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need to use music from movie soundtrack in project
Posted by ajmax
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Re: need to use music from movie soundtrack in project June 19, 2008 08:53AM |
...hope you can pay...because if it's in a major motion picture, you will pay dearly.
Try here:
[www.bmi.com]
...and have a pillow handy to scream into.
When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.
Try here:
[www.bmi.com]
...and have a pillow handy to scream into.
When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.
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Re: need to use music from movie soundtrack in project June 19, 2008 11:11AM |
> Probably not, if what you're trying to license is a work-for-hire.
I'm not sure about that. When licensing music there are always two components: Master rights and sync rights. Master rights pertain to the actual recording of the piece. If you're using the soundtrack recording in your cut and wish to retain that exact recording, then you'll have to pay the record company the master rights.
Sync rights pertain to using that musical composition -- the arrangement of the notes. For example, one cheaper way to get that piece of music into your film is to hire a musician to re-record it. Then you'll only have to deal with sync rights. For example, if you want to re-record "Prospectors Quartet" from There Will Be Blood to use for your own film, you'll have to deal with Jonny Greenwood's publisher -- on the CD it reads Paramount Allegra Music (ASCAP) -- and get permission to license the composition for re-recording. If you're re-recording Thomas Newman's "Dead Already" (American Beauty), that one reads Songs of SKG (BMI) as the publisher.
Greenwood's work-for-hire agreement probably does not negate his royalties as a composer; it just means the film had certain rights to use the music, whatever was outlined in Greenwood's agreement with the production company. I doubt that most composers would sign away all their own publishing rights to their own composition (Lennon-McCartney and ATV Publishing, anyone?). If Greenwood had signed away all his rights, then he wouldn't get paid for the CD score album; only the company would. I doubt that's the case.
Here Michael Horton would remind us that none of us is a copyright expert. The above information is passed on from what I got from taking classes with an entertainment lawyer. But for dealing with licensing either an original recording or just the composition, I'd probably advise getting a music supervisor who has connections. It's very hard to do this without the right person to steer you through. Bottom line: Don't take what you're reading here as gospel truth. Get somebody who does this (secure copyrighted music) professionally.
www.derekmok.com
I'm not sure about that. When licensing music there are always two components: Master rights and sync rights. Master rights pertain to the actual recording of the piece. If you're using the soundtrack recording in your cut and wish to retain that exact recording, then you'll have to pay the record company the master rights.
Sync rights pertain to using that musical composition -- the arrangement of the notes. For example, one cheaper way to get that piece of music into your film is to hire a musician to re-record it. Then you'll only have to deal with sync rights. For example, if you want to re-record "Prospectors Quartet" from There Will Be Blood to use for your own film, you'll have to deal with Jonny Greenwood's publisher -- on the CD it reads Paramount Allegra Music (ASCAP) -- and get permission to license the composition for re-recording. If you're re-recording Thomas Newman's "Dead Already" (American Beauty), that one reads Songs of SKG (BMI) as the publisher.
Greenwood's work-for-hire agreement probably does not negate his royalties as a composer; it just means the film had certain rights to use the music, whatever was outlined in Greenwood's agreement with the production company. I doubt that most composers would sign away all their own publishing rights to their own composition (Lennon-McCartney and ATV Publishing, anyone?). If Greenwood had signed away all his rights, then he wouldn't get paid for the CD score album; only the company would. I doubt that's the case.
Here Michael Horton would remind us that none of us is a copyright expert. The above information is passed on from what I got from taking classes with an entertainment lawyer. But for dealing with licensing either an original recording or just the composition, I'd probably advise getting a music supervisor who has connections. It's very hard to do this without the right person to steer you through. Bottom line: Don't take what you're reading here as gospel truth. Get somebody who does this (secure copyrighted music) professionally.
www.derekmok.com
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Re: need to use music from movie soundtrack in project June 19, 2008 02:13PM |
> Is it cheaper to hire a composer?
Well, if you're trying to hire John Williams, no. But if you're hiring lower-level composers, yes. Musicians are all over the place, looking for breaks.
Using a composer to do "sound-alikes" -- ie. trying to draw from a pre-existing piece of temp music -- has ups and downs. The upside is that you could end up with a piece close to the synergy of what you had when you edited the scene. The downside is that many composers who work at this level have problems: They could get "stuck" on their own ideas, which may not fit the scene; they could try so hard to cop the reference music that the end product is a pale imitation of the original. And many composers at this level have never scored a film or taken notes from a director, and many composers have misguided ideas where they try to convey the entire emotional spectrum of the film in the music -- and the music jars painfully with the film.
I worked with one filmmaker who had a composer who did some music that was exactly like that for one comedy -- he had this string-laden, weepy, "heartfelt" music for the end of the film, but the film is a goofy comedy. The director and I gave him several rounds of notes, but he was "stuck" on his initial ideas. But on the next film we did, I talked to the composer directly and he wasn't stuck at all -- understood and applied the notes just fine. So it also had to do with the director not having a clear grasp on what kind of music worked, or not being able to talk to the composer in terms that the composer could understand. Plus, equipment matters -- another film's music budget went through the roof because, shockingly, the composer didn't have his own recording setup -- which meant hiring an engineer and a guitar player for every draft of the music. Ouch!
In general, unless you have the money and access, it's still better to take a chance on a composer than to get copyrighted music. The amount of money you have to pay to get copyrighted music could probably have financed four or five different composers to take a whack at writing original stuff. Make sure the composer has his own rig and can produce usable music files/CDs, though.
www.derekmok.com
Well, if you're trying to hire John Williams, no. But if you're hiring lower-level composers, yes. Musicians are all over the place, looking for breaks.
Using a composer to do "sound-alikes" -- ie. trying to draw from a pre-existing piece of temp music -- has ups and downs. The upside is that you could end up with a piece close to the synergy of what you had when you edited the scene. The downside is that many composers who work at this level have problems: They could get "stuck" on their own ideas, which may not fit the scene; they could try so hard to cop the reference music that the end product is a pale imitation of the original. And many composers at this level have never scored a film or taken notes from a director, and many composers have misguided ideas where they try to convey the entire emotional spectrum of the film in the music -- and the music jars painfully with the film.
I worked with one filmmaker who had a composer who did some music that was exactly like that for one comedy -- he had this string-laden, weepy, "heartfelt" music for the end of the film, but the film is a goofy comedy. The director and I gave him several rounds of notes, but he was "stuck" on his initial ideas. But on the next film we did, I talked to the composer directly and he wasn't stuck at all -- understood and applied the notes just fine. So it also had to do with the director not having a clear grasp on what kind of music worked, or not being able to talk to the composer in terms that the composer could understand. Plus, equipment matters -- another film's music budget went through the roof because, shockingly, the composer didn't have his own recording setup -- which meant hiring an engineer and a guitar player for every draft of the music. Ouch!
In general, unless you have the money and access, it's still better to take a chance on a composer than to get copyrighted music. The amount of money you have to pay to get copyrighted music could probably have financed four or five different composers to take a whack at writing original stuff. Make sure the composer has his own rig and can produce usable music files/CDs, though.
www.derekmok.com
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