Licensing Music

AFX Industrial (film scores)

This week I'm looking at the subject of music licensing, and how artists are often their own worst enemies when it comes to negotiating licensing fees.

 

 

The concept of licensing music.

If you're new to the idea of licensing music for your film, then I'd really like to help you explore a world of music that you may never have considered using.  For instance, did you know you can use ANY piece of Bach or Mozart or Debussy?  In fact the list of composers is endless!  In fact, I can honestly say that you would never be able to make enough films to incorporate all of the beautiful, scary and thought provoking music available.  There is one massive catch though!  Although the written manuscripts are freely available, let's face it they are pretty useless on their own, I mean how you gonna slot an 18th C. manuscript into your Avid / FCP timeline?  No, the catch is you need a recording of it, and although the music may be in the public domain the rights to the recording will always belong to someone.

Confused already?  Well don't be, as it's really quite simple, depending on which country your production is being made in that is.  In the UK you'll need to wait for 75 years to elapse before a composer's work becomes a public domain work.  So, for guys like Bach (deceased for 263 years) or Mozart (deceased for 222 years) we know that everything they ever wrote now belongs to us all collectively.  This can mistakenly lead film makers to believe that they can just use any old CD version of the piece!  You can't.

As I said earlier, although the music in its purest form is free, if you wanted to use a 1991 recording by the Berlin philharmonic (for example) you'll need a license.  Now, you may wonder why you need a license to use the recording of the music but not the music itself?  Hmm well it's pretty simple really, just think of it as paying the musicians and the recording engineers to do their job, a bit like a plumber or an architect.  I'm sure all of the collected knowledge on how to be a plumber exists for free in a library out there, in fact, the knowledge required to learn most trades can be found for free somewhere.  But, when you pay a plumber it's not for that colossal wealth of knowledge handed down through the generations is it?  No, who cares about that!  Jeez!  It's simply the finished pipework, it's the practical application of that knowledge that you're paying for.  Does this analogy work?  I'd like to know ;0)

Licensing contemporary music.

Anyway, you hate Bach right?  Of course you do, and there's so much contemporary music around right now that you'd love to have in your film ... So, what rules apply to say (the ironic use of) 'Don't Stop Me Now' by Queen?  Well pretty much the same rules apply except in this case, since all of the musicians (except Freddie) are still living, then the music itself will be subject to copyright rules.  But don't let that deter you as EVERY piece of music can be licensed ... For a price of course.

I recently wrapped as the music supervisor on a film and this meant tracking down a license for a particular piece of music by a French DJ.  Being an artist myself I prefer it when film makers bypass my publishers and license scores directly from my company.  The only result when you license from a publisher (who is 'looking after the artist') is they take 50, even 60% or they charge you 50% more!  For example you may want to license my arrangement of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik for your film, sure no problem, AFX will charge you say $595 - but license it through a publisher and you could pay $995!  After the publisher has taken their 60% and the MCPS has taken their cut, I'll end up getting $295!  If I'm lucky.  Wouldn't you rather your money actually went to the artist?  After all what contribution to your film have these anonymous office workers made, except to charge you 50%?

This exact scenario happened with the DJ I mentioned earlier, I offered him the chance to maximize his licensing fee by bypassing his publisher - unfortunately he either forgot to respond with a quote or maybe he felt it was beyond him.  So, we ended up licensing his music through the MCPS and he lost 50 - 60% of that sale!

I've dealt with a lot of publishing contracts and I'm yet to see a clause that states 'the artist shalt not exploit their own work for any monetary gain without giving us half if they do'.  In fact most, if not all publishers (and their aggregates) highlight the exact opposite of this clause, they even promote it as a selling point to entice potential artists.  So artists, really, there's no reason to give 'the suits' half of your money is there?

