SoundWorks Collection

Editing dialog and working with the original recordings from the set is one of the most under-appreciated arts in cinema sound. In this episode of “Conversations with Sound Artists,” two-time Academy Award nominee Gwen Yates Whittle talks with the Dolby Institute’s Glenn Kiser about why George Lucas thinks dialog editing is one of the most important parts of the process, why she loves working on low-budget independent films (“They talk more,”), and why David Fincher and Meryl Streep love doing ADR.

In this exclusive SoundWorks Collection sound profile Jon Burlingame talks with Composer Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL) about his work on the film Black Mass. Three-time Oscar nominee Johnny Depp (“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” “Finding Neverland,” the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films) stars as notorious mobster James “Whitey” Bulger in the drama “Black Mass,” directed by Scott Cooper (“Crazy Heart”). The film also stars Joel Edgerton (“The Great Gatsby,” “Zero Dark Thirty”) as FBI Agent John Connolly; Oscar nominee Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Imitation Game”) as Whitey’s brother, powerful State Senator Billy Bulger; Rory Cochrane (“Argo”) as Steve Flemmi, Whitey’s closest partner in crime; Jesse Plemons (TV’s “Fargo”) as Whitey’s main henchman, Kevin Weeks; and Kevin Bacon (“Crazy, Stupid, Love.” TV’s “The Following”) as FBI Special Agent in Charge Charles McGuire. In 1970s South Boston, FBI Agent John Connolly (Edgerton) persuades Irish mobster Jimmy Bulger (Depp) to collaborate with the FBI in order to eliminate their common enemy: the Italian mob. The drama tells the story of this unholy alliance, which spiraled out of control, allowing Whitey to evade law enforcement while consolidating his power and becoming one of the most ruthless and dangerous gangsters in Boston history.

The final stage of any collaborative process requires a delicate balance between artistry and decisiveness. The sound mixer works closely with the director to make sure that every sound is in its right place and that the story is always front and center. In this episode, 10-time Academy Award nominee Anna Behlmer talks about being one of the first female mixers in the movie business, strategies for handling a nervous director, and why you will always find colored Sharpie pens on a mixing stage.

Game soundtracks have come a long way since their earliest 8-bit days. In this episode of “Conversations with Sound Artists,” Rob Krekel and Phillip Kovats of Naughty Dog Studios talk about the challenges of building player-controlled vehicles and physics-driven sounds for their upcoming game release UNCHARTED 4, how their award-winning game THE LAST OF US changed their approach to sound design, what it means to mix a game when each sound may have 50-60 points of metadata to describe how it can behave, and how the line between cinematics and game play has disappeared in modern games.

Skywalker Sound’s Director of Sound Design Randy Thom discusses with Dolby Institute’s Glenn Kiser how writers and directors can use sound as a tool to tell their stories, the importance of APOCALYPSE NOW to modern sound design, his work with Robert Zemeckis to maroon Tom Hanks on an island in CAST AWAY with no music or wildlife sounds, and what’s wrong with the current state of sound for animated films. About "Conversations with Sound Artists" Podcast: Sound is an art and a craft that many people appreciate but that few know much about. The Dolby® Institute and the SoundWorks Collection collaborated on a limited series of 10 podcasts that take an in-depth look at different aspects of the sound process, including sound design for writers, dialogue editing, and sound design for games. In each episode, the artist talks with the Dolby Institute's Glenn Kiser and SoundWorks Collection's Michael Coleman about the challenges and opportunities the artist faced while building the soundscapes you enjoy. We'll introduce you to one sound artist per week over the next few months. In keeping with Dolby’s history of supporting artists, Dolby Institute engages and empowers artists by providing education, inspiration and support throughout the creative process. With this podcast series, Dolby Institute hopes to empower next generation content creators and help unlock the power of sound and image technologies to help tell their stories. Learn more about the Dolby Institute: www.dolby.com/us/en/dolby-institute/podcasts.html

This week we talk with Composer Bear McCreary about his work on the first season of the Starz show Outlander, the epic new series from Ronald D. Moore based on Diana Gabaldon’s epic novels.

This week we talk with Matt Hines who is a Product Manager for Post Production at iZotope. iZotope makes innovative products that inspire and enable people to be creative. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, iZotope has spent over a decade developing award-winning products and audio technologies for professionals and hobbyists alike. Used by millions of people in over 50 countries, iZotope products are a core component of GRAMMY-winning music studios, Oscar and Emmy-winning film and TV post production studios, and prominent radio studios, as well as basement and bedroom studios across the globe.

In this exclusive SoundWorks Collection video we talk with Tabitha Jackson, Director of the Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Program, Randy Thom, Director of Sound Design at Skywalker Sound and Composer and Sundance Creative Advisors Todd Boekelheide and Miriam Cutler. This will be the third year the Music and Sound Design Labs take place at the Skywalker Ranch in northern California. The Labs are part of 24 residential labs the Institute hosts annually to discover and foster the talent of emerging independent artists in film, theatre, new media and episodic content. The Music and Sound Design Labs provide a space for composers, directors and sound designers to collaborate on the process of designing a soundtrack for film. Fellows participate in workshops and creative exercises under the guidance of leading film composers and film music professionals acting as Creative Advisors.The Music and Sound Design Lab for narrative feature films is a joint initiative of the Institute’s Film Music Program and Feature Film Program, and the Music and Sound Design Lab for documentaries is a joint initiative of the Film Music Program and Documentary Film Program.

This week we spoke with New York based Music Supervisor Randall Poster. His career started working on the 1995 breakout film "Kids" soon followed by Director Wes Anderson indie film "Bottle Rocket". Randall has since collaborated with many talented Directors including Sam Mendes, Martin Scorsese, Richard Linklater, David Fincher and many more.

In this exclusive SoundWorks Collection sound profile we talk with Director Brett Morgen and his sound team including sound designer and re-recording mixer Cameron Frankly and sound and music editor Jon Michaels about their work on the documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck which is moderated by Michael Coleman from SoundWorks Collection. Kurt Cobain, legendary lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of Nirvana, “the flagship band of Generation X,” remains an object of reverence and fascination for music fans around the world. His story is told for the first time in KURT COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK, a fully authorized feature documentary co-produced by HBO Documentary Films and Universal Pictures International Entertainment Content Group. Brett Morgen, the Oscar®-nominated filmmaker behind such acclaimed documentaries as the HBO presentations “Crossfire Hurricane,” which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones, and “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” is writer, director and producer of KURT COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK. Visual artist Frances Bean Cobain, Cobain’s daughter, is executive producer.