We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tom Hiel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tom, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

A few years back, I was asked by a friend and colleague to score the documentary he was working on for ESPN called “The 51 Dons”. I was brought into their editing suite in Santa Monica, and watched the first act. The story of the ’51 Dons college football team’s winning season, was the story of two African American players Burt Toller, and Ollie Madson, and the racism they endured, especially in games in the south. In College football there were these “gentlemen’s agreements” to bench the African American players in segregated states. The 51 Dons did not do that. Ultimately, the team was undefeated, and was asked to the Orange Bowl, IF they’d agree to not bring Burt Toller and Ollie Madson. The team stood up for their two players and declined to go. This ended up costing the University of San Francisco their football program.

As I’m now teaching at the University of Georgia, in Athens, where I’ve started a Film Composing program, I’ve been brought on to be the supervising composer on the documentary “When the Dogs Left” about the woman, Pastor Nawanna Lewis Miller, who in the early 70’s started the Pamoja / African American student groups at the University: talking about their adversity, and eventual success to this day!

Tom, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a Film and Television composer. I got into the business scoring short films in LA, which led to work on the seminal feature film “Swimming With Sharks” starring Kevin Spacey. This led to working on the hit Television show “The Practice” (ABC, Dylan McDermott). From there I orchestrated and wrote additional music with composers Marco Beltrami, and Mark Mothersbaugh on such films as “Redeye”, “Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys”, “Cursed”, “Angel Eyes”, “Rugrats Go to Paris”, “Rugrats Go Wild”, “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle”. Also worked on the score for “A Plumm Summer” (Paramount, Henry Winkler, Brenda Strong, William Baldwin), and “Under Still Waters” (Jason Clarke, Lake Bell, and Clifton Collins Junior”

With scoring for film and tv, it’s my job to “Help Tell the Story” onscreen with music. As such, I meet with the director and producers and have musical discussions on what kind of sound is going to work for the film. Getting the script early is always helpful, and going on set as well! From there, music is composed typically with samples in a digital audio workstation like Logic. This allows me to preview different ideas composed to picture. Ultimately, with a budget, I take these tracks and orchestrate them for an orchestra and record them. These are typically mixed with some of the electronic sound and then “cut” into the picture by a music editor or editor. From here, the film is mixed, typically on a stage, where last minute changes can be addressed. This process works for television, commercials, and even games!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, it’s the process of composing music here in my studio, and having it reach a much broader audience through Film, TV, Games, and the Concert stage! it’s the idea of connecting with others. That, to me, is the most rewarding aspect of being a creative!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

As I mentioned, I am a Professor at the University of Georgia, in the Music School, where I’ve started a Film and Media scoring program with 2 Certificates (one undergraduate, one graduate). This has not only allowed me to keep scoring films, (my current film “Last Night on Earth” aka “Memento Mori” is currently screening at the Cannes market!), and two other projects coming this fall! But it has also given me opportunities in the concert arena, with two pieces this past year premiered by the reknown UGA Wind Symphony! “Freedom” was a 7 minute collaboration with artist Convict Julie for the Athens Hiphop Harmonic Concert. And “Fragments and Refractions” for Wind ensemble was premiered just this past spring by the UGA Wind Symphony.   

Contact Info:

• Website: https://soundcloud.com/tomhiel
• Instagram: @tomhielcomposer
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-hiel-2858259
• Other: https://soundcloud.com/tomhiel