You see, I thought being an artist was all about breaking down the norms of our corrupt society!  A very simple way to be part of the thought revolution is to read your contracts and maximize your income ... Oh no, sorry, having an income from your art will mean you're as bad as 'the suits', so better then just to let them keep your earnings?  But, if you're not prepared to invest any money back into your art, (especially with music) then it will eventually start to affect the quality of your art ... Especially with music!

So, my arty friends please go after every penny that is owed to you and stop giving it away to corporation 'X'!  If you deny them long enough then corporation 'X' will go out of business, and the individuals who made up that company will be free to pursue their own artistic endeavors ... Then you'll be the gate keeper!  At which point you can keep 50% of their earnings just like they did to you! 

Now my comrades, that is true anarchy!

- David.

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Film Scoring Secrets #2

AFX Industrial (film scores)

More than anything else I get asked "how's it done?"  I've been promising a blog outlining some of the secrets behind scoring music for film and here is the second one.

 

 

The Work Ethic

Last time we looked at the basis of music (which is maths) but that's pretty dull isn't it?  What people really want to know about is the physical day to day activity of scoring, the hands on stuff, but I think the real fascination for people comes from the fact that your score will be broadcast on TV or premiered in a cinema showcase.

Of course the film industry has a certain glamour to it, that is undeniable, but from having my studio based at Shepperton Film Studios I have experienced first hand how hard everyone in this industry works.  Even the stars of films spend weeks living away from home (sometimes in a trailer parked outside my studio).  OK so the rewards can be great but I know that most people would not swap my work load for theirs any time soon, that's for sure.

A Changing Industry

Over the last ten years there have been so many changes to the film industry, and keeping up with them all is also part of the remit of being a film score composer.  It's no longer enough to understand the basics of the piano keyboard and how it relates to musical notation no, because along with the digital data explosion of the last decade, comes a new responsibility - to understand more and more about the film making process itself.

Although as a composer I will never expect film makers to speak in a musical language I am however expected to understand the language of film making.  So I guess in a changing industry like ours simply being a composer doesn't cut it anymore.  But that's OK I'm not complaining I'm just explaining how it all works and that how writing music is a much smaller part of the overall equation than you'd ever think.

 

The Stuff You Want To Know

How is scoring done?  Well the very first time I sit down with a director and we watch the film through is called a 'spotting session', during which we decide where the start and stop points of the music should be.  Quite often we will decide where the music cue will enter and exit exactly to the frame.  At the same time we will discuss the scene in its entirety, the feeling that we wish to evoke in the audience and any thematic material related to each character.  By thematic material I mean a leitmotif (recurring theme) that personifies each character and shapes and supports the underlying story.  Spotting sessions may take a few hours or a couple of days depending on the length of the film, and the amount of music cues needed.  This is often a fun (but brief) creative time and is without a doubt one of my favourite aspects of the scoring process!

That's all for this update but next time I will look at the next stage in this fascinating and creative process. 

- David.

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Film Scoring Secrets #1

AFX Industrial (film scores)

More than anything else I get asked "how's it done?"  I've been promising a blog outlining some of the secrets behind scoring music for film and here is the first one.

 

 

Where do you start?

I think film scoring is still one of the most misunderstood areas of the film making process, but how can I quantify where it is that you start?  Well, you probably don't want to hear this but the real secret behind music is the fact that it is based on an array of mathematical expressions ... You can see now, the real explanation of how music works is so terribly dull that people often wish they hadn't asked!

I know it is seems paradoxical that music, something so magical can be broken down into a series of uniform numbers, such as oscillations (cycles per second), beats per minute and beats per bar.  But that is the truth of it.

Tell me it's magic!

It's magic!  Mathematics is magic, well I think it is!  But honestly, film scoring isn't a haphazard process that relies on fairy dust and a cauldron of frog bones smouldering in the corner of a studio.  No it's a quantifiable, logical process that is usually constrained by time and access to resources.  Even more reason to remove the random aspect of it!

Why does some music sound 'better' than others?

