Blake Neely: Last News

Masters of the Air is the third World War II miniseries from Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, following Band of Brothers and The Pacific. Goetzman said Spielberg’s father had been pushing them to do the series about WWII pilots since their first.

Bassist Tony Kanal has embarked on a new career as a TV composer. But he had to put that aside for a special date tonight at Coachella with his friends in No Doubt.

Jon Burlingame For a film or TV composer, the most difficult assignments are often documentaries. There is usually very little money, and finding the right tone and musical approach can be a weeks- or months-long challenge. Three of this year’s entries in the Emmy category for original documentary score are exemplary for their musical depiction of people and places: John Powell’s music for “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” about the actor and his Parkinson’s condition; Blake Neely’s score for “Pamela, a Love Story,” about former “Baywatch” star Pamela Anderson; and Erica Procunier’s music for the three-part nature series “Great Lakes Untamed.”

In the new documentary Good Night Oppy, the Mars Opportunity rover becomes the scrappy robot that could: an instrument platform that trundles across a rusty landscape millions of miles away, searching for alien life signs, and outlasts its own projected existence by almost 15 years.

The 7th annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards unveiled its winners in a gala event that was live-streamed from New York City. It was Amazon Studios’ Good Night Oppy that was the biggest winner of the night taking home five trophies including the top accolade of the night — winning Gold for Best Documentary Feature.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity — the stars of Ryan White’s inspirational and wonderfully engaging “Good Night Oppy” — were designed to last 90 days on the Red Planet. Instead, they went right on exploring the alien terrain for years, sending invaluable data and images back to NASA the whole time. For scientists, students and astronomy buffs around the world, the two robots became mascots for a historic mission, the goal of which was to find evidence of past water on Earth’s nearest neighbor, for that in turn could suggest the possibility of life on Mars. To call the MER experiment a success would be an understatement, but it wasn’t until this delightful documentary that a more important point became clear: As it turns out, for nearly 15 years, there was life on Mars: Within the opening minutes of “Good Night Oppy,” White convinces us that these two solar-powered, remote-controlled research tools weren’t just machines but sentient characters with personalities, every bit as relatable as Pixar’s lovable trash compactor, WALL•E, or the Johnny 5 droid from “Short Circuit.”

Jon Burlingame The choices for Emmy’s music branch this year are overwhelming, with hundreds of series now available via broadcast, cable and streaming options. Here are six of the most talked-about possibilities for nomination in the original score categories.The Flight Attendant“The Flight Attendant” (HBO Max) featured one of the season’s most creative scores, courtesy of composer Blake Neely. At his initial meeting with producers, Neely remarked that he saw the hard-partying title character Cassie as “a broken child,” and thought “child instruments” such as toy pianos might make an interesting musical choice.As Neely recalls: “Then I upped the ante and said, ‘How about only percussion?’” They loved the idea.