Yesterday was the first time I saw Canadian director Denis Villeneuve’s film adaptation of novelist Frank Herbert’s sci-fi masterpiece, Dune. My brother Michael (who came to the rescue when I locked myself out) is a movie lover too so while we were having coffee and discussing this year’s best films, Dune came up in the conversation.

Michael read the book decades ago and loved it. As I hadn’t read the book or seen the latest iteration of it on the screen, now seemed like a good time to stream it. In fact, as I mentioned yesterday, I also got a copy of the Dune script. It felt like a jackpot. So yesterday I watched Dune for the first time. Three words come to mind. Epic world building.

The visual spectacle of the piece has been written about but what struck me even more was the sound of Dune. If you’ve seen the movie or read the book then you know that sound, especially vocal sound, plays a significant role in the story. Hans Zimmer wrote the score and so it was a great delight to find the following Vanity Fair video clip this morning on how Zimmer created his magical score for Dune.

Then, of course, if you are so inclined, the SoundWorks Collection (a YouTube channel devoted to behind-the-scenes interviews on soundtracks) produced the following featurette with interview highlights from Villeneuve’s sound design team: Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Joe Walker, Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemple and the man himself.

There are some great insights on collaboration in the creative process in this video. It was only after watching SoundWorks Collection of interviews about the score and soundscape that I began to understand the film and the significance of sound in it. Well worth watching.