Music that sounds 'better' than other music usually has a more coherent mathematical structure as it's backbone.  For instance if I play to you two different versions of the same synth drone (held notes - a classic film scoring technique) you may 'feel' one more than the other.  But could you pinpoint why?  I can almost guarantee the preferred drone will have a more coherent mathematical structure as it's backbone.  This structure won't necessarily be limited to note order and timing, it could also include oscillator movement and pitch modulation. 

  "film scoring isn't a haphazard process, it's a quantifiable, logical process that is usually constrained by time and access to resources"

 

 

 

The way mathematics affects the performance of music can be glaringly obvious or practically invisible to the untrained ear.  Pretty much like what goes on under the bonnet of your car, the better your car runs the less you notice the engine and that kind of sums up how film music should work.  You'll probably notice it more if there is a problem with it.  More next time!

I hope you enjoyed #1 of Film Scoring Secrets we still have a long way to go before we get to the point of laying music behind the images in your film.  But that's OK there is plenty of time to go into that, I want this to be an in depth look at what it takes to score a movie.

See you next time - David. 

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Tunesat vs PROs - A Report

AFX Industrial (film scores)

Tunesat is a great idea http://www.tunesat.com but are the PROs ready to part with their money?  I recently took Tunesat for a 30 day spin, and this is what I found out ...

 

According to Tunesat a staggering 80% of the TV performance royalties generated by an artist's music never reaches the artist.  What happens to this money?  Well, unclaimed royalties undoubtedly languish in the PROs' bank accounts for as long as they can get away with it.  But eventually this money will be divided up among the major record labels - even if the artist has no connection with these labels.

This is an incredibly unfair and unregulated system especially as it relies on TV stations submitting (often physical) cue sheets.  Which according to Tunesat they fail to do around 80% of the time.

The cue sheet submission system has now reached saturation point, resulting in the PROs sitting on millions of dollars of 'unclaimed' artists money.  Thankfully one company has developed an incredible system to check and report on the usage of an artists repertoire.  That company are Tunesat.  Over the last month I've been testing Tunesat's TV channel analysis system, and the results have been very interesting indeed.

How does it work?

Tunesat call it 'digital fingerprinting'.  The audio waveform of every single piece of music submitted to them is unique unto itself and matched in real time by streaming and analyzing a large selection of major TV channels worldwide.  I would imagine that to pull off such a Herculean task requires some pretty robust software.  Which begs the question, if a small company like Tunesat can develop and launch such a groundbreaking analysis tool, then why haven't the PROs?  They could easily adopt Tunesat's model or (considering their level of income) develop one themselves.

The Test

Tunesat offered me a thirty day trial of their system, and as I'll explain, the results were empowering and damning at the same time.  I figured it would be more productive to concentrate on pieces from my catalog that I know are popular and used regularly ... So, after the audio fingerprints were finalized I waited for the results to stream back to me.  Sure enough, after a few days, usage was detected on major channels in the USA, Germany, France and various other countries.  One interesting and unique thing about the Tunesat model is their software automatically records each section of the program that contains your work.  And the system appears to be extremely accurate, even detecting music playing beneath dialogue and foley.  It also gives you the time of broadcast, the channel and the TV show your work appeared during.  You can actually hear each piece in place during the show.  Amazing!

"if a small company like Tunesat can develop and launch such a groundbreaking analysis tool, then why haven't the PROs adopted Tunesat's model?" 

 

 

The upside

Armed with this information, which is available as an XL spreadsheet, you can now approach your PRO and demand they add each usage to your royalty list!

The downside

Ahh, the downside.  Well after I had gathered a fair amount of data about one piece (which was used for a total duration of nine minutes) I approached my PRO and submitted a PDF of the data including the tunecode, time, channel, duration, show name ... And what was the response?

