Dolby’s pushing for their next generation of audio-visual technology to be the gold standard if they can help it.
If you bought a phone within the last two years, the names Dolby Atmos or Dolby Vision might be familiar to you, as these are standards that even mobile devices are adopting to support.
Dolby Vision support is by far less common in mobile devices, as budget devices will not be able to meet requirements, but it won’t be long before the tech becomes affordable.
In the meantime, Dolby is pushing to raise awareness of their tech for content creators–i.e. you can leverage Dolby’s software plugins for apps like Davinci Resolve to create Dolby-ready content without expensive studio equipment.
Kenny Tan (L), vice-president of Viddsee Studios talks to Solitude director Vikneshwaran Silva about their collaborative experience.
One example is the collaboration with Viddsee, where they will support up-and-coming filmmakers for Viddsee’s Scene City Anthology, a collection of short films commissioned by Viddsee to showcase and recognise the works of local talents.
Solitude, a short film by Vikneshwaran Silva, is Viddsee’s first “Dolby-enabled Original” borne of this collaboration. Director of Photography Marcus Liew adds that one big plus with Dolby’s tools is that they can be applied after the fact, which adds a lot of flexibility for creators.
The partnership is designed to provide creators with post-production support, training and workshops for the use of Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos in their productions. Up to 10 filmmakers will benefit from this partnership over the next two years, which will also help drive Viddsee’s creator community through workshops and masterclasses.
Wait, what about Solitude–is it any good?
Silva’s riveting socio-commentary starts off as a sci-fi murder mystery, or rather, an investigation of the death of an elderly man, Deva (Victoryselvam A.Panneeirchelvam), who passed at home under mysterious circumstances. Investigating detective Tristan (Aaron Mossadeg) need not have been worried, as he has the best tech and AI at his fingertips. His Deputy helps him piece together evidence and reconstruct the moments leading up to Deva’s demise; it’s also a less-than-comforting nod to the cold and pervasive nature of technology, along with the inevitability that this is our future.
Tristan pieces together the final moments of Deva’s life.
While Solitude isn’t an all-action flick, the sombre milieu and big-sounding soundscapes encapsulate the lonely confines of Solitude, while gently implying that you don’t need top-dollar production equipment in order to tell a good story with excellent production value.
You can check out Solitude for yourself on Viddsee (along with other episodes in the Anthology), so you can check out how polished an indie production can be with the right tools–not to mention a pretty good narrative that will gut you in the feels, thanks to a very unnerving elephant-in-the-room premise that hits soberingly close to home, and a cracker of a performance from A.Panneeirchelvam.
