RIT's music man finds his soundtrack to success
Colin O'Brien, an adept music composer and filmmaker, was able to exercise all of his interests at RIT.
When students in RIT’s School of Film and Animation needed music composed for their films the last few years, they knew who to turn to.
Since arriving at RIT as a Performing Arts Scholar from Berkeley, Calif., the music of Colin O’Brien ’25 (film and animation BFA - production option) has been featured in dozens of student-made documentaries, animated tales, and live-action films. This year alone, he wrote an hour’s worth of original scores.
O’Brien’s background as a talented guitarist and pianist — he also has played the trombone and French horn — has him in high demand. It also empowered him to further exercise his passion for music and film.
“If I want another excuse to write music, there are so many people who need music for films so it’s awesome to be able to always work on a bunch of stuff,” O’Brien said. “Right now I’m trying three or four different styles of music at the same time, which can be a lot, but it’s also rewarding to have all that practice.”
Shannon Lesch '26
O'Brien demos "Transient" at Imagine RIT 2025 — an exhibit that visualizes piano notes through colorful videos and animations. He originally made the project in Christine Banna's Radical Cinema Workshop class.
For his capstone project, O’Brien is veering slightly from his role as the School of Film and Animation’s resident music composer. He is mixing the sound for everything in an animated film directed by Jane Hudson ’25, The Hotel, as well as Turn Table, a film by Nash Snyder ’25 that has 14 songs from Rochester-area musicians.
“It’s been a fun change of pace,” O’Brien said, “With the way the film program is set up, it is very much learning by doing, which I thrive on.”
O'Brien, left, plays guitar alongside bassist and fellow RIT student Will Hagele in the band Plus One.
In his third year at RIT, O’Brien’s interests for music and film collided to reach a creative crescendo. He wrote and directed Stuffy: The Musical, created with close friends and like-minded collaborators. The musical short film aired on local TV as part of RIT Shorts, Rochester WXXI’s series showcasing select RIT films.
O’Brien developed his concept for Stuffy following an experience with his peer mentor in the film and animation program, Andrew Ragan ’23. Ragan’s capstone film, The Cadenza, featured the first-ever film-scoring session in RIT’s MAGIC Spell Studios.
“I knew it was possible and I kind of wanted to do that now,” O’Brien said.
That set the stage for the making of Stuffy the next year.
“I just wanted to make something fun,” O’Brien said. “I had this group of people I wanted to work with and I wanted to make it a musical.”
O'Brien with the star of "Stuffy" on a location scouting mission for the film.
The same year he made Stuffy, O’Brien spent a semester immersed in the Los Angeles entertainment scene as part of the RIT in LA program. He interned at Hungry Man Productions, where he assisted on numerous sets, including a star-studded Super Bowl commercial for BMW with Christopher Walken and Usher.
O’Brien said he always felt comfortable on the professional production sets since every RIT set he’s been on authentically simulates a real-world environment.
“RIT is amazing in terms of how things operate. I got there and I was just like, ‘I know how all these things are supposed to go,’” O’Brien said. “It made me really grateful for my education. I felt confident being a production assistant on everything. I understood how it all worked.”
