Tag: Ren Klyce (Sound Designer)

Cut/Daily Meets… Editor Kirk Baxter, ACE

How he cut A House of Dynamite for Kathryn Bigelow and what it’s like to work with a new Director.

Jonny Elwyn
February 3, 2026
Cut/Daily

A conversation about Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite” (and David Fincher’s “The Adventures of Cliff Booth”).

Kirk Baxter, ACE, has cut for David Fincher since The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), picking up two Oscars (The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and a nomination () along the way. He’s also maintained a successful and sought-after commercials editing business the whole time.

Interestingly enough, it was editing her commercial that connected him to Kathryn Bigelow, director of his latest film, A House of Dynamite.

In this special issue of Cut/Daily Meets… you get to hear from the man himself, as I was fortunate enough to chat with him in person, in the middle of his work day on The Adventures of Cliff Booth, Fincher directing Tarantino’s script as a sequel/spin-off/connection to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Listen to the full conversation when you subscribe for free, plus you’ll get a free issue of Cut/Daily in your inbox every Friday.

Highlights from Kirk’s interview:

Introduction
Kirk’s Location & Current Projects
The Film’s Ending & Political Message
What Did the Dailies Look Like?
Split Screens vs. Found Footage Approach
Editing the Missile Countdown Scenes
The Three Acts & Secretary Baker’s Face
Matching Audio Across Different Chapters
Working with Score & Kathryn’s Initial Reaction
The Composer Process & Volker Bertelmann
How Do You Decide When Music Comes In?
Creating the Chapter Title Cards
What Was It Like Working with Kathryn Bigelow?
How Do You Choose Your Projects?
Cutting Commercials Between Films
Evolution as an Editor & Avoiding Showiness
Do Oscar Wins Change Imposter Syndrome?
Editing Animation for Love, Death & Robots
The IMDb Holiday Reunion Credit
Future Projects & David Fincher’s Next Film

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‘Fight Club’ Sound Designer Ren Klyce Revisits A Classic

Jack Giroux
October 29, 2024
Immersive Media

Fight Club is a cinematic time machine. The film captured the essence of 1999, and, 25 years later, filmmaker David Fincher‘s vision for Chuck Palahniuk‘s novel continues to resonate, cranking up its unsettling relevance in a commercialized and violent world.

The movie hits just as hard today as it did back then.

Fight Club remains as overwhelming as the narrator’s life. The sound is relentless; the world almost never quiets down. It’s a controlled yet unrelenting experience for the eyes and ears. Much of the credit goes to sound designer Ren Klyce, who is once again working on the film, remastering it with Fincher & Co. Before attending MPSE Presents: Fight Club 25th Anniversary Screening, Klyce spoke with Immersive Media about his past and present experiences with Fight Club.

Read the full interview

Filmmaking Masterclass: Recreating THE KILLER with Anamorphic DZO PAVO Lenses

June 21, 2024
Media Division

With The Killer, David Fincher created a masterpiece of cinematic storytelling.

In the first act – the Paris hit – Fincher and his team combined three sets in post. They also added typical artifacts like horizontal flares and distortions to give The Killer an anamorphic vibe.

To learn and explore, we set out to recreate the climax of the first act of The Killer, BUT to do it for real: One real location and real anamorphic lenses. We even developed a way to do film through a real rifle scope – anamorphic of course.

This was possible as DZO just introduced three new focal lengths to their awesome PAVO lineup of 2x anamorphic lenses, a 135mm, a 180mm, and a 65mm Macro. This new focal length and the general short minimum focus distance of the PAVO made them the ideal companions to shoot our short.

We take you behind the scenes, share our experiences with you, and, of course, show you the result: “The Killers” gives the original a slightly different spin…

Disclaimer: We collaborated with DZOfilm and got the full PAVO set of 9 lenses to shoot our short. As always, we strive to give you our honest opinion based on our experience and tests.

