Sound + Image Lab: The Dolby Institute Podcast

Director Carlos López Estrada (Raya and the Last Dragon) 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 AcademyCAPE (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. 

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 CuriositiesGuillermo 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 latest collaboration with auteur filmmaker Christopher Nolan, 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 Mission: Impossible series.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 DestinyBe 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. <laughs>”— 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.