The SoundWorks Collection Interview Series podcast takes you behind the scenes and straight to the dub stage for a look into audio post-production for feature films, video game sound design, and original soundtrack composition. This exclusive and intimate series focuses on individuals and teams behind-the-scenes bringing to life some of the worlds most exciting projects.

SoundWorks Collection Interview Series

In Pursuit of Silence (www.pursuitofsilence.com) is a fascinating and meditative film and exploration of silence and the impact of noise on our lives. Filmed in eight countries, it immerses us in a cinematic journey around the globe—from a traditional tea ceremony in Kyoto, to the streets of Mumbai, the loudest city on the planet—and inspires us to both experience silence and celebrate the wonders of our world. Other highlights include filming in the anechoic chamber at Orfield Labs in Minneapolis (the “Quietest Place on Earth”), Alaska’s Denali Memorial Park and Trappist and Zen monasteries, as the filmmakers distill our experience of the world and challenge us to see it anew.

Moderator: Michael Coleman of Soundworks Collection

Films sound team from Skywalker Ranch:
Steve Bissinger, sound designer & supervising sound editor
Zach Martin, re-recording mixer & additional effects editor
Shaun Farley, dialogue editor

Director: Patrick Shen
Camera: Patrick Shen, Brandon Vedder
Producers: Patrick Shen, Andrew Brumme, Brandon Vedder

In Pursuit of Silence - Skywalker Sound Team Discussion

In this exclusive conversation, sound designers Craig Henighan and Will Files share their experiences creating sound for such films as "Mother!," "Stranger Things," "Deadpool," and "War for the Planet of the Apes" among others.

Moderated by Michael Coleman of SoundWorks Collection a the 2017 Savannah Film Festival.

SoundWorks Collection

2017 Savannah Film Festival - Will Files and Craig Henighan

Philip Sheppard is a composer, producer, virtuoso cellist, inventor, public speaker, philanthropist, professor at the Royal Academy of Music and a creative innovator who has worked with some of the biggest names in music, tech, sport and film.

Philip has composed more than 60 film, gaming, television and theatrical scores including Sony PS4’s highly acclaimed video game, DETROIT: Become Human, and the Star Wars Force Awakens behind the scenes Comic Con trailer which has over 11 million YouTube plays. Philip’s first film of 2018 is Mercury 13, a Netflix original which premiered at the SFFilm Festival. His other major film works include The Final Year, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, In the Shadow of the Moon (which received an International Film Critics Award nomination for Best Original Score for a Documentary and won numerous awards including the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance), Meru (which won numerous awards including the Audience Award for Documentary at Sundance), Sergio (which was nominated for a Prime Time Emmy), Legion of Brothers, which premiered at Sundance, and Chosen, starring Harvey Keitel, Bobby Fischer Against the World, The Tillman Story and Love, Marilyn. Philip was inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a member of the Music Class of 2017.

www.philipsheppard.com

Listen on itunes:
itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sound…2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Composer Philip Sheppard

In this exclusive SoundWorks Collection podcast we talk with the sound and music team of The Handmaid's Tale. We chat with Supervising Sound Editor Jane Tattersall, Dialogue Supervisor David McCallum, Re-recording Mixer's Lou Solakofski and Joe Morrow and Composer Adam Taylor.

Now playing on Hulu, based on the best-selling novel by Margaret Atwood, this series is set in Gilead, a totalitarian society in what used to be part of the United States. Gilead is ruled by a fundamentalist regime that treats women as property of the state, and is faced with environmental disasters and a plummeting birth rate. In a desperate attempt to repopulate a devastated world, the few remaining fertile women are forced into sexual servitude. One of these women, Offred, is determined to survive the terrifying world she lives in, and find the daughter that was taken from her.