Well, the PRO that I sent it to (the PRS actually) finally responded (after I had emailed the information to them three times) and they didn't accept it.  The reason they gave was that the broadcaster should supply a cue sheet for each cue used.  But hadn't Tunesat already determined that 80% of these cue sheets are never filled in, let alone returned?  I did call the PRS to clarify the situation regarding accepting Tunesat data and again I got a conflicting response.  This time they said they did accept the data.  Worryingly, it seems it all depends on how knowledgeable the agent dealing with your submitted data is, as to how much attention they pay to it.  So, how many months do you leave it before you contact them to verify they have accepted the submitted information and investigated the claim?  It's a flawed system to say the least.

Where does this leave us?

In theory and even in practice Tunesat's software works.  And if Tunesat were offering this service for free (and frankly why should they) I would of course be happy to continue receiving usage reports.  But this service isn't free, there's a paid subscription which is dependent upon the size of the catalog you wish to submit.  For 100 fingerprinted pieces you are looking at a monthly subscription fee of around $300 which is a fairly substantial whack.  And, depending on the mood and staffing competency of your PRO you may never see a return on this investment.  It's a risk for sure.

I already know that I'm probably earning a lot less than I should, you only have to deal with the PRS for a few years to realize that.  But, paying Tunesat to continually tell me that I'm not getting paid for my work?  Hmm ...  Unfortunately, the only result I can see from this is the debiting of money from my account for information that only serves to wind me up and confuse the PROs even more!  Undoubtedly the information Tunesat provides is a useful business tool, but is it really worth paying for?  And, although I like the Tunesat model very, very much it still seems like another level of bureaucracy another middle man who wants paying for information that should be freely available.  If I were to list all of the middle men taking a cut from my music I think you would be very surprised ... It's 60% here and 10% there and to be honest Tunesat would be just another drain on this already dwindling income.

Unfortunately, many companies operating within the music industry prey on the vanity of musicians and composers, and the data Tunesat provides could be construed as more vanity oriented than anything else.  It should be my right to know where in the world my scores are being used and I shouldn't have to fight for royalty payments, but I also have to accept that as my scores are on sale internationally I'll never keep track of every single usage.  To think I can is simply naive.   

It seems reasonable to suggest that the PROs have failed to adopt this software because it will impact on their seemingly parasitical business practices.  I don't say this lightly, as without fail every time I contact the PRS I receive either incorrect or conflicting information, it's almost as if they deliberately train only half of their staff.  It may be cynical to imply that they rely on a certain level of confusion as part of their business model, but I'm yet to see consistency within the organization.  Naturally, after a while, you can't help but speculate about the real motives that drive them to run their company so erratically.


Tunesat, you rock!  It's simply everybody else that doesn't.

- David

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Why are you giving it away for free?

AFX Industrial (film scores)

Is the voracious demand for music that fits into a certain style or genre stifling the composition of more eclectic works?  Possibly.  And today I'll also be considering how the impact of giving it away for free may be devaluing music.

 

The Comfort Zone

This year I sold the same piece of music to TV companies over and over again, a piece called Cinematic Rock A1 you can click on the title to hear it.  I think I have sold that piece around thirty times to all sorts of different production companies and film projects, but is it any good?  I don't know, nobody has ever commented on it - it just sells.

Conversely, a piece of music I wrote that has sold only one time won the Editors Choice Award for from a well known Hollywood music library and you can hear that piece here: Visions Of Passacaglia

OK I know it's nothing new, that seemingly less popular works get all sorts of recognition, that doesn't surprise me too much it's a funny kind of paradox.  Composers can either write music that sells and make a humble living from it or they can write music that never sells and get all sorts of praise for it, I think many composers constantly walk a fine line between following their heart and following their head.  But, ultimately by pandering to popular demand are we not stifling the composition of more eclectic works?  I've even encountered people who don't think art, in any form should see its creators remunerated ... Unfortunately, there are also artists out there who are starting to believe this, and are devaluing their art by not pursuing payment for it.

