ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

10 years, 3 months ago - Andy Taylor

Thanks for the excellent and helpful replies!

I have done some soundtracks for local theatre groups over the years and am hoping to be doing some film work later this year. I want to be sure that I'm doing everything legaly and technicaly correct.

My theatre work is mostly for amatuer / semi-professional companies, and it seems that some of the producers don't get involved with the legal side - unless its hiring the venue, paying for programmes, paying tech crew, publicity, etc.

Also, Tom Green wrote an excellent post on here about composers working basicaly for nothing, though the directors expect a soundtrack from Hans Zimmerman!! This has been a problem for me with some directors...working for weeks or months on end on endless revisions and re-recordings for very little in return.

Anyway, thanks again for the help with this - I have made notes!!!

10 years, 3 months ago - Dan Selakovich

What Paddy said. To add a small bit of advice: composers get screwed on time. Often they are up against a solid release date. Try to get as much time in your contract as possible. And try to get in at least a week before principle photography starts when the director has time to talk, and you can start working on some themes at the very least.

10 years, 3 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

1) Negotiate. If there's a term you think is important, propose it, and the producers can accept it or reject it. Agreements can be verbal but that's madness - the producer will need to be able to prove chain of title. Unless they're stupid, it'll be an all rights buyout deal allowing them to use the music wherever, however and whenever they wish.

2) Agree in advance, but yes you need to be flexible. Director will likely give you a guide track of music they quite like for each scene - talk to them about what it is they like for each scene - maybe the tempo, the ambiance, maybe they want long strings or throbbing techno. The director is responsible for the final film, so you need to follow their guides. The emotion of the scenes is in the music, and the emotional ebb and flow is what the director is trying to manage

3) No, the producer should be paying for a buyout - which would stop you having any rights over the music thereafter. If they wanted to produce an OST, they could. Negotiate.

4) That's basically it for all creatives - be worth the agent's time and they'll provide a service. Bring in £300/year and you're on your own. I knew a guy with one of the major agencies for 10+ years without them bringing in a single job for him (although they did help with some of his legals).

Long and short - negotiate everything. Agree it and get it down on paper. Amateur agreements often focus on what happens when it's all going right, what you really need is to agree upfront how you resolve any forseeable problems or events down the road. Use plain English, both keep a copy. The producer probably will want a formal agreement with a lawyer (they have to prove they own the music to sell the film), but you should get anything you don't understand read by someone who does.

The worst of all worlds is when amateurs try to hack together contracts out of latin dog-ends they find on the internet. I've seen some guys who were trying to do an investment deal with a beautifully formatted, attractively presented, inconsistent, contradictory, and absolutely terrible deal on offer for a potential backer. They thought the contract meant something it didn't, backer saw they were chancers and walked away.