sometimes going back in - remastering something - can be a bit of a chore.... But in this case, it was actually a very sweet reunion... I sat in this theater watching the Dolby Cinema version with the editor of the movie and the sound mixer of the movie, ten years later, and watching it I had like NO notes! It was such a pleasure because it was such an easy experience, because it was like 'well, it sounds and looks better than it ever has done. And what better way to celebrate ten years of this movie?'"

— Edgar Wright, Director of "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World"

Be sure to check out the 10-year special re-release of "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" at a Dolby Cinema or home theater near you. You can find more information on the re-release here.

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Short films don't get a lot of attention these days, but it is one of the best opportunities for filmmakers to experiment with new storytelling techniques. Recently, the Dolby Institute was invited to the Aspen Shortsfest, an Oscar-qualifying festival for short films, to run a workshop on sound design. Well, the submissions blew us away with their creativity and techniques, so we wanted to share these conversations with you. There is a lot we can learn from how these filmmakers utilized their sound design to give audiences the subjective experience of the films' protagonists.

Unfortunately, these films are not yet available to watch online, but we have clips available in the video version of this podcast, which we will encourage you to check out here:

https://youtu.be/HBTixHStmFs

We spoke with three filmmaking teams and here's a table of contents in case you'd like to jump around:

00:01:56 - A Broken House, Directed by Jimmy Goldblum

00:17:33 - Ligie, Directed by Aline Magrez with Sound Editor Bruno Schweisguth

00:33:32 - O Black Hole!, Directed by Renee Zhan with Sound Designer Ed Rousseau 

Many thanks to Aspen Shortsfest for inviting us to the workshop and for allowing us to share these insightful interviews from these incredibly talented filmmakers. You can read more about each of the films featured in this episode on the festival's website.

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We conclude our 2021 Oscars coverage with the nominees for Best Animated Feature! Once again we've invited all of the nominees in this category to speak with us and we are thrilled to share them with you.

Here's a table of contents for each interview, along with the names of all the nominees, this time in reverse alphabetical order:

00:01:22 - WOLFWALKERS - Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Paul Young, and Stéphan Roelants

00:16:08 - SOUL - Pete Docter and Dana Murray

00:29:00 - A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE: FARMAGEDDON - Richard Phelan, Will Becher, and Paul Kewley

00:42:54 - OVER THE MOON - Glen Keane, Gennie Rim, and Peilin Chou

01:01:52 - ONWARD - Dan Scanlon and Kori Rae

Congratulations and many, many thanks to all of the nominees. We'd also like to thank Apple, Pixar, Disney, and Netflix for helping coordinate these interviews and for providing film clips to share.

Don't miss these incredible animated films:

WOLFWALKERS

SOUL

A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE: FARMAGEDDON

OVER THE MOON

ONWARD

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We continue our 2021 Oscars coverage with the nominees for Best Cinematography! We have once again invited every nominee to join us, and we were very pleased to sit down with three inspiring cinematographers: Sean Bobbitt, Erik Messerschmidt, and Phedon Papamichael. (Unfortunately, the other two nominees, Dariusz Wolski and Joshua James Richards, were unable to find time, as they are on location filming their next projects.)

Here's a table of contents, in case you'd like to jump around:

00:01:46 - JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH - Sean Bobbitt, B.S.C.

00:21:37 - MANK - Erik Messerschmidt, A.S.C.

00:35:23 - THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 - Phedon Papamichael, A.S.C.

Many thanks to Sean, Erik, and Phedon for joining us and congratulations to all of the nominees! Here they are, once again in alphabetical order:

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH - Sean Bobbitt, B.S.C.

MANK - Erik Messerschmidt, A.S.C.

NEWS OF THE WORLD - Dariusz Wolski, A.S.C.

NOMADLAND - Joshua James Richards, A.S.C.

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 - Phedon Papamichael, A.S.C.

We would also like to thank the folks at Warner Bros, Netflix, and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for helping us pull these interviews together (in record time!) and for all the wonderful film clips. 

Don't miss these incredible films:

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH

MANK

NEWS OF THE WORLD

NOMADLAND

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

We have one more episode just like this one — for Best Animated Feature — coming up. So if you haven't already, please subscribe to Sound + Image Lab: The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

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Perhaps unsurprisingly for the Dolby Institute Podcast, we begin our 2021 Oscars coverage with the nominees for Best Sound! This is a very special episode for us because it is the first time we've interviewed all the nominees for a category and edited them together into a single podcast. Our hope is that if you are an Oscar voter — either as an Academy member or as a fan participating in your annual office pool — you'll have a much better idea of what to watch for and (more importantly) what to listen for as you get to the Best Sound category on your ballot. 