The Sound and Music of The Handmaid's Tale

In this special podcast episode we feature a chat between Eidos-Montreal Audio Director Rob Bridgett and Pinewood Shepperton Re-recording Mixer Adam Scrivener who discuss their work on the recently released video game Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Experience Lara Croft’s defining moment as she becomes the Tomb Raider. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara must master a deadly jungle, overcome terrifying tombs, and persevere through her darkest hour. As she races to save the world from a Maya apocalypse, Lara will ultimately be forged into the Tomb Raider she is destined to be.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider - Mixing at Pinewood Shepperton Conversation

In this exclusive SoundWorks Collection podcast episode we chat with the sound team of the box office hit comic-book villain tale of Venom. Featuring Kami Asgar - Supervising Sound Editor, Will Files - Re-recording Mixer and Supervising Sound Editor and Robby Stambler - Sound Design.

The Sound of Venom

In this exclusive conversation we talk with Supervising sound editors and sound designers Renee Tondelli and Eugene Gerty about their recent work on Mary Poppins Returns directed by Rob Marshall.

Now an adult with three children, bank teller Michael Banks learns that his house will be repossessed in five days unless he can pay back a loan. His only hope is to find a missing certificate that shows proof of valuable shares that his father left him years earlier. Just as all seems lost, Michael and his sister receive the surprise of a lifetime when Mary Poppins -- the beloved nanny from their childhood -- arrives to save the day and take the Banks family on a magical, fun-filled adventure.

The Sound of Mary Poppins Returns

The Sound of First Man motion picture soundshow featuring Director Damien Chazelle, Re-recording Mixer/Sound Designer/Supervising Sound Editor Ai-Ling Lee, Supervising Dialogue Editor Susan Dawes and Re-recording mixers Jon Taylor and Frank A. Montaño.

Featuring special sound breakdown sequences including the X15 flight, Gemini Rocket walk-up and launch and Neil Armstrong moon walk dialogue.

Recorded on December 18, 2018 on the Hitchcock Mixing Stage at Universal Studios and moderated by Michael Coleman from SoundWorks Collection

The Sound of First Man - Soundshow

Supervising Sound Editors Curt Schulkey and Geoffrey Rubay join us to chat about their work on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and discuss the incredible task of introducing a new unlikely hero, Miles Morales and his five counterparts from another dimensions to stop a threat for all realities.

The Sound of Spider Man: Into the Spider-Verse

We chat with Composer Nathan Whitehead (The Purge, Keanu) about his recent work on the PS4 exclusive video game, DAYS GONE from Sony Bend Studio.

We discuss his move from East Tennessee to Los Angeles, early mentors including Supervising Sound Editor Dane Davis and Composer Steve Jablonsky and creating the sound of a post-apocalyptic wilderness setting.

Composer Nathan Whitehead - Days Gone

We chat with re-recording mixer Mike Prestwood Smith about his recent work on Rocketman and explore his creative process recreating the iconic songs that defined Elton John’s career and personal journey.

Rocketman is a 2019 biographical musical film based on the life of musician Elton John. Directed by Dexter Fletcher and written by Lee Hall, it stars Taron Egerton as John, with Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, and Bryce Dallas Howard. The film follows John's early days as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music to his musical partnership with Bernie Taupin. The film is titled after John's 1972 song "Rocket Man".

An Elton John biopic had been in development for almost two decades, with the project going through studios including Walt Disney Studios and Focus Features, directors including Michael Gracey, and actors including Tom Hardy and Justin Timberlake. After creative differences with Focus halted an initial production start in 2014, John took the project to Paramount Pictures, with Egerton and Fletcher signing on in April 2018. Principal photography began in August 2018 and was completed later that year.

The Sound of Rocketman - Mike Prestwood Smith

As president and CEO of Bleeding Fingers Music and Extreme Music, Russell Emanuel is a trailblazing leader, innovator, and producer in the music industry. Bleeding Fingers is one of the leading producers of quality-crafted film and television scores in the world, bolstered by a unique creative association and business partnership with industry legend, Hans Zimmer, and his long-term business partner, Steve Kofsky.  

