Dolby Creator Talks

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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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!

You can also check out the video for this episode.

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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.

Please subscribe to Sound + Image Lab: The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

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