Martin O'Donnell: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Marty000.jpg|thumb|290px|Marty in the ViDoc ''[[Destiny ViDoc: Pathways Out of Darkness|Pathways Out of Darkness]]''.]]
{{Article Quote|John Williams is to movies, as Marty O'Donnell is to video games.}}
[[Image:Martin ODonnell.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Marty in the ViDoc [[O Brave New World]].]]


'''Martin "Marty" O'Donnell''' (aka '''Marty the Elder''') is an American composer known for his work on musical pieces for video games from [[Bungie]] such as the ''Myth series'', ''Oni'', and the Halo series. O'Donnell collaborates with his musical companion [[Michael Salvatori]] for many of the scores. He has also directed voice talent and sound design for the ''Halo'' trilogy.
'''Martin O'Donnell''' was [[Bungie|Bungie's]] Audio Director and a composer of ''[[Destiny|Destiny's]]'' musical score. He is known largely for the scores he composed for Bungie's previous projects, such as ''[[wikipedia:Oni (video game)|Oni]]'' and the ''[[Halopedia:Halo (series)|Halo]]'' series. For ''Destiny'', he collaborated with composer and producer [[Michael Salvatori]] as well as [[Paul McCartney]].
<!-- http://www.music4games.net/Features_Display.aspx?id=45 -->
Starting out writing television and radio jingles, O'Donnell moved to the world of video games when he and his company, Total Audio, did the sound design for the 1997 title ''Riven''. Since then he has scored more than seven video games. His most recently released work is the ''Halo: Reach Original Soundtrack'', featuring the complete score to the award-winning ''Halo: Reach''.


Marty's sound studio at [[Bungie]] is called the "Ivory Towers", lending its nickname to the multiplayer map in Halo 2, Ivory Tower. In addition, this tower is noted to be owned by a character named Lance O'Donnel, another nickname for Marty.  
During the development of ''Destiny'', it was suggested that O'Donnell compose the score for the entire ''Destiny'' franchise all at once. Work began in 2011. However, O'Donnell was perturbed when [[Activision]] used its own music for the E3 2013 ''Destiny'' trailer, believing it had usurped creative control. Bungie CEO [[Harold Ryan]] and the rest of management agreed and filed a complaint with Activision, but the publisher overruled it. Furthermore, neither Bungie or Activision were keen on his releasing ''[[Music of the Spheres]]'' separately from the game. O'Donnell was given a poor employee review in the spring of 2013 in light of his tweeting during the game's E3 presentation that the music was not Bungie's, threatening fellow employees in an attempt to keep the trailer from being posted online and interrupted press briefings. In lieu of his next review in February 2014, Bungie drafted a termination agreement. Under the proposed agreement O'Donnell would continue working on Destiny until work was complete — no later than July 31 of 2014. Considering the deadline unrealistic — sound design could not be completed until the game was in a largely finished and bugless state — and feeling some of the clauses in the agreement, including one that would see him forfeit stock ownership and give up his rights as a company shareholder, O'Donnell declined their proposal but agreed to continue working.<ref name = "Fired">[http://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/09/howhalo-and-destinyscomposer-got-fired-from-bungie/ '''Kotaku''' - ''How Halo And Destiny's Composer Got Fired From Bungie'']</ref>


==Music Career==
In April 11, 2014, he was fired by Bungie.<ref name="terminate">[https://twitter.com/MartyTheElder/status/456303189998841856 '''Twitter''': ''MartyTheElder''] (@MartyTheElder: "''I'm saddened to say that Bungie's board of directors terminated me without cause on April 11, 2014.''")</ref><ref name="terminate2">[https://www.bungie.net/en/News/News?aid=11484 '''Bungie.net''': ''There are those who said this day would never come...'']</ref> O'Donnell launched two lawsuits, one against Ryan, the other against Bungie as a whole. By September, 2015,the arbitrator of the second suit determined that Bungie had violated its contract by forcing O'Donnell to surrender his stock and forego participation in the company's profit sharing plan upon his termination, and was awarded payment and stock.
{{Quote|no=three|q1=What did Marty do, Joe?|q2=Um, I know he wrote something. The music.|q3=The music. Some of the music.|[[Jason Jones]]|[[Joseph Staten]]|Jason Jones|Conversation on Marty O'Donnell's role on the ''Halo 3 Legendary Edition'' commentary.<ref>Developer's commentary on the Halo 3 Legendary Edition bonus disk</ref>}}


O'Donnell began working in television/film. In his early career, O'Donnell wrote the jingles for Mr. Clean and Flintstones Vitamins. According to O'Donnell, after fifteen years of doing TV and radio commercials, he decided he wanted to do game soundtracks.
O'Donnell has since founded his own games studio.<ref name = "Fired"/>


The composer's first foray into game-related work was working as a sound designer for the video game ''Riven'', the sequel to ''Myst''. His company, TotalAudio, also produced the music for Bungie Studios' ''Myth: The Fallen Lords'' in the same year. TotalAudio later composed the music for Valkyrie Studio's ''Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator''; O'Donnell met Steve Downes while working on the game, and the composer would later recommend the voice actor to Bungie for the role of the Master Chief.
== Games ==
*''[[Destiny]]'' -- Composer (2014)
*''[[Halopedia:Halo: Reach|Halo: Reach]]'' -- Audio Director (2010)
*''[[Halopedia:Halo 3: ODST|Halo 3: ODST]]'' -- Audio Director (2009)
*''[[Halopedia:Halo 3|Halo 3]]'' -- Composer (2007)
*''[[Halopedia:Halo 2|Halo 2]]'' -- Sound Lead (2004)
*''[[Halopedia:Halo: Combat Evolved|Halo: Combat Evolved]]'' -- Audio Lead (2001)
*''[[wikipedia:Oni (video game)|Oni]]'' -- Sound Lead (2001)
*''[[wikipedia:Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator|Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator]]'' -- Composer (1999)
*''[[wikipedia:Myth II: Soulblighter|Myth II: Soulblighter]]'' -- Composer (1998)
*''[[wikipedia:Myth: The Fallen Lords|Myth: The Fallen Lords]]'' -- Composer (1997)


