Multiple Emmy® Award-winning A1 audio mixer Glenn Stilwell joins us for an in-depth discussion on mixing live sports in Dolby Atmos®. As one of the first to adopt this immersive audio technology for sports, Glenn shares his journey into the high-pressure world of live sports audio, where he has worked on everything from the Olympics to Apple’s Friday Night Baseball. From setting up microphones for the iconic “bat crack” in baseball to leveraging the immersive capabilities of Atmos for crowd sounds and announcer placement, this conversation offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the artistry and challenges of live sports audio production.

“When you go from stereo… now the room that you're listening in has opened up. The room, it feels bigger. Now imagine when you add four more speakers above you, now the room really opens up… If you can spread things out and get them away from the center channel, which is — the money. If the money's in the middle and the room becomes bigger, it becomes more distinct.”

—Glenn Stilwell, A1 Audio Mixer and Engineer

Special thanks to Major League Baseball and Apple for this week’s episode. You can find MLB’s Friday Night Baseball, now exclusively on Apple TV+.

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The art of pitching is a high-stakes, nerve-wracking aspect of filmmaking, where ideas transform from concepts into potential projects. Joining us to help demystify the pitching process is Dolby Institute Fellowship winner Carlos López Estrada, hosting another insightful Satellite Session from April 2024. Carlos gathers an exceptional panel featuring film and television creators, each sharing personal insights and practical tips on crafting pitches, to offer invaluable wisdom on what it takes to pitch a project and navigate the journey from idea to production.

Joining today’s discussion are:

- Marvin Lemus – Director, Co-creator, and Co-showrunner of Netflix's Gentefied

- Sadé Clacken Joseph – Director of Rap Sh!t on HBO Max, CEO of Out of Many Media

- Francisco Cabrera-Feo – Writer for Acapulco on Apple TV+ and Gordita Chronicles

- Matt Braly – Creator and Showrunner of Disney’s Amphibia

- Jessica Virtue – SVP of Production at Walt Disney Pictures

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)

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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/

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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.

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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

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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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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."

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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!

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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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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.

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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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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)

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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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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+.

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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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