nofilmschool » atmos

Building the Fantastical Soundscape of 'The Hobbit' with SoundWorks Collection

Dave Kendricken — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 01:30:43 +0000

Speaking of The Hobbit, thanks once again to Michael Coleman’s indispensable SoundWorks Collection we now have another angle of the rather extensive amount of behind-the-scenes material on the film (trilogy). Previously we’ve had a look at the environment the crew created to be creatively conducive, questioned the aesthetic nature of its 48 frames-per-second acquisition (and delivery, in many cases), all the way back to the films’ truly epic on-location shooting and production design. But foley work, mixing, and sound design in general are things that end up getting less making-of attention than the imagery of films, so check out the SoundWorks mini-doc that rounds out The Hobbit BTS goods below. (more…)

Sound Designing 'Life of Pi': From (Almost) No Usable Production Audio All the Way to Dolby Atmos

Dave Kendricken — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 12:54:31 +0000

The footage I’ve seen of Ang Lee’s Life of Pi (released today) so far looks pretty fantastic. I know it’s adapted from a novel, I know there’s a man and a tiger on a boat, but other than that I really know nothing about this movie — just that it looks intriguing from a pure imagery standpoint. That, and the next logical step from there, which is that it is probably going to be breathtaking in stereo. How does one create a soundtrack suitable for the visual side of this experience? Thanks once again to Michael Coleman’s Soundworks Collection, we now have an inkling of exactly that — and of how the sound design team crafted it for Dolby Atmos — beginning with almost no usable production tracks. (more…)

SoundWorks Collection Presents: Making of the 'Chasing Mavericks' Sound Design in Dolby Atmos

Dave Kendricken — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:34:08 +0000

SoundWorks Collection has already brought us a number of great videos detailing a part of the process we don’t usually get much of a look at it — the creation and design of that other half of what we do. So far SoundWorks has brought us videos on Prometheus, The Dark Knight Rises, and more recently, Argo and a rock ‘n’ roll documentary. Now, they’re giving us a look at the biographical Chasing Mavericks, which fictionalizes the late surfer Jay Moriarty’s quest to ride The Great Wave. In a film largely taking place on beaches and the ocean, the sound designers were tasked with characterizing the ocean’s sounds in a dramatic context, which probably wasn’t all that easy — especially when it came to mixing the film for Dolby Atmos. Bump the jump to see how the sound team optimized the film’s mix for a 42 speaker (18 of which are overhead) Atmos configuation. (more…)

Dolby's Great Leap Forward - 'Atmos' Aims to Take Theatrical Sound Where 3-D and IMAX took Visuals

E.M. Taboada — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 23:07:02 +0000

What if you could hear Michael Myers’ footsteps as he moved through a victim’s house? Or be immersed in the soundscape of a gun battle, with such life-like quality that you might run for cover from that tower sniper? Dolby‘s newly announced format, Atmos, is aiming to push theatergoer’s auditory immersion in the way IMAX and 3-D pushed visual immersion. So how exactly is this different from existing surround sound systems, and what effect will it have on a viewer’s experience? Check this video out: (more…)