ELIO (2025)
Choir Dolls Programmer
Elio is a Pixar film about a boy whose greatest wish is to be abducted by aliens, and the story follows what happens when his dreams come true!
I began working on the film when my boss (and the score’s composer), Rob Simonsen, asked me to help him figure out a way to use Teenage Engineering’s Choir Dolls as a key instrument in the soundtrack. The Choir Dolls are a series of wooden sculptural figures that house Bluetooth speakers and can either be played via Teenage Engineering’s OP-1 controller, or be allowed to sing their own pre-programmed choral arrangements.
Since there was too much latency involved with using Bluetooth to control so many dolls, I ended up writing a custom Python script to translate MIDI information from Pro Tools into serial messages that could be sent via USB cables into the tiny computers embedded in each doll’s speaker. Teenage Engineering was a huge help, providing me with information and documentation about how the dolls work and communicate.
The dolls were then recorded at the Sony Pictures Studios Scoring Stage and at The Village Studios. For each session, I acted as the dolls’ conductor, troubleshooting issues that arose and adjusting the MIDI data I was sending them, based on the desired performance for each take.
Working on Elio was an incredible opportunity for me to combine my interests in film music and technology with a fun and challenging project, and earned me my first film credit!