Make Money, You Need It!

Music and money are two areas that, according to the continued actions of musicians, songwriters and composers, should never mix.  I don't believe this for one second, but then you probably know by now that I'm a composer and it's how I make a living - I have to mix music and money.  But what do I mean when I say the continued actions of musicians, songwriters and composers?  Well, nearly every day I get a Tweet from a band or an artist, with a link to download their new album or mixtape for free!  They often ask me for my opinion and my response is always to ask them a simple question:  'Why are you giving it away for free?'

Why are you giving it away for free?

If you're promoting your music on Twitter and Facebook then it sends out a certain message to the world, you are effectively telling us that you have something worth listening to - but whether the music you have created is 'good' or 'bad' is not relevant.  What is relevant and what concerns me most for my fellow artists and composers is remuneration.  Musicians spend thousands with manufacturers like Roland or Korg, but I doubt these companies ever Tweet at musicians offering them their latest synth for free.  So why shouldn't musicians be paid for operating, programming and playing these instruments?  After all, music doesn't just appear in the ether, composers don't simply insert a jack plug into the side of their head and let music dribble out in a long stream of consciousness directly into iTunes.

In reality, creating music, especially high quality music is an incredibly expensive business.  To start with you have to create a huge space, a hole in your life to simply have access to the time needed to write music - then you have to fill that hole with the expensive equipment needed to record it.  So, when I'm sent a free album download you can understand my question: 'Why are you giving it away for free?'

 

Using Library Music as Film Scores

Going back to my initial point, there is a high demand for music that fits into a certain style or genre  and composers are quite rightly exploiting those areas to pay their rent.  Rock music is one area (although seemingly over-saturated) that is always in demand and always sells well.  The down side of this is that directors are turning to music libraries to 'score' their film, without realizing that in doing so they are often being detrimental to their film's success.  OK so you may end up with a patchy, incoherent but adequate score, but is this really what you want?  After all the time you have spent making your film?

What I've been trying to illustrate here is that in my experience composers never write to the best of their abilities when writing library music, film scores always sound better when the composer is directly involved.  By not utilizing them (during your scoring process) you could be stifling the composition of a more eclectic score that may win your film more recognition and notoriety in the process.  It may be easy to pick a piece of library music to go under your favorite scene, but who said making great art is easy?  And, if you've struggled for years to crowd fund your movie, then your motives are obviously driven by artistic integrity rather than money.  You know that this is the film that will make or break your career!

In terms of how your film is received no matter how good it looks, the way it sounds is still recognized as fifty percent of the total package.  Ultimately, the way your film is scored and its overall EQ curve cannot be hidden from your audience, it definitely cannot be buried under a mountain of cheap reverb plug ins!  And, it's for these reasons that the audio track is probably the most painful part of the whole process.  But who said art was pain free? 

- David.

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Prometheus' Score - Familiarity is the Key.

AFX Industrial (film scores)

Today I'm going to take a brief look at the way highly repetitive scores (such as the recent Prometheus score) enhance an audience's enjoyment of a film.  It seems that repetition would bore the audience surely?  But no, in fact quite the opposite is true ...

 

Radio Repeats

How many times have you heard a song on the radio and thought to yourself:  'I never want to hear that song ever, ever again!'  I have.  In fact I often fantasize about waking up 200 years in the future and not recognizing ANY of the music - for a composer this scenario would be absolute bliss!  But I'm sure that even then, after a while I would still seek the comfort of a piece of music I knew.  If only to console me as I wept about it being 2212 ... and that everyone and everything I knew was now gone, forever.

Regarding radio play I do often wonder why a DJ voraciously repeats the same 30 year old pieces over and over again with no hint of irony.  Then I got to thinking that maybe I only started to like the tracks I heard on the radio through familiarity.  So did this mean I actually liked the music?  I mean the DJ chose the music it wasn't my choice.  And, if I did like the music (but only through familiarity) then that means I probably wouldn't have consciously chosen that music at all!  Which left me with a bigger question (go with me here) and that question was ... If I could chose the music I liked what music would I actually like?  Hmm.

