Rising High raises thebar for audio and imaging
with Dolby Vision andDolby Atmos
Fans of films about the shadier side of thehigh-powered business world are in for a treat with thenew Netflix film Rising High (or Betonrausch in German,
literally ‘concrete rush’), produced by UFA Fiction.
The film tells the story of a young man prepared to do
anything to get rich by gambling on the Berlin property
market with the help of a shady business partner. But
the pair’s hedonistic lifestyle pushes things too far,threatening to destroy what they’ve built.

With such a colourful story, Dolby Vision® HDR imaging technology and Dolby
Atmos three-dimensional audio technology were the logical choice to bringthis richness to the screen.
Post-production preparations pay off
Niklaas Warda, an in-house producer at UFA Fiction’s post-production partner
Rotor Film, says exploring the creative opportunities provided by the technicalfeatures of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos was important from the very
beginning.
During the early stages of filming, director Cüneyt Kaya met with director ofphotography Sebastian Bäumler, the production team, the post-production
team, and sound designer Gregor Junghans to discuss which audio and visualelements of the film he most wanted to highlight. The post-production team at
Rotor Film was then able to look at early scenes to determine what worked andwhat needed attention, and then communicate that to Kaya while shooting wasstill under way to help improve what was being captured on set.

Integrating Dolby Atmos in the creative process frompre-production really made a difference in the way theteam was able to tell the story.

“The creative use of Dolby Atmos’capabilities meant it was integral
to the storytelling.”
Gregor Bonse, re-recording mixer, Rotor FilmDolby Atmos was part of the creative process from the start
As a company, Rotor Film strongly believes Dolby Atmos should be used for
all genres, including dramas and documentaries. As a classic heist movie ina German context, Rising High demonstrates how Dolby Atmos can be used
to support the production team’s artistic intent and enhance the audience’senjoyment. The creative use of Dolby Atmos’ capabilities meant it was integral
to the storytelling, says Rotor Film re-recording mixer Gregor Bonse, who wasresponsible for the sound mix of the film.
During pre-production, sound designer Gregor Junghans and his team thought
about the exciting ways they could employ Dolby Atmos to enhance theviewer’s experience and engagement. Bonse explains that the decision to workwith this format provided the opportunity to tell the story “three-dimensionally”
by “exploiting the entire space” of the listener’s environment. The sounddesigner came to the set himself to record surround sounds to use while
mixing in Dolby Atmos.

Integrating Dolby Atmos in the creative process from pre-production reallymade a difference in the way the team was able to tell the story. The technology
gives creators new capabilities.
Junghans made notes about locations offering interesting soundscapes,
attended the shoots and recorded sounds and precisely positioned them in thefinished soundtrack.
“So we had 3D audio recorded in B-format straight from the locations. It
lets you work in a very nuanced way. We ended up using the technology toincorporate atmospheric soundscapes such as forest, garden and construction
site, which are portrayed in a very detailed manner”, Bonse explains.
They decided object-based Dolby Atmos sounds would be best deployed in
the music and drug trip scenes of the film. “We tried to infuse these trips andparties with lots of details, using musical elements everywhere, which are reallytrippy and swirl around you, as well as certain effects when they are snorting

“Mixing in Dolby Atmos will translate to a good 7.1 mix,
to a good 5.1 mix, and to a good stereo mix.”
Gregor Bonse, re-recording mixer, Rotor Film

“A benefit of HDR is the “extra headroom” itprovides to really let an image shine or glow. Youcan make the image look more three-dimensionalin subtle ways, with more colour volume, making
things possible that weren’t possible before.”
Petra Lisson, in-house colourist, Rotor Filmcocaine. You can hear those effects flying behind you, using delays andstutters”, Bonse explains.

the beginning of the film has few sound effects, conservatively mixed to thefront, as the main objective is to introduce the viewer to the story. “And then,the more captivated you are, there are things happening which intensify yourIn this way, the title of the film – Betonrausch – was literally expressed by thesoundtrack: “They are basically on a megalomaniac high – a rush – intoxicatedby success”, Bonse says.

experience, but they immerse you. You’re not conscious of which speakers arebeing used”.

