ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

3 years, 2 months ago - Vasco de Sousa

Working for free is a way to discover whether or not it is what you want to do. It does not start a career.

Step 1 - be honest. If you are a real music publisher, then you probably can get paid work doing that, right?

A lot of filmmakers would rather hire someone with a track record in the real music business than someone with a lot of IMDB credits on zero-budget short films. Basically, all you have to do is time the music to picture.

If you are good at music you can time one instrument to another anyway, so it is basically just about reading the emotions of the moment and understanding the individual film.

And if I can't afford to pay you, unless I am a student at a top film school, I am not going to have a title for music supervisor. No, I will probably hope the sound guy deals with music, or at best have a composer do everything himself (or herself) on garage band.

You can also try the advertising industry, educational shorts, religious or non-profit pictures, industrials, etc.

How do you find these jobs? Well, about ten percent of the UK has some link to the creative industries. You have one or more in your family or among your school chums. You probably stayed at a b&b run by a former musician or someone who retired from the BBC.

The best way is to look for paid work right away. Let people in your network know what you are capable of.

3 years, 2 months ago - Kim Halliday

I would recommend you talk to the Guild of Music Supervisors (https://www.guildofmusicsupervisors.co.uk/) They have masterclasses and resources that will help! The role of music supervisor (like all roles in movies, I guess) is so broad it could include all kinds of stuff that isn't just timing music to picture (as a composer, I kind of assume I do that!) but Vasco is right, it is about reading emotions and understanding the film. It could also be about the licensing bit of the music industry that you're familiar with, so you're already on the right track.