275 - Bradley Cooper and the Sound of Is This Thing On?

Writer, director, and producer Bradley Cooper joins us to discuss the sound of his latest film, “Is This Thing On?” Audio became a primary storytelling tool in shaping the film’s deeply subjective point of view. In conversation with the film’s sound team, the director breaks down how perspective, texture, and restraint were used to place audiences directly inside the emotional experience of a man discovering stand-up comedy as his marriage unravels. For Cooper, that approach ultimately comes back to how films are meant to be experienced in theaters.

“It’s really about the theatergoing experience — how you best tell the story in these rooms, in this theatrical space. And to me, I haven’t seen a better version than those two elements: Dolby Vision and Atmos. When Stefan [Sonnenfeld] and I colored the Dolby Vision, it was like, ‘Oh — there’s the movie.’ And when you do it in Atmos, in terms of mixing sound… the immersive experience — it’s just a whole different experience than a 5.1 mix. It’s not even in the same universe… And once you go there, you can never go back. I watched a movie the other night that wasn’t in Atmos, and I couldn’t stop imagining what it could be.”

—Bradley Cooper, Writer, Director, Producer, “Is This Thing On?”

Joining today’s conversation:

- Bradley Cooper, Director, Producer

- Dane A. Davis, Supervising Sound Editor

- Tom Ozanich, Re-recording Mixer

- Dean A. Zupancic, Re-recording Mixer

Be sure to check out “Is This Thing On?,” now in theaters.

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