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.

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You can also check out the video for this episode on YouTube.

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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.

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You can also check out the video for this episode on YouTube.

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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.

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You can also check out the video for this episode on YouTube.

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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®.

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You can also check out the video for this episode on YouTube.

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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 - Editor

And thank you to the folks at Aspen Film:

- Aaron Koehler - Director

- Morgan Witt - Production Coordinator

Thanks as well to Colorado Mountain College for their production support:

- Bruna Batista Rosa

- Andy Garay

- Madi Rochon

- Theo Corwin

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You can also check out the video for this episode on YouTube.

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Emmy Award®-nominated Director Philip Barantini and fellow nominees — including cinematographer Matthew Lewis and the sound team of James Drake, Jules Woods, Rob Entwistle, and Kiff McManus — join us this week to discuss the making of “Adolescence,” Netflix’s hit limited series. Nominated for thirteen Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, the show’s four episodes were each filmed as single, continuous takes, creating a gripping real-time experience for viewers — and offering some unexpected advantages for the filmmakers.

“For Netflix, it was very different for them because… they're very limited in what notes you can give. You can't say, ‘I think that scene needs to move to a different location’ or whatever. It's literally got to be performance notes… And so, they were fantastic. Netflix were just amazing, really, really amazing partners.”

—Philip Barantini, Director, Executive Producer, “Adolescence”

Joining today’s conversation:

- Philip Barantini, Director, Executive Producer

- Matthew Lewis, Director of Photography, Camera Operator

- James Drake, Supervising Sound Editor, Re-Recording Mixer

- Jules Woods, AMPS, CAS, Re-Recording Mixer

- Rob Entwistle, AMPS, Production Sound Mixer

- Kiff McManus, AMPS, Production Sound Mixer

Be sure to check out “Adolescence,” 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 to discuss his bold and emotional score for “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” In this in-depth conversation with guest host Jon Burlingame, Giacchino shares how he approached scoring one of Marvel’s most iconic franchises, including how he balanced moments of sweeping sincerity with all that pulpy fun.

“All I could think of in my head was like, if I took ‘The Right Stuff’ and if I took the Disneyland Electric Light Parade and smashed them together… that's gonna give us our ‘Fantastic Four’ music. And so I went right to town, over a year ago, on this theme. Which is something you never, ever get to do as a composer. It's so rare that you get to write a piece of music so early on.”

—Michael Giacchino, Composer, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps”

Be sure to check out “Fantastic Four: First Steps,” now playing in theaters and Dolby Cinemas® 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.

Check out Michael Giacchino’s previous appearances on the Dolby podcast:

- War for the Planet of the Apes - https://youtu.be/IMoypCm9pEc

- The Sound and Music of The Batman - https://youtu.be/uZ_3Kdm_ZhE

- The Making of Marvel’s Werewolf by Night - https://youtu.be/vVALDtPJyss

Learn more about the Dolby Creator Lab and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Composers John Murphy and David Fleming join guest host Jon Burlingame to discuss their original score for “Superman,” directed by James Gunn. In this two-part conversation, Murphy and Fleming share their personal connections to the character, the emotional and thematic goals of the music, and the creative process of scoring an iconic superhero story for a new generation. They also reflect on the legacy of John Williams’s original theme and how it influenced their approach.

“Everyone who works in film music reveres John Williams, and that score is kind of a gem of film music. So to be asked to explore the DNA of that theme was a privilege, but definitely a humbling privilege. You are confronted with this truly iconic theme… But at the same time, there still felt like there was a lot to explore within the confines of that theme… I remember, I was having a meeting with James [Gunn] and I said, the part of the John Williams theme that always really touched me is the end… There's something about it that's hopeful. Really, really hopeful. And I started playing around with it with some different chords, and I could tell James was getting sort of moved by it. It felt like we were discovering something and finding something new that fit his Clark Kent and his Superman, as well.”

—David Fleming, Composer, “Superman”

Be sure to check out “Superman,” now playing in theaters and Dolby Cinemas®, 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.