307 - Walter Murch on the Languages of Film Editing and Sound Design

Legendary editor, sound designer, writer, director, and seminal author Walter Murch returns to the show to discuss his latest book, “Suddenly Something Clicked: The Languages of Film Editing and Sound Design.” The three-time Academy Award® winner reflects on a remarkable career that includes film classics like “The Godfather” series, “The Conversation,” “Apocalypse Now,” “The English Patient,” and “American Graffiti,” while exploring the hidden languages of cinema, the relationship between sound and image, and how creative choices in sound can be among the most powerful tools for immersing an audience into a character’s subjective experience.“The job of the film editor [is] translator of the text of the screenplay into another language, which is the language of pictures and sound. And as much as a picture is worth a thousand words, a word is worth a thousand pictures... We can solve a problem with audio/visual, but if an actor says a single word, everyone understands [where] we're going. We don't need those pictures or those complicated sound designs. Just tell me the word. On the other hand, pictures and sound can get at stuff for which we have no words yet.”—Walter Murch, Author, “Suddenly Something Clicked: The Languages of Film Editing and Sound Design”Be sure to check out “Suddenly Something Clicked: The Languages of Film Editing and Sound Design,” available wherever books are sold.Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts, now available as a video podcast on YouTube and Spotify.Learn more about the Dolby Creator Lab and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Two-time Academy Award®-winning composer Alexandre Desplat returns to the show to discuss his score for Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Reckoning.” In this conversation, Desplat breaks down one of the most innovative scores of his career: An electronic-heavy soundscape designed to complement Sorkin’s famously rapid-fire dialogue and sharp, rhythmic language.“Words are used by Aaron in a very musical way. When he writes them, there's a musicality, there's a rhythm, there's an energy, there's a flow. So that's very musical. For me, I just have to listen to it and try to dance with his words.”—Alexandre Desplat, Composer, “The Social Reckoning”Be sure to check out “The Social Reckoning,” now playing in theaters and Dolby Cinemas® in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®.Listen to The Social Reckoning Soundtrack here. Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts, now available as a video podcast on YouTube and Spotify.Learn more about the Dolby Creator Lab and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Lance Oppenheim returns to the show to discuss his first-ever narrative feature film, “Primetime,” starring Robert Pattinson as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen. He is joined by members of his longtime creative team to break down the film’s audacious juxtaposition of truth and fiction: Everything from shooting with (literally) dozens of cameras and recording formats, filming much of it like an actual documentary, at its deliberate use of “fever-dream” editing, music, and sound design, resulting in an astonishing film that begs the question, “what is real?” “I want everyone [here]… to do something that [they] would never do with another filmmaker. I want to give them the same freedom, really, that also I was giving Rob [Pattinson] as a performer… it's my job to perfume my excitement about the subject and the approach, and see how it takes shape with other people. That's the most beautiful part of making films, the collaborative dimension of it.” —Lance Oppenheim, Director, “Primetime” Joining this conversation: - Lance Oppenheim – Director - Paul Hsu – Sound Designer and Re-recording Mixer - Chris Welcker – Production Sound Mixer - David Bolen – Director of Photography - Daniel Garber – Editor - Ari Balouzian – Composer Be sure to check out “Primetime,” now playing in theaters in Dolby Atmos®. Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts, now available as a video podcast on YouTube and Spotify. Learn more about the Dolby Creator Lab and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Winner of the Dolby Creator Lab Grant, “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!” also earned director Josef Kubota Wladyka the Directing Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Wladyka joins supervising sound editor, sound designer, and re-recording mixer David Forshee and composer Nathan Halpern to discuss how they used music, sound design, and an inventive Dolby Atmos® mix to bring the film’s exuberant ballroom dancing, magical realism, grief, romance, and irrepressible sense of joy to life.“Our whole thing that we always reminded each other is where to find the joy, how to keep it fun.”—Josef Kubota Wladyka, Director and Co-Writer, “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!”Be sure to check out “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!,” now in theaters, in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos.Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.You can also check out the video for this episode on YouTube.Learn more about the Dolby Creator Lab and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

