Greetings to the community involved in filmmaking and film scoring!
I am composer who composes for film and concert music. Stage32 is giving its members the opportunity to create a post as an introductory vehicle. I have chosen to elaborate on the business of scoring for a film. First of all, I have seen that filmmakers appear to hire the people that they know and trust which indicates to me that first a relationship needs to be created with the filmmaker so that they don’t feel like they are a means to an end, but a true, trustworthy individual. Who else would they want to trust their film which took so much hard work and sacrifice. This is where patience comes into play. The film composer, therefore, needs to first create a relationship with total strangers before he or she has a chance of being accepted in the inner circle of a filmmaker’s team. This is very psychological in nature. Trust and trustworthiness comes after knowing that a composer has the credentials to do the composing work. And even the credentials are called into question because how many people call themselves composers? What makes them composers? Then, does the filmmaker have the time to research the person that is claiming to be a composer to see if it is true? As a composer, I ask myself what does a filmmaker need to know to actually believe that I am capable to compose the music that he envisions? And who will a filmmaker know that the personality of the composer is one which is conducive to a friendly camaraderie to participate in an enjoyable exchange of working ideas? Yes, filmmakers want to work with people that they like! In other words, we, the composer, must develop a friendship with filmmaker as well.
Each of us composers needs to answer these questions because they are not taken at face value, and this is because the society of people who call themselves composers each has his or her own personal definition of what they believe qualifies them to give themselves this title! Hence the irony of the situation that we find ourselves in. Without a universal definition of a composer, people can invent whatever they want to entitle themselves. In the United States, we do not have a national union of composers with standards. Therefore, I am not surprised of all the skepticism that filmmakers may have when an unknown composer introduces him or herself. The situation is very difficult for the aspiring and emerging film or concert music composer no matter what is their education, age, color or ethnic background.
I have taken the time to compose this short essay as a testimony of my own personal journey which I hope some of you will read and perhaps derive some benefit and also be generous enough to provide some advisory comments to bring to light their own experiences to help the community of film composers sacrificing their lives in one of their pursuits of happiness which for them comes in the form of a collaboration with a filmmaker to make his or her film a classic with their music.
Helmut C. Calabrese, Ph.D.
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I believe I heard some years back from one of my profs that Irving Berlin could not read or write sheet music - he had to hire someone to do it for him. Was he a composer?
Composer is just a term and in my opinion from the creative vantage, anyone who write music - no matter what it is, is legitimate. Now not every piece of music belongs in a film and not all cues or styles of music work for any particular filmmaker. It is not my job, interest or intention to critque anyone's score. You see, I would be comparing my experience and sound to their's and that may not be the type of music they are interested in creating. In my 'day job' for example, in wedding videography, I have been told by 'peers' that my quality is poor, my equipment worse, and I should get on the ball and shoot like them. Thing is, my style is 'documentary' and not 'cinematic' and my market doesn't want all the things that I have been criticized as not having or not sufficient quality. Another way of looking at it, is anybody can be a chef - one can be a successful chef at McDonalds. But chefs at multi-star high end restaurants would say they are not chefs - their just cooks. So what the heck - why do we even have to delve on what we call ourselves? I get every position / hat on a film has a name and so the person creating the music is called a 'composer'. So then if we merely suggest that the term is such, then it merely means one who has written music for a film. period.
The music normally speaks for itself and filmmaker have ideas of the type of music they want in a film. If your previous stuff matches what they want, you're a candidate for the job. If not, I hope there is some discussion on whether you can AND have the interest and talent to create the music they want. I worked on a film last year - scored it three times and finally the filmmaker walked away saying she need something that sounded more like 'millennial' music written for the female under 30 age group. Wish we had worked that one out before I started :)
If you a 'beat person' and know your market, then there is ample opportunity for films which need your style. And beat music creator need not be concerned with music theory, chord progressions, modes, etc. They may never score a $10+ million film but that is not their market. So in my opinion, those who are successful film music creators don't only know how to mingle and sell themselves with filmmakers from a business perspective, but know where their 'sound' gets the most miles. To name a few - there are styles for TV and web series, styles for video games, styles for children's TV, superhero styles, epic music styles, etc. My sound tends to be acoustic and orchestral (or jazz ensemble/big band). You wouldn't hire me to score a film needing gospel style music or music using rock music. I would not be the right person to score a live action musical or a film that is musical based (like Mary Poppins Returns) though I can certainly work with a lyricist I know to write a song that an actor/actress would sing in the film - though I would need significant lead time to arrange it for an ensemble - especially if there is on screen dancing.
So as creators of musical content, it is our job to market ourselves AND our product. The marketing of ourselves is something most of us at a minimum know how it is done - we mingle at mixers, mingle at film festivals, get ourselves on film teams / competitions like the 48 hour film project (where I got my first IMDB credit), mingle, mingle....
But what about our 'product'. Music for film has customers and products. We are really no different from any other profession. We have to interview for our jobs (unless we are lucky enough to get repeat business) and interest our customers in our product.
Film makers not only care about interacting with us but want to know what we bring to the table. If we have worked on films (and most of us start in the 'shorts' world), we need to make some or all of our music accessible to the 'stakeholders'/film makers. So many of us have parked our music at places like Soundcloud, Reverbnation, or perhaps our own websites. We then need to decide how to do it. Many composers create a single MP3 with excerpts. Or perhaps small clips (often less than 1 minute each) of music from a film they scored. Those with short versions of their music (single or multiple files) are often concerned about their music getting 'used' without permission or 'stolen'. I don't worry about that - I put out scores/soundtracks in totality for every film I score though I will eliminate cues that are 'boring' without watching the film. I also get permission of the filmmaker and have unlisted films I have scored (or links to them) on Youtube (though others prefer Vimeo). Of course, this makes more sense for shorts than features.
The final part of the 'business' of composing is LOCATION. How many times have we experienced ourselves or know someone who scores a feature for a local upcoming film maker and then when it comes time for another film collaboration, the 'producer' (or another stakeholder), contracts with a CA or LA based composer instead of us? For better or worse (imho), post production jobs more often than not end up in California. So for composer like me in Texas who has chosen not to re-locate or spend the money commuting, it is done with an 'understanding' that for some of the film scoring markets - not being in LA/CA is career limiting. But that is OK for me - for example - I am perfectly happy scoring shorts from Texas. I have scored 27 shorts in the last 6 years and about to score 3 alone next month for the 168 film festival - and one of them is a 'repeat filmmaker' from last year or lives and works in LA.