Russell’s vision for Bleeding Fingers led to a thriving collaboration with David Attenborough and BBC on the music for Planet Earth II – a score that contributed to the series’ record-breaking viewership, international acclaim, and BAFTA and Emmy nominations for Bleeding Fingers’ work. This paved the way to his most recent project - producing the score for the highly-anticipated BBC One natural history landmark, Blue Planet II, which premieres later this year. Alongside his work producing the series’ orchestral score, Russell creatively produced a track for the prequel, titled “(ocean) bloom,” featuring a collaboration with Radiohead, one of the world’s most acclaimed rock bands, and Hans Zimmer.

Under Russell’s leadership, Bleeding Fingers has amassed an expert crew of over a dozen in-house composers leading to an unmatched balance of musical creativity, collaboration and efficiency. Bleeding Fingers’ music has strengthened countless projects, with their prolific and diverse output including scores featuring sweeping orchestral pieces, industrial rock and electronic sounds, Americana, and everything in between. Operating out of their twenty-studio Santa Monica facility on the same campus as Remote Control Productions, the company is producing carefully-tailored scores for some of the most acclaimed series on television. In addition to Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II, Bleeding Fingers’ musical efforts include Netflix’s Roman Empire, Amazon’s American Playboy, and Crackle’s Snatch.

Before creating Bleeding Fingers, Russell had already made a name for himself as a titan within the composing industry, thanks to the tremendous success of Extreme Music, which he co-founded in 1997. Extreme Music was conceived as a business that would provide production music for projects that did not have access their own composers, while retaining incredibly high standards of passion and quality. The company soon became famous, not only for the music it offered, but also for the notorious punk energy and marketing that Russell channeled through the company (most famously, he sent condoms to numerous industry professionals, printed with the massage “the only safe thing you will ever get from us”). Russell grew the company to such a large success that it was purchased by SonyATV in 2008 for $110 million with Emanuel still remaining as the active CEO.
 
Russell is not only an entrepreneur, but an experienced musician within his own right. For many years, he was a session musician, producer and manager, most notably managing The Jam and Stiff Little Fingers. He’s also collaborated with musical heavy-hitters such as George Martin, Snoop Dogg, Rodney Jerkins, and Quincy Jones, and spent an early stint of his career engineering at Abbey Road Studios.
 
Russell currently lives in Los Angeles. When not working, he likes to perform with his twisted pop-hit cover band "Courtesy Flush,” ride his Harley Davidson and serve as a chauffeur and entertainment officer to his wife and five children.

Russell Emanuel - Extreme Music & Bleeding Fingers Music

In this exclusive SoundWorks Collection conversation, we chat with the sound team behind Director Quentin Tarantino's film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. 

Featuring Production Sound Mixer Mark Ulano, Supervising Sound Editor Wylie Stateman and Re-Recording Mixer Michael Minkler!

The Sound of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Re-recording mixer Pete Horner discusses the incredible process of restoring and remixing the 40th anniversary edition of Apocalypse Now: Final Cut that was recently released in Dolby Atmos and 4K Ultra HD. Pete shares how he created a new master track, enhanced the LFE with the help of a new Meyer Sound speaker and collaborated with Director Francis Ford Coppola and Walter Murch.

The Sound of Apocalypse Now: Final Cut with Pete Horner

We chat with the sound team of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance which was recently released as a 10-episode series on Netflix. In this conversation we chat with Re-Recording Mixer / sound designer / supervising sound editor Tim Nielsen, foley artist Shelley Roden and supervising adr editor Tim Hands.

As power-hungry overlords drain life from the planet Thra, a group of brave Gelfling unite on a quest to save their world and fight off the darkness.

The Sound of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

We chat with Miles Rogers from Meyer Sound about a wide range of cinema focused speakers including the Bluehorn System, Amie Precision Studio Monitor, HMS Cinema Surround Loudspeakers and the VLFC (Very Low Frequency Control Element) recently used by Director Francis Ford Coppola for Apocalypse Now: Final Cut.

Meyer Sound - Cinema Speaker Chat with Miles Rogers

In this episode we chat with Crip Camp Directors James Lebrecht & Nicole Newnham about how the project developed, structuring their complex storyline and the deeper issues the film addresses.

Crip Camp won the Audience Award for U.S. Documentary at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and is now streaming on Netflix worldwide.

