263 - The Music of Bugonia with Composer Jerskin Fendrix
Academy Award®-nominated composer Jerskin Fendrix joins guest host Jon Burlingame to discuss his latest score for “Bugonia,” directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Fendrix shares how he developed the film’s striking — and at times paranoid — musical themes, shaped in part by his own emotional state during the writing and recording process. Lanthimos had deliberately kept him in the dark, forbidding him from reading the script before composing, a choice that profoundly influenced the tone of the score. “I spent a lot of time by myself, doing all this kind of esoteric, bizarre research on bees and spaceships and so on. I knew that a lot of meetings were happening; I knew that the film was being made — the pre-production — none of which I was allowed to be privy to. I was starting to get a bit paranoid; I was starting to get a bit angsty about things. And all I was doing was really hoping what I was doing was right. And I think the reason that a lot of the music actually echoes the psychology — especially of Teddy, this kind of really frantic grandiosity, but paranoia, and so on — is because I was basically in the same position for at least a year, by virtue of Yorgos’s direction.” —Jerskin Fendrix, Composer, “Bugonia” You can watch our episode with Director Yorgos Lanthimos & Sound Designer Johnnie Burn on the Sound of “Bugonia” here. Watch our previous episode with Jerskin Fendrix on the music of “Poor Things” here. And be sure to check out “Bugonia,” now playing in theaters in 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.
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262 - Director Yorgos Lanthimos and Sound Designer Johnnie Burn on the Sound of Bugonia
Five-time Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos joins us to discuss his latest surreal adventure, “Bugonia.” The film is a darkly-comic paranoid thriller about a high-profile CEO who is kidnapped by conspiracy theorists, who are convinced she is an alien. Once again, Lanthimos tapped Academy Award-winning Sound Designer, Supervising Sound Editor, and Re-recording Mixer Johnnie Burn to create the sonic landscape for his film. But despite its out-of-this-world themes, it was important to the director that the sound keep the story grounded in reality.“It was trying and finding a way to simplify the soundscape, without making it boring. Because there’s so much dialogue in the film, and there’s moments of quite bombastic music, we needed to find a way to bridge those things, support the dialogue, and create an atmosphere that had a signature and made the film feel unique and different, but without stepping [on] all the other things that needed to work.”—Yorgos Lanthimos, Director and Producer, “Bugonia”Be sure to check out “Bugonia,” now playing in theaters in 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.
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261 - Director Kathryn Bigelow and the Creative Team behind A House of Dynamite
We are thrilled to welcome two-time Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow and her creative team to discuss her newest political thriller, “A House of Dynamite,” brought to us by Netflix. This conversation was recorded as a live panel discussion at this year’s New York Film Festival. This was part of our support of the Artist Academy program, where we bring conversations about the art and craft of filmmaking to the next generation of directors.Joining this conversation: - Barry Ackroyd - Director of Photography - Kirk Baxter - Editor - Volker Bertelmann - Composer - Jeremy Hindle - Production Designer - Paul N.J. Ottosson - Re-recording Mixer, Sound Designer, and Supervising Sound Editor“It was really an embarrassment of riches. What [sound designer] Paul [N.J. Ottosson] does is he three-dimensionalizes any space, and it's just extraordinary. You think you know what the space is and then he'll bring a sound in and suddenly it's amplified tenfold. Then, in the quiet spaces, I thought it might be interesting to bring some score in. And then I sort of stumbled on the incredible soundtrack to ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ and I just… my head exploded. So I reached out to [composer] Volcker [Bertelmann] and gratefully he had a short opening in his schedule. He came over, he looked at the movie even in its sort of raw stage. And I just think the synergy between Paul and Volcker and the sound design and the music, there's so much that they have in common. They are in conversation with one another. It was just a fluid, seamless, synergistic process.”—Kathryn Bigelow, Director and Producer, “A House of Dynamite”Be sure to check out “A House of Dynamite,” 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.
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260 - If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, with Director Mary Bronstein
Writer/Director Mary Bronstein and Supervising Sound Editor, Sound Designer, and Re-recording Mixer Filipe Messeder join us to discuss “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” — the searing and darkly funny new indie film from A24 about the dark side of motherhood. Featuring a tour-de-force performance by Rose Byrne, the film made quite a splash when it premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Despite its relatively small budget, quite a lot of work went into the sound design of the film, with a sometimes unconventional, yet wildly effective approach to sound as a storytelling tool.“By using sound design, it's not so much what a score does… it's world building. It's building the world that she lives in and some of it is in her head… When you see it in a theater, some of those cues are making your chest bones rumble. In a quite literal way, it's happening to you. And in the same way that it's happening to her… So it's taking her inner world and it's externalizing it for the viewer.”—Mary Bronstein, Writer/Director, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”Be sure to check out “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” now playing in select theaters (and nationwide this Friday) in 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.
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259 - Creative Sound Design for Short Films, from Aspen Shortsfest 2025
How do you make a short film sound big on a small budget? Recorded live at Aspen Shortsfest 2025, Glenn sits down with filmmakers Lindon Feng & Hannah Palumbo (“A Bear Remembers”), Louis Bhose (“The Cost of Hugging”), and Elham Ehsas (“There Will Come Soft Rains”) to explore the art of creative sound design for short films.From crafting immersive soundscapes to collaborating with sound designers and mixers under tight deadlines, this panel reveals how powerful sound choices can transform a story — even with limited resources.Whether you’re a filmmaker, sound designer, film student, or just love behind-the-scenes insights on filmmaking, this conversation is full of practical tips and creative inspiration for making your short film sound unforgettable.Many thanks to Community College of Aurora (CCA), Department of Cinematic Arts, who filmed and recorded this panel discussion for us: - Sourthearak Duong - Camera Operator - KC Bowlan - Gaffer - Sofia Race - Camera Operator - Makayla Levy - Production Audio Mixer - Matt Baxter - EditorAnd thank you to the folks at Aspen Film: - Aaron Koehler - Director - Morgan Witt - Production CoordinatorThanks as well to Colorado Mountain College for their production support: - Bruna Batista Rosa - Andy Garay - Madi Rochon - Theo CorwinPlease 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.
Join the Dolby Creator Lab director Glenn Kiser in conversation with the artists who are using image and sound technologies creatively in some of your favorite films, TV shows, video games, and music.
Colombia