178 - Oscar Nominee Laura Karpman on the Music of American Fiction

Five-time Emmy Award-winning composer Laura Karpman joins guest host Jon Burlingame to discuss her first Academy Award® nomination for the music of “American Fiction.” Karpman took a rather unique approach to composing this “jazzy” score, by thinking of the actors’ voices as musical instruments themselves. “There's a lot of dialogue. And the way the score is constructed is using the actors — particularly Erika Alexander, who plays Coraline, his love interest, and then Jeffrey [Wright], who plays Monk — using their voices as musical instruments. Jeffrey has a great tenor sax vibe, and Coraline has got this sexy alto. And so when they speak, it's under a rhythm section. And then the saxophones and Elena Pinderhughes on flute will come in to kind of move around that. But I did think of the actors as part of the jazz combo, with a rhythm section backing them up.” —Laura Karpman, Composer, “American Fiction” Be sure to check out “American Fiction” ahead of the Academy Awards, live from the Dolby Theatre® on March 10th! For more awards season coverage, please subscribe to The Dolby Creator Talks 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 .