About Crip Camp
Just down the road from Woodstock, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a parallel revolution blossomed in a ramshackle summer camp for disabled teenagers. Steeped in the humor and music of the era, Crip Camp explores the universal experience of summer camp awakenings that would transform lives and shape the future of the disability rights movement. Told from the point of view of former camper Jim LeBrecht, the film traces the journeys of campers up to the present day, in this compelling and untold story of a powerful journey towards inclusion.

Jim LeBrecht has over 35 years of experience as a film and theater sound designer and mixer, author and disability rights activist. Jim began his career in theater, working as the resident sound designer at the Berkeley Repertory Theater for 10 years. His fim credits include The Island President, The Waiting Room, The Kill Team and Audry and Daisy. A complete list of his film credits (over 145) can be viewed at IMDB. Jim co-authored Sound and Music for the Theater: the art and technique of design. Now in its 4th edition, the book is used as a textbook all over the world. Jim’s work as an activist began in high school and continued at UC, San Diego, where he helped found the Disabled Students Union. Jim is currently a board member of the Disability Education and Defense Fund, which works for the rights of the disabled through education, legislation, and litigation.

Nicole Newnham is an Emmy-winning documentary producer and director, Sundance Film Festival alumnus and five-time Emmy-nominee. She has recently produced two virtual reality films with the Australian artist / director Lynette Wallworth: the breakthrough VR work Collisions, which won the 2017 Emmy for Outstanding New Approaches to Documentary, and Awavena, featured this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos and at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Previously she co-directed The Revolutionary Optimists, winner of the Sundance Hilton Sustainability Award, Nicole also instigated, co-produced and directed the acclaimed documentary The Rape of Europa, about the Nazi war on European culture, which was nominated for a WGA award and shortlisted for the Academy Award.  With Pulitzer-prize winning photographer Brian Lanker, she produced They Drew Fire, about the Combat Artists of WWII, and co-wrote the companion book, distributed by Harper Collins. A 1997 graduate of the Stanford Documentary Film Program, Nicole lives in Oakland with her husband Tom, and two sons, Finn and Blaine.

About Higher Ground Productions
Barack and Michelle Obama signed a deal on May 22, 2018 to produce docu-series, documentaries and features for Netflix under the Obamas' newly formed production company, Higher Ground Productions. On the deal, Michelle said "I have always believed in the power of storytelling to inspire us, to make us think differently about the world around us, and to help us open our minds and hearts to others." Higher Ground's first film, American Factory, won the Best Documentary Oscar in 2020.

Crip Camp with Directors James Lebrecht & Nicole Newnham

This week we chat with Composer Kris Bowers about his recent work on the new Hulu show, Mrs. America and the challenges of completing his score during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABOUT KRIS BOWERS

Emmy Award-winning composer and pianist, Kris Bowers, creates genre-defying music that pays homage to his jazz roots with inflections of alternative and R&B influences. The result is a sound rife with contradictions, a work of nuanced alchemy situated at the summit of his influences. A confluence of jazz greats, classical standards, and the alternative and experimental music of his youth, along with the cinematic storytelling of his most studied film scores. Bowers’ earliest musical inspirations were varied, transcending generation and genre to include work by artists such as Steve Reich, Radiohead, Stevie Wonder, Brian Eno, Herbie Hancock, and Jimi Hendrix. As a young musician, Bowers brought the language of jazz to his covers of artists like Death Cab For Cutie, Tune-Yards, Radiohead, and Kendrick Lamar.

Since 2013, the Juilliard-educated pianist has established himself at the forefront of Hollywood’s emerging generation of genre-defying composers. What sets Bowers apart is his unique ability to compose music that resonates across such a diverse continuum of artists, storytellers, and audiences. From scoring documentaries like Kobe Bryant’s Muse (SHOWTIME, 2015) and Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You (2016), to scripted series including Shonda Rhimes and Paul William Davies’ For The People (ABC), Netflix’s Dear White People, and SHOWTIME’S Black Monday (Exec. Produced by Seth Rogen & Evan Golberg), Bowers’ work as a film and television composer is a testament to his versatility as an artist. 

