The Real Job of the Music Supervisor

I’m constantly reminded that many filmmakers (and the general public) have a misunderstanding of what the role of a music supervisor is.  Many think that a music supervisor sits back and listens to CDs all day making musical selections for the films and TV shows they work on.

Some of the music supervisors on popular TV series such as Alexandra Patsavas (Chuck, Gossip girl, Grey’s Anatomy), PJ Bloom (Nip/Tuck, Glee, CSI Miami), Lindsay Wolfington (Ghost Whisperer, One Tree Hill, Smallville) and Madonna Wade-Reed (Castle, Smallville, One Tree Hill, Las Vegas) spend more time listening to music.  Keep in mind though; they have a staff of one or more interns or assistants that help weed through a lot of the music they receive.  They also help catalog the music in their libraries giving the music sups more time to deal with paperwork.  Since they are ultimately responsible for the proper clearance of the songs the use, they have to put the administrative side first.

In an exclusive interview with Buddytv.com Alexandra Patsavas said, “When people wonder about music supervision, it’s not just about the creative choice, it’s also about responsible budgeting, clearance, you know, budgeting your time. It’s definitely, like, it’s not only a creative task, but a very business-oriented task as far as pulling the rest of it together.  The business of music supervision is essential to its success.” Full Interview

I’ve heard so people say that they want to be a music supervisor because it would be a dream job to listen to music all day.  These folks or wannabe music supervisors will have a rude awakening if they ever get the chance to work on a film or TV show.  The filmmaker’s that feel they can do the job as a music supervisor are really doing themselves a disservice by not hiring someone with the skills, knowledge and experience to do the job right.

I’ve worked on close to 30 films.  I’ve had the luxury to find the music on only seven films.  On the other 23 films, the director had already picked all of the songs before I came on board.  My role on these film were to clear the rights to the songs to include a ton of calls and e-mails to publishers, record labels, artist management, and songwriter and musicians, draft license agreements and/or reviewing those that are issued, negotiating licensing fees, reading scripts, creating cue sheets and any other administrative duties required.  On several films it was my job to create the music budget.

Jacqueline Marmo, of Imprint Magazine, interview One Tree Hill music supervisor, Lindsay Wolfington.  Lindsay talked about music in TV shows and what’s involved on the creative side.  She went on to say, “It’s not only matching the song to a scene, it’s going to the labels and publishers and getting permission to use the song and keeping the episode at or under budget. It’s also knowing good unsigned artists who are easily clearable at an inexpensive price,” she said. “A typical day for me includes clearing songs for one episode, listening to cheaper alternatives to replace an expensive song in another episode, and reading a script and sending music for a third episode!” Full Interview

Building relationships is an important part of the music supervisor’s job.  If you can’t talk intelligently about music clearance and licensing with publishers and record labels you’re not going to get the job done.  After working with major and independent publishers and labels over the last five years, I have build great working relationships that have been very instrumental in negotiating licensing deals.

If you can’t do the administrative side of music supervision, don’t call yourself a music supervisor.  To more accurately paint a picture of the workload, the creative side takes about 30% of the time and the administrative side takes about 70%.

I do get my share of CDs.  I wish I had the time listen to them as they arrive.  I have several CDs that have been sitting on the shelf for a few months.  I’ll get to them, but not any time soon.  The CDs that I listen to right away are the one’s that I request of if I heard the band play and really like their music.

The job of a music supervisor can be a dream job if you can handle all aspects of it.  If you can’t, it can be a nightmare job.

“Let’s Just Talk” on the Radio

“Let’s Just Talk” is the name of Kathryn Raaker’s talk radio show on WCVX Victory 1050 out of Cincinnati, Ohio where I was a guest on her show this past Saturday morning. We talked about films, music supervision and other film and music topics (to include the 100+ degree weather here in Texas).

It was an interesting morning as I was a bit nervous to say the least. Not knowing what was going to come my way on live radio was what bothered me the most. I felt confident in my abilities to answer any question regarding music clearance but not sure if my delivery was going to be “radio ready.” I guess the “no time to think” was what bothered me most.

The relief came when I realized that my preconceived impression of the show was all wrong. I prepped myself to talk about the technical end of music licensing. What I learned as the show progressed was it took on more of an entertainment angle. Kathryn’s long career as a radio personality helped guide the show in a way that engaged the listening audience and not me talking about the legal and administrative side of music clearance. If her audience had been primarily involved in the film and music industry, I’m sure the presentation would have been more of my initial, technical approach. As I began to relax and feel more comfortable, my segment was quickly coming to an end.

Kathryn and I met at a pre-production meeting in Kyle, TX for the film, “The Lights.” We talked about respective careers. We exchanged business cards and then never spoke again until earlier this year. I contacted her to find out if she knew anything about her very small appearance in the film and if there was any music associated with her scene. As that scene had not been edited in the film yet, I was clueless.

After we reconnected, Kathryn asked if I’d like to appear on her show which I accepted. For about three months we jockeyed for a spot and finally landed May 31, 2008. It came and went with an invitation to be on her show next weekend which airs out of Phoenix, Arizona. This appearance has not been finalized so it may change by the weekend. I’ll update this in my next blog.

In the back of my mind, I’ve always wanted to have a call-in talk show where I can address music clearance and licensing issues with filmmakers and those in the music industry. It seems like this may start to evolve if I continue to make appearances on the radio. I just might get the “radio bug” and who knows where things will go from there.

The show will be archived and available for the public to listen to. I’m sure there will be some interesting information about music in films, but more about me and what I’m doing as a music supervisor. When I do get that call-in talk show, I’ll let all of by blog reader know so they can send e-mail questions which I can answer on air.

Until then, keep coming back to my blog as I’ll keep writing about music clearance and licensing and some real life experiences that I’ve dealt with while working on all these films. I’ll also post the link to my website where you can listen to the archived radio show.

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.