The team further enhanced the storytelling by deploying other effects “tocatapult us into the next scene” – for example, thunder rumbling around& above the viewer or the noise of a child’s balloon moving around you totransition into the family home scene.
Bonse adds that, with these capabilities at your disposal, it’s important toexercise some restraint: “When you have such tools available, the question isalways to what extent you actually use them. If I have things flying around andbehind me all the time, I am just distracted, I can’t focus on the story”.
When used appropriately, it all comes together, Bonse continues. For example,Related to this, Bonse suggests that mixing in Dolby Atmos will translate to agood 7.1 mix, to a good 5.1 mix, and to a good stereo mix. If problems arise in
one of the sub formats, they will likely be caused by improper balancing in theinitial Dolby Atmos mix. In his experience, few things needed to be adjusted
when downmixing.
Dolby Vision allows creativity and simplifies production
Rising High was the first big Dolby Vision project for Rotor Film. The company’s
previous HDR experience had mostly been with HDR10. One of the maindifferences in working with Dolby Vision is that you perform the HDR gradingand then derive the SDR from it; it worked straight away – “it was just a matterof rethinking it and doing it the other way around”, says Warda.

A lot of the colours in Rising High were meant to be “quite loud”, while otherparts of the film needed an austere, authentic Berlin look. For example, thebanking world was depicted as being cold and “a place where you wouldn’t

Another advantage is that, with Dolby Vision, you deliver one HDR master andthe metadata for your HDR and SDR versions, instead of two separate masters
as with HDR10. This new process was quite exciting for the team, as you canget much more detail starting in HDR rather than having to work within theconstraints of SDR and make compromises from the start of the process.

make contact with people easily”, according to Lisson, while the more trippy
scenes get “really colourful and really dark”.

Petra Lisson, in-house colourist at Rotor Film and responsible for the colour
correction in Rising High, was excited about the prospect of working with
Dolby Vision.
A benefit of HDR, according to Lisson, is the “extra headroom” it provides “toreally let an image shine or glow. You can make the image look more threedimensional in subtle ways, with more colour volume, makes things possiblethat weren’t possible before – bright blue skies, fires that really have colour anddetail and so on”, she adds.

Whilst the range of contrast offered by Dolby Vision is much greater thanSDR, Lisson says that “does not mean that you always have to use the entire
dynamic range or go to the maximum”. Rather than everything having to be“super bright with a lot of contrast”, Lisson adds, Dolby Vision “supports you in
the creative process” – it gives you a wider colour palette and gives you morecreative opportunities.
Rising High was the first HDR project that director Cüneyt Kaya and directorof photography Sebastian Bäumler had worked on – and they were certainly
impressed: “I don’t know if they had ever really seen HDR before. They sat here,
looked at the monitor and said they’d like to take it home”, says Lisson.

“You can rely on the fact that the Dolby
process will work and the end product will
be correct. With this Netflix production that iswhat we have done and we’ve had a 0% error
rate on this project.”Niklaas Warda, in-house producer, Rotor Film

Post-production deliverables easier with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos
Kaya’s enthusiasm for the final form was gratifying for the post-production
team, who worked hard to ensure all deliverables were right.
Warda says working in Dolby Vision made everything come together moreeasily: “The Dolby Vision trim pass is used to produce an SDR master.
Depending on what deliverable is required by the studio a Dolby Atmos mix
can produce a 5.1 and stereo version, likewise, in Dolby Vision, the SDR comesvia the metadata, this maintains the creative intent regardless of the device theconsumer uses to listen to it or to view it”.
For Netflix, the team delivered the Netflix IMF package that includes the HDR
file with the Dolby Vision metadata.
Warda says: “We QC all the files and masters that we deliver. With Dolby Vision
and Dolby Atmos, particularly with Rising High, our first Netflix production withthese formats, Petra and Gregor [Bonse] checked the whole thing themselves.

You can rely on the fact that the Dolby process will work and the end productwill be correct. With this Netflix production that is what we have done andwe’ve had a 0% error rate on this project”.
The art of good storytelling
Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos provide more space and subtlety to enablefilmmakers to really explore the nuances of sound and vision. And they
deliver a more lifelike experience that is more enjoyable and immersive forthe audience. From a creative standpoint, having a great Dolby Vision image
master that derives other versions and Dolby Atmos audio maintains thecreative intent and makes life much easier in not having multiple versionsof content.
With the two Dolby technologies at its fingertips, Rotor Film was able tomake Rising High a feast for the senses without forgetting the core value oftelling a good story.