Bowers first made a name for himself in 2011, when he won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where Aretha Franklin chose him as a favorite to win during the semi-finals concert. The win earned him a record deal with Concord Jazz, who later released his debut album, Heroes+Misfits, which opened at number one on the iTunes jazz chart in 2014.

ABOUT MRS. AMERICA

Mrs. America tells the story of the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and the unexpected backlash led by a conservative woman named Phyllis Schlafly, aka “the sweetheart of the silent majority.” Through the eyes of the women of the era – both Schlafly and second wave feminists Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug and Jill Ruckelshaus – the series explores how one of the toughest battlegrounds in the culture wars of the 70s helped give rise to the Moral Majority and forever shifted the political landscape.

Mrs. America features an all-star team in front of and behind the cameras. Two-time Academy Award and Golden Globe Award winner Cate Blanchett headlines as Phyllis Schlafly, leading a stellar cast portraying some of the most iconic women of the era, including Emmy Award nominated Rose Byrne as Gloria Steinem, Emmy Award winner Margo Martindale as Bella Abzug, Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Uzo Aduba as Shirley Chisholm, Emmy Award nominated Elizabeth Banks as Jill Ruckelshaus, and Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Tracey Ullman as Betty Friedan. The cast also boasts Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Sarah Paulson, Emmy Award nominated John Slattery, Emmy Award nominated Jeanne Tripplehorn, Ari Graynor, Melanie Lynskey and Kayli Carter. Executive Producers are Emmy Award winner Dahvi Waller (Mad Men), who serves as creator and showrunner, Academy Award nominated Stacey Sher (Django Unchained, Erin Brockovich), Coco Francini, Cate Blanchett and Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck (Captain Marvel, Billions), who directed four of the nine episodes, including the first two.

Composer Kris Bowers

Bonnie Wild, the sound effects editor and re-recording mixer of Disney+’s hit show The Mandalorian, takes us behind the scenes for a conversation about achieving cinematic scale and production value on a television budget, balancing the palette of new sound creation with classic Star Wars sounds we all know and love, why mixing in a home theater environment was important for the show, and how to do a Jawa loop group session.

Bonnie Wild — Sound Effects Editor/Re-Recording Mixer

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About Dolby:
Dolby transforms the science of sight and sound into spectacular experiences. Through our innovative research and engineering, we develop breakthroughs that we share with the world through collaborations that span artists, businesses, and consumers worldwide. These breakthroughs deliver incredibly vivid experiences in the cinema, at home, at work, and on the go — experiences so lifelike that people feel as if they’ve been transported into a cinematic story or a pulsing sphere of music, a distant conference room or an action-packed game. In both entertainment and communications, through audio and imaging, we give everyone the power to see, hear, and feel the spectacular.

The Sound of The Mandalorian

Hamilton is a landmark Broadway production of remarkable scope, now streaming into your home on Disney+. In producing the film version, the show’s creative team sought to give the audience “the best seat in the house,” and in this podcast we talk with original Broadway team artists Alex Lacamoire and Nevin Steinberg along with the film’s sound team Tony Volante, Roberto Fernandez, and Dan Timmons about a number of Hamilton topics, including the challenges of designing a custom sound system for the historic Richard Rodgers Theatre, translating the live show into a cinematic world, and how Dolby Atmos played a key part in giving the audience at home the transformative theatrical experience. We also review clips and discuss in detail the numbers “Alexander Hamilton,” “Satisfied,” and “The Room Where It Happens.”

The Sound of Hamilton

The goal for the SoundWorks Collection is simple; we are dedicated to profiling the greatest and upcoming sound minds from around the world and highlight their contributions. The SoundWorks Collection was created by Director Michael Coleman in November of 2009 in a partnership with MIX Magazine, several audio focused college schools and programs, and the support of the online sound community worldwide.

The SoundWorks Collection takes you behind the scenes and straight to the dub stage for a look into audio post-production for feature films, video game sound design, and original soundtrack composition. This exclusive and intimate video series focuses on individuals and teams behind-the-scenes bringing to life some of the worlds most exciting projects.