Dolby Creator Talks

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 - ComposerWill Files - Supervising Sound EditorDouglas Murray - Supervising Sound EditorAndy Nelson - Re-Recording MixerSomehow, 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.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.Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

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 AdiriDUNE: Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill and Ron BartlettNO TIME TO DIE: Simon Hayes, Oliver Tarney, James Harrison, Paul Massey and Mark TaylorTHE POWER OF THE DOG: Richard Flynn, Robert Mackenzie and Tara WebbWEST SIDE STORY: Tod A. Maitland, Gary Rydstrom, Brian Chumney, Andy Nelson and Shawn MurphyEach 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, 2021Sir Kenneth Branagh — Director, Writer, and Producer Simon Chase — Sound Supervisor and Re-recording MixerNiv Adiri — Academy Award-Winning Re-recording MixerJames Mather — Sound Supervisor0:16:56 - DUNE - from episode 99, October 26, 2021Denis Villeneuve — Director, Writer, and ProducerMark Mangini — Supervising Sound EditorTheo Green — Sound Designer / Supervising Sound EditorRon Bartlett — Re-recording Mixer0:33:02 - NO TIME TO DIE - from episode 101, November 10, 2021Oliver Tarney — Supervising Sound EditorPaul Massey — Re-recording MixerMark Taylor — Re-recording Mixer0:46:04 - THE POWER OF THE DOG - from episode 105, December 13, 2021Jane Campion — Director, Writer, and ProducerRobert Mackenzie — Supervising Sound EditorDave Whitehead — Sound DesignerTara Webb — Re-recording Mixer (1st nom)0:57:39 - WEST SIDE STORY - from episode 114, February 22, 2022Gary Rydstrom - Re-recording Mixer, Supervising Sound Editor, Sound DesignerShawn Murphy - Scoring MixerBrian Chumney - Supervising Sound EditorTod A. Maitland - Sound MixerAndy Nelson - Re-recording MixerMany 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.Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

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 nominationTod A. Maitland - Sound Mixer - fifth nominationAndy 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. 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.Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

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/LonsWill Mavity — Awards Correspondent at NextBestPicture.com — https://twitter.com/mavericksmoviesJazz Tangcay — Senior Artisans Editor at Variety — https://twitter.com/jazztFor all of our upcoming Academy Awards coverage, 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.Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

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 SoftwareThanks again to Gearbox Software for joining us this week!Borderlands 3 is currently available on your favorite video game platforms.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.Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

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

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 LievsaySkip's latest film, "The Tragedy of Macbeth," directed by Joel Coen is available on AppleTV+ as of January 14.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.Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

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

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

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