Thomas Dolby, most well known for his 1982 New Wave hit “She Blinded me with Science,” is joining the Hopkins faculty as the first ever Homewood Professor of the Arts. Dolby is currently preparing to take the reigns of the Sound on Film course, which focuses on the creation of film soundtracks.
“I’m delighted. It’s a really excellent faculty and a great school. I think the course is very intriguing and I hope to take it to a new level,” Dolby said.
Now in it’s third year, Sound on Film is designed to foster collaboration between the Film and Media Studies Program and the Peabody Conservatory. Dolby plans to make use of his experience merging music with film, technology and science as part of the University’s drive to promote cross-disciplinary research.
“I know that Hopkins students have a reputation for being very adventurous in terms of the courses that they select,” Dolby said. “[Sound on Film] is a good way to mix up students from different disciplines. In addition to that, I think that the experience that I have in all of those different worlds, along with software creation and entrepreneurship and live performance, I think will give an interesting edge to the course.”
With his knowledge of current technology, Dolby hopes to instruct students while keeping real-world applications in mind.
“I’m going to take a very practical approach,” Dolby said. “Technology and equipment available to filmmakers are really undergoing a revolution at the moment to the extent that for a few hundred dollars you could be making professional quality films. That is very empowering to aspiring filmmakers, because instead of trying to break into the industry you can actually go out and do it yourself.”
Dolby stressed the importance of sound to the overall quality of films. He feels it is an often-overlooked aspect in the filmmaking process.
“Although the visual skills of filmmaking are pretty sort of self-explanatory in that you can just have a go, and you work at it until you get better at it, sound is an absolutely crucial piece of the film-going experience and it’s often over-looked by aspiring filmmakers,” Dolby said. “Audiences are very intolerant of low quality sound. So, my approach to this is a very hands on, practical, approach of how do you get a high quality sound track made for your film? And that involves collaboration between several parties: the filmmaker, the composer and the sound designers,” he added.
Dolby’s appointment as Homewood Professor of the Arts was brought about by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s $1.2 million grant to launch collaboration between the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Peabody Institute.
“[This position] would provide a liaison between Peabody [with] their composers and recording arts students and our filmmakers,” Director of the Film and Media Studies Program Linda DeLibero said.
In January, Dolby expressed his interest in the position via email to DeLibero, and the news came as a welcomed surprise.
“This can’t be the same Thomas Dolby,” DeLibero said. “I was a big fan of his music and I had also known that he had done all these other things in the intervening decades. I just thought that this is an incredible opportunity.”
Now moving from the stage to the classroom, Dolby believes his career move will provide Hopkins students with the skills he had to learn on his own.
“When I started out in the music business, I left school very young and I basically had to plunge straight into the business. I had nobody to really mentor me and I sort of learned by doing,” Dolby said. “I always felt that when I got to a certain point in my career that I’d like to pass on my experience and wisdom, hopefully. It’s nice to be in a position now to share that with a young generation of filmmakers.”
Transitioning to his new home in Baltimore, Dolby is excited to help unlock the city’s potential.
“It’s going to be a real adventure,” Dolby said. “From what I’ve seen of the city, I really like it. I know that it has challenges, but it also has a considerable up-side. I think that compared to New York or Los Angeles, which are very lived-in and very evolved, that Baltimore has really got unlimited possibilities.”
Also planning to aid the community, Dolby hopes to get involved with the Homewood Community Partners Initiative’s program in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District, which is working with the Maryland Institute College for Art (MICA) to renovate the historic 10 East North Avenue and Parkway Theaters.
“I think that the Station North project is going to be a great way to get immersed in the community because that’s an area that really had a glorious past. I think that it’s in everybody’s interests to see [the area] come back from the condition it’s in at the moment,” Dolby said. “Out of that, we’ll get a fabulous performance space and a fabulous home for the film department for Hopkins and MICA.”
Sophomore Henry Bernstein, a Film and Media Studies and Writing Seminars double major, was excited for Dolby’s arrival.
“I think its awesome that the school is bringing in someone to my major who is so accomplished,” Bernstein said. “I can’t wait to take one of his classes.”
