Director Paul Gross’s Hyena Road, the first Canadian film to be mixed in Dolby Atmos®, dives into the complex conflicts of Canadian troops fighting in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province. As one of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival® (TIFF®) gala presentations, Hyena Road was screened at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, newly outfitted with Dolby Atmos.
The creative minds behind the sounds of moving sniper bullets and desert soundscapes discussed their art at a TIFF industry case-study panel discussion moderated by Glenn Kiser, director of the Dolby® Institute.
During the panel, director Paul Gross explained, “sound is at least 30 percent of the movie—it’s such an integral part of the film.” From the guerrilla combat scenes to whispering soldiers, the filmmakers agreed, Dolby Atmos made it possible to achieve a level of tension and depth in the sonic characteristics of the landscape and characters. With the dynamic range that Dolby Atmos allows, sniper bullets shoot from the edge of a mountain into uncharted territory, traveling all around the theatre, pulling the audience into the middle of the modern war zone.
Supervising sound editor Jane Tattersall recounted the moment she received the first Dolby Atmos demo: “I was so mind-blown from the demo that I went back to the [Hyena Road] tracks and added new details to it.”
Cinema sound professionals typically avoid placing dialogue in the surrounds, but Gross and his creative team took a more experimental approach when mixing dialogue, ambience, and music to place the audience in the heart of the desolate mountains and to emphasize the sense of chaos of combat scenes. Many of the combat sequences were filmed in close-up and medium shots, as the Canadian sniper team hides behind rocks, waiting to spot the enemy. The mixers used the surround and overhead speakers in particular to build a detailed sonic world happening just outside the viewing frame.
“Working in Dolby Atmos actually saved us money,” said the film’s producer, Niv Fichman. “We were able to use sound to place enemy soldiers scrambling on rooftops over our heads, and to suggest things happening off screen, which meant we didn’t have to build those sets or shoot those images.”
Gross said the team “immediately decided that it was the right decision” to mix the film natively in Dolby Atmos. One significant advantage of Dolby Atmos is the 7.1 surround fold-down. Even if the movie is screened in a theatre that’s not equipped with Dolby Atmos, the Dolby surround 7.1 still supports the moving soundscapes.
The panel discussion “Case Study: Using Dolby Atmos in Hyena Road“ featured Paul Gross (director, writer, and actor), Niv Fichman (producer), Asher Lenz (composer), Lou Solakofski (rerecording mixer), Jane Tattersall (supervising sound editor), and moderator Glenn Kiser of the Dolby Institute.
Check out the trailer for Paul Gross’s third feature film, Hyena Road, which is in theatres in Canada now.
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