Dolby Creator Talks

Ron Howard and the Making of Thirteen Lives

December 2, 2022

Director Ron Howard joins us to discuss his thrilling new film, “Thirteen Lives,” a harrowing dramatization of the real-life rescue of thirteen young Thai soccer players who were trapped in a flooding cave in 2018.

It was great having [the actual rescue divers] Rick Stanton and Jason Mallinson around [set] because they were not only there to help make sure that the diving was accurate and that the divers’ technique was right, and that we understood what the threats and the complications were, and the procedure of it all. But… they're not guys that dwell on emotions very much as individuals. Nonetheless, on the day that we were actually shooting the scene [where they first discover the boys] with the flashlights, I just remember Rick talking about he wasn't sure he'd ever see those boys again. He knew he was leaving them in the dark and… he just thought it was a hopeless scenario and he was pretty shattered by that. And I just thought, ‘leave them in the dark.’ Making a moment that will allow that sort of focus. The flashlights kind of coming out [and] just slowly disappearing until we were in the complete darkness.

Ron Howard, Director, “Thirteen Lives”

Joining the discussion is much of the film’s post-production team: Rachael Tate, Supervising Sound Editor Oliver Tarney, Supervising Sound Editor/Sound Designer Chris Burden, Re-recording Mixer William Miller, Re-recording Mixer James D. Wilcox, Editor Authenticity was the name of the game and the entire filmmaking team took great pains to make this film as historically accurate as possible. Thirteen Lives is available to stream right now on Prime Video. Please subscribe to The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. You can also check out the video for this episode. Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

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