Tutorials

Communication is essential between the director/producer and the film composer and bad communication often leads to misunderstandings and conflicts. As a director/producer, you should have a rather clear vision about what you want the music to do. It is NOT the most comfortable situation for a composer when he/she’s been told “Well, I don’t know, just do your thing.” and getting complete artistic freedom over the music. This puts one rather in the situation of sitting in front of a white blank canvas, wondering about what to put there. On the other hand, it feels very uncomfortable as well for a composer to constantly feeling pushed by an overly picky director/producer who request for things that they not neccessarily have a full...

The function of music in the movies is a very wide field. Music can serve several purposes that are either important on the emotional side of the movie or help/enhance the storytelling. It is not only helpful but essential for any director/producer to keep the music in mind when planning/shooting the movie. For example collages that practically don’t work at all without film music can have a fantastic effect later with the appropriate music. You can extend every function below by clicking on the arrow in order to read a description of this function. The following list tries to be a comprehensive overview about possible functions of film music in a movie. Some functions overlap sometimes or some music serves several functions at other times. 1....

The way a movie is released heavily influences not only its production but also the film music. There needs to be a clear understanding of what the primary release of the movie is going to be as there are still quite different ways of perceiving a movie depending on whether you watch it in a big cinema, in a dark enclosed space with dozens of other people, at home on your television while cooking dinner or in front of your computer while surfing facebook in another window. Of course the platform everybody wishes for is the cinematic release but only few movies make it there. However, when a movie is set for release in a cinema, the composer will do a few things that work specifically for cinematic releases: - the use of the full dynamic range from the softest...

The so-called spotting session is the meeting between director and composer where both watch the movie together. Usually, this is a great chance to find a concept and ideas for the film music in a mutual way and to avoid any misunderstandings in the actual working process. You as the director should take the lead in this. Also, often the composer gets to see the fine cut of the movie for the first time in this situation so it is also a great chance for you to get a bit of first reaction feedback by someone who isn’t biased or work-blind regarding the movie yet. If there are shots still missing or essential cgi elements of the images are not visible yet, you should of course explain in these scene what will be seen there when the movie is done. The most...

Having a basic idea of what your movie needs musically is a very important thing when you enter the dialogue with the composer. There is that common misconception between directors that composers are happy when you just let them do their thing without giving much directions. However rather the opposite is the case. In such situations your composer gets thrown into cold water. Many movies offer the possibility to approach them musically in very different ways and for the composer it feels very uncomfortable to be shooting in the dark to see whether one might find something that you like. Basically, you should think about the following things before you meet up with a composer. 1. What style of music do you want? This means not only in the big scale of...

The worst problem most composers suffer from is the tight schedule on their projects. Many composers sleep not more than 5 hours per night when there is crunch time which of course doesn’t allow to write the most creative music. The main problem often lies in the fact, that originally the time frame for the music might be set quite comfortably but due to the natural delay of most departments before the music (as music is quite at the end of the production chain) but the release date not being changed that time window shrinks often to nerve-wrecking few days or weeks. To get a proper understanding of what is adequate time frame for your composer, you need to know his/her working speed. Most composers get to comfortably write a mean of 2 minutes of music per...

Even when you are best friends and the project seems too small to bother, you should always set up a contract with your film composer. This does not only protect the composer but also yourself as director/producer and just saves so much potential headache and argument. The form of the contract is of course very dependant on the country of the production company and as soon as it gets to a slightly bigger project you should have a lawyer setting them up. Googling around for composer contracts will give you a few results of “standard” contracts. As I don’t have a law degree, I don’t want to speak about specific formulations in the contract but just clear up some common misconceptions and point out important things that should be in the...

Before you budget for the music, you should be aware that a music budget always consists of two to three factors. The first is the composition fee, the second the costs that are necessary to produce the score music and the third are the licensing fees. I’ll split up these figures here to create an understandable transparency.   1. Composition fee First of all: there are thousands of composers out there who work for free and just for the reference which you could hire. However you need to be aware that only few of them have experience and when they actually DO have experience and still charge nothing, something is seriously wrong with them. You might be lucky and accidentally find someone who is incredibly talented and can pull it off, but chances for...

There often is a misunderstanding about what is part of the film composer’s job and what isn’t which often leads to irritation and arguments and can also torpedo the whole financing concept of a movie if the composer’s job was defined wrong in the calculation. A film composer usually is hired to write all  original dramatic music for your movie. Any scene that has “score music” is part of what the composer should do for your movie. Anything that goes beyond that needs special negotiation with the composer. This includes: Source Music: this is music that can be heard by the characters in the movie, for example on radio, a concert, an elevator etc. Usually, this is music that is being licensed from music libraries or other musicians....

It happens quite often that inexperienced directors want to add music to their movie simply because they like it. For example they try to hire one of their favorite rock bands for their drama just because they think it is cool music that would be cool to have in their movie. However, often this music doesn’t serve the dramatic purpose of the movie. You as a director might be happy if you hear your favorite music in your movie but there might be quite a big chance of your audience reacting quite irritated. Ask yourself whether the music you want to add really fits the movie. If you really want to have your favorite band in your movie, a good spot to feature them would be in the End Credits or a possible montage scene in the movie. We’ll have a look at...