How Dungeon Beach Scored at Sundance with 2 Indie Hits

Above: Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg in A Real Pain. 

On the surface, there’s not much that’s similar about Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw The TV Glow and Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain. The former is an otherworldly piece of film whose themes pit nostalgia against reality, whereas the latter is an endearing, dryly comic take on identity and historical trauma. But one thing that does unite the two feature films is that they’ve both been met with buzz and acclaim upon their premieres at Sundance 2024. And another shared trait is that their sound was created and supplied by Dungeon Beach, the post-production studio based out of Brooklyn. 

There’s a palpable fanfare for both films - A Real Pain became the first major deal of this year’s festival after it was acquired by Searchlight for $10m, and I Saw The TV Glow is on its way to cult-classic status after a slew of strong reviews. The Guardian’s Benjamin Lee described the A24-produced feature as “buzzy and brilliant”, whilst a Letterboxd review lauded a “nightmarish and visceral examination of queer identity and how the media casts confusion, doubt, and fear on coming out”, to give a flavour of the film’s praise. 

From Dungeon Beach’s perspective, the two projects represented equal but utterly unique challenges. Firstly, I Saw The TV Glow offered the team a thrilling opportunity to place sound at the forefront of the audience’s experience. 

“It was an intensely creative project for us, because the sound felt like a character in its own right”, recalls Tim Korn, sound designer, supervising sound editor, and partner at Dungeon Beach. “It’s constantly setting the context of what’s happening. Without wanting to give anything away, there are a few separate worlds of existence and the sound attempts to establish and trail those concepts”. 

Above: a promotional still from I Saw The TV Glow, directed by Jane Schoenbrun

Sound design, dialogue, and final mix for I Saw The TV Glow were all looked after by Dungeon Beach, and the studio enlisted the help of Alchemy Post Sound to create the foley. Meanwhile, Formosa Group also collaborated for the final mix stage.

Meanwhile, A Real Pain posed a more subtle - but no less creative - sound challenge. This time, dialogue proved to be the focus with Dungeon Beach partner Jennifer Ruffalo handling that component of the project, just as she did with I Saw The TV Glow. Jennifer was joined by mixer Dan Timmons (whose credits include Past Lives) on both projects. 

“It’s a very dialogue-heavy film, where Jesse Eisenberg is joined by Keiran Culkin on a trip to Poland to see where their Grandmother lived before moving to the US”, explains Tim. “Instead of focusing on sound effects, our priority was the dialogue and ensuring it was clean and consistent enough for the jokes to land”. 

Again, Dungeon Beach was responsible for all aspects of the film’s sound - this time working alongside Aeroplan in Poland for the foley. “They helped us in getting some sound effects which were actually relatively native to Poland, to give the film an even more authentic feel”, notes Tim.

As for which film presented the greater challenge, the team is unclear. “It’s a bit like comparing a sculpture to a painting”, says Jennifer. “Both require a big creative push to get the outcome you want. What I will say is that Jesse Eisenberg made a joke on stage about A Real Pain being finished ten days before audience’s saw it… well, that was a joke but it also wasn’t a joke!”. 

There’s a passion and sense of craft in both projects which is reflected in the way the Dungeon Beach team look back on their work. The dialogue in A Real Pain carries the narrative “to the extent that it’s almost like a stage play”, as Tim describes it. Meanwhile, I Saw The TV Glow offers up plenty of moments for the story to breathe - where the sound expands to fill those spaces. 

The early success of the two films is another affirming moment for Dungeon Beach, whose team also includes the Emmy-winning talent of sound designer John Fuhrer (The Bear, Kingdom of Silence) as well as Julia Shirar, whose sound credits include Moonlight and Lost In Translation.