Recent News
"Freedom Riders" premiered on American Experience on May 16, 2011.. - May 31, 2011
Tom Phillips scored the American Experience film "Freedom Riders" for producer Stanley Nelson. The 2 hour documentary incorporated a number of OBT Music cues which were then customized, and the rest of the score was originally composed. The film was accepted into the 2010 Sundance Film Festival where it premiered and played to packed houses while garnering top shelf reviews. It has since screened nationally in theaters and many film festivals. It aired on PBS' American Experience on May 16,2011, the 50th anniversary of the actual event of the Freedom Riders. The film is about the bus trips into the deep South in 1961 by a courageous core of Black and White men and women whose objective was to test the integration laws that supposedly did away with the Jim Crow era. The film chronicles the violence that unfortunately awaited them along the way. The score produced a number of pieces that are now included in the OBT Music library.
OBT Music Wins National Emmy - May 2, 2010
OBT Music and Tom Phillips scored the 2009 Outstanding Science and Nature Documentary Emmy winning film "5 Years on Mars", a National Geographic Channel film produced by veteran filmmaker Mark Davis. The film covers the two Mars Rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, that have lasted over 5 years, 4 and a half years longer than they were expected to last. The music score was about 25% straight from the library, 25% adapted from the library, and 50% originally composed. All of the originally composed pieces are now in the library, mostly in the Science Fiction and Film Score > Contemporary categories.
Boston Museum of Science's Planetarium gets signature theme from OBT.. - February 7, 2011
OBT Music composed a custom 6 minute long signature theme for the Charles Hayden Planetarium at the Boston Museum of Science. Tom Martin and Tom Phillips composed to a Quicktime animatic representation of what will be projected on the inside of the dome. The Planetarium is completely refurbished with a $9 million budget which was used to install a surround sound system, a new Zeiss projection system, and a truly anechoic environment for the theater. The signature or "Preshow" visuals take visitors to the Planetarium on a journey from the comfort of inside the dome to outside of our galaxy and beyond. The music composed for this journey captures the excitement and wonder of the journey. The premiere is scheduled for early February 9, 2011.
American Experience "Dinosaur Wars" premiered January 17, 2011 on PBS - February 6, 2011
Tom Phillips scored the American Experience episode entitled "Dinosaur Wars" which premiered on PBS on January 17, 2011 on PBS. Taking place in the late 1800's, the film chronicles the paleontologists Othniel Marsh and Edward Cope whose ground breaking discoveries ignited dinosaur mania throughout the world, but also whose tragic and senseless enmity for each other nearly derailed the science of evolution. The music plays out like a Victorian melodrama set in the wild West with intrigue and suspense as the two paleontologists made remarkable discoveries while wrestling with their adversary. The OBT Film music Library contains many pieces that were developed for this film in either the Classical category of Film Score > Period > 1800's (mid to late).
Tom Phillips of OBT Music is currently scoring "Jesse Owens" for American Experience... - August 27, 2011
Tom Phillips of OBT Music has begun to compose the score for "Jesse Owens", an American Experience (PBS) documentary film being currently produced by Laurens Grant and Stanley Nelson of Firelight Media. The film covers the life of Jesse Owens, once dubbed the "world's fastest man", whose 4 Olympic gold medals in the 1936 Berlin games were an outstanding achievement especially given the political and racial environment of the times. Unfortunately, he was unable to capitalize on his fame due to the racial climate of the day in the US and struggled for years. Stanley Nelson and Tom Phillips have teamed up for some impressive award winning films for American Experience, including Emmy and Sundance Film Festival winner "The Murder of Emmett Till", "Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple", and "Freedom Riders".
Tom Martin contributes to "Heaven+Earth+Joe Davis" screening at the Independent Film Festival Boston - June 1, 2011
Peter Sasowsky's independent documentary feature film "Heaven+Earth+Joe Davis" screened at the 2011 Independent Film Festival Boston. Peter enlisted Tom Martin of OBT Music to shape and customize a great deal of music from the library to fit the film. The best way to describe the film is to quote the film's website: it "documents the life of an artist who is driven to pursue questions that can only be answered in the space where science and art lose their individual distinction". Peter and Tom have worked together for years on many film projects encompassing a diverse collection of styles. "Heaven+Earth+Joe Davis" screened at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, MA to favorable reviews and good crowds.
"Death of a Mars Rover" airs June 2 on National Geographic Channel at 8pm... - June 1, 2011
The music score for Death of a Mars Rover was taken entirely from the OBT Music library. The National Geographic Channel film that premieres June 2 at 8pm is about NASA's decision to end the Mars rover program. The rovers were only expected to last 6 months but have lasted more than 6 years and gathered invaluable clues to the Mars' past and perhaps the future of the Earth. The film was scored with the library, making use of pieces that fit exactly, or pieces that needed editing to fit, or pieces that needed some gentle alterations to fit. Tom Phillips worked with producer Mark Davis to complete the score in the span of a week.....and it is a virtual wall to wall music score reflecting the character of National Geographic Channel's identity.
News about current and upcoming OBT Music projects... - January 21, 2012
Tom Phillips and Tom Martin of OBT Music are currently engaged in composing original scores for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, National Geographic Channel, and Vital Pictures. In April, Tom Phillips will begin work on a three hour American Experience (PBS) with Apograph Productions. To protect the privacy of our filmmaker clients, that's all we can say here. But we'll update and elaborate as soon as we are able!
Freedom Riders Wins Three 2011 Primetime Emmys, Scored by Tom Phillips and OBT Music - September 12, 2011
Freedom Riders, a 2 hour American Experience program produced by Stanley Nelson and Firelight Media has won three Creative Arts Primetime Emmys. The awards were for Best Nonfiction Filmmaking, Best Editing, and Best Writing. Tom Phillips and OBT Music scored the film which also premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010.