Dolby x Moonbot Collab ‘Escape’ Released Online

After premiering last weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival, Dolby Laboratories has released its new advertising short, Escape, on the internet.

Watch it below:

The short, created at Moonbot Studios, was directed by Limbert Fabian and Brandon Oldenburg, who are principals in the newly formed Dallas studio Flight School. (Oldenburg directed an earlier short, Silent, for Dolby.)

“The film is a cinematic poem about the world-changing power of invention and is a fitting sequel to Silent in which our character experienced the evolution of film technology from the silent-film era to the present day,” said Vince Voron, the film’s executive producer and vice president and executive creative director of Dolby Laboratories. “We have been investing in original branded content to inspire our consumers, filmmakers and partners and celebrate the powerful storytelling possibilities when art and science come together.”

Created as a showcase for Dolby technologies, Escape features the original song “Magic Me” composed and performed by Imogen Heap, who worked alongside sound designer Nick Ryan to highlight the surround sound technology of Dolby Atmos.

Filmmakers Fabian and Oldenburg optimized the film visually for Dolby Vision, a projection system that has a more dynamic range of brightness and contrast than traditional digital projection. I’m told the deep blacks used for the monster have an even stronger effect when viewed in theaters that have installed the Dolby Vision set-up.

Another unique aspect of the advertising film is its mix of cg animation and stop motion sets. Below, you can see some behind-the-scenes shots of the 30-by-40-foot set model that was built for the planet landscape. For further behind-the-scenes on the film, see the making-of vid on the Dolby website.