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Links to Collaborators and Partners: Morty Films, Chris Karibu (behind the scenes footage), Matthias Herrmann & Valentin Loustalet (location visit in Paris), Tim from Lemac Film and Digital (rentals for the Fujinon images), Artemple (VFX Breakdown).

00:00: Intro & Contents
02:48: The Killer / A Cinematic Masterpiece
03:44: Subjective Camera Movement
05:00: Subjective Sound Design
05:41: Subjective Edit
06:25: Paris: A Real Fake Location
10:08: Faking the Anamorphic Look|
12:14: Reimagining The Killer
15:49: Gear: The Lenses
23:18: The Rifle Scope
25:01: Gear: The Cameras
27:45: Feature: The Killers
31:08: A Second Killer & Verdict
33:16: Thank You
34:02: Member Shout Out

The Killer: Storytelling Through Sound

February 2, 2024
Failure On Command

David Fincher’s The Killer is a masterclass in filmmaking, particularly through its sound design, which does much to distinguish itself from modern mainstream movies. In this video essay, I discuss how The Killer’s sound design aids in its storytelling, allowing it to communicate information in a unique, gripping manner. I’ll also briefly touch on what makes this movie so competent and effective on a technical level.

In Conversation: David Fincher and The Crew of “The Killer” in New York

Tomris Laffly
October 28, 2023

David Fincher discusses the making of The Killer with Sound Designer Ren Klyce, Editor Kirk Baxter, and Writer Andrew Kevin Walker, after the screening for the press in New York. Hosted by Tomris Laffly.

(Video clips recorded with a phone from the audience, with not very good audio and, for some reason, with each video clip edited in twice).

In Conversation: David Fincher and Michael Fassbender with Rian Johnson on “The Killer” at the Academy Museum

Rian Johnson
November 15, 2023
Netflix: Behind the Streams

Director David Fincher and actor Michael Fassbender discuss making The Killer with moderator Rian Johnson at The Academy Museum in Los Angeles.

Watch The Killer on Netflix

In Conversation: David Fincher and The Crew of “The Killer” in New York

October 27, 2023
Netflix: Behind the Streams

David Fincher discusses the making of The Killer with Writer Andrew Kevin Walker, Editor Kirk Baxter, and Sound Designer Ren Klyce, after the “Tastemaker” screening for The Academy at the Whitby Hotel in New York.

Watch The Killer on Netflix

In Conversation: David Fincher and The Crew of “The Killer” at the Academy Museum

Elvis Mitchell
October 24, 2023
Netflix: Behind the Streams

Director David Fincher, Editor Kirk Baxter, Writer Andrew Kevin Walker, Sound Designer Ren Klyce, and Director of Photography Erik Messerschmidt, discuss their film The Killer with moderator Elvis Mitchell at The Academy Museum in Los Angeles.

Watch the conversation with subtitles in French, Spanish, and Italian.

Watch The Killer on Netflix

David Fincher and Sound Designer Ren Klyce at The Egyptian Theater: “The Killer” Screening and Q&A

Froilan Fuentes

Jim Hemphill
November 9, 2023
West Coast POPCast (YouTube)

The Egyptian Theatre re-opened in Hollywood with a special screening of The Killer, followed by a Q&A with Director David Fincher and Sound Designer Ren Klyce hosted by Jim Hemphill.

‘Ferrari,’ ‘Society of the Snow’ and ‘The Killer’ Deliver the Sound of Trouble

TheWrap magazine: The sound teams on those three movies had to conjure up car wrecks, a plane crash and some assassinations.

Steve Pond
December 15, 2023
The Wrap

Over the last few years, the Oscar sound category has recognized war movies like “All Quiet on the Western Front,” science fiction movies like “Dune” and musicals like “West Side Story,” among others. There’s no formula for how to use sound effectively, but three of this year’s gems do share a sense that their sonic palette puts us in dangerous places: On the racetracks of 1950s Italy, in the frigid expanses of the Andes and inside the unsettling cranium of Michael Fassbender.

Read the full profile