Familiarity Within the Score

In a nutshell as a composer you have ninety minutes to make an impression on your audience, two hours if you are really lucky.  Effectively my audience are listening to radio Hëwitt for a couple of hours and I'm the DJ and I need them to like my score ... I also know that 80% of the audience would never normally listen to the genre of music they are hearing behind the film they are watching.  So I use the same weapon that the DJs use - familiarity.

For familiarity to have any effect a lot of repetition is needed.  Ennio Morricone, a master of this takes a simple theme, expands it, contracts it, has it playing as source music on a radio in a bar - anywhere he can get his theme screen time he does.  But, the art of scoring lies in disguising it so the audience are only overtly aware of the theme when the composer desires it.  Of course the antithesis of this is the 'iPod on shuffle' score, please see my thoughts on this in a recent blog here.

Familiarity within a score is the key to unlocking emotion within your audience.  You're passionate about your film right?  You want to make people feel something and remember something yes?  Well I can tell you from an audience point of view, random and disconnected pieces of music always fail to evoke emotion, I know this because I am the audience. 

Prometheus - The Horn Motif

So let's go back to the title of this blog and the Prometheus score.  If by the end of Prometheus every revelation and every epiphany wasn't punctuated by that horn motif, I would have felt emotionally short changed and left the cinema feeling unsatisfied.  It is exactly that constant repetition that sucks an audience in.  Conversely, unconsidered key changes or extraneous music can burst that bubble of satisfaction you have worked so hard to build, resulting in the audience detaching from your film.  For an in depth look at how this is handled please read my recent blog on music supervision. 

Ultimately, think about how much you like being at home, surrounded by all of those familiar things, in many cases you want to evoke this kind of feeling within your audience, not in a literal but in an applied sense.  For instance, the SAW series is highly repetitive in terms of its content and that is the main reason why audiences find it so satisfying  ... Of course I'm hoping it doesn't remind you too much of your own home ;0) that would be a little weird.  But, as a film maker you'll know that familiarity and the feeling of 'going home' are among the best emotions to constantly strive for within your cinematic language - and your score is a great place to start.

- David

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What is a Music Supervisor?

AFX Industrial (film scores)

Does your film need a music supervisor and if so why?  In this blog I'll be looking at the roll of the music supervisor, and how directors who take on the task of music supervision often wish they hadn't.  

 

 

Score or Soundtrack?

Technically, the score is original music that has been written specifically for a film.  The term soundtrack generally describes the songs that appear in a film.  These songs may already be in existence and are brought together to enhance the film, either commercially or aesthetically.

What does a music supervisor do? 

You may have already heard the term music supervisor used in relation to a film’s score or soundtrack - but what exactly does a music supervisor do?  Simply put, a music supervisor takes care of all of the musical cues in your film, but, as many films have extremely complicated musical requirements, there's a lot more to the job.

Complicated soundtracks

Soundtracks can often get very complicated.  For example, Marie Antoinette (starring Kirsten Dunst) used songs from The Strokes, New Order, The Cure and many others to enhance the film's appeal.  I imagine there were moments during the film where a standard orchestral score was also needed.  Along with a solo mandolin or a string quartet, (playing either a specific piece from the classical repertoire or a specially composed work to fit into a certain time period) it soon gets complex.  

On top of that, contemporary films often call on actors to mime to the backing tracks of professional singers.  Bollywood takes this to the extreme with Shah Rukh Khan having a different singing voice in each movie.  

Maybe there's a scene in your film where a live Jazz or Rock band is required and where timing is critical.  In fact, the musical requirements for a film are often so diverse it can quickly become an area where directors are out of their depth ... Cue the music supervisor!

