Back at it with Dolby Laboratories! This time we had the privilege to shoot and edit an interview piece for the independent feature, Blindspotting, which premiered at this year’s Sundance film festival. It was granted the prestigious honor of the Dolby Atmos Family sound fellowship.
Blindspotting movie is the third 2018 film to use Oakland, California as the jumping-off point for the types of cinematic flights of fancy Hollywood rarely affords people of color. It is part of a trio that dares to violate an audience’s preconceived notions of what fates can befall Black and brown people onscreen, and how those outcomes are rendered.
Dolby/Lionsgate was gracious enough to offer an early screening of the film and by the end of it, I was sweating pure adrenaline. Several articles stated that it brings Spike Lee’s ‘Do the Right Thing’ to a modern-day Oakland, and I really couldn’t agree more. It’s never been more necessary to explore race relations and gentrification on screen than it is now and it’s inspiring to see how art and issue collide in the film.
Blindspotting movie is also a heavily verse driven film, but not in the way of performance, but as a means to tell the story itself. Writers, Daveed Diggs, and Rafael Casal being rappers/performers themselves, understand the medium exceedingly well and weave it perfectly throughout.
Obviously, sound plays a great deal of importance, but not only in the dialogue but in times of quiet of as well.
Blindspotting movie
Casal words it perfectly in his interview, “So then when we go to these moments where all that goes away and all we hear is Colin’s breathing or all we hear is one very distant thing or just the hum of the red light that’s the only thing we hear. It gives you this incredible experience of focus, and then complete awareness. It’s like when you’re sweating and your pores open all the way up inside and you can feel everything. It’s just something you can only do with really great sound design and a theater that can bring it to life, which is just crazy that we got to do this on, on an Indy.”
Hearing filmmakers talk with such passion for their work was very refreshing, making the piece a lot of fun to put together. We’ve done several other interview spots with Dolby, including ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’, ‘Swiss Army Man’ and ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople’, and with each project, we become increasingly more delighted. What we love about working with Dolby is their dedication to independent filmmakers with a clear vision for the craft and elevating their film to the next level through the use of sound. We’ve been to the studio several times and never cease to be taken aback by the Atmos system. It’s definitely one the most powerful, and sophisticated sound mixing stages in the world and we geek out every single time.
You can check out the Blindspotting movie trailer below.