We had some amazing conversations with each of the teams and we hope you find them as entertaining and as enlightening as we did. Here's a table of contents, in case you'd like to jump around:

00:00:48 - GREYHOUND

00:14:53 - MANK

00:27:01 - NEWS OF THE WORLD

00:43:13 - SOUL

00:58:00 - SOUND OF METAL

Congratulations and many, many thanks to all of the nominees! Here they are, once again in alphabetical order:

GREYHOUND - Warren Shaw, Michael Minkler, Beau Borders and David Wyman

MANK - Ren Klyce, Jeremy Molod, David Parker, Nathan Nance and Drew Kunin

NEWS OF THE WORLD - Oliver Tarney, Mike Prestwood Smith, William Miller and John Pritchett

SOUL - Ren Klyce, Coya Elliott and David Parker

SOUND OF METAL - Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michellee Couttolenc, Carlos Cortés and Phillip Bladh

We would also like to thank the folks at Apple, Netflix, Universal Pictures, Disney, Pixar, Amazon, and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for helping us pull these interviews together (in record time!) and for all the wonderful film clips. 

Don't miss these incredible films:

GREYHOUND

MANK

NEWS OF THE WORLD

SOUL

SOUND OF METAL

For a deeper dive into "Mank" and "Soul," be sure to check out our recent episodes with the directors of those films. And because we got so much good stuff from each of these interviews, we hope to release some of those in their entirety as bonus episodes in the coming weeks.

We have two more episodes just like this one — for the Best Cinematography and Best Animated Feature categories — coming up. So if you haven't already, please subscribe to Sound + Image Lab: The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

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As if filling out an Oscar ballot wasn't challenging enough, 2021 has a ton of rule changes with regards to how the Academy will be voting. Most notably for us here at Dolby, the Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing categories have been combined into one: Best Sound. 

Today Glenn sits down with Teri Dorman, Kevin Collier, and Scott Millan — the current Board of Governors of the Sound Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — to discuss the rule changes, the controversies these changes stirred up, and — perhaps most importantly — what criteria the Academy might use to vote on this new category. Complicating matters further is the fact that most audiences will be experiencing these films at home, not in a cinema with a state-of-the-art sound system. Whether you're an Oscar voter or an Oscar viewer who wants to do well in your annual office pool, this episode should make filling out your ballot just a little bit easier.

"I'd like to think that what we do has been treated in a way that the intent will come across, whether you're listening on a home system that's average or whether you're listening to it in the cinema. And I realize this is very 'pie-in-the-sky,' but I think there is an element that potentially can transcend what it's being played on and hopefully that'll come through. It's something that we all think about and probably toss and turn at night a little bit over because this is going to be a different year." — Kevin Collier, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Board of Governors, Sound Branch

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At Pixar, just about everyone's a critic. And that is one of the reasons why they continue to raise the creative bar with every film they release.

Pete Docter, the director of "Soul" and CCO of Pixar Animation Studios joins us along with the film's producer, Pixar veteran Dana Murray, to discuss the challenges of making such an incredible animated feature, including their exhaustive development process, which takes place simultaneously while the film is being animated and edited. And if that wasn't challenging enough, this film features one of the most difficult character designs they'd ever come up with. Thanks to our friends at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the New York Film Festival, Glenn was able to sit down with Pete and Dana to answer this essential question: How does Pixar continue to meet these exceedingly high challenges they set for themselves?

"Every three months, we get it in front of as many people as we could fit in our theater, which is like 240 people or something. And we get a lot of notes, and we tear it all down, and we start the whole entire process over. And on this film, we had time to do that seven times."

- Dana Murray, producer of "Soul"

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We are always delighted when independent filmmakers get access to our technologies because they tend to use these tools in such fascinating and creative ways. Very often in ways, we'd never imagined. Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos® are often perceived as tools for big-budget, tentpole action movies, which is why we created the Dolby Institute Fellowship, in partnership with the Sundance Institute: To give access to these technologies to filmmakers working with indie budgets. This year's recipients, both of which just had their premieres at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, are "Passing," a haunting film about race in 1920's America by first-time director Rebecca Hall, and "Users," an elegiac documentary about the overwhelming prevalence of technology in the world around us by MacArthur "Genius Grant" recipient Natalia Almada. These absolutely stunning films use high dynamic range video and immersive sound in such intimate, almost personal ways, Glenn was excited to sit down with the directors to discuss their processes.