Music clearance

So, you want to use music by The Strokes in your film?  Then it's down to the music supervisor to seek out a license to use their music.  Maybe you want your star to sing a cover version of 'My Heart Will Go On' by James Horner?  The music supervisor will secure a license to do this, and also find a high caliber band that can put the backing track together to a professional standard.  After all, you wouldn't want the music to sound like those cheap backing tracks the contestants use on the X Factor would you?

Music supervisors do all the mundane stuff, like ensuring the singers have the lyric sheets and the musicians have the music they require.  The music supervisor will also track down that solo lute player and arrange a recording session to capture their performance.  Music supervisors (in conjunction with the director) set up on screen timings for each piece of music, they will also rehearse the band/singer/soloist ready for either the on screen or studio performance ... Music supervisors are mostly trained musicians themselves and will have an intimate understanding of the nature and the mechanics of music.  The music supervisor will therefore ensure that all of the musical keys (C#/Fmin etc.) used within each piece are compatible with all of the instruments used.  They will also pay particular attention to finding the correct key for a singer's range.

'Music supervisors need to understand the complexities of copyright law, royalty distribution, publishing rights and public domain usage.' 

A music supervisor will work closely with your composer to ensure all of the musical parts that the orchestra require are printed up and readily available when the score is recorded.  Due to budgetary constraints it's not unusual for your composer to take on the role of a music supervisor.  Even though they may not seek a credit on the end of the film, many composers are required to step in and supervise the music - to ensure it's done correctly and legally.

Music supervisors need to understand the complexities of music copyright law, royalty distribution, publishing rights and public domain usage.  Without this legal documentation to back it up, your film could easily lose any performance or distribution rights until the soundtrack is verified.  Misunderstanding copyright law is all too easy and so many films are shelved because of this, the music supervisor will ensure all of these loose ends are tied.  The legal issues surrounding music are not an area the director should have to get involved with.  Equally, they are not an area amateur music makers should be dealing with at all.  Quite often the roles of music supervisor and composer are interchangeable and, as I mentioned earlier, a professional composer is increasingly expected to wear the music supervisor's hat during the score / soundtrack production stage.

Do I Need a Music Supervisor?

I know that many directors are control freaks and there's nothing wrong with that, in fact it's an important quality if you want to be a director.  But, music supervision can be an extremely grey area and it's very hard to control an area of film making that you are unfamiliar with.

I would say the more ambitious you are as a film maker then the more you'll need to employ a music supervisor.  And apart from all of the aspects I have discussed, music supervisors can bring ideas to the table that you may have never thought of.  Ultimately, professional directors like to leave the specialisms up to the specialists, it takes a huge weight off their shoulders and allows them to focus on the all important visual aspects of their film.

If we break film making down to an even more basic level, then there seems to be a direct correlation between the quality of the film and the amount of people that worked on it.  Last week I touched on IMBD credits and I always find it quite amusing when only one name appears in the cast and crew list, like this:

Directed by......Jim

Starring......Jim

Visual FX......Jim

Grip......Jim

2nd AD......Jim

Runner......Jim

Production designer......Jim

Music by......Jim

Sound department......Jim

Narrator......Jim

The best films arise from a collaborative effort between individuals who share a lot of different disciplines.  Of course, one individual with an unlimited amount of time and an inexhaustible amount of money could, in theory, create the best film we have ever seen.  But, in the real world, film makers never have access to those two luxuries ...

I suppose to be fair, one person with an unlimited amount of time and money could, hypothetically, create the ultimate film.  However, it's a bit like the old adage that a billion monkeys with a billion typewriters could create or surpass the works of Shakespeare!  As you know, a billion internet users with a billion keyboards have already disproved this theory ;0)

But still, there is one monkey you'll need to trust with a keyboard - and that's a music supervisor...

Remaking Planet of the Apes?  You'll need a monkey supervisor too!

- David

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