221 - The Sound and Music of Nickel Boys, with Director RaMell Ross

NOTE: This interview contains spoilers!

Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker RaMell Ross and his acclaimed sound and music team join us to discuss the making of “Nickel Boys.” In adapting Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Ross employed first-person cinematography to draw audiences directly into the emotional and physical experiences of the film’s protagonists in a completely immersive way. This innovative approach created unique challenges for the sound team.

“I know before we make the film that the sound is going to be deeply complex… Dan [Timmons] worked so long on this thing because it's so subjective… You can go too far [with the sound]… in a way in which it's so abrasively rendered, that it pushes you away.”

—RaMell Ross, Co-Writer and Director, “Nickel Boys”

Joining the discussion are:

- RaMell Ross – Co-Writer and Director

- Alex Somers – Composer

- Scott Alario – Composer

- Tony Volante – Supervising Sound Editor and Re-Recording Mixer

- Daniel Timmons – Supervising Sound Editor and Re-Recording Mixer

This conversation was recorded as a live panel discussion after a screening of the film at the New York Film Festival. It was part of Dolby’s support for the FLC Artist Academy program, which brings 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 Nickel Boys, in limited theatrical release starting December 13th, by Amazon MGM Studios.

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.