"My film plays a lot with scale and kind of disorienting you. Are you underwater? Is it small? Is it big? And Dolby Atmos gives you the ability to do that sonically. So that small thing suddenly fills the space and envelops you." —Natalia Almada, Director of "Users"

Shortly after this conversation, there was some exciting breaking news! Natalia Almada won the Sundance jury prize for Best Direction: Feature Documentary for "Users." And Rebecca Hall's "Passing" was acquired in a very big deal — which is especially exciting for us because now viewers will be able to experience this incredible film in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos® on Netflix.

Check out additional highlights from the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.

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"Mank" has been a personal passion project for David Fincher for several decades now. His own father wrote the script, about the famously self-destructive writer of "Citizen Kane," and Fincher was determined to make the film feel as authentic as possible. Almost like it was an undiscovered artifact from Hollywood's "Golden Age," insisting for years to film it in black & white, 1:33, and in mono. He once again joined forces with his longtime collaborator, sound designer Ren Klyce, to do exactly that. But building this time capsule turned out to be a surprisingly challenging process. 

“It’s beyond production value. Sound is a portal into a stranger’s mind that is incredibly influential. And if we don’t avail ourselves of this access, um... then we’re stupid and we should die (laughs).”

– David Fincher, director of "Mank"

Check out "Mank" on Netflix.

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Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Sundance Film Festival is entirely virtual. But what exactly does a virtual film festival look like? Glenn sits down with Keri Putnam, CEO of the Sundance Institute, Tabitha Jackson, the brand new director of the Sundance Film Festival, and Michelle Satter, director of the Sundance Labs, to answer all these questions and more. It’s a fascinating conversation about not just the challenges of hosting the Sundance Film Festival in 2021, but also the new opportunities this situation may have uncovered. Indeed, this year could become the road map for the future of The Institute, The Labs, and The Sundance Film Festival itself.

“It was such a privilege to be trusted with this incredible thing that is the festival. And so I approached it like holding this precious metal. And I must not break it. I'm going to carry it with two hands. I must not break it. [Then] the pandemic hit. And it was clear that, oh, I've got to break it. I've got to break it into pieces so that we can rebuild something to meet the moment.”

- Tabitha Jackson, Sundance Film Festival director

Buy tickets to the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.

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You've found us! The Dolby Institute Podcast has moved! And we have a brand new title:

Sound + Image Lab: The Dolby Institute Podcast

Please subscribe to our new dedicated podcast feed right here, or wherever you get your podcasts. Our next episode will be our FINAL episode on the old Soundworks feed, so please subscribe to this new feed straight away, as we have many exciting improvements coming in 2021.

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Dolby recently co-presented a panel at the Television Academy Foundation with some of this year’s sound nominees. We’ve added some clips to the conversation.

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Join us as we dive deeper into the actual process and tips for HDR and WCG color grading as well as the full Dolby Vision metadata creation and trim pass.

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The filmmakers discuss how to communicate the subjective experience of your main character using sound and tips for hiring and working with your sound team.

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Learn about the origins of Dolby Vision® and how Dolby helped change the game for immersive cinema and home entertainment.

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The sound team discusses making the ultra-Orthodox community feel authentic and using sound for flashbacks to reveal the details of Esty’s story.

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The sound team talks about creating the show's fantastic sounds, including a terrifying mirror room and whispering keys that only children can hear.

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The sound team takes us through creating the sonic environments of riverboat casinos and basement dungeons, and how they build tension throughout season 3.

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The sound team talks about setting the acoustic tone of the series, Fincher’s mix notes and unique approach to the sound of serial killer interrogation scenes.

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The creative team discusses adapting the live show into the cinematic world and how Dolby Atmos® gives home audiences a transformative theatrical experience.

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The sound team discusses mixing the show natively in Dolby Atmos® and the challenges of finishing post-production as the world went into COVID-19 lockdown.

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Bonnie Wild, re-recording mixer and sound effects editor of the Star Wars show from Disney+, talks about cinematic scale and production value on a TV budget.

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Academy Award-winning production sound mixer (Ad Astra, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood) discusses how to keep your cool on a tense movie set.

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The Oscar®-nominated sound team how they recreated 1969 Los Angeles and why Tarantino chooses to use songs rather than a traditional musical score.

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The Oscar®-nominated sound editors discuss working with director J.J. Abrams, recording lines in Adam Driver’s closet, and working on previous Star Wars films.

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The seven-time Academy Award-winning sound designer discusses using subliminal ambiences, manipulated vocal loops, and strategically used distortion.

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The Oscar®-winning sound team discusses ensuring that even background chatter is historically realistic and the importance of on-set sound for creating tension.

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The Oscar®-winning sound team discusses how they made a long, race car sequence sound interesting and other challenges in the film which won Best Sound Editing.

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