Composer Rob Simonsen joins guest host Jon Burlingame to discuss his sweeping and emotionally rich score for Pixar’s “Elio.” The composer shares how he approached scoring the story of a young boy making first contact with aliens, weaving together emotional warmth, cosmic wonder, and a sense of fun. He also discusses how Dolby Atmos® helped shape the immersive quality of the soundtrack, after being a bit of a skeptic of the technology at first.

“Scott Michael Smith, who recorded and mixed the score, said early on that we were going to record in Atmos, and that's really the way to do it… I have to admit, I was a little like, ‘eh, do we need to do Atmos? I don't know.’ And then Scott played me some Atmos files… and again, I am not being paid to say this. I was literally blown away… It gave me chills. I mean, I'm not sure what witchcraft is going on to make it as kind of amazing as it is, but I was really sold.”

—Rob Simonsen, Composer, “Elio”

Be sure to check out “Elio,” now in theaters and Dolby Cinemas®, in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®.

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode on YouTube.

Learn more about the Dolby Creator Lab and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Mix engineer Alex Gamble joins guest host Ben Givarz to discuss the creative and technical process behind mixing FKA twigs' new album Eusexua in Dolby Atmos®. He shares how his immersive mixes in Dolby Atmos enhance the record’s intimacy, rhythm, and vocal playfulness — pushing boundaries while staying true to FKA twigs’s artistic vision.

“At that [early] stage, where I’m assessing the stems versus the master, I’m not trying to go overboard to do an exact match — because things are going to change once I start panning things around. Timbre and transients, and things like that — they change depending on where you choose to pan things in an Atmos environment. Things came in sounding so great. The productions were great: very intimate, very cerebral. Really big scene changes in a lot of these songs… and a lot of glitchy, cool elements too. That’s one of the things I latched onto during my first listen… thinking, this is stuff that’ll really be interesting to pull into three dimensions and see if I can build upon the production.”

—Alex Gamble, Dolby Atmos Mix Engineer, Eusexua by FKA twigs

Stay connected!

- You can listen to FKA twigs - Eusexua as well as many other classic and contemporary artists in Dolby Atmos, on enabled streaming services.

- Follow FKA twigs on Instagram and YouTube

- Learn more about Alex Gamble and his studio

Interested in creating content in Dolby Atmos? Check out our FREE resources to give you a jump start!

- Dolby Atmos Music Accelerator: https://www.dolby.com/creator-lab/music-accelerator/

- Dolby Atmos Essentials Course: https://learning.dolby.com/

- Dolby Atmos Music Support: https://professional.dolby.com/music/Professional-resources/

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode on YouTube.

Learn more about the Dolby Creator Lab and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

NOTE: This interview contains spoilers from both Black Mirror: “USS Callister” episodes.

Join us as we boldly go behind the scenes of Black Mirror: “USS Callister: Into Infinity,” with the creative team behind the episode. In this panel, the director, composer, supervising sound editor, and VFX supervisor share how they brought the nightmarish galaxy of Robert Daly back to life with bold visuals, cinematic music, and immersive sound, as well as the reasons why this became the very first Black Mirror sequel ever.

“It's really tricky when you come back and do a sequel of something. None of us wanted to work on something that was going to be any lesser than the original. And the original is… speaking for myself… the closest thing to a perfect episode. It has such a great beginning, middle and end. And it has such a great conclusion, it feels so wrapped up. Yet it's still a great launching point into a whole new recognizable world. But it's its own IP. And so I always knew that it had the potential to be a series or a sequel. I knew that I wanted to explore these characters in that world even further.”

—Toby Haynes, Director, Black Mirror: “USS Callister: Into Infinity”

Joining today’s conversation:

- Toby Haynes - Director

- Tom Jenkins - Supervising Sound Editor

- James MacLachlan - VFX Supervisor

- Daniel Pemberton - Composer

Be sure to check out Black Mirror: “USS Callister: Into Infinity,” now streaming on Netflix, in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®.

Please subscribe to Dolby Creator Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also check out the video for this episode on YouTube.

Learn more about the Dolby Creator Lab and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.