Dolby Creator Talks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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. 

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

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

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

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

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. 

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

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

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

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

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. 

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

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

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

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

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. 

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

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

—Ludwig Göransson, Composer, “Oppenheimer”

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

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. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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. 

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

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

— Paris Barclay, Director, DAHMER

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

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

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

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. 

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

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

— Regis Kimble, Producer and Supervising Editor, DAHMER

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

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

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

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.