Dolby Creator Talks

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

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

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

Today’s panel includes Directors of Photography:

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

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

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

- Oren Soffer (The Creator w/ Greig Fraser)

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

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

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

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

Antigravity Academy

CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment)

For more inspiring Satellite Sessions just like this one, be sure you are subscribed 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. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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. 

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

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

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

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

Today’s panel includes writers:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Antigravity Academy

CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment)

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

You can also check out the video for this episode.

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

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

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

https://pictureshop.com/

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

—Paul Westerbeck, Senior Colorist, Picture Shop

Learn more about Dolby Vision® for Content Creators here:

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

Dolby Vision® Training and Certification can be found here:

https://prostore.dolby.com/

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. 

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

Joining Carlos are producers:

- Christina Oh, Producer, “Minari”

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

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

- Andrew Hevia, Producer, “Moonlight”

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

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

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

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

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

Antigravity Academy

CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment)

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

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. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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. 

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

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

- Madli Lääne, Director of “Dear Passengers”

- Nikita Diakur, Director of “Backflip”

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

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

Sound teams for the short films:

“Dear Passengers”

Sound Designer - Markus Andreas

Composer - Patrick McGinley

Foley Artist - Anna-Maria Jams

Foley Recordist - Joonas Taimla

Additional Sound Effects - Aleksandra Koel

“Backflip”

Sound Designer - David Kamp

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

“I Have No Tears, and I Must Cry”

Sound Designer - Erik Naumann

Composer - Jorge Murcia

Teaser: https://vimeo.com/718108679

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

Sound Recordist - Diana Flood

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

Editor - Quinton Kaine

Production Assistants - Skylar McKelvey, Geneva Schafer

Instructor, Post Supervisor - Matt Baxter

Instructor, Production Supervisor - Aaron Koehler

And extra special thanks to Aspen Shortsfest:

Susan Wrubel - Executive + Artistic Director

Jason Anderson - Shortsfest Program Director

Erin McVoy - Operations + Production Director

Regna Frank-Jones - Head of Education 

Allie Wrubel - Program + Marketing Manager

Roger Ramos - Program + Education Coordinator

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

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. 

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

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

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

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

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

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. 

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

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

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

Joining Carlos are filmmakers:

Sian Heder (CODA)

Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard)

Nikyatu Jusu (Nanny)

Randall Park (Shortcomings)

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

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

Learn more:

Antigravity Academy

CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment)

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. 

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

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

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

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

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

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.