Soon after producing the music for ''Myth II'', Bungie contracted O'Donnell for several of Bungie's other projects, including ''ONI'' and ''Halo: Combat Evolved'' (which at the time was code-named ''Blam!'') In 1999, Bungie wanted to re-negotiate the contracts for ''ONI'', and the negotiations resulted in O'Donnell joining the Bungie team, only ten days before the company was bought by Microsoft; he is one of only a handful of Bungie employees who remain working at the company since then. While O'Donnell worked at Bungie, Michael Salvatori handled the business side of TotalAudio. After producing the music for ''ONI'', O'Donnell was tasked with composing the music for Bungie's next project, which would be unveiled at E3 2000. After talking with [[Joseph Staten]], O'Donnell decided the music needed to be "big, exciting, and unusual with a classical orchestra touch to give it some weight and stature. We also wanted it to have some sort of 'ancient' feel to it." The music was recorded and sent to New York the same night the piece was finished; the resulting music became the basis for the ''Halo'' series "highly recognizable" signature sound. O'Donnell would go on and compose the music for the rest of Bungie's Halo games and eventually [[Destiny]].
== References ==
<references/>


==Personal life==
[[Category:People]]  
O'Donnell described his upbringing as "typical"; he received piano lessons and wanted to start a rock band when he reached junior high school. Despite his interest in progressive and fusion rock, O'Donnell studied the classical component of music and composition and received his Masters of Music Degree in composition with honors from the University of Southern California in the early 1980s. He has been married for 30 years to his wife, Marcie, and has two daughters, Alison and Christine. His children were part of a singing choir for the Flintstones Chewable Vitamins commercials, which O'Donnell wrote. O'Donnell is a self-described political conservative, and his fellow co-workers at Bungie described him as the most right-leaning employee at the company.
[[Category:Bungie staff]]
 
==Trivia==
*His favorite movie is ''[[Wikipedia: Ben-Hur (1959 film)|Ben-Hur]]''.
*Whenever Marty is composing in his studio, he hangs a sign on his door that says ''"Email or Die."''<ref>Halo 3 Essentials Disc:"Git Ta Werk" Documentary</ref>
*He drives a blue Acura TLS.
*He is the oldest member of [[Bungie]], hence his nickname, ''the Elder''.
*He has a Bachelor's Degree of Music in composition from the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music.
*He has a Master's Degree of Music in composition from the University of Southern California.
*He was the arch enemy of Frank O'Connor.
*According to other Bungie staff, he's really good at "pushing the coffee cup around".
*Marty is the self-proclaimed Etch-a-sketch champion of Bungie.
 
==Sources==
<references/>
 
==External Links==
*[http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/hedge_martyinterview.html Interview with HBO]
*[http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/h/halo/themakers3.htm Interview with Xbox.com]
*[http://twitter.com/MartyTheElder Martin O'Donnell's Twitter]
*[http://g4tv.com/xplay/videos/27678/G-Phoria-08-Game-of-the-Year.html Thanking G4 for making Halo 3 the Game of the Year]

Latest revision as of 11:23, April 12, 2023

Marty in the ViDoc Pathways Out of Darkness.

Martin O'Donnell was Bungie's Audio Director and a composer of Destiny's musical score. He is known largely for the scores he composed for Bungie's previous projects, such as Oni and the Halo series. For Destiny, he collaborated with composer and producer Michael Salvatori as well as Paul McCartney.

During the development of Destiny, it was suggested that O'Donnell compose the score for the entire Destiny franchise all at once. Work began in 2011. However, O'Donnell was perturbed when Activision used its own music for the E3 2013 Destiny trailer, believing it had usurped creative control. Bungie CEO Harold Ryan and the rest of management agreed and filed a complaint with Activision, but the publisher overruled it. Furthermore, neither Bungie or Activision were keen on his releasing Music of the Spheres separately from the game. O'Donnell was given a poor employee review in the spring of 2013 in light of his tweeting during the game's E3 presentation that the music was not Bungie's, threatening fellow employees in an attempt to keep the trailer from being posted online and interrupted press briefings. In lieu of his next review in February 2014, Bungie drafted a termination agreement. Under the proposed agreement O'Donnell would continue working on Destiny until work was complete — no later than July 31 of 2014. Considering the deadline unrealistic — sound design could not be completed until the game was in a largely finished and bugless state — and feeling some of the clauses in the agreement, including one that would see him forfeit stock ownership and give up his rights as a company shareholder, O'Donnell declined their proposal but agreed to continue working.[1]

In April 11, 2014, he was fired by Bungie.[2][3] O'Donnell launched two lawsuits, one against Ryan, the other against Bungie as a whole. By September, 2015,the arbitrator of the second suit determined that Bungie had violated its contract by forcing O'Donnell to surrender his stock and forego participation in the company's profit sharing plan upon his termination, and was awarded payment and stock.

O'Donnell has since founded his own games studio.[1]

Games[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Kotaku - How Halo And Destiny's Composer Got Fired From Bungie
  2. ^ Twitter: MartyTheElder (@MartyTheElder: "I'm saddened to say that Bungie's board of directors terminated me without cause on April 11, 2014.")
  3. ^ Bungie.net: There are those who said this day would never come...
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