A Few Words for the Songwriters/Artists Looking for Film Placements

I received several CD’s this weekend from aspiring songwriters who are looking to get their music into films. One in particular inspired me to make this the subject of this week’s blog.

It wasn’t until I opened the envelope and examined the contents that I shook my head and asked why. The problem with this submission was the songwriter/artist did not provide their contact information. Other than the snail mail address on the package, there was no way to contact this person using the current technology…such as e-mail or the telephone.

As I drove away from the post office and put the CD in, the music started playing and it was pretty good. This is really rare as I get close to 50 CD a month and a majority of the music is not good. I’m not being mean; it’s just the plain truth.

If you are serious about your songwriting career, there are things that you need to take seriously. If you don’t know enough about your career, then you need to do a bit of homework. I’m not talking about the creative side (songwriting, playing your instrument, etc.). I’m talking about the administrative side.

When a music supervisor is looking for music to clear for a show that airs tonight, they don’t have time to hunt you down. They need your contact information now and you need to be ready to talk business.

Here are a few things you need to accomplish on the administrative side of your career:

1. Register your work with the US Copyright office.
2. Become affiliated with ASCAP, BMI or SESAC or whichever performing rights society is available in your country.
3. Once affiliated, register your songs with the performing rights society that you join.
4. Make sure any collaboration is accompanied with a co-writer agreement outlining ownership/credit splits. This applies to the publishing side and the master recording side.
5. If you are part of a band, have all band members sign a Band Partnership Agreement. This covers who owns the equipment, song ownership/credit splits and other things that could be disputed should band members start disputing things.
6. Learn as much about music publishing, record labels, music supervisors, film & music and just about anything that your music can be involved in. The more you know the better you’ll be when it comes time to negotiate with those that want to use your music.
7. Make sure you are on the cue sheet of any film or TV placement and insure that you get a copy for your records.

These are just some of the things you can do. Networking with your peers and other professionals in your field will be an education in itself. Use Google to do research. You just have to be driven!

These are just a few things that you’ll have to do outside the creative box. If your music kicks butt, but you don’t know what to do or say when it’s time to license your music, you could loose out on opportunities to generate some cash flow and royalties down the road.

Knowing how to talk the talk gives music supervisor, music publisher, advertisers and other interested in licensing your music the confidence to know that they are dealing with someone who understands the business. In the end, you’ll look back and be glad that you made the effort to take your career to the next level. You’ll jump for joy when you get that first royalty check in the mail.

So You Want To Be A Music Supervisor

After receiving another e-mail yesterday from someone wanting advice about how to become a music supervisor, I decided to make this the topic of this week’s blog. I get e-mails, MySpace messages and letters in the mail from aspiring music supervisors from all over the world. Many even live in big music and film cities such as New York and LA where there are many music supervisors at their disposal. I guess I can’t complain.

The first thing I’ll say is, “don’t quit your day job.” If you are just getting started, you have a long road ahead of you. If you are involved in some aspect of the music and film industry, you at least have some idea of how these industries work. It will be a long time (many years) before you’ll see enough money to make a living. This means you’ll have to work your day job and then carve out time to work your music supervisor job in the evenings, on your days off and the weekends. This can impact your family life, your social life or anything else you do when you’re not working your day job. What you’ll need is drive and perseverance and support from your spouse/partner, your kids and your friends.

I’m going to take the approach that you are completely new to this field. The first thing you should do is sit at your computer, go to google.com and type in one or all of these search terms: “Music Supervision,” “Music Supervisors,” “Music Clearance,” and “Music Rights.” Any of these will get you started. You’ll get a lot of hits. Start reading and as you learn more, use Google to research new terms and other bits of information that you find. Go to a book store or your local library and read. There are a lot of books out there about Music Supervision, Music Clearance and other topics within this field.

A good resource to read that will get you started is the book, Music Supervision: The Complete Guide to Selecting Music for Movies, TV, Games and New Media. This book has an associated website called Music Supervision Central and a Yahoo Group called supervisingmusic. I’m one of the moderators of the Yahoo group and we are trying to get group up and running again. I’m in the process of revamping it and making it a place where you can go to learn more about how to licenses music for your films or licensing your music for placement in films. Click on the link above and join if you’re interested…and you should be if you are serious about getting into this fascinating field.

