Ryan Coogler and Ludwig G ransson have worked together on several films, including Fruitvale Station.
By Vanessa Zimmer
Why do people say they watched a movie? Why don't they say they listened to a movie? Because they really did.
And it's not just the dialogue, or even the musical score, but they also hear the whisper of the wind, the messy, fleshy sound of fist meeting jaw, the stomp and echo of a crowd in an arena, the sparkly flow of water transforming to a thunderous roar as it cascades over a cliff.
The soundscape of a film can be as important as the landscape. So said director Ryan Coogler, composer Ludwig G ransson, and sound designer Steve Boeddeker in a Conversations From the Labs session last year as part of Sundance Collab.
The three men lent their talents to the Marvel movie Black Panther (2018) and the Rocky follow-up Creed (2015), in which Rocky Balboa trains the son of his foe and friend Apollo Creed. As Boeddeker frames it in action-movie terms: Collaboration ends up being our secret weapon. Done well, the sound effects, the music, the direction co-exist seamlessly, he says, making it a fun and gratifying process.
Coogler emerged at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival with Fruitvale Station, based on the true-life story of Oscar Grant, a young Black man who lost his life in a police encounter in the Bay Area in 2009. The film won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the U.S. drama competition at the Festival. G ransson worked on that project as well.
During their long collaboration, G ransson and Coogler have developed an obvious rapport. Coogler, says G ransson, talks to him as if he is an actor - a full-fledged member of the crew.
Coogler advocates bringing in the composer as early as possible, even during the writing of the screenplay, to sync on the tone and message. The director admits he kind of knows what he wants, but not how to get there. What he does know for certain is how he wants the music and effects to make him feel. I am very sensitive to sound and music, Coogler says. I think most people are.
When possible, G ransson strives to be on the set during shooting. It's inspirational to see Ryan in his directorial element, the composer says. Experiencing the tempo of the scenes is helpful - even if he finds it sometimes works best to write the music without a scene directly in front of him, reflecting on the overall feeling instead.
In a key scene in Creed, as Adonis Creed seeks to make a name for himself in a critical boxing match, the arena fills with the thrums and boos of the crowd, shouts of encouragement from Rocky, the rhythm of slapping punches and bone-crunching punches, a blow to the gut, and then a gutteral, animal-like sound. ( Ryan said he wanted a polar bear growl, Boeddeker says. We're guessing that's what that was.)
It's looking bad for Creed, but the recognizable trumpets of the original Rocky score rise as the young boxer struggles from the floor and begins pounding his opponent. In movie theaters, audiences were so stirred up that they stood up and applauded, says Boeddeker.
All of that emotion, managed through the language of drama, sound, and music. With untold give-and-take, and collaboration from all sides.
We have respect for each other's lives, Coogler says simply. We all want the same thing.
To view the entire Collab video with Ryan Coogler, Ludwig G ransson, and Steve Boeddeker, click here. For information on a self-paced course on Directing Actors with Tessa Blake, click here.
North America Stories
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
A fentanyl countermeasure that adapts to combat future black-market drugs Scripps Research scientists developed a vaccine that teaches the immune system to rapi...
11/06/2026
The immense size of the tourney and its Atlantic-spanning operation also disting...
11/06/2026
Nielsen has released a new soccer fandom consumer research report, The Fans Behind The Game: FIFA World Cup 2026 Edition, examining the soccer audience in the...
11/06/2026
Telemundo will launch its FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage on Thursday, June 11 with...
11/06/2026
FuboTV Inc. has announced a distribution agreement with NBCUniversal. Fubo customers can now stream Telemundo and Universo, with NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), NBC...
11/06/2026
DAZN has announced its in-app features for FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage in Spain...
11/06/2026
Roblox has released the 2026 Roblox Digital Expression Report: Wave 4 - Sports D...
11/06/2026
FIFA has unveiled DNA, the Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Anthem, performed by A...
11/06/2026
ESPN will provide English- and Spanish-language news and information coverage of FIFA World Cup 2026 across its U.S. media platforms from June 11 through July 1...
11/06/2026
The latest product of the outstanding RIT Sports Network program, this recent grad from Long Island is carving out a promising path in broadcast engineering
In...
11/06/2026
DAZN has announced a multi-year agreement to make DSPORTS channels available to ...
11/06/2026
Laura Dern at the 1986 Sundance Institute Directors Lab (Photo by Eric Edwards)
By Lucy Spicer
It takes a village to bring together the Sundance Institute lab...
11/06/2026
MTI FILM acquires Mango/New Edit Posted by MTI Film on June 10, 2026
LOS ANGELES, CA - June 2026 - MTI FILM, the multiple Emmy Award winning Hollywood post-p...
11/06/2026
Study underscores the need for authoritative content intelligence to build trust...
Ryan Coogler and Ludwig G ransson have worked together on several films, including Fruitvale Station.