The sound team behind “Cairn” joins guest host Alistair Hirst to discuss the immersive sound design and mix of this survival-climbing game from acclaimed French indie studio The Game Bakers. Built around the tension, focus, and physicality of climbing a massive mountain, the game uses detailed Foley, breathing, wind, environmental soundscapes, and a sparse musical score to make every handhold, footstep, and moment of silence feel essential… and perilous.“The core gameplay is climbing. So that was all about the small Foley sounds, differentiating between different [holds]… There’s [also] a whole breathing system, which is the primary stamina feedback. It was really nice for the developers to say, ‘Hey, we want audio to be the primary feedback to the player on the stamina,’ rather than having stamina bars.”—Martin Stig Andersen, Audio Director, Sound Designer, and Composer, “Cairn”Joining the conversation:- Martin Stig Andersen – Audio Director, Sound Designer, and Composer- Lukas Julian Lentz – Lead Sound DesignerBe sure to check out “Cairn,” available now in Dolby Atmos, on supported systems. Dolby Atmos is just as impactful for indie developers as it is for major AAA games! Game developers interested in bringing Dolby Atmos to their own projects can learn more here.Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts, now available as a video podcast on YouTube and Spotify.Learn more about the Dolby Creator Lab and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Rewriting can be one of the hardest, most important, and most mysterious parts of the writing process. In this panel discussion, Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker (and Dolby Creator Lab Grant winner) Carlos López Estrada leads a practical, honest, and often very funny conversation about taking notes, protecting your voice, finding the “note behind the note,” learning when to hold on… and when to let go.Joining today’s conversation: - Marcus Gardley – Playwright and Screenwriter - Aiyana K. White – TV and Screenwriter - George Watsky – Writer, Musician, and Multi-disciplinary Artist - Jon Cohen – Head of Film, Bad Robot ProductionsThis is another installment of our ongoing “Satellite Sessions” series, which we’re bringing to you in partnership with Antigravity Academy and the 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 Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts, now available as a video podcast on YouTube and Spotify! Learn more about the Dolby Creator Lab and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Showrunner Oren Uziel and director of photography Darran Tiernan join us to discuss how Prime Video’s “Spider-Noir” was designed, shot, and finished for two distinct visual versions at once: “Authentic Black & White” and “True-Hue Full Color.” They break down the creative and technical challenges of building both looks simultaneously, from old-school noir influences to modern custom LUTs, as well as the enormous collaboration required across the camera, lighting, production design, costumes, makeup, and visual effects departments."Nothing was brought to set that hadn't been looked at already through both LUTs... It's measure twice, cut once. This was prep twice, shoot once."—Oren Uziel, Executive Producer and Showrunner, “Spider-Noir”Be sure to check out “Spider-Noir,” now streaming on Prime Video, in both black & white and color, in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®.Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts, now available as a video podcast on YouTube and Spotify!Learn more about the Dolby Creator Lab and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

The Audible Original® adaptation of “Mexodus” brings the acclaimed Off-Broadway musical into a new immersive audio experience in Dolby Atmos®. Created and performed by Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, “Mexodus” is a live-looped, two-person musical set in the 1850s, telling the powerful story of the Underground Railroad that led south, following enslaved people who sought freedom across the Rio Grande into Mexico. Quijada and Robinson join sound designer Mikhail “Misha” Fiksel to discuss both the live stage production and the Audible Original adaptation, and how they used music, sound design, foley, live performance, and an immersive audio mix to bring this story to life, in two radically creative ways. “My obsession with this [immersive audio] medium is that it's [for] an audience of one. For most people, it's an intimate experience between their ears. So literally the sound is kind of actually inside them. But using spatial dynamics, you can place the audience at different kind of perspectives, different vantage points… It's no longer a realistic experience, but much more [a] sort of impressionistic and psychological experience for the audience.”—Mikhail “Misha” Fiksel, Sound Designer, “Mexodus” Be sure to check out The Audible Original adaptation of “Mexodus,” now available on the Audible app in stunning Dolby Atmos. “Mexodus” tour dates and ticketing information can be found here. Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts, now available as a video podcast on YouTube and Spotify! Many, many thanks to YOU, our audience, for being with us for 300 episodes! We can’t wait to bring you our next 300. Learn more about the Dolby Creator Lab and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Season two of Netflix’s anthology series “Beef” received 16 Emmy Award® nominations, including recognition for its bold cinematography and meticulously crafted sound. In this conversation, creator, showrunner, writer, director, and executive producer Lee Sung Jin — who also goes by Sonny Lee — joins members of his creative team to discuss how they gave the second season its own distinct identity while still retaining the DNA of the show. “The dialogue is kind of musical in a way. We are chasing these rises and falls to land a joke or a dramatic moment. And we all collectively feel it. And so that's what's great is that I think most teams would be like, ‘Sonny, you're crazy. You don't need to spend any more hours on this.’ But they're like, ‘Ugh, you know what? We know what you mean and it can be a little bit better.’ … I think whether in the mix, or with James [Laxton] in color [grading], what I love about this team is that we want it to be perfect. And it's really hard to do that on TV time and TV resources.” —Lee Sung Jin, Creator, Showrunner, Writer, Director, and Executive Producer, “Beef” Joining Lee Sung Jin for this conversation about “Beef” season 2: - James Laxton, ASC – Director of Photography - Christopher Gomez, MPSE – Supervising Sound Editor - Penny Harold, CAS – Re-recording Mixer - Andy Lange, CAS – Re-recording Mixer Be sure to check out “Beef,” now streaming on Netflix in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®. Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts. You can also check out the video for this episode on YouTube. Learn more about the Dolby Creator Lab and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Academy Award®-winning composer Michael Giacchino returns to Dolby Creator Talks for his fifth appearance, this time to discuss his latest score for “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.” In this conversation, Giacchino explores how he approached Peter Parker’s new emotional reality: One where the character is alone, isolated, and carrying difficult memories no one else shares, by reshaping familiar musical themes, excavating pieces out of the melody, and introducing a dark, synth palette beneath the orchestra. He also reflects on his working relationship with director Destin Daniel Cretton, recording an 85-piece orchestra at Abbey Road, and finding the right balance between the spectacle befitting a Spider-Man movie, and the loneliness at the heart of this new chapter for the beloved superhero."For me, musically, it was... 'do we abandon the theme that we had for three movies and just go with something brand new? So it felt like he’s in a wholly new place?' That was my first thought. But the more I tried to do that, I kept thinking, 'well, no, maybe it's not so much about inventing anything new, but it's about taking away from what we already have.' So if I have a full melody written out, what notes can I pull out of that melody, that would represent the pieces of his life that have now gone away?"—Michael Giacchino, Composer, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day”Be sure to check out “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” now playing in theaters in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos® where available.Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.You can also check out the video for this episode on YouTube.Learn more about the Dolby Creator Lab and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.