There are other resources out there that you can find on-line at Amazon or at Barns & Noble. You just have to do some homework.

If you live in a city where the film and music industry is alive, you need to start networking. Introduce yourself to filmmakers. Let them know that you are just starting out as a music supervisor and you are looking for work. With your research and studies, you should be able to talk halfway intelligently with your “potential employer.” Don’t mislead anyone by making them think that you are an experienced music supervisor. Tell them upfront that you are just getting started and you’re looking for an opportunity to work on films to learn more.

These early job opportunities will most likely be non-paid positions. That’s why you should not quit your day job. Don’t worry about making money at first. Most of these films will not have a music budget and could not afford to pay you anyway. Those that can will expect you to know what you are doing in order to earn the fee that they will pay you.

While you’re out networking, you’ll want to introduce yourself to musicians and songwriters. They are always looking for an opportunity to license their music in films and TV. Do the same with them and let them know that you’re starting out and most of the film opportunities will not be able to pay a license fee. If they are unsigned, independent artist, then they should be happy to get one of their songs in a film.

Working on these low budget films is the best way to get started. However, you will have to prepare yourself for the bigger movies that have music budgets. They will most likely need you to clear songs from upper tier artist. This is when you’ll be submitting your license request forms to the big publishers and record labels such as Sony, EMI, Warner Bros. and Universal. This is when you’ll learn a lot about how things work.

As you progress in your pursuit to become a full fledged music supervisor, you will need to know the ins and outs of music licensing, music rights, copyright laws, license agreements, cue sheets, filling out and submitting synch and master recording license request forms, synchronization (or synch) licenses, master recording licenses, negotiation licensing fees, build relationships with major and independent publishers and record labels. These are many of the tasks that fall under the administrative side of music supervision. These are also terms you can use when searching on Google.

On the creative side, you’ll find music that is creatively and financially applicable to the film or show you are working on. You’ll work with the director to spot the film for potential music cues. You’ll work with the director and composer to map out the musical score for the film. Facilitate the recording of original music written specifically for the film or show.

If this is a field you’re truly interested in getting involved with, get started now. There’s a lot to learn. If you really want to be a full blown music supervisor, you’ll need to learn all aspects of the field. Once you get to the point where you are hired on a film that has distribution, it will be your job to insure that all of the music clearance deliverables are accurate and ready to be handed over to the distributor. You don’t want to be the cog in the system that brings the production to a halt.

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings!

Production meetings have been the highlight of this past week and weekend. It’s all about everyone getting on the same page when it comes to the music needs of the film. If I’m lucky, I’ll come on board during pre-production. This is when I can help with the creation of the budget. I have to constantly remind many filmmakers that they need a music supervisor on board as early as possible to ensure that the expensive songs that they choose are taken into consideration before shooting starts. If an entire film revolves around on $100,000 song, it’s time to get more money or rethink the script. My job regardless is to do the best I can to meet the needs of the filmmaker without jeopardizing my relationships with the songwriters, publishers and record labels.

Last Thursday I had a pre-production meeting for the film, “Conflict of Interest” with producers David Cuddy and Bonnie Orr. A lot was discussed in a short amount of time and was an overall good meeting. The most important topic of discussion (to me) was the music budget. Yes, this film has one. It’s not very big, but it’s a budget. With this budget I’ll be able to hire a composer (yes, a paying gig) and use the rest to pay for all of the licensing fees. In this case, I will select songs that will fit within the music budget. There are songs written in the script, but not specific songs. I can pick and choose what I want to play over those scenes.

John Sjogren is directing “Conflict of Interest.” The last time I music supervised one of his films, I was given full reign on the creative side. I found all the music for the film with the exception of a few songs that the music editor asked if we could use. Having creative control adds to the enjoyment of this job. It’s not all paperwork when you get to play around with the music.

On Sunday I had a conference call for the film “Harmony and Me.” On the call was director, Bob Byington and producer, Jennifer Hallmark. Again, the music budget was front and center. We also went over the song list and music clearance strategies. We have a huge hurdle to climb with the need to license Elton John’s song “Harmony.” I already received a six-figure quote from the record label (on the master side). They offered a step deal due to the fact the music budget is nowhere near the amount that they quoted. I’ll most likely get a quote from the publisher that will match the record labels quote. These quotes will almost definitely be on a Most Favored Nations (MFN) basis.

My Monday meeting for the short film, “Misunderstood” was postponed due to other production issues that the producers and director had to iron out. When we reschedule, we’ll have director, Clark Johnson present as well as producer, Bob York. Clark directed “The Sentinel” with Michael Douglas, Kiefer Southerland and Eva Longoria. Since this will be the first time I’ve worked with Clark, I’ll have a lot of questions in regards to what his musical vision is on this film. Based on the script, the music will be predominantly urban/rap music with one scene where “smooth jazz” is playing. If Clark does not have a composer in mind, I’ll be looking to hire one. This will be an interesting film as the script was written by high school students who competed in the Scenarios USA “What’s the REAL DEAL” screenwriting contest.

More meetings are slated for the coming weeks. If you’d like to check out my Projects list to see what films I’m working on or will be working on, just visit my Music Supervision website. I’ll have music needs listed as well.

I am also scheduled for an appearance on the radio talk show, “Let’s Just Talk,” with radio talk show host Kathryn Raaker. My plan is to be a weekly or monthly regular on the show. I’ll post more in future blogs.

THE MUSIC SUPERVISOR

Dominique Preyer is an experienced music licensing professional with a background in music publishing and songwriting. He has served as music supervisor on over 15 films and has also served as an executive producer and producer.

 

www.spincyclefilms.com

 

Music Clearance – Help Me Understand Your Thinking!

I haven’t expressed my feelings about the lack of music clearance that goes on in the world of filmmaking in quite a while.  I guess it’s time to cover this subject again because I keep running into it all the time.  I really hate to go on and on about this but it’s a thorn in my side and I have to speak out about it.  Put simply, it is copyright infringement.  That’s the bottom line!

I really wish someone could explain the rational behind making a conscious decision to use someone’s copyright protected music without clearing the rights.  There’s nothing that anyone can say to justify it, but I’d just like to hear the excuses that are made.

I’ve posed this same question on the Filmmaker Magazine’s Film Festival Forum.  This is one of the replies I got and it wasn’t from a festival producer.  Not one producer replied.

“The festival directors/programmers I know (about 3 or 4 dozen of them) would probably never admit publicly that they don’t care if you clear the rights or not. (Some would be risking professional relationships or even their jobs to do so.)

I know from observation when screening submissions in their presence that they notice when high-profile music is used and often scan the credits for some indication of clearance in those cases, but it’s usually out of curiosity (”How much money did these filmmakers have in their budget?”) than out of a sense of duty to make sure that the rights have been cleared.”

This past week I received an e-mail from two music publishers asking if their songs are still going to be use in a film I worked on last summer.  They are asking because the license agreements have never been signed and no payment has been made.  This puts me in a bad position.  I can’t lie to the publishers and say no when the film is making its rounds in the film festival circuit.  I don’t want to tarnish my relationship so I had to confront the producers and find out what their plans are.

As of now, I’m waiting to see what direction the producers will take.  There are songs from upper tier artist that will demand a fairly pricy fee (relatively to the extremely small music budget).  I’m hoping that they can come through and we can finalize these outstanding license requests.

You can Google “music clearance” and get thousands of hits on how to clear songs.  Every resource will tell you that you must clear all the music used in your production.  Find one reference that says you do not have to and I’ll prove that it’s wrong.  There are songs in the Public Domain, but if you don’t have a musician or a band to record the song, you’ll have to use an existing composition which you will have to clear.

Last year while working on a short film, I was asked this question by the director (this is the exact text of the e-mail):

“I want to know what the realistic pros and cons are of just screening the film at festivals without the rights. Will the festival refuse to screen it? Will we be disqualified from any prizes or competitions? What exactly is the danger? Because as of right now I’m only aware of the possibility of a “Cease and Desist” letter from the record companies.”

While clearing another song on this same film, one of the songwriters denied the use of his song in this film.  He stated that he did not want his song associated with the subject matter of the film.  I forwarded the songwriters message of concern to the director.  Despite the songwriters request to have his song removed from the film, the director chose not remove the song.

This is a total disrespect to the copyright owner.  I still live by the saying, “if you can hear it, clear.